Grade 4, Unit 5, Lesson 4

The music that you listen to comes in many different categories. In popular music, musicians and their music fall into categories that are called styles. Can you think of some of the styles that are popular at the moment?

In classical music, pieces are grouped into categories by the year when they were composed. For example, if a composer wrote a piece in 1650, then it is in the Baroque period. This is because the Baroque period happened during the years 1600 to 1750.

Though classical music is played all over the world today, for most of history it was only played in Europe. So, classical music categories refer to time periods from Europe's history: medieval, renaissance, baroque, classic, romantic, and modern.

Renaissance
The word renaissance is a French word that means "rebirth." The renaissance period of music in Europe happened between the years 1400 and 1550. During this time, many Europeans became very interested in art, music, science, and writing. In music, composers began to experiment, trying new things that no one had done before. For example, some composers tried new ways of playing two or more notes together at the same time, called harmony.

Renaissance instruments were very different than the ones you hear in a modern orchestra. In addition to the lute and recorder, other instruments from the Renaissance include the crumhorn and shawm.

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