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Opera
Opera’s history began with a specific attempt by a group of Florentine nobles to produce a new form of sung drama that reflected the mixture of words and music of Ancient Greek theatre. The earliest extant opera to result from this attempt is Claudio Monteverdi’s 'L'Orfeo' (1607). Throughout the following centuries the new art form developed in many directions, dealing with a variety of subjects serious, heroic and comic. It remained rooted in Italy, but quickly developed across Europe and the world, especially in France and later Germany. A uniquely complex, rewarding and expensive art form, opera has throughout its history been defined by the attempt to strike a delicate balance between words (normally written by a librettist) and music to create a special form of intense drama greater than the sum of its parts.
ExploreOrchestral
The orchestra developed from informal beginnings to become the versatile and brilliant musical machine for which many composers produced their greatest works. In Baroque music and earlier its exact configuration could be fluid, but during the classical period – especially with the 104 symphonies by Joseph Haydn – composers specified which instruments it should contain, with woodwind, brass and percussion instruments added to the ever-present string section (first and second violins, violas, cellos and double basses). With Beethoven the symphony became the most prestigious genre of all, but was complemented by new genres (such as the tone poem) throughout the 19th century. The symphony is less common among today's composers, but works for full orchestra remain the backbone of classical music life to this day.
ExploreConcertos
The concerto is a work for a solo instrumentalist(s) and orchestra. The term was used loosely in the Baroque period, where it was also applied occasionally to vocal music as well as 'concerti grossi' for multiple soloists. Antonio Vivaldi's hundreds of solo concertos, however, helped fix the genre's standard three-movement form and tendency towards brilliant solo writing. That form became fixed further in the Classical period, and expanded in 19th-century works in which virtuoso soloists often seem to battle against ever-expanding orchestras. Pianists and violinists feature most often as concerto soloists, but the repertory includes concertos for instruments across the whole range, from tuba to piccolo.
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Chamber
Chamber music has its origins in the "chamber", a smaller room in a palace or domestic context, where it was performed as much for the enjoyment of the musicians as for those listening. It established itself throughout the Baroque and especially Classical periods, and further expanded its forms also to fit public stages during the 19th century. It can exist for any configuration of up to around a dozen instruments with one musician to a part, and the string quartet (two violins, viola and cello) is perhaps the quintessential chamber music genre. But there are great works for other string, wind and even brass groups, with genres such as the piano trio (violin, cello, piano) also including keyboard instruments.
ExploreKeyboard
Keyboard instruments have been central to music making for centuries. Organs have existed in churches for over half a millennium and continue to be central to religious music. Early plucked keyboard instruments such as the spinet and virginal, however, were replaced first by harpsichord and then by the piano, in which strings are instead struck by hammers connected to the keys. The "pianoforte" (the name reflects the instrument's ability to play soft and loud) was first developed in the 18th century and reached its modern form throughout the 19th. Many great composers were also virtuoso keyboard players and the repertoire for the piano in particular is vast, running the gamut from grand sonatas to modest works composed specifically for domestic performance.
ExploreSacred Vocal
Music sung for religious occasions was among the first to be notated. First came simple chants and then, especially during the Renaissance, ever-more complex polyphony – where multiple voices intertwine in an attempt to reflect and express the divine. The different forms of sacred music reflect the permitted role of singing and instruments in worship, but from J. S. Bach on, an instrumental ensemble was regularly used for masses (setting a standard liturgical text in Latin) as well as cantatas and passions, which used religious texts in the vernacular. Music for chorus and orchestra developed quickly to including such additional forms as oratorios, but music for choir alone – often inspired by renaissance models – remains central to many important composers to this day.
ExploreSecular Vocal
Secular song and sung music developed parallel to religious music. Throughout its history it has borrowed many of sacred music's characteristics to praise, celebrate and contemplate more earthly matters: love, the beloved, nature and any manner of other subjects of poetic interest. Early forms include courtly songs and allegorical entertainments, as well as more worldly fare. Madrigals proliferated in the early Baroque period, and then secular cantatas and oratorios (many very close to opera in form, but sung only in concert). The 19th century witnessed the golden age of the Art Song ("Lied" in German) composed for a solo singer with piano – and then later also orchestral – accompaniment, with Austrian composer Franz Schubert its most important early proponent.
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