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The common practice period, in the history of European art music (that is, what is popularly called "classical" music), encompasses those periods identified as Baroque, Classical, and Romantic. It lasted, therefore, from about 1600 till about 1900, and is most often contrasted with much of the music of the 20th century and with contemporary music.
General characteristics Common practice music is bound together by many traits. It is tonal as opposed to the earlier modal music or the later predominantly atonal music. It includes most of so-called "classical" music, and may be extended to encompass also popular music, up to and including the popular music of our time. Despite the emergence of many new styles and techniques, common practice music is still, in important ways, the dominant European-based music. Among those adopting the term is Walter Piston. He uses it in his book Harmony (ISBN 0-393-95480-3) to refer to the bulk of the material with which he deals. Harmony Common practice harmony is most often derived from diatonic scales, though popular music may employ modal frames or levels. Rhythm Rhythmically, common practice metric structures generally include: (DeLone et al. (Eds.), 1975, chapter 3) Duration Durational patterns typically include: (DeLone et al. (Eds.), 1975, chapter 3) Patterns of pitch and duration are of primary importance in common practice melody, while tone quality is of secondary importance. Durations recur and are often periodic; pitches are generally diatonic. (DeLone et al. (Eds.), 1975, chapter 4) Later trends Many people have proposed that a "new" common practice period is now discernible in 20th century "classical" music. George Perle (1990) has argued that this amounts to "Tradition in 20th Century Music", the most significant element of which is the "shared premise of the harmonic equivalence of inversionally symmetrical pitch-class relations," among composers such as Edgard Varèse, Alban Berg, Béla Bartók, Arnold Schoenberg, Alexander Scriabin, Igor Stravinsky, Anton Webern, and himself. John Harbison refers to symmetry as the "new tonality". | ||||||||
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