How to Identify Classical Music

Can you tell what sort of classical music you are listening to, just by using your ears?

I would usually add titles and references for all the music used, but for this video I'd like to try and concentrate on the sounds themselves, so: no titles or references!

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[hoangkimviet]

Medieval And Renaissance composers: “Are we a joke to you?”

[MegaJoeHannes]

The switch at 6:39 from Bruckner 8 to Tschaikowskys Romeo and Juliet was perfect! 👌

[bevengersio]

If it's got that sweet, sweet counterpoint, then it's baroque (or listen if A = 415).
If it's logical, simplistic and simply makes sense, then it's classical.
If it's got boundless emotion, haunting melodies, but a clear form, it's romantic.
If it's spicy, less formed, or even hard to listen to, it's 20th century.

That's always how I remembered it.

[kasperchristensen]

0:53 Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 2, 1st movement, in case anyone is wondering :)

[zahrarahman]

Thank you for making a genre of music, accessible and inviting.

[gooniest]

Feel like its important also to note that while earlier composers are much less likely to fit this bill, some later (thinking of a particular western sounding Russian) composers would sort of push the boundaries of what was considered proper and would have works that would be difficult to identify without more context than sound.

That's all to say, if you like a piece, learn more about it! There's almost always something interesting or useful to know.

[joshuabissey]

I know it's Baroque when it slaps.

[jackfruitearth]

When listening to the classical music radio station in my city, I try to guess 1) approximate year, 2) country/nationality, and 3) composer. I generally do well with approximate year and country/nationality.

[ChristopheStrobbe]

"Modernism" is a rather broad label here, apparently. Think for example of the impressionism in works by Debussy, Satie and Ravel, the expressionism in works by Krenek, HIndemith and Stravinsky, the Second Viennese School (also sometimes categorised as expressionism) just in the early 20th century. Then you have neoclassicism (e.g. in works by Stravinsky and Prokofiev), aleatory music, minimalism, etc etc. That could fill at least another video.

[drunkenpigeon]

is there a tracklist for all featured songs :DD

[ulrike]

Much of my music knowledge is practical rather than theoretical, so while I can mostly tell the various periods apart, I usually can´t explain how I do it. That said, this really drove home how absolutely typically Baroque our latest choir project was (a mass that was rediscovered in an archive a few decades back - Franz Xaver Richter´s Messe in C).

[mrcet]

Excellent piece of Music-appreciation education! Well-done.

I personally am aware of this, having listened mostly to classical for 63 years, having played viola, bassoon, classical guitar, and classical saxophones, as well as doing a bit of composition myself. Nevertheless, this is a refreshing summary!

A few comments to add:
— Era/period is certainly valuable to know, but so is the location or “school” of composition. Therefore…
— While basically exactly correct, some of your comments about Baroque music are much more true of _Germanic_ Baroque music in particular. For example, Vivaldi’s music was not nearly as complex contrapuntally-speaking as Bach’s. Ironically perhaps, Vivaldi’s music is forward-looking than Bach’s, in that it more resembles the then-futuristic Classical-Era.
— As for Classical-era music, I’d add that that’s where Sonata Form really “came of age.” The flow of Haydn or Mozart compositions becomes a bit more like an intellectual debate. In the Romantic Era that becomes less intellectual and more passionate, as you pointed out.
— 5:37 Beethoven’s endings are often ridiculous: “Yeah yeah yeah, V I V I V I; I get it, dude, you’re ending it! Just end it already…”

[jackflanagle]

I for one would very much have wanted to know WHAT, WHAT, WHAT? I was hearing. Many years of intense listening and I feel like I'm just getting into it. So much music, so little time! (At least tell us what all the Modern stuff was, I could only place a bit of it).

[leestamm]

Great video for the Wagner stuff. Tennstedt was an unsurpassed Wagner conductor.

[Nataliah]

I wish more people talked about transitionary composers like all the galant composers from 1730 to 1780, like Quantz, the Bach sons, etc. And no, the baroque period did not end by the death of Bach - not remotely. For more than 10 years before his death, people were already composing in a different style that is called galant which eventually leads to the classical style. As far as I know, pretty much all non-Bach composers had moved on to a new style already before 1750. Bach was just really old fashioned, but it's okay, we love him. One of the very big reasons contrast between baroque and classical period is huge is because the canon skips all the transitionary composers between baroque and classical style.

Also, the harps were invented much earlier than the romantic period and were definitely in the classical period and 100s of years before too. Check out Mozart's concerto for flute and harp.

[razvan_]

To me, there is an entirely different era: Beethoven. He's neither classical nor romantic. He's just Beethoven, and we love him for it.

[anewman]

4:00 C.P.E. Bach's cello concertos were a lot better! 😉 4:59 Never thought I'd see Steven Isserlis directing from cello Haydn's 104!

[damnation]

Amazing video as always! Although I'm sure we'd appreciate it if, for future videos, you showed the names of the pieces being played at the corner of the screen.

[valentinackermann]

Also i always had the feeling that romantic music became more and more dramatic the more time went by. For exmaple the difference between someone like Schubert or Ries in comparison to someone like Wagner or Tchaikovsky is astounding in my opinion

[musicalaviator]

Stravinsky: neo-classical style for a few years in the 1950's. syke.