4-1 Discussion: Patronage System During the Baroque and Classical periods, musicians worked under the
the church, or the government) to keep them under hire. Musicians had to compose and perform the music the patron wanted, not necessarily what the musicians wanted. Historically, musicians were considered servants. Three of the main composers of the classical period had di erent experiences with the patronage system.
Haydn used it to his advantage, working for the Esterhazy estate most of his life. Mozart, after living under a domineering father who controlled his
Mozart's breakaway, had to gure out how to survive without the patronage system.
The majority of pieces by composers were written according to the speci cations of patrons, the people who paid composers to write what they, the patrons, wanted.
Today, composers' and musicians' work is directed by the music industry. Often when a record label signs an artist, the artist's sound is changed to represent the label's concept. What was once a signature sound for that artist no longer exists. During the Classical period, patrons were the only entities that could a ord music. Today, music is available for everyone through television, radio, internet, and MP3s. Yet labels still continue to control the output of their artists.
Why do you think this is so?
Share artists that you are familiar with and describe how their sounds changed after they signed to a label. Did the artist you chose make use of the music business to his or her advantage, as Haydn did? Or did it a ect his or her music negatively?
In responding to your peers, discuss how the decade, society, and economics of the time, and any other factors, may have in uenced what was being produced musically.
My Post:
Hello Everyone,
One artist that came to mind is Katy Perry. She had actually first started out as a Christian music singer. She had grown up in a Christian home. Her parents encouraged her from a very young age to pursue music. At age 9, her parents had paid for her to get some vocal lessons. At
13 she was gifted a guitar, which added to her growing musical talents. At 16 years old she released a gospel album with a Christian label in 2001, but it didn't do as well as they were hoping. That is when she ran into Glen Ballard, which gave her a push to move from gospel music to secular. Ballard helped her get noticed at Columbia Records where she signed as a solo artist in 2004. However, she was dropped in 2006 and her near-finished record was shelved. Things finally pick up for her in 2007 when she signed with Capitol Records. I Kissed a Girl was her lead single, and the track landed #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 for seven weeks!
There was a clear shift in style from her adolescent years, to when she signed on with her second label. The first album and record label was still in