
musical composition - Encyclopedia Britannica
Musical composition, the act of conceiving a piece of music, the art of creating music, or the finished product. These meanings are interdependent and presume a tradition in which musical works exist as repeatable entities.
Musical form | Types, Structure, & Characteristics | Britannica
Musical form, the structure of a musical composition. The term is regularly used in two senses: to denote a standard type, or genre, and to denote the procedures in a specific work. The nomenclature for the various musical formal types may be determined by the medium of performance, the technique
Musical composition - Classical Era, Structure, Harmony | Britannica
Musical composition - Classical Era, Structure, Harmony: The Classical era in music is compositionally defined by the balanced eclecticism of the late 18th- and early 19th-century Viennese “school” of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert, who completely absorbed and individually fused or transformed the vast array of 18th-century textures ...
12-tone music | Music Composition & Theory | Britannica
12-tone music, large body of music, written roughly since World War I, that uses the so-called 12-tone method or technique of composition. The Austrian-born composer Arnold Schoenberg is credited with the invention of this technique, although other composers (e.g., the American composer Charles
Serialism | Twelve-Tone, Atonality & Schoenberg | Britannica
serialism, in music, technique that has been used in some musical compositions roughly since World War I. Strictly speaking, a serial pattern in music is merely one that repeats over and over for a significant stretch of a composition.
Musical composition - 20th Century, Genres, Forms | Britannica
How old was Mozart when he began playing music? What are Mozart’s most famous compositions? What did Mozart contribute to Western music?
Definition, Components, History, Examples, & Facts - Britannica
2024年12月21日 · Sonata, type of musical composition, usually for a solo instrument or a small instrumental ensemble, that typically consists of two to four movements, or sections, each in a related key but with a unique musical character.
Motet | Vocal Music, Polyphonic Choral Composition | Britannica
motet, (French mot: “word”), style of vocal composition that has undergone numerous transformations through many centuries. Typically, it is a Latin religious choral composition, yet it can be a secular composition or a work for soloist(s) and instrumental accompaniment, in any language, with or without a choir.
Musical composition - Medieval, Polyphony, Notation | Britannica
Musical composition - Medieval, Polyphony, Notation: The European written tradition, largely because it evolved under church auspices, de-emphasized rhythmic distinctiveness long after multipart music had superseded the monophonic plainchant.
4′33″ | Experimental Music, Avant-Garde, Silence | Britannica
2025年1月3日 · 4′33″, musical composition by John Cage created in 1952 and first performed on August 29 of that year. It quickly became one of the most controversial musical works of the 20th century because it consisted of silence or, more precisely, ambient sound—what Cage called “the absence of intended sounds.”