Identifying the Era

Identifying the Era of a Score

In your music theory exam you may be asked to identify the era or possible composer of a score you have not seen before.

While some composers (e.g. Mozart and Beethoven) were prolific and wrote in many different genres, other composers are best known for specific types of composition. It’s useful to know these:

• Chopin, Rachmaninov – piano music, or piano with orchestra
• Strauss – waltzes
• Verdi, Puccini, Wagner – operatic
• Schubert – Lieder (songs for solo voice and piano)
• Mahler, Bruckner, Tchaikovsky – orchestral works
• Haydn, Mozart, Bartók – String quartets

You can sometimes easily find a clue to the period by checking what instruments are playing.

• The harpsichord was used in Baroque times but became less popular in later eras.
• The term “keyboard” refers to Baroque era keyboard instruments (not modern-day electronic keyboards!)
• The clarinet and piano did not exist in Baroque times.
• The extended (larger and smaller than usual) woodwind and brass instruments became popular during the Romantic era.

In general, the size of the orchestra was much smaller in Baroque and Classical times, and at its biggest in the Romantic period.

Here is a checklist to help discover the era of a score:

Era	Baroque	Classical	Romantic	Modern
Instruments	Harpsichord ✓ Keyboard ✓ Continuo ✓ Clarinet ✘     Piano ✘	Harpsichord ✓ Clarinet ✓ Piano ✓	Harpsichord ✘ Continuo ✘ Clarinet ✓ Piano ✓ Extended families ✓	Clarinet ✓ Piano ✓ Extended families ✓
Size	Small orchestra	Medium orchestra	Large orchestra	Medium orchestra
Harmony	Usually diatonic, sometimes modal	Always diatonic	Always diatonic	Sometimes diatonic
Keys	Related modulation	Related modulation	Modulation from pivot	Any modulation
Chromaticism	Few chromatics	Some chromatics	Many chromatics	Many chromatics
Texture	Contrapuntal	Homophonic, light	Homophonic, dense	Anything
Phrases	Long, energetic melodies	Short, elegant melodies	Song-like melodies	Anything
Performance directions	Few expression directions	Some expression directions	Many expression directions	Very precise expression directions
Dynamics	Few (de)crescendos	Many (de)crescendos	Many (de)crescendos	Anything
Ornaments	Many ornaments	Some ornaments	Few ornaments	Few ornaments
Mood	Mood constant	Mood varies	Moods are dramatic and varied	Anything

If you have to give reasons for your choice of era/composer, you can use some of the following phrases, depending on the extract. (You can replace the words in brackets with whatever is appropriate):

The	harmonic language texture (piano) instrumental combination melodic style use of dynamics	is characteristic of is not characteristic of	(Bach) (Mozart) (Beethoven) (Debussy) (The Romantic era)
The lack of	ornaments expression marks