History of Western Music: periods, composers and representative works
Domain focus
The history section tests whether you can place styles, composers and representative works in periods and justify the placement with musical evidence, not just dates.
Period map
- Medieval: plainchant, modal; Machaut.
- Renaissance: imitative polyphony, modal harmony; Palestrina, Josquin.
- Baroque: basso continuo, terraced dynamics, ritornello, ornamentation; Bach, Handel, Vivaldi.
- Classical: clear phrase structure, homophonic texture, sonata form; Haydn, Mozart, early Beethoven.
- Romantic: expanded harmony, expressive rubato, programme music; Chopin, Schumann, Brahms, Tchaikovsky.
- Twentieth century and beyond: extended tonality, irregular metre, new timbres; Stravinsky, Debussy, Bartók.
Style markers
Link texture, harmony, rhythm, instrumentation and form. A continuo with a ritornello points to Baroque; periodic phrasing and balanced cadences point to Classical; chromatic medians and an expanded orchestra point to Romantic.
Worked example
A movement includes a small string group, keyboard continuo, a recurring orchestral refrain and solo episodes. The continuo and ritornello identify Baroque concerto style; likely Vivaldi or Bach. If the same movement had periodic themes, no continuo and a cadenza near the end, Classical concerto would be more plausible.
Traps
Assigning a composer by nationality alone; treating Beethoven as wholly Romantic; confusing Baroque suite movements with sonata form; ignoring that dates overlap between periods.