PERSONAL TASTES OF EACH MUSICAL ERA (COMMENTS AND REVIEWS)

Classical music is a generic term comprising music of several musical eras, from classical to romantic, or from renaissance to 20th century. For a full and comprehensive view, I will be starting from the earliest music-producing era, the renaissance era, which is often neglected.

REINASSANCE ERA(1450-1600) - Music producing began to flourish first in Italy, the center of renaissance. It spread throughout Europe to countries like France, Belgium, Netherlands, the latest being Britain due to the isolation from mainland Europe. Notable composers in this period include Thomas Tallis(vocal), William Byrd(keyboard), John Dowland(lute), Orlando Gibbons, Palestrina, Schutz, Monteverdi(operas and madrigals), just to name a few. Personally, I don't find this era's music impressing, not satisfying either. The polyphonic music for keyboard was rather dull compared to the later compositional style - FUGUE.

BAROQUE ERA(1600-1750) - followed shortly after the fall of Renaissance, derived from the word 'barocco', which indicates heavily ornamented music, as well as the architecture of the same period. Changing of musical ornamentation, instrumentation techniques, and notations are developed . With the expansion of ensemble sizes, concertos and orchestral suites were being introduced with new instruments adding in. Notable composers being Vivaldi(violin), Bach(almost all genres), Handel(operas and oratorios), Scarlatti(keyboard). Personally, I think the best music started from this period, with instruments ranged from violin to organ. Keyboard technique gradually developed from the dull polyphonic music of the Renaissance to the toccatas (touched) for harpsichord and grand fugues for pipe organs. A typical baroque suite consists of overture, allemande, courante, sarabande and gigue, with the addition of gavotte, bourree, minuet, passepied and rigaudon starting from the 1700s. See here for list of composers for keyboard.