Historical eras are hard to remember if you only remember dates. They have no colors, shapes, sounds, or atmosphere. In a historical timeline, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical period, Romanticism, Impressionism and Modernism can just be a row of labels. If each era is linked to an image, a monument, a musical snippet, and some broad social change, it becomes a lot easier to remember.
Let’s think about each historical era as a kind of room, rather than as some kind of number. Inside are pictures on the walls and sounds in the air, and then there are patrons and tastes influenced by religious or political ideas and tools enabling composers and artists to do new things. A Baroque interior doesn’t just show architecture. It suggests drama and movement, contrast and ceremony, and public expression. A musical snippet from this time uses steady drive, complexity and direction. In some ways, both reinforce each other.
This is helpful, because when students try to memorize historical eras as names only, they can get confused. Knowing the words “Renaissance proportion, Classical clarity and Romantic emotion” is helpful, and attaching an example to each term will make these descriptions easier to remember. Looking at a Renaissance painting and its proportion, perspective, and compositional harmony is useful. Listening to a Classical phrase’s clear phrase structure, symmetry and tempered expression can also be beneficial. You can see structure as a physical form in one case and aural shape in another.
One approach to studying historical periods could be to list four things: (1) an image, (2) a composer and work, (3) social environment and (4) your own words that help describe the period. In my experience, it’s actually the fourth one that matters the most. Instead of writing: “Baroque, seventeenth century,” I would write “strong chiaroscuro, exaggerated gestures and music with a driving rhythm.” It’s this last one that will give you a cluster of descriptors rather than just a disconnected fact.
It’s not important that every example be a 100% perfect fit. Art and music don’t necessarily progress as fast as each other and not all places progress together. That’s not the point, because we’re trying to avoid getting each and every painting and piece in lockstep. Rather, we are trying to contextualize a movement, style or era. It will have a recognizable atmosphere. Then, when you get to the word “patron” and you think of a “court” or “church” or “salon” or “academy” or public concert, you’ll remember some images and pieces you have already seen or heard.
A second tip is to contrast historical periods. Place two of them in parallel and ask yourself: how did the second one change things? In contrast to the Renaissance, the Baroque style may have more drama, dynamism and theatricality. A melody of the Classical period will feel more direct, simple and symmetric than one from the Romantic era, which may have stretched, swollen and emotionalized. It might be a good time to try to make comparisons in plain language, until the more technical words become familiar.
When you come upon a new historical term that you can’t remember, don’t just write the name or the date. Pick one painting and listen to one short musical piece. Think about its overall composition, color scheme, subject and the music’s melody, rhythmic structure, timbre and mood. Then write one sentence, which will contextualize these examples as an example of this period. A name becomes a lot easier to remember when it becomes a little room you can see and hear in your mind.