Genre of music by composers in different eras

There have six periods in western music history. In different period, music has some new genres. We can see the difference from medieval period to 20th century period. Thurs, music is changing until now.
In the oldest medieval period and renaissance period, music is much related to religion and politic. Many of genres are produced by church. And development of instrumentation was not good, vocal became a major instrument. And most of composers also were from church. At that period, the most popular music was from church, such as Gregorian chant and chorus music.

In baroque music, the instrumentation was developed basically. Music had a big changing. Composer started to compose instrumental music, such as chamber music and concerto music. Moreover, composer put vocal and instrumental music together, such as mass and messiah. Keyboard music was also developed, Bach is the main composer to keyboard history, and he established the 12-tone fingering scales. Fugue music can represent the keyboard music in that period.

To the classical music, music was not only relied on church. Court became another main sponsor and major place for music. Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven was 3 composers in that period. The genre of symphony became a trend, orchestra music became popular. Also instrumental music was important, sonata music and concerto music were a characteristic. The instrumentation got a new development again, clarinet was never appeared in baroque music, but the clarinet system was developed and stable in classical period.

In the romantic period, style is changed, piano music is a particular distinctive work. The structure of instrument has developed a lot, the register is become wider. In piano music, composer always composed it in free style, the composition is used many pedal to sustain the notes. The playing didn’t go straight forward, sometimes the music could take time a lot which depend on the player. Orchestra music extended the instrumentation again, the dynamic is big louder. Moreover, Beethoven made a choir to symphony, it was a big affection and new try for after composers, such as Mahler composed his symphony in same instrumentation. Opera was another successful genre in romantic period, although it has already appeared in classical period. opera music consisted of orchestra, actor and vocalist. Music was not longer belonged to court and church, the residence can become one of the sponsor and performer. Therefore, many music genre was appeared and developed.

The 20th century period to now, music composed in contemporary. It is no longer a particular structure, it could change and compose in any way. Even if the electronic game WILL, could be a kind of instrument to compose music. We can see how difference from medieval period to now.