A Research On The Origin And Formation Of Concert' System

Public concert, which was public performance specially held for the appreciation of music by musicians, appeared in the history of music with the rise and growth of the middle-class in the 17^th century. Before that music existed as the subordination to church ceremonies, celebrations and banquet entertainment. Henceforth the concert' system lasted for more than 400 years, undergoing the period of origin and formation, maturation, expansion, and finally developing into the present pattern.Firstly, this dissertation has prehistoric research of concert in mind, which underwent Middle Age and Renaissance. Through the developments in these two periods, music gradually achieved independence from such social activities as religion, celebrations and so on, and laid the foundations for the appearance of concert institution from the aspects of musical ideas, patrons, and audience etc. The second part of the dissertation mainly centers on the research of the concert words, the whole past history and stages of concert institution, and the basic types of concert. It is quite necessary to have a deep understanding of these issues with overall significance on concert' system. The main body of the dissertation is about the situation in the origin and formation of concert' system in the 17^th and 18^th century. Referring to London, Paris and Vienna, the researchinvestigates the most important European countries at that time respectively-Britain, France,Germany (German-speaking areas) and their differences in concert' system in several aspects like management, setting up of performances, group of audience, living condition of musicians because of their different politics, economy and cultures. The third chapter of the dissertation studies on the formation of the British concert institution. The first concert documented was held in Britain, meanwhile, the commercial manipulation of concert' system could be found in Britain most remarkably. The fourth chapter is about the contents of France. The concert life in France was well-regulated because of the government's centralized administration of music art. The fifth chapter focuses on the formation of concert' system in Germany. With quite a few concert centers and the intellectuals from the middle-class being widely spread in the country, their enthusiastic music activities well promoted the concert' system in Germany. As the 'capital of music' at that time, Vienna is regarded as the typical representative in researches of German concert' system pattern.Through the studies on the above issues of concert' system, we are able to understand the history of music again from the view of concert' system. During the research we discover that concert was absolutely not isolated from social life, and politics, economy, and culture had great...