The music style of song has been since around since nearly over a thousand years ago, but it has evolved and multiplied into different styles. This page will tell you about a few different styles of song throughout history and what the exactly where. The style of song I will be examining is Lieder music, Shanson, Modern Shang Son, Madrigals and Crooner music.
Crooner Music
The word Crooner is an American word to describe male singers who sing in a smooth deep vocal tone. This tone was enhanced by using microphones that picked up quieter sounds, this allowed the music to sound more personal to the listener. Crooner music primarily came from America, and this music style was most popular during the 1900’s. The lyrical content of this song form was mainly about sad and emotional topics, such as heartbreak and loss. Some well known Crooner you may know are; Bin Crosby, Bobby Darin, Michael Buble and Frank Sinatra.
Chanson and modern chanson
Chanson is a form of music that was born 800 years ago in France, this style of song where we got the English word song from, this is because it was one of the first ever styles of song. The lyrical content of the genre style was often about love and relationships. The earliest style of chanson often included 3 to 4 voices making it polyphonic. Chanson began to become less and less popular through time. However in the early 1900’s it was revived in the style of modern Chanson, it has the same structure and style but a few minor tweaks. Chanson at the start has few women but in it’s revival it was dominantly women. The theme of love still stuck to the style. An very popular chanson from the 1900’s you have probably heard is called La Vie En Rose.
MadrigalS
A Madrigal is a vocal composition that was born during the 15th but lasted until the early Baroque era. century during the renaissance. This music was performed and composed acapella, that means with no instruments a side from your voice. The lyrical style of this type of song was poetic and used poetic techniques such as metaphors and similes. The vocals and harmony in this style of song where often polyphonic. This means the vocals in the music where used for rhythm, melody and harmony and no other instruments. Some popular Madrigal artists that you may or may not know are; Phillipe Verdelot, Thomas Weelkes and Orlande De Lassus. Although the music style has a lot of acapella it also had string instruments also was allowed to use other instruments.
Lieder Music
Lieder Music is a style of song that came from Germany in the 1800’s. This style of song is performed with vocals singing the lyrics and melody, and the piano accoupling it with harmony and rhythm. And these songs where mostly played at home. Instead of playing single song at their home piano they created a set of songs that they called a ‘song cycle’. All the songs in the song cycle were performed together, this is similar to what we call an album today. Some famous Lieder Musicians you may know are; Franz Schubert, Hugo Wolf and Richard Strauss.
