CHAPTER ONE MUSIC YESTERDAY AND TODAY When you listen to the radio or watch television you can hear many different kinds of music You can hear and see your favorite performers singing and playing instru ments You can also buy their music on CD or download the music to Listening to music through earphones can be a lot of fun 4
5 MUSIC YESTERDAY AND TODAY an electronic device You might like rock pop or hip-hop There are many differ ent kinds of music today Now imagine that you lived more than 200 years ago in the late 1700s What Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote music in the 1700s People still listen to his music today As a young boy Mozart was afraid of the trumpet Quick Fact
6 WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART MUSICAL PRODIGY AND COMPOSER This string quartet is playing classical music A string quartet is a group of four musicians who play stringed instruments kind of music would you have listened to Where would you have heard it If you lived in Europe you would have gone to private concerts or to church to hear music The type of music you would have heard is now called 6
7 MUSIC YESTERDAY AND TODAY CLASSICAL MUSIC Clas sical music is complex It can be played on a single instrument or using a combination of many instruments Those instruments can include violins pianos flutes and trumpets The music stars of the 1700s were not the musi cians The composers who wrote the music were the stars People would attend concerts because they liked the music of the composer Wealthy people would hire composers whom they liked to write music for them One of the most famous composers of classical music was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart He wrote more than 600 pieces of music His music is still played all around the world CLASSICAL MUSIC is formal music that is written as a piece of art not just to entertain It has strict rules and is played exactly as it is written Vocabulary Box
