|
The arts change from one age to the next, and each historical period has its own stylistic characteristics. No matter how greatly the artists, writers, and composer of a particular era may vary in personality and outlook, when seen in the perspective of time, they turn out to have certain qualities in common. Because of this, we can tell at once that a work of art -- whether music, poetry, painting, sculpture, or architecture -- dates from the Middle Ages or the Renaissance, from the eighteenth century or the nineteenth. The style of a period, then, is the total art language of all its artists as they react to the artistic, political, economic, religious, and philosophical forces that shape their environment. You will find that a knowledge of historical styles will help you place a musical work within the context (time and place) in which it was created.
|
