Radio Classique

The vocal religious practice of the Roman Catholic Church is known as the beginning of the classical music history. Classical music started to involve heavily with the beginning of the early Renaissance in Italy. The most renowned composer of this time was Guillaume Dufay. The Renaissance’s most highly rated works were polyphonic settings of the Ordinary of the Mass. In this period of time social dancing became more popular and this had his influence on the musical forms. After the Renaissance the Baroque era started, running from 1600 to the middle of the 18th century. The classical music in this period of time was included parts written for instruments. In this time schedule opera as a staged musical drama became very popular. The Classical era followed, ending roughly around 1820. In the classical era orchestras no longer required a harpsichord and were often led by the lead violinist. Classical music is nowadays still very popular and this is not so surprising because there are made many masterpieces by great composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach. Bach, born on 21 March in Germany, was a composer and musician of the Baroque era. His work include two Passions, the Mass in B minor and the Goldberg Variations. He is widely known as one of the best composers of all time. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was another great classical music composer. Mozart, born on 27 January 1756, was an influential composer of the Classical era. In his short life, he died at an age of 45, Mozart composed over 600 works which included many masterpieces. He was born in Salzburg but he also lived in European cities such as Paris and Vienna. Because Mozart was such a talent Ludwig van Beethoven composed his own early work in the shadow of Mozart although the works of van Beethoven were also brilliant.