A genre is a type of work that has developed historically. It refers to the form, content, and purpose of music. Musical genres began their formation early in the development of music, in the system of primitive communities. At that time, music accompanied every step of human activity: life, labor, speech, and so on. Thus, the basic genre beginnings were formed, which we will discuss later.
Style, on the other hand, refers to the sum of materials (harmony, melody, rhythm, polyphony), the way in which they were used in a piece of music. Style is usually based on the influences of a particular era or is categorized by composers. In other words, style is the totality of the means of musical expression that defines the image and idea of music. It can depend on the composer’s personality, worldview and tastes, and approach to music. Also, the style defines currents in music, such as jazz, pop, rock, folk styles and so on.
There are five basic genre beginnings, which, as we said, originated in primitive communities:
- Motility
- Declamation
- Singability
- Signality
- Sound imagery .
It is these that became the basis of all subsequent genres that emerged with the development of music.
Quite soon after the formation of the basic genre principles, genre and style began to weave into a single system. Such genre and style systems were formed depending on the occasion for which the music was created. Thus genre and style systems emerged that were used in certain ancient cults, for ancient rituals, and in everyday life. The genre had a more applied nature, which formed a certain image, style and compositional features of ancient music.
On the walls of the Egyptian pyramids and in the surviving ancient papyri were found lines of ritual and religious hymns, which most often told about the ancient Egyptian gods.
It is believed that ancient music received its highest point of development in ancient Greece. It was in ancient Greek music were discovered certain patterns on which it was based.
With the way the structure of society developed, so did music. In medieval culture, new vocal and vocal instrumental genres had already formed. In this era in Europe were born such genres as:
- Organum, the earliest form of multivoiced music in Europe. The genre was used in churches and had its heyday at the Notre Dame school in Paris.
- Opera is a musical and dramatic work.
- Chorale – Catholic or Protestant liturgical singing.
- Motet – a vocal genre that was used both in church and at secular events. Its style depended on the text.
- Conduit – a medieval song whose text was most often spiritual and moralizing. To this day the medieval notes of the condottes cannot be precisely deciphered, as they had no definite rhythm.
- Mass is a liturgical service in Catholic churches. Requiem also belongs to this genre.
- Madrigal – a small work on lyrical and love themes. The genre originated in Italy.
- Chanson – this genre appeared in France, and originally belonged to the choral peasant songs.
- Pavane – a smooth dance, which opened the holidays in Italy
- Gagliarda – cheerful and rhythmic dance also originated in Italy
- The allemande was a marching dance that originated in Germany.
In seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in North America country music – country music – developed quite actively. This genre was heavily influenced by Irish and Scottish folk music. The lyrics of such songs often told about love, rural life and cowboy life.
Folklore was quite active in Latin America and Africa in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. The blues was born in the African American community, which was originally a “work song” that accompanied work in the fields. Ballads and religious chants also formed the basis of the blues. The blues became the basis of a new genre – jazz, which is the result of a mixture of African and European cultures. Jazz became quite widespread and universally accepted.
Based on jazz and blues, in the late ’40s rhythm and blues (R’n’B), a song and dance genre, appeared. It was quite popular among young people. Later, funk and soul emerged within this genre.
Blues
Interestingly, along with these African-American genres, the genre of pop music emerged in the 20s of the twentieth century. The roots of this genre go back to folk music, street romances and ballads. Pop music has always mixed with other genres, forming quite interesting musical styles. In the 70s, the “disco” style emerged within pop music, which became the most popular dance music at the time, pushing rock and roll to the background.
In the 50s, rock burst into the ranks of already existing genres, with its origins in blues, folk and country. It fairly quickly gained frenzied popularity and grew into many different styles, mixing with other genres.