What are the styles of music? Musical style is a capacious and multifaceted concept. It can be defined as a figurative unity, a set of means of expressing artistic and ideological content using the language of music.
The concept of the style of music is so broad that it’s very specific that it suggests itself: this term refers both to different eras, genres, trends and schools, as well as to individual composers and even performers. Let's try to figure out what are the styles of music.
Era style
The concept of style of the era focuses on the historical aspect. There are many classifications, some of which distinguish the largest historical epochs in the development of music (Renaissance, Baroque, Classicism, Modernity, etc.), while others, on the contrary, divide the history of music into relatively short periods, previously distinguished by other artistic disciplines (Romanticism , impressionism, modernism, etc.).
A classic example of the style of the era is baroque music, the characteristic features of which are interest in the inner world of the person, drama, a contrasting image of the forces of nature, the development of opera and instrumental music (C. Monteverdi, A. Vivaldi, GF Handel).
Genre style
The style of the genre reflects the specifics of the content, musical techniques and features of various musical genres, which, in turn, can be classified for various reasons.
Therefore, the concept of style is most acceptable for those genres in which the most common features are pronounced. These include genres based on folk music (various ritual songs, folk dances), church chants, romances.
If we take the works of large forms (opera, oratorio, symphony, etc.), then here the style of the genre is always clearly read, despite the fact that the styles of the epoch, direction and author’s style are superimposed on it.
But if the composer comes up with some new genre, then in this case it is difficult to immediately identify the features of the genre style - this will take time, during which other works will appear in the same genre. So it was, for example, with Mendelssohn's "songs without words". Agree, a strange song without words, but after his 48 samples of plays in this genre, and other composers began to boldly call their plays by the same name.
Musical style
The style of the musical direction in many ways echoes the style of the epoch: after all, some areas are considered by musicologists as whole epochs in music.
But there are also areas for which stylistic nuances peculiar only to them can be distinguished. These include the Viennese classical school (L. van Beethoven, J. Haydn, VA Mozart). The classical direction is characterized by simplicity, expressiveness, rich harmonic language, detailed development of the topic.
Speaking about the styles of music, one cannot pass by national peculiarities.
National style
The basis of the national music style is the folklore beginning. Many great composers were inspired by folk melodies, weaving them into their creations. Some works even have corresponding names (for example, F. Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies, Hungarian Dances by J. Brahms, Norwegian Folk Songs and Dances for Piano by E. Grieg, Aragon Jota by MI Glinka). In others, folk motifs become the leading themes (for example, "There was a birch in the field" in the final of the Fourth Symphony of P. I. Tchaikovsky).
If we approach the question of what styles of music are, from the point of view of composition schools, individual composers and musicians, then we can single out several more musical styles.
Style of composers
If the school of composition is characterized by a high degree of generality of artistic techniques, then it is logical to single out the style inherent in this school.
You can talk about the styles of polyphonic schools of the Renaissance, the styles of various Italian opera schools of the XVII century, or styles of instrumental schools of the XVII-XVIII centuries.
In the 19th century Russian music, there was also a creative association of composers - the famous "Mighty Handful". The stylistic commonality of the composers belonging to this group was manifested in a single line of development, the choice of plots, and reliance on Russian musical folklore.
Style of an individual composer
Composer's style is a concept that is much easier to concretize, because the work of any composer is limited to a relatively short period of time and certain trends of the musical era. So, literally by the first bars you can recognize, for example, the music of Mozart or Rossini.
Naturally, the composer, like any other person, changes during his life, and this leaves an imprint on the style of his work. But some stylistic features still remain unchanged, inherent only to him, are a kind of "calling card" of the author.
Performing style
Performing art is based on the individual style of performance of a musician who interprets the composer’s idea in his own way. Performing style is manifested in the emotional coloring of the performance of works of one or another author.
Vivid examples here are those composers who were in addition and virtuoso musicians. This is Niccolo Paganini, who amazed the audience with impeccable technique and unusual methods of playing the violin, and the brilliant pianist Sergey Rachmaninov, a true knight of music, who subordinated the melodic canvas to a strict rhythmic pattern.
Here are some styles of music. This list, of course, can be supplemented by classification for other reasons, since the world musical heritage is large and diverse.
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