Grade 8 Aural Notes Renaissance Period Intruments: Pipe organ, banjo, guitar (lute) homophonic Church purpose with

h choir setting Texture: Polyphonic Tonality: Church mode (no clear demarcation between major & minor) Dynamics: One basic affection, one level throughout. Melismatic stepwise Famous composers: Palestrina, William Byrd Baroque Period Instrument: Harpsichord (short and detached, cannot play legato due to unsustainable keys) Texture: Contrapuntal (Sequence, theme repeated in different parts) Tonality: Major/minor (Major preferred) Dynamics: loud or soft (f and p) Style: Immitation, likes to end with tierce de Picardie (Major) Prelude improvisation, motor-like rhythm, homophonic Ornaments: Plenty Famous composers: J S Bach, Scarlatti, Handel Classical Period Instrument: Piano Texture: Homophonic Tonality: Major/minor (slight chromaticism and modulations more towards major) Dynamics: Crescendo, diminuendo Style: Alberti bass, chordal Speed: Legato, cantabile Form: Binary & ternary Phrasing: 2/4 bar phrase, seldom irregular Famous composition: Minuet (Dance in triple time, part of sonata) Famous composers: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert Romantic Period Character piece: Nocturne, bagatelle, impromptu, scherzo, waltz (triple time), ballad Texture: Homophonic Tonality: Major/minor with more chromaticism and modulations to remote (unrelated) keys Dynamics: wide range (ff and pp) Style: Chordal Form: Ternary (more), arpeggiated Famous composers: Early Chopin, Liszt, Mendelssohn, Schumann Midlle Brahms Late Albeniz, Grieg, Tchaikovsky 20th Century Dynamics: Very wide (fff to ppp) Debussy, Ravel - Impressionism - Use of pentatonic scale, whole tone scale - Lots of chromaticism Rhythm: Free flow Bartok - Nationalism, own culture - Rhythmic Schoenberg - Serialism - Atonal (no tonality) - 12 keys all treated equally - Sound: Very dissonant Stravinsky - Neoclassicism - No downbeat (no bar lines) - Clashing sounds