Elizabethan Cultural Impact on Society Today Essay Example

Many aspects of the Elizabethan culture are still practiced today. Music was important as it provided many emotions amongst the people. In some schools, learning music was mandatory (Willis). Dance had been for entertainment as well as exercising. Being able to dance was a great achievement, but yet the style differed between the people. Overall, Elizabethan music and dance has greatly influenced modern day arts. Instruments used today are modified versions of the instruments used in the Elizabethan era. The names for instruments came from old writers (Quennell 80). There were four categories, stringed, wind, percussion, and keyboard instruments. Stringed instruments were played with a bow or plucked, while on the contrary wind instruments were blown into. Percussion instruments were forms of bells and drums. Lastly, keyboard instruments were instruments such as the organ and harpsichord (Alchin). We still have those same categories today. The Lute however was the most popular (Alchin). It was a stringed instrument resembling the modern day guitar. As people started to figure out how music worked, they started to make small ensembles. Composers during the Elizabethan era used diamonds as note head (Dodd 116). As time went by, the note heads transformed into circles. When composers wrote music, they rarely wrote out specific parts for instruments. They usually left it for the musician to decide which instrument should be played. This had led to small ensembles, and The English Consort was the4 first ever English string quartet (Alchin). There were also different types of musicians in Elizabethan England. Three types of musicians were the court, house, and street musicians. Court musicians played to the courtiers, and Queen Elizabeth had at least 70 musicians. House musicians were musicians that people employed to play in their homes. They would play until their employer was satisfied, the get dismissed. Street musicians played at