A Matter of Convenience: Music to Fit the Situation at Hand

Aug 5, 2019
8 min read

Music is always bred within a culture, and inherently reflects its society. Some music goes further than that, and is created for a distinct purpose, or is born out of a specific situation. At a time when composers were considered servants, they were able to create some lasting genres and exquisite music based on specific assignments and the needs of a particular employer or estate. In a similar vein, hip-hop in the eighties and home recorded music in the nineties was bred out of circumstance.

Baroque Convenience

The dominant texture of Renaissance music was polyphony - that is, simultaneous melodies of independent voices. However, in the following period, Baroque music transitioned to a harmonic texture, with a clear bass and melodic line with supporting harmony. (a)

In most notated Baroque music, only the melody and the bass were written out. The harmony that should be filled-in was indicated by numbers that told the player what intervals should be played above the bass note. This practice is called basso continuo, and it was an instrumental (!) part of Baroque music. (1)

The bass line could be played by one or more continuo instruments, usually harp, organ, or lute. Above the bass notes, keyboard or lute filled in the required chords indicated by the basso continuo. The realization is the actual playing of the basso continuo, and varied greatly according to the type of piece, skill and taste of the player. (a)

The practice of basso continuo can certainly be attributed to cultural, historical, and social aspects of the time, but it was also for a very practical reason: to save paper. A church organist, for example, may be required to accompany a twelve-part choral piece. That is a lot of note-reading and a lot of precious, expensive paper. The use of basso continuo eliminates both of those concerns. (b)

Classic Convenience

The Classical period produced and perfected a variety of genres. Opera was at the fore-front, but the need to entertain and reach diverse audience caused Classical composers to focus on simplification and natural expression. Performances shifted from the theatre to more intimate settings. They were stripped of the excess of Italian opera, and were more inclined toward instrumental music. (a)

Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809), one of the titan composers of this period, was employed for most of his career at an estate called Esterházy in Austria. There, Haydn built up the orchestra to about twenty-five players. He had skilled singers and instrumentalists at his disposal. Haydn’s employer, Prince Nicholas, played the baryton, a stringed instrument that resembled a bass viol. Haydn wrote over a hundred compositions for the baryton so that the Prince could participate in performances. At the estate, they would have almost daily sessions of what was considered chamber music. (a)

Chamber Music

The term chamber music has come to mean a composition in which one player plays each part. Therefore, it is for a small ensemble and allows for performances in a room, or “chamber.” There were many types of chamber music combinations: the string trio, the string quintet, the piano trio, the piano quintet. (2) The most prominent was the string quartet. The family string quartet and Hausemusik were big in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, particularly in Austria and Germany. This was also a culture in which any family that could afford to would give their children music lessons. The variety of chamber music “underlines the importance of chamber music in the musical life of the age, it’s place still being in the home rather than the concert hall.” (c)

The String Quartet

The trio sonata for two violins and basso continuo was the most popular chamber music combination of the Baroque era. It was a predecessor of the string quartet - in performance it usually required four instruments because the figured bass was realized by both a melody and chord instrument. (c) In both chamber and orchestral music, the basso continuo that was so prominent in the Baroque era gradually disappeared. The viola gained a more important position. Two violins, a viola, and a cello became a common combination, and would become the set instrumentation for the string quartet.

The development of the string quartet was crystallized by Haydn. During his employment at Esterházy, Haydn was invited to another castle in Austria in a town called Weinzierl for a summer. In this situation, there happened to be a violinist, violist, and cellist available. Haydn himself was a violinist. “Quite possibly young Haydn began to write string quartets for the simple reason that was the available combo at Weinzierl.” (c) Haydn would go on to write a total of sixty-eight string quartets, his early ones being suitable for amateurs. (d)

Another giant of the Classical era, Mozart (1756-1791), was not as steadily employed as Haydn, but he did have a stint at the archbishop of Salzberg’s court. Much of Mozart’s instrumental music was written for performance in the conference room of the palace of the archbishop. (c)

The Divertimento & Serenade

Both Haydn & Mozart wrote what came to be known as divertimentos and serenades - the party music of the eighteenth century. In the Baroque period, music of a light, entertaining character that was used for indoor and outdoor social functions was referred to as a divertimento, serenade, notturno, or cassation. The function of such music was to serve in the background. It was used for garden parties, weddings, name day celebrations, and birthdays. (c)

Classical composers followed suit with divertimentos and serenades. These genres were flexible. There was no clear distinction between them, except that usually a divertimento was for a chamber music group, while a serenade was usually for a small orchestra or wind ensemble. The number of movements varied, from three to eight, or as many as ten if there are marches at the beginning and end. The marches allowed the musicians to enter and exit. (c)

Haydn’s divertimento Six Feldparthien (outdoor music) is for a wind ensemble, probably written for the military band at Esterházy. The function of many of Mozart’s divertimentos was most likely to be to provide dinner music for the archbishop. His Divertimento in C Major, K.187 is a group of many short, festive movements. It was considered “table music,” designed to provide background music for a public function. (c)

Mozart’s serenades for strings only - including the favorite Eine kleine Nachtmusik, K.525 - were probably for garden parties or palace festivals. For performances, several groups of musicians set up in small pavilions or adjoining rooms. His “Haffner” serenade was written for a wedding. Both Mozart and his father composed serenades as “Final Musik” - for festivities for end of school year at Salzburg Benedictine University. (c)

Romantic Convenience

Chamber music was not as attractive to composers in the next era - the Romantic era. It was less intimate than the solo piano pieces and lieder (3) that were all the rage. A chamber group was not as versatile as an orchestra. Major Romantic composers such as Berlioz, Liszt, or Wagner did not compose any chamber music. (a) However, Romantics that felt closer to the Classic tradition - such as Brahms, Mendelssohn, and Schumann did. One Romantic composer that dominated the chamber music genre, mainly due to his circumstances, was Franz Schubert (1797-1828).

A true child of Vienna, Schubert was not a transplant like Mozart and Beethoven. In the eighteenth century, Vienna was a mecca of musical activity. It was full of coffee houses and inns where people lounged; it had five main theatres and six concert halls. Most nobility couldn’t maintain orchestras on staff, so professional musicians were hired for special occasions. (e) Vienna was also abundant with amateur music-making, especially among the bourgeoisie class. (4) Performances around the piano were incredibly common, as was amateur part singing. Informal chamber music groups were extremely popular, and some even formed small orchestra groups in their spare time. (e)

Schubert absorbed the musical culture of the Vienna. He wrote some music for amateurs, and his early string quartets were written for his friends. This is fitting, as he grew up in a Viennese household where chamber music was a normal domestic occurrence. It was natural that Schubert would devote himself to small ensembles. Some of his string quartets had their first performances in the Schubert home. They were intended for “pleasant evenings of amateur playing.” (e)

Schubert wrote ten complete string quartets and many incomplete ones. Some of his other chamber music had non-traditional combinations of instruments, created for specific groups of players. Schubert’s style overall was an exquisite mix of honoring the undeniable influence of Beethoven at the time, loyalty to the Classic Viennese style, and personal experimentation. (e)

Hip-hop

Hip-hop originated in the South Bronx in the late seventies. It’s emergence was accompanied by graffiti art and break dancing. It was a “shared environment” in which dancing, deejaying, and rapping came together. Kool Herc (1955-), a native of Jamica, is considered the first major hip-hop deejay. Grand Wizard Theodore (1963-), Afrika Bambaataa (1957-), and Grandmaster Flash (1958-) were also major orchestrators of hip-hop. These artists pioneered turntable manipulation, such as needle-dropping and scratching. (f)

Hip-hop was obviously a product of its culture, like all music. However, it was also built on accessibility. Equipment was expensive, and the New York blackout in July 1977 is when a lot of the first hip-hop artists got their equipment. (g) Many looters stole deejay equipment from electronics stores. Curtis Fisher recalls that he and his partner, DJ Disco Wiz, followed suit and went to the store where they got their first equipment and took a mixing board. (h)

Afterwards, there was a big boom of hip-hop groups. Rap battles emerged because individual MC’s felt they had to make a name for themselves among many. (f) Hip-hop grew out “a generation of kids that don’t have access to instruments.” They were using what they had access to and making music from bits and pieces of existing music, creating original compositions. (i)

Home Studios

Prior to the seventies, music was mainly recorded on reel-to-reel tape machines. This equipment was really only available via a professional studio. In 1979, the first four-track recorder was manufactured, and was accessible to the average consumer. Afterwards, small multi-track recorders became more and more available, and became very popular in the eighties. In the nineties, recording became even more attainable and domestic with the advent of digital recorders and digital audio workstations. These devices and software convert audio tracks to digital files, and record the files onto various media. (j)

The development of the home studio came at a time when some artists were experimenting with over-production in the professional studio. As a response to this, other artists scaled down and started to use what was available to them outside of a studio. Eurythmics were performance artists and started recording out of a bedroom studio. Eventually, digital technology eliminated the need for a recording studio altogether. Anyone with a computer could record music. Artists such as Bon Iver, St. Vincent, and Tune-Yards have utilized digital recording. (k)

Here we have cases where music not only reflects its society, but adapts to and takes advantage of it. It is amazing how music that can be thought of as practical and organic is also influential and timeless.

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conclusion!

Say What?:

(1)Basso continuo is also referred to as figured bass or throuoghbass

(2)A string trio is made up of two violins and one cello or a violin, viola, and cello; a string quintet is two violins, one viola, one cello and either an additional viola or cello; a piano trio is a violin, cello, and piano; a piano quintet is two violins, a viola, a cello, and piano

(3)Lieder, or art songs, were solos songs, usually for a singer accompanied by a piano

(4)characteristic of the middle class, usually referring to materialistic values or conventional attitudes

Giving Props:

(a)Donald J. Grout & Claude V. Palisca. A History of Western Music. 6th ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2001

(b)Ex Musica: Basso Continuo: https://www.exmusica.org/archives/334/basso-continuo )

(c)Pauly, Reinhard G. Music in the Classic Period. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2000.

(d)James Webster: https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000044593#omo-9781561592630-e-0000044593-div1-0000044593.11

(e)Plantinga, Leon. Romantic Music. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1984.

(f)Greg Tate and Alan Light: https://www.britannica.com/art/hip-hop#ref288175

(g)Hip Hop Evolution: episode 2: From Underground to Mainstream

(h) 99% Invisible and Delaney Hall, “Was the 1977 New York City Blackout a Catalyst for Hip-Hop’s Growth?,” http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_eye/2014/10/16/roman_mars_99_percent_invisible_was_the_1977_nyc_wide_blackout_a_catalyst.html

(i)Soundbreaking: episode 1: The Art of Recording

(j)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_recording

(k)Soundbreaking: episode 2: Painting With Sound

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