Different Schools of Music

How many different schools of music are there? And, what is Development in Music?

The inspiration for this article came from one of Mahler’s quotes. Mahler, was once reported to have said that Beethoven and Wagner were the only two composers in history to have shown development in music. What sort of a thing is that to say? And, what could Mahler have meant by it?

What exactly is a school of music; and, what exactly is development in Music? When we think of all the great composers that have walked the face of the earth, Mozart seems to have been the most gifted of all. Jokes are made when speaking about Mozart, “He was mistaken for garbage and ejected from a spaceship.” We equate Mozart with having extraterrestrial qualities - we speak of him metaphorically as not having been human. Nevertheless, Mozart didn’t create a school of music. In fact, the English and the Germans started elevating Mozart only after a few decades after his premature death at the age of 35. Mozart’s music is incredible to say the least, nonetheless, it doesn’t show a new harmonic or compositional idiom - it’s traditional, even if it possesses exceptional symmetrical qualities, much more so than any of his other contemporaries did...

Bach’s music was practically extinct by the end of the 18th Century. Had it not been for Mendelssohn (Revival of St. Matthew Passion), we may not know who Bach is today. In fact, Telemann, Scarlatti and Vivaldi were considerably more experimental and groundbreaking in their compositions than Bach was in his. Bach’s greatness was in his exceptional talent for combining chromaticism and counterpoint - this is why Bach, is considered today the greatest composer of the Baroque period, as well as one of the big threes in music (Bach, Mozart and Beethoven). Nevertheless, his compositional style was considered traditional in its day.

Ludwig van Beethoven 1770 - 1827
Beethoven, his heart beating passionately for the new, mocking people (other composers) as he oftentimes did: especially his teachers Haydn and Salieri.... - And then came the Eroica Symphony! The first movement in of itself is interesting, mainly and because of his treatment of the main points of the musical scale (Tonic, Dominant and Subdominant). In the transition into the Development Section of the First Movement, chords start to pound away like never before in music - the Last Movement concludes with excessive orchestral blows. By the time Beethoven wrote his 9th Symphony, he had created a new school of music for others to emulate him as many did... Furthermore, he was the first composer to fully develop the minor key, which up until that point been considered subsequent to the major key in music and not used as much...

Richard Wagner 1813 - 1883
Wagner was the first composer in history to have truly dissipated traditional harmony - he took some ideas from Berlioz and Liszt, and improved upon them by using his unique approach to music. Even Beethoven’s music showed harmonic relationship between chords, which is what traditional harmony is. For the first time in music, we see chords appearing with no relationship to each other, whatsoever.... What could come next? - Atonality of course! This is why Wagner is considered one of the most important forerunners of modern music; Wagner also influenced literature, philosophy, and art to some degree with his concept of "Leitmotif..."

Claude Debussy 1862 - 1918
Debussy loved Chopin, but at one point or another, he must have realized that he would never be able to outdo him. Chopin is one of music’s greatest poets by reason of imagination, and there have been few like him since. So Debussy now sets out to create a new school of music, and that he did - using whole tones, parallel chords and unprepared modulations. All of this, created a new school of music which would be one of the most influential in history. Most, if not all 20th Century composers owe Debussy a great debt.

Arnold Schoenberg 1874 - 1951
For the first time in history, music is treated from a logical, instead of emotional perspective - The Twelve Tone Technique System, or Atonality (as it's popularly known as). Schoenberg wanted to create music with little to no repetition, so as to sound logical and not emotional - this did not last. As great as Schoenberg was, most people want a tune they can hum to. This would explain why Tchaikovsky is so much more popular with the public than Schoenberg was. Nevertheless, Schoenberg is considered one of music’s greatest innovators.

Brief Synopsis

These four distinguished figures created different schools of music. Debussy, has been accredited with having been an important forerunner to jazz as we know it today - although American Jazz is a contribution mostly made by African people; however, before Debussy, upper partials (11th and 13th chords) had been sparingly used before he came into the scene and started to use them on a regular basis...