If you intend to learn a variety of musical instruments, then it is advised that you get familiar with to produce sounds.
s. These are known to be user friendly so you will never have a hard time
its major classes. This will allow you to determine which among the classes is suitable enough for
the kind of learning that you want to attain in music. The different musical instruments that are
available in different parts of the world at present are categorized as follows:
1. Wind Instruments. This class of musical instruments requires you to blow into a specific wind
instrument by following an order to ensure that the sound that you desire is produced. The
instruments can be expected to work depending on the principles of frequencies, sound waves,
acoustics, resonance and harmonics. The pitch of the produced sound when you start blowing
the instrument is actually dependent on the length of the air column through which the waves
of the sounds vibrate. Some of the most popular wind instruments are piccolo, flute, clarinet,
shakuhachi, bassoon, oboe, accordion, English horn, harmonica, saxophone, pianica, bagpie and
shehnai.
2. Brass Instruments. These instruments can be expected to work similarly to wind instruments
with a few modifications. The length of air column of brass instruments can actually be changed
with the help of slide mechanism or press valves. One of the many examples of brass instruments
is trumpet. It can be played horizontally using a series of valves that can be found at the top of
the instrument. The valves are then opened and closed using a variety of combinations so that
you can start producing different kinds of pitches. Another example of brass instruments is the
French horn. This instrument is composed of a basic tube which is rounded into a compact shape
and is being culminated in a bell or a conical bore. You can then find a series of valves that are
set centrally on it. Other brass instruments that you can use are trombone, tuba, bugle and
conch.
3. Percussion Instruments. These instruments require you to strike the surface of the instrument
to generate vibrations to produce your desired note. Percussion instruments can actually be
divided into two types. The first type includes tuned instruments that are known to produce a
definite pitch or a series of different pitches. Some examples of the tuned percussion instruments
include xylophone, vibraphone, marimba, tubular bells and timpani or kettle drum. The second
type of percussion instruments is the indefinite pitch. Its examples include triangle, castanets,
rattle, cymbals, tambourine, anvil and gong.
4. String Instruments. These are composed of those instruments that work based on sound wave
vibrations produced by strings. The pitch that can be produced by these instruments is
dependent on the length of air column and the type and thickness of strings used. Among the
most popular string instruments are guitar, viola, violin, cello, mandolin, harp, double bass and
banjo.
5. Electronic Instruments. These are those instruments that are produced using the latest
technology. These instruments are created in a way that makes it simpler and easier for anyone
learning the basics of producing sounds out of any of them. Among the most popular examples
of electronic instruments are piano keyboards, synthesizers, rhythm machines, octopads and
samplers.
Mentioned above are five of the major classes of musical instruments. It is advisable for you to
determine the kind of music that you wish to produce to ensure that you learn playing the right
instrument that fits perfectly for you. This will allow you to become the kind of musician that you
have always dreamed of.
The Classical period was an era of classical music between roughly 1730 and 1820.[1]
The Classical period falls between the Baroque and the Romantic periods. Classical music has a
lighter, clearer texture than Baroque music and is less complex. It is mainly homophonic, using a
clear melody line over a subordinate chordal accompaniment,[2] but counterpoint was by no
means forgotten, especially later in the period. It also makes use of style galant which
emphasized light elegance in place of the Baroque's dignified seriousness and impressive
grandeur. Variety and contrast within a piece became more pronounced than before and
the orchestra increased in size, range, and power.
The harpsichord was replaced as the main keyboard instrument by the piano (or fortepiano).
Unlike the harpsichord, which plucked strings with quills, pianos strike the strings with leather-
covered hammers when the keys are pressed, which enables the performer to play louder or
softer and play with more expression; in contrast, the force with which a performer plays the
harpsichord keys does not change the sound. Instrumental music was considered important by
Classical period composers. The main kinds of instrumental music were the sonata, trio, string
quartet, symphony (performed by an orchestra) and the solo concerto, which featured a virtuoso
solo performer playing a solo work for violin, piano, flute, or another instrument, accompanied
by an orchestra. Vocal music, such as songs for a singer and piano (notably the work of
Schubert), choral works, and opera (a staged dramatic work for singers and orchestra) were also
important during this period.
The best-known composers from this period are Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Franz Schubert; other notable names include Luigi
Boccherini, Muzio Clementi, Antonio Salieri, Leopold Mozart, Johann Christian Bach, Carl Philipp
Emanuel Bach, and Christoph Willibald Gluck. Ludwig van Beethoven is regarded either as a
Romantic composer or a Classical period composer who was part of the transition to the
Romantic era. Franz Schubert is also a transitional figure, as were Johann Nepomuk
Hummel, Luigi Cherubini, Gaspare Spontini, Gioachino Rossini, Carl Maria von
Weber and Niccolò Paganini. The period is sometimes referred to as the era of Viennese
Classic or Classicism (German: Wiener Klassik), since Gluck, Mozart, Haydn, Salieri, Schubert, and
Beethoven all worked in Vienna

The period between 1750 and 1820 is known as Classical period. The art of the period is
characterized by grace, beauty of line, clarity of form, and balance of structure.
2. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
The characteristics of Classical music are:
~ tuneful melodies ~ Austrian composer
~ more flexibility of rhythm ~ greeted as a “wonder child”
~ basically homophonic ~ he could play harpsichord, organ and violin
~ clarity of structure in musical form ~ toured Europe with his father and sister giving piano recitals
~ greater variety and contrast of mood ~ works include symphonies, concertos, sonatas, operas, chamber music
~ works are characterized by elegance, delicacy and structural balance
The most renowned composers of this period are Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven.

Celebrated works:
~ “The Marriage of Figaro” (Opera)
~ Piano Sonatas (Instrumental Music)
~ “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” (Chamber Music)

1. Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)

~ Austrian composer
~ “Father of the Symphony”
~ showed music talent at an early age
~ established the 4-movement design of symphony
~ works include symphonies, oratorios, sonatas, chamber music 3. Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
~ works are characterized by simplicity, humour, gaiety and clarity of the form ~ German composer
~ born in a musical family in Bonn
~ assistant organist and violist in the court orchestra
Celebrated works: ~ became hard of hearing in 1800’s
~ “The Surprise” (Symphony) ~ contributed much to the expansion of the orchestra and enlarged the scope of the forms
~ “The Creation” (Oratorio) ~ works include symphonies, sonatas, concertos, string quartets, opera
~ “The Emperor Quartet” (Chamber Music) ~ works are characterized by emotional content, depth, dramatic elements
Celebrated works:
~ “Moonlight” (Piano Sonata)
~ “Fidelio” (Opera)
~ “Fate” (Symphony)
SONATA
Sonata (/səˈnɑːtə/; Italian: [soˈnaːta], pl. sonate; from Latin and Italian: sonare, "to sound"),
in music, literally means a piece played as opposed to a cantata (Latin and Italian cantare, "to
sing"), a piece sung. The term evolved through the history of music, designating a variety of forms
until the Classical era, when it took on increasing importance. Sonata is a vague term, with
varying meanings depending on the context and time period. By the early 19th century, it came
to represent a principle of composing large-scale works. It was applied to most instrumental
genres and regarded—alongside the fugue—as one of two fundamental methods of organizing,
interpreting and analyzing concert music. Though the musical style of sonatas has changed since
the Classical era, most 20th- and 21st-century sonatas still maintain the same structure.
Baroque[edit]
In the works of Arcangelo Corelli and his contemporaries, two broad classes of sonata were
established, and were first described by Sébastien de Brossard in his Dictionaire de
musique (third edition, Amsterdam, ca. 1710): the sonata da chiesa (that is, suitable for use in
church), which was the type "rightly known as Sonatas", and the sonata da camera(proper for
use at court), which consists of a prelude followed by a succession of dances, all in the same key.
Although the four, five, or six movements of the sonata da chiesa are also most often in one key,
one or two of the internal movements are sometimes in a contrasting tonality (Newman 1972a,
23–24).
The sonata da chiesa, generally for one or more violins and bass, consisted normally of a slow
introduction, a loosely fugued allegro, a cantabile slow movement, and a lively finale in
some binary form suggesting affinity with the dance-tunes of the suite. This scheme, however,
was not very clearly defined, until the works of Arcangelo Corelli when it became the essential
sonata and persisted as a tradition of Italian violin music.
The sonata da camera consisted almost entirely of idealized dance-tunes. On the other hand, the
features of sonata da chiesa and sonata da camera then tended to be freely intermixed.
Although nearly half of Bach's 1,100 surviving compositions, arrangements, and transcriptions
are instrumental works, only about 4% are sonatas (Newman 1972a, 266).
The term sonata is also applied to the series of over 500 works for harpsichord solo, or
sometimes for other keyboard instruments, by Domenico Scarlatti, originally published under the
name Essercizi per il gravicembalo (Exercises for the Harpsichord). Most of these pieces are in
one binary-form movement only, with two parts that are in the same tempo and use the same
thematic material, though occasionally there will be changes in tempo within the sections. They
are frequently virtuosic, and use more distant harmonic transitions and modulations than were
common for other works of the time. They were admired for their great variety and invention.
Both the solo and trio sonatas of Vivaldi show parallels with the concerti he was writing at the
same time. He composed over 70 sonatas, the great majority of which are of the solo type; most
of the rest are trio sonatas, and a very small number are of the multivoice type (Newman 1972a,
169–70).
The sonatas of Domenico Paradies are mild and elongated works with a graceful and melodious
little second movement included.
practice of the Classical period would become decisive for the sonata; the term moved from
being one of many terms indicating genres or forms, to designating the fundamental form of
organization for large-scale works. This evolution stretched over fifty years. The term came
to apply both to the structure of individual movements (see Sonata form and History of
sonata form) and to the layout of the movements in a multi-movement work. In the transition
to the Classical period there were several names given to multimovement works,
including divertimento, serenade, and partita, many of which are now regarded effectively
as sonatas. The usage of sonata as the standard term for such works began somewhere in
the 1770s. Haydn labels his first piano sonata as such in 1771, after which the
term divertimento is used sparingly in his output. The term sonata was increasingly applied
to either a work for keyboard alone (see piano sonata), or for keyboard and one other
instrument, often the violin or cello. It was less and less frequently applied to works with
more than two instrumentalists; for example, piano trios were not often labelled sonata for
piano, violin, and cello.
Initially the most common layout of movements was:
1. Allegro, which at the time was understood to mean not only a tempo, but also some
degree of "working out", or development, of the theme. (See Rosen
1988 and Rosen 1997.)
2. A middle movement, most frequently a slow movement: an Andante, an Adagio or
a Largo; or less frequently a Minuet or Theme and Variations form.
3. A closing movement was generally an Allegro or a Presto, often labeled Finale. The
form was often a Rondo or Minuet.
However, two-movement layouts also occur, a practice Haydn uses as late as the 1790s.
There was also in the early Classical period the possibility of using four movements, with a
dance movement inserted before the slow movement, as in Haydn's Piano sonatas No. 6
and No. 8. Mozart's sonatas were also primarily in three movements. Of the works that
Haydn labelled piano sonata, divertimento, or partita in Hob XIV, seven are in two
movements, thirty-five are in three, and three are in four; and there are several in three or
four movements whose authenticity is listed as "doubtful." Composers such
as Boccherini would publish sonatas for piano and obbligato instrument with an optional
third movement—–in Boccherini's case, 28 cello sonatas.
But increasingly instrumental works were laid out in four, not three movements, a practice
seen first in string quartets and symphonies, and reaching the sonata proper in the early
sonatas of Beethoven. However, two- and three-movement sonatas continued to be written
throughout the Classical period: Beethoven's opus 102 pair has a two-movement C major
sonata and a three-movement D major sonata. Nevertheless, works with fewer or more than
four movements were increasingly felt to be exceptions; they were labelled as having
movements "omitted," or as having "extra" movements.
Thus, the four-movement layout was by this point standard for the string quartet, and
overwhelmingly the most common for the symphony. The usual order of the four
movements was:
1. An allegro, which by this point was in what is called sonata form, complete with
exposition, development, and recapitulation.
2. A slow movement, an Andante, an Adagio or a Largo.
3. A dance movement, frequently Minuet and trio or—especially later in the classical
period—a Scherzo and trio.
4. A finale in faster tempo, often in a sonata–rondo form.
When movements appeared out of this order they would be described as "reversed", such as
the scherzo coming before the slow movement in Beethoven's 9th Symphony. This usage
would be noted by critics in the early 19th century, and it was codified into teaching soon
thereafter.
It is difficult to overstate the importance of Beethoven's output of sonatas: 32 piano sonatas,
plus sonatas for cello and piano or violin and piano, forming a large body of music that would
over time increasingly be thought essential for any serious instrumentalist to master.
Romantic period[edit]
In the early 19th century, the current usage of the term sonata was established, both as
regards form per se, and in the sense that a fully elaborated sonata serves as a norm for
concert music in general, which other forms are seen in relation to. From this point forward,
the word sonata in music theory labels as much the abstract musical form as particular works.
Hence there are references to a symphony as a sonata for orchestra. This is referred to
by William Newman as the sonata idea.
Among works expressly labeled sonata for the piano, there are the three of Frédéric Chopin,
those of Felix Mendelssohn, the three of Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt's Sonata in B Minor,
and later the sonatas of Johannes Brahms and Sergei Rachmaninoff.
In the early 19th century, the sonata form was defined, from a combination of previous
practice and the works of important Classical composers, particularly Haydn, Mozart,
Beethoven, but composers such as Clementi also. It is during this period that the differences
between the three- and the four-movement layouts became a subject of commentary, with
emphasis on the concerto being laid out in three movements, and the symphony in four.
Ernest Newman wrote in the essay "Brahms and the Serpent":
That, perhaps, will be the ideal of the instrumental music of the future; the way to it,
indeed, seems at last to be opening out before modern composers in proportion as
they discard the last tiresome vestiges of sonata form. This, from being what it was
originally, the natural mode of expression of a certain eighteenth century way of
thinking in music, became in the nineteenth century a drag upon both individual
thinking and the free unfolding of the inner vital force of an idea, and is now simply a
shop device by which a bad composer may persuade himself and the innocent reader
of textbooks that he is a good one (Newman 1958, 51)
Sonata form (also sonata-allegro form or first movement form) is a musical
structure consisting of three main sections: an exposition, a development, and a
recapitulation. It has been used widely since the middle of the 18th century (the early Classical
period).
While it is typically used in the first movement of multi-movement pieces, it is sometimes used
in subsequent movements as well—particularly the final movement. The teaching of sonata
form in music theory rests on a standard definition and a series of hypotheses about the
underlying reasons for the durability and variety of the form—a definition that arose in the
second quarter of the 19th century.[4] There is little disagreement that on the largest level, the
form consists of three main sections: an exposition, a development, and a
recapitulation;[5]:359 however, beneath this general structure, sonata form is difficult to pin down
to a single model.
Cocncerto
A concerto (/kənˈtʃɛərtoʊ/; plural concertos, or concerti from the Italian plural) is a musical
composition generally composed of three movements, in which, usually, one solo instrument
(for instance, a piano, violin, cello or flute) is accompanied by an orchestra or concert band. Its
characteristics and definition have changed over time. In the 17th century, sacred works for
voices and orchestra were typically called concertos, as reflected by J. S. Bach's usage of the title
"concerto" for many of the works that we know as cantatas.[1]
The word concerto comes from Italian; its etymology is uncertain, but it seems to originate
from the conjunction of two Latin words: conserere (meaning to tie, to join, to weave)
and certamen (competition, fight). The idea is that the two parts in a concerto—the soloist
and the orchestra or concert band—alternate between episodes of opposition, cooperation,
and independence to create a sense of flow.
Symphony

The word symphony is derived from the Greek word συμφωνία (symphonia), meaning
"agreement or concord of sound", "concert of vocal or instrumental music",
from σύμφωνος(symphōnos), "harmonious".[1] The word referred to a variety of different
concepts before ultimately settling on its current meaning designating a musical form.

In late Greek and medieval theory, the word was used for consonance, as opposed
to διαφωνία (diaphōnia), which was the word for "dissonance".[2] In the Middle Ages and later,
the Latin form symphonia was used to describe various instruments, especially those capable of
producing more than one sound simultaneously.[2] Isidore of Seville was the first to use the word
symphonia as the name of a two-headed drum, and from c. 1155 to 1377 the French
form symphonie was the name of the organistrum or hurdy-gurdy. In late medieval
England, symphony was used in both of these senses, whereas by the 16th century it was
equated with the dulcimer. In German, Symphonie was a generic term
for spinets and virginals from the late 16th century to the 18th century.[3]

In the sense of "sounding together," the word begins to appear in the titles of some works by
16th- and 17th-century composers including Giovanni Gabrieli's Sacrae symphoniae,
and Symphoniae sacrae, liber secundus, published in 1597 and 1615, respectively; Adriano
Banchieri's Eclesiastiche sinfonie, dette canzoni in aria francese, per sonare, et cantare, op. 16,
published in 1607; Lodovico Grossi da Viadana's Sinfonie musicali, op. 18, published in 1610;
and Heinrich Schütz's Symphoniae sacrae, op. 6, and Symphoniarum sacrarum secunda pars, op.
10, published in 1629 and 1647, respectively. Except for Viadana's collection, which contained
purely instrumental and secular music, these were all collections of sacred vocal works, some
with instrumental accompaniment.[4][5]

FRANZ JOSEF HAYDN

 LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZZART