Classical Music

Basso continuo, sometimes just called _¾_continuo_¾, was played by a keyboard instrument and another bass instrument such as cello, violone (an old form of double bass) or bassoon. The keyboard instrument was normally a harpsichord or, if it was being played in a church, an organ.

Baroque and Romantic.

Beethoven held a great influence on Wagner, especially in Wagner's earliest compositions.

Ludwig van Beethoven, whose hearing began to deteriorate from the age of 28. He was very angry and sad about this and was said to have written notes declaring his suicide to his family. Fortunately, this did not happen. To express his sadness and anger, Beethoven composed many songs with such feelings expressed inside them.

Beethoven wrote most of his music when he was at least partially deaf, and the music of his last years when he was completely deaf. Unlike Beethoven, Smetana went deaf quite suddenly and lived for another 10 years, during which he continued to compose a substantial amount of music (though not 'the majority' of his output).

Mannheim

The proper terminology is Ternary Form or Rondo forum.

What this means is "three sections", as in a A B A form of composing. The piece begins and ends with the section A (original theme), then section B is something different, then the piece returns to section A, possibly with some modifications.

An overly simplified illustration of this might be:

* Section A: tra-la-la-be-do * Section B: fa-so-so-le-to * Section A tra-la-la-be-do-dum You see, we have started out with a basic theme, then went into the B section and returned to A, but added something special at the end.

It was Beethoven's last symphony; his abilities as a composer were fully-developed.

It was the first symphony by any composer to use voices.

In spite of the fact that it is in a minor key, it builds to a joyful finale.

It has quite a few memorable melodies--in modern terms, it's got some great hooks.

The viola, to make it easier for the viola player aka the violist to read music on the staff.

Questions like this one are impossible to answer. It is both vague and simplistic. How do you decide when a composer becomes 'famous'? (Famous where? How? To whom?) What exactly do you mean by a 'classical' composer? If you can explain exactly what it is you want to know, and for what purpose, you might get a useful answer.

Igor Stravinsky first achieved dominance in his association with the Ballets Russes under Sergei Diaghilev with three ballets: The Firebird, Petrushka and The Rite of Spring. Stravinsky changed previous conceived notions of rhythmic structure. Following the ballets, he turned to neoclassical expression.

Classical Period

Vivaldi was an Italian composer of the Baroqueperiod. The Baroque Era spanned approximately 1600 to 1750; Vivaldi was born in 1678 and died in 1741.

Mozart is the most famous composer who died at the age of 35.

The Baroque period was famous for its works using polyphonic texture. It is regarded as the last, in fact. No era of music since has used such a complex texture in the majority of works. Much is owed to J.S. Bach, the pinnacle of the Baroque period.

Depends on the piece, but in my music the violin is the melody while the bass, cello and viola are the harmony.

Depends on the musician, too. Ask the violinist this question and s/he will say the violin. Ask any other instrumental part and invariably they will claim "their part" is the most important one. Truth be known, collectively every musician, no matter what instrument or part they play, contributes equally to the end result, so, in effect, every section is the most important part.

Most music in the Western tradition is either in a major or a minor key (although many pieces will switch back and forth). A "key" might also be thought of as a "pitch collection" - the series of notes from which a composer will construct their piece. A more popular way of thinking of it is that major and minor represent different musical "moods" with major being associated with brightness or happiness and minor with darkness, volatility, or sadness.

A specific example? Beethoven's first three piano sonatas are in F Minor (No. 1), A Major (No. 2), and C Major (No. 3). But each of these sonatas has four movements, and individual movements may begin in different keys (the sonata's key as a whole is usually determined by the key of the first movement). For example, the second movement of the first piano sonata is actually in F Major.

Mozart wrote it in 1787

Distortion was primarily used during the 1960s to the 1970s. Distortion was primarily created by over-driving the power valves on solid wood electric guitars.

He lived in France for his young life and then moved to Italy.

stepwise within a narrow range of pitches.

Composers like Claude Debussy created the Impressionist movement which replaced Romanticism. Impressionism is an early form of Modernism.

Simultaneous performance of two or more melodic lines of relatively equal interest produces the texture called polyphonic, meaning having many sounds. In polyphony several melodic lines compete for attention.

The technique of combining several melodic lines into a meaningful whole is called counterpoint or contracanto.

That would be a trick, because the song contains more than three notes.

No, he was a composer. He was born in France in 1862 and died in 1918. Debussy was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions. Debussy is not only among the most important of all French composers, but also a central figure in European music at the turn of the 20th century.

It obviously depends on how quickly it is played, so it will vary somewhat. But roughly: The first movement is about 19 minutes, the second is 7 and the finale is about 10 minutes. That is 36 minutes, give or take.