In music the common practice period is a long period in western musical history spanning from well before the classical era (as identified in much modern history of music), dated, on the outside, as 1600-1900. It is most often contrasted with contemporary music. Most common practice music shares many traits, and is tonal as opposed to modal or atonal. It includes most of so-called "classical" and popular music. Despite the emergence of many new styles and techniques common practice music may still be the dominant European-influenced music. Classical music is a broad, somewhat imprecise term, referring to music produced in, or rooted in the traditions of, European art, ecclesiastical and concert music, particularly between 1000 and 1900. ... Ancient music is music that developed in literate cultures, replacing prehistoric music. ... Early music is European classical music before the classical music era and after Ancient music. ... 20th century classical music, the classical music of the 20th century, was extremely diverse, beginning with the late Romantic style of Sergei Rachmaninoff and the Impressionism of Claude Debussy, and ranging to such distant sound-worlds as the complete serialism of Pierre Boulez, the simple triadic harmonies of minimalist composers... Music is conceptual time expressed in the structures of tones and silence. ... The Classical period in Western music occurred from about 1730 through 1820, despite considerable overlap at both ends with preceding and following periods, as is true for all musical eras. ... In the broadest sense, contemporary music is any music being written in the present day. ... Tonality is a system of writing music according to certain hierarchical pitch relationships around a center or tonic. ... In music, a mode is an ordered series of musical intervals, which, along with the key or tonic, define the pitches. ... Atonality in a general sense describes music that departs from the system of tonal hierarchies that are said to characterized the sound of classical European music from the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries. ... Popular music is music belonging to any of a number of musical styles that are accessible to the general public and mostly distributed commercially. ... 20th century classical music, the classical music of the 20th century, was extremely diverse, beginning with the late Romantic style of Sergei Rachmaninoff and the Impressionism of Claude Debussy, and ranging to such distant sound-worlds as the complete serialism of Pierre Boulez, the simple triadic harmonies of minimalist composers... Twelve-tone technique is a system of musical composition devised by Arnold Schoenberg. ...

Walter Piston, among others, uses the term in his book Harmony (ISBN 0393954803) to refer to the bulk of the material with which he dealt. Walter Hamor Piston Jr. ...

Rhythmically, common practice music metric structures generally include: // Rhythm (Greek ρυθμός = tempo) is the variation of the duration of sounds or other events over time. ... See: International System of Units, colloquially called the Metric System, and also metrication. ...

1. Clearly enunciated or implied pulse at all levels, with the fastest levels rarely being extreme.
2. Meters, or pulse groups, in two-pulse or three-pulse groups, most often two.
3. Once established the meter and pulse groups rarely change throughout a section or composition.
4. Synchronous pulse groups on all levels: all pulses on slower levels coincide with strong pulses on faster levels.
5. Consistent tempo throughout a composition or section.
6. Tempo, beat length, and measure length chosen to allow one time signature throughout piece.

(DeLone et al. (Eds.), 1975, chap. 3)

Durational patterns typically include: In music, a pulse is an unbroken series of distinct yet identical periodically occurring short stimuli perceived as points in time (DeLone et. ... Metre is the measurement of a musical line into measures of stressed and unstressed beats, indicated in Western notation by a symbol called a time signature. ... In music, a pulse is an unbroken series of distinct yet identical periodically occurring short stimuli perceived as points in time (DeLone et. ... Section can be: A cross section (in the common sense or the physics sense) In mathematics: A conic section A section of a fiber bundle or sheaf A Caesarean section In UK law, Section 28 In the fictional Star Trek universe, Section 31 A military unit A section (land) is... Musical composition is: an original piece of music the structure of a musical piece the process of creating a new piece of music // A musical composition A piece of music exists in the form of a written composition in musical notation or as a single acoustic event (a live performance... Synchronization is coordination with respect to time. ... In musical terminology, tempo (Italian for time) is the speed or pace of a given piece. ... The time signature (also known as meter signature) is a notational device used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats are in each bar and which note value (minim (half-note), crotchet (quarter-note), quaver (eighth-note), and so on) constitutes one beat. ... A duration is an amount of time or a particular time interval. ...

1. Small or moderate duration complement and range, with one duration (or pulse) predominating the duration hierarchy, being heard as the basic unit throughout a composition. Exceptions are most frequently extremely long, such as pedal tones, or if short generally occurring as the rapidly alternating or transient components of trills, tremolos, or other ornaments.
2. Rhythmic units based on metric or intrametric patterns, though specific contrametric or extrametric patterns are signatures of certain styles or composers. Triplets and other extrametric patterns are usually heard on levels higher than the basic durational unit or pulse.
3. Rhythmic gestures of a limited number of rhythmic units, sometimes based on a single or alternating pair.
4. Thetic, anacrustic, and initial rest rhythmic gestures are used, with anacrustic beginnings and strong endings possibly most frequent and upbeat endings most rare.
5. Rhythmic gestures repeated exactly or in variation after contrasting gestures. There may be one rhythmic gesture almost exclusively throughout an entire composition; but complete avoidance of repetition is rare.
6. Composite rhythms which confirm the meter, often in metric or even note patterns identical to the pulse on specific metric level.

(DeLone et al. (Eds.), 1975, chap. 3)

Patterns of pitch and duration are of primary importance in common practice melody while quality is of secondary importance. Durations recur and are often periodic; pitches are generally diatonic. (DeLone et al. (Eds.), 1975, chap. 4) In music, a pulse is an unbroken series of distinct yet identical periodically occurring short stimuli perceived as points in time (DeLone et. ... Pedal point (also pedal tone, organ point, or just pedal) is a musical term describing any sustained or repeated note, usually in the bass, with changing harmonies in the other voices. ... In music, a trill is a type of ornament; see trill (music) In phonetics, a trill is a type of consonant; see trill consonant In the fictional Star Trek universe, the Trill are two symbiotic races of aliens; see Trill (Star Trek). ... Tremolo is a musical term with two meanings: A rapid repetition of the same note, a rapid variation in the amplitude of a single note, or an alternation between two or more notes. ... In music, ornaments are musical flourishes that are not necessary to the overall melodic (or harmonic) line, but serve to decorate or ornament that line. ... A rhythmic unit is a durational pattern which occupies a period of time equivalent to a pulse or pulses on an underlying metric level, as opposed to a rhythmic gesture. ... See: International System of Units, colloquially called the Metric System, and also metrication. ... See: International System of Units, colloquially called the Metric System, and also metrication. ... See: International System of Units, colloquially called the Metric System, and also metrication. ... See: International System of Units, colloquially called the Metric System, and also metrication. ... A triplet is a set of three items, and includes in particular: one of three babies in a multiple birth a preparation of opal as a gemstone, with a thin layer of opal backed with a dark material and covered with cap of clear quartz in poetry, a tercet (three... A rhythmic gesture is a durational pattern which, in contrast to a rhythmic unit, does not occupy a period of time equivalent to a pulse or pulses on an underlying metric level. ... In poetry, anacrusis is the lead-in syllables that precede the first full measure, while, similarly, in music, it is the note or notes (even a phrase) which precede the first downbeat in a group. ... In music, variation is a formal technique where material is altered during repetition; reiteration with changes. ... In music a composite rhythm is the durations and patterns (rhythm) produced by considering all sounding parts of a specific musical texture. ... In music, pitch is the perception of the frequency of a note. ... A duration is an amount of time or a particular time interval. ... Look up melody in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Quality refers to the distinctive characteristics or properties of a person, object, process or other thing. ...

Many people have proposed that a "new" common practice period is now discernible in 20th century classical music. George Perle (1990) has labeled this "Tradition in 20th Century Music", the most significant of which he considers 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'." George Perle (born May 6, 1915 in Bayonne, New Jersey) is a composer and musicologist who has studied with Ernst Krenek. ... For non-musical meanings of inversion, see inversion. ... Inversion has different meanings in different fields of knowledge: Something that is inverted or the process by which an inverse is obtained. ... Symmetry is a characteristic of geometrical shapes, equations and other objects; we say that such an object is symmetric with respect to a given operation if this operation, when applied to the object, does not appear to change it. ... This article is in need of improvement. ... Alban Maria Johannes Berg (February 9, 1885 – December 24, 1935) was an Austrian composer. ... Béla Bartók in 1927 Béla Viktor János Bartók (March 25, 1881 – September 26, 1945) was a Hungarian composer, pianist and collector of Eastern European and Middle Eastern folk music. ... Arnold Schoenberg, Los Angeles, 1938 For the American music critic and journalist, see Harold Charles Schonberg. ... Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin (Russian: Алекса́ндр Никола́евич Скря́бин, Aleksandr Nikolaevič Skrjabin; sometimes transliterated as Skryabin or Skrjabin) (6 January 1872–27 April 1915) was a Russian composer and pianist. ... Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (Russian: И́горь Фёдорович Страви́нский Igor Fëdorovič Stravinskij) (June 17, 1882 – April 6, 1971) was a Russian-born composer of modern classical music. ... Anton Webern (December 3, 1883 – September 15, 1945) was an Austrian composer. ... John Harris Harbison (born December 20, 1938 in Orange, New Jersey) is a composer, best known for his operas and large choral works. ...

References

• DeLone et al. (Eds.) (1975). Aspects of Twentieth-Century Music. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. ISBN 0130493465.
• Perle, George (1990). The Listening Composer, pp. 46-47. California: University of California Press. ISBN 0520069919.
• Harbison, John (1992). Symmetries and the "New Tonality". Contemporary Music Review 6 (2), 71-80

George Perle (born May 6, 1915 in Bayonne, New Jersey) is a composer and musicologist who has studied with Ernst Krenek. ...

External links

• Benjamin Piekut, "No Common Practice: The New Common Practice and its Historical Antecedents" (February 1, 2004)