TIL #1: Western Art Music

#TIL is a very popular hash tag on twitter short for "Today I Learnt".

On the same lines I have decided to write short blog entries on various topics of interest to me that I have learnt something on.

The first one I am writing about is the different eras of Western Art Music or Western classical music. The content has been sourced online.

Era	Approximate Timelines	Characteristic	Notable Musicians
Ancient	Pre 1100 CE
Medieval	1100 CE - 1400 CE	Church music comprising of chants. Mostly written in Latin.
Renaissance	1400 CE - 1600 CE	Music written in the musicians mother tongue "madrigal". Instrument music and voice wouldn't overlap.	Gabrieli, Lasso, Byrd, Palestrina, des Pres
Baroque	1600 CE - 1750 CE	Opera music. Instrument and voice combined.	Johan Bach, Vivaldi, Handel, Corelli, Monteverdi
Classical	1700 CE - 1800 CE	Modern Ensembles. Development of Symphonies. Defined in structures and phrases. Some of the structures were used up to 200 years later.	Mozart, Haydn
Romantic	1800 CE - 1900 CE	Orchestra. Programmatic music as part of story telling.	Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, Chopin, Strauss, Mendelssohn, Liszt, Brahms, Mahler, Tchaikovsky, Bruckner, Faure, Sibelius
20th and 21st century	1900 CE - present	Many different styles. Serialism, American post-war, Modernism, Neo-classicalism, Minimalism, Post-modernism	Too many to list.

Before this short study I had heard only Mozart, Beethoven and Chopin - discovered almost accidentally. You would remember the Titan advertisement music (Mozart) or the MS Windows sample mp3 file (Beethoven). Chopin was a pop culture pickup from Dexter - Detective Frank Lundy.

I have been latching onto whatever little art works I get from any of the above era and compiling them. From what I have heard so far, I can only say it's going to be a splendid journey ahead. Keep listening. :)