document_title: Classical music

question_text: what kind of music would most likely be performed by a symphony orchestra

question_tokens: what kind of music would most likely be performed by a symphony orchestra

root

text: Classical music

text: Characteristics[edit]

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text: Given the wide range of styles in European classical music, from Medieval plainchant sung by monks to Classical and Romantic symphonies for orchestra from the 1700s and 1800s to avant-garde atonal compositions for solo piano from the 1900s, it is difficult to list characteristics that can be attributed to all works of that type. However, there are characteristics that classical music contains that few or no other genres of music contain,[9] such as the use of music notation[clarification needed] and the performance of complex forms of solo instrumental works (e.g., the fugue). Furthermore, while the symphony did not exist prior to the late 18th century, the symphony ensemble—and the works written for it—have become a defining feature of classical music.[citation needed]

tag: p

text: Literature[edit]

text: The key characteristic of European classical music that distinguishes it from popular music and folk music is that the repertoire tends to be written down in musical notation, creating a musical part or score. This score typically determines details of rhythm, pitch, and, where two or more musicians (whether singers or instrumentalists) are involved, how the various parts are coordinated. The written quality of the music has enabled a high level of complexity within them: fugues, for instance, achieve a remarkable marriage of boldly distinctive melodic lines weaving in counterpoint yet creating a coherent harmonic logic that would be difficult to achieve in the heat of live improvisation.[10][clarification needed] The use of written notation also preserves a record of the works and enables Classical musicians to perform music from many centuries ago. Musical notation enables 2000s-era performers to sing a choral work from the 1300s Renaissance era or a 1700s Baroque concerto with many of the features of the music (the melodies, lyrics, forms, and rhythms) being reproduced.[citation needed]

text: That said, the score does allow the interpreter to make choices on how to perform a historical work.[citation needed] For example, if the tempo is written with an Italian instruction (e.g., Allegro), it is not known exactly how fast the piece should be played. As well, in the Baroque era, many works that were designed for basso continuo accompaniment do not specify which instruments should play the accompaniment or exactly how the chordal instrument (harpsichord, lute, etc.) should play the chords, which are not notated in the part[clarification needed] (only a figured bass symbol in the bass part is used to guide the chord-playing performer). The performer and the conductor have a range of options for musical expression and interpretation of a scored piece, including the phrasing of melodies, the time taken during fermatas (held notes) or pauses, and the use (or choice not to use) of effects such as vibrato or glissando (these effects are possible on various stringed, brass and woodwind instruments and with the human voice).

text: Although Classical music in the 2000s has lost most of its tradition for musical improvisation, from the Baroque era to the Romantic era, there are examples of performers who could improvise in the style of their era. In the Baroque era, organ performers would improvise preludes, keyboard performers playing harpsichord would improvise chords from the figured bass symbols beneath the bass notes of the basso continuo part and both vocal and instrumental performers would improvise musical ornaments.[11] Johann Sebastian Bach was particularly noted for his complex improvisations.[12] During the Classical era, the composer-performer Mozart was noted for his ability to improvise melodies in different styles.[13] During the Classical era, some virtuoso soloists would improvise the cadenza sections of a concerto. During the Romantic era, Beethoven would improvise at the piano.[14] For more information, see Improvisation.

text: Instrumentation and vocal practices[edit]

text: The instruments currently used in most classical music were largely invented before the mid-19th century (often much earlier) and codified in the 18th and 19th centuries. They consist of the instruments found in an orchestra or in a concert band, together with several other solo instruments (such as the piano, harpsichord, and organ). The symphony orchestra is the most widely known medium for classical music[15] and includes members of the string, woodwind, brass, and percussion families of instruments. The concert band consists of members of the woodwind, brass, and percussion families. It generally has a larger variety and number of woodwind and brass instruments than the orchestra but does not have a string section. However, many concert bands use a double bass. The vocal practices changed over the classical period, from the single line monophonic Gregorian chant done by monks in the Medieval period to the complex, polyphonic choral works of the Renaissance and subsequent periods, which used multiple independent vocal melodies at the same time.

text: Medieval music[edit]

text: Many of the instruments used to perform medieval music still exist, but in different forms. Medieval instruments included the flute, the recorder and plucked string instruments like the lute. As well, early versions of the organ, fiddle (or vielle), and trombone (called the sackbut) existed. Medieval instruments in Europe had most commonly been used singly, often self accompanied with a drone note, or occasionally in parts. From at least as early as the 13th century through the 15th century there was a division of instruments into haut (loud, shrill, outdoor instruments) and bas (quieter, more intimate instruments).[16] During the earlier medieval period, the vocal music from the liturgical genre, predominantly Gregorian chant, was monophonic, using a single, unaccompanied vocal melody line.[17] Polyphonic vocal genres, which used multiple independent vocal melodies, began to develop during the high medieval era, becoming prevalent by the later 13th and early 14th century.

text: Renaissance music[edit]

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text: Many instruments originated during the Renaissance; others were variations of, or improvements upon, instruments that had existed previously. Some have survived to the present day; others have disappeared, only to be recreated in order to perform music of the period on authentic instruments. As in the modern day, instruments may be classified as brass, strings, percussion, and woodwind. Brass instruments in the Renaissance were traditionally played by professionals who were members of Guilds and they included the slide trumpet, the wooden cornet, the valveless trumpet and the sackbut. Stringed instruments included the viol, the harp-like lyre, the hurdy-gurdy, the cittern and the lute. Keyboard instruments with strings included the harpsichord and the virginals.[clarification needed] Percussion instruments include the triangle, the Jew's harp, the tambourine, the bells, the rumble-pot, and various kinds of drums. Woodwind instruments included the double reed shawm, the reed pipe, the bagpipe, the transverse flute and the recorder. Vocal music in the Renaissance is noted for the flourishing of an increasingly elaborate polyphonic style. The principal liturgical forms which endured throughout the entire Renaissance period were masses and motets, with some other developments towards the end, especially as composers of sacred music began to adopt secular forms (such as the madrigal) for their own designs. Towards the end of the period, the early dramatic precursors of opera such as monody, the madrigal comedy, and the intermedio are seen. Around 1597, Italian composer Jacopo Peri wrote Dafne, the first work to be called an opera today. He also composed Euridice, the first opera to have survived to the present day.

text: Baroque music[edit]

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text: Baroque instruments included some instruments from the earlier periods (e.g., the hurdy-gurdy and recorder) and a number of new instruments (e.g, the oboe, bassoon, cello, contrabass and fortepiano). Some instruments from previous eras fell into disuse, such as the shawm and the wooden cornet. The key Baroque instruments for strings included the violin, viol, viola, viola d'amore, cello, contrabass, lute, theorbo (which often played the basso continuo parts), mandolin, cittern, Baroque guitar, harp and hurdy-gurdy. Woodwinds included the Baroque flute, Baroque oboe, rackett, recorder and the bassoon. Brass instruments included the cornett, natural horn, Baroque trumpet, serpent and the trombone. Keyboard instruments included the clavichord, the harpsichord, the pipe organ, and, later in the period, the fortepiano (an early version of the piano). Percussion instruments included the timpani, snare drum, tambourine and the castanets.

text: One major difference between Baroque music and the classical era that followed it is that the types of instruments used in Baroque ensembles were much less standardized. Whereas a classical era string quartet consists almost exclusively of two violins, a viola and a cello, a Baroque or Classical-era group accompanying a soloist or opera could include one of several different types of keyboard instruments (e.g., pipe organ, harpsichord, or clavichord), additional stringed chordal instruments (e.g., a lute) and an unspecified number of bass instruments performing the basso continuo, including bowed strings, woodwinds and brass instruments (e.g., a cello, contrabass, viol, bassoon, serpent, etc.).

text: Vocal developments in the Baroque era included the development of opera types such as opera seria and opéra comique, and related forms such as oratorios and cantatas.[18][19]

text: Classical music[edit]

text: This section possibly contains original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations. Statements consisting only of original research should be removed. (April 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

text: The term "classical music" has two meanings: the broader meaning includes all Western art music from the Medieval era to the 2000s, and the specific meaning refers to the art music from the 1750s to the early 1820s—the period of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Joseph Haydn. This section is about the more specific meaning. Classical era musicians continued to use many of instruments from the Baroque era, such as the cello, contrabass, recorder, trombone, timpani, fortepiano (the precursor to the modern piano) and organ. While some Baroque instruments fell into disuse (e.g., the theorbo and rackett), many Baroque instruments were changed into the versions that are still in use today, such as the Baroque violin (which became the violin), the Baroque oboe (which became the oboe) and the Baroque trumpet, which transitioned to the regular valved trumpet. During the Classical era, the stringed instruments used in orchestra and chamber music such as string quartets were standardized as the four instruments which form the string section of the orchestra: the violin, viola, cello and double bass. Baroque-era stringed instruments such as fretted, bowed viols were phased out. Woodwinds included the basset clarinet, basset horn, clarinette d'amour, the Classical clarinet, the chalumeau, the flute, oboe and bassoon. Keyboard instruments included the clavichord and the fortepiano. While the harpsichord was still used in basso continuo accompaniment in the 1750s and 1760s, it fell out of use in the end of the century. Brass instruments included the buccin, the ophicleide (a replacement for the bass serpent, which was the precursor of the tuba) and the natural horn.

text: Romantic music[edit]

text: In the Romantic era, the modern piano, with a more powerful, sustained tone and a wider range took over from the more delicate-sounding fortepiano. In the orchestra, the existing Classical instruments and sections were retained (string section, woodwinds, brass and percussion), but these sections were typically expanded to make a fuller, bigger sound. For example, while a Baroque orchestra may have had two double bass players, a Romantic orchestra could have as many as ten. "As music grew more expressive, the standard orchestral palette just wasn't rich enough for many Romantic composers." [20] New woodwind instruments were added, such as the contrabassoon, bass clarinet and piccolo and new percussion instruments were added, including xylophones, snare drums, celestes (a bell-like keyboard instrument), bells, and triangles,[20] large orchestral harps, and even wind machines for sound effects. Saxophones appear in some scores from the late 19th century onwards. While appearing only as featured solo instruments in some works, for example Maurice Ravel's orchestration of Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition and Sergei Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances, the saxophone is included in other works, such as Ravel's Boléro, Sergei Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet Suites 1 and 2 and many other works as a member of the orchestral ensemble. The euphonium is featured in a few late Romantic and 20th-century works, usually playing parts marked "tenor tuba", including Gustav Holst's The Planets, and Richard Strauss's Ein Heldenleben.

text: The Wagner tuba, a modified member of the horn family, appears in Richard Wagner's cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen and several other works by Strauss, Béla Bartók, and others; it has a prominent role in Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 7 in E Major.[21] Cornets appear in Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake, Claude Debussy's La mer, and several orchestral works by Hector Berlioz.[clarification needed] Unless these instruments are played by members doubling on another instrument (for example, a trombone player changing to euphonium for a certain passage), orchestras will use freelance musicians to augment their regular rosters.[citation needed]

text: Modernist music[edit]

text: Modernism in music is a philosophical and aesthetic stance underlying the period of change and development in musical language that occurred from 1890 to 1930, a period of diverse reactions in challenging and reinterpreting older categories of music, innovations that lead to new ways of organizing and approaching harmonic, melodic, sonic, and rhythmic aspects of music, and changes in aesthetic worldviews in close relation to the larger identifiable period of modernism in the arts of the time. The operative word most associated with it is "innovation".[22] Its leading feature is a "linguistic plurality", which is to say that no single music genre ever assumed a dominant position.[23]

text: Contemporary classical music[edit]

text: Contemporary classical music is the period that came into prominence in the mid-1970s. It includes different variations of modernist, postmodern, neoromantic, and pluralist music.[24] However, the term may also be employed in a broader sense to refer to all post-1945 musical forms.[25]

text: Postmodern music[edit]

text: Postmodern music is a period of music that began around 1930[26][27]. It shares characteristics with postmodernist art – that is, art that comes after and reacts against modernism.

text: Post-postmodern instrumentation[edit]

text: Many instruments that in the 2010s are associated with popular music filled important roles in early music, such as bagpipes, theorbos, vihuelas, hurdy-gurdies (hand-cranked string instruments), accordions, alphorns, hydraulises, calliopes, sistrums, and some woodwind instruments such as tin whistles, panpipes, shawms and crumhorns. On the other hand, instruments such as the acoustic guitar, once associated mainly with popular music, gained prominence in classical music in the 19th and 20th centuries in the form of the classical guitar and banjo. While equal temperament gradually accepted as the dominant musical temperament during the 19th century, different historical temperaments are often used for music from earlier periods. For instance, music of the English Renaissance is often performed in meantone temperament. As well, while professional orchestras and pop bands all around the world have tuned to an A fixed at 440 Hz since the late 19th century, there was historically a great variety in the tuning pitch, as attested to in historical pipe organs that still exist.[28][unreliable source?]

text: Performance[edit]

text: Performers who have studied classical music extensively are said to be "classically trained". This training may come from private lessons from instrument or voice teachers or from completion of a formal program offered by a Conservatory, college or university, such as a Bachelor of Music or Master of Music degree (which includes individual lessons from professors). In classical music, "...extensive formal music education and training, often to postgraduate [Master's degree] level" is required.[29]

text: Performance of classical music repertoire requires a proficiency in sight-reading and ensemble playing, harmonic principles, strong ear training (to correct and adjust pitches by ear), knowledge of performance practice (e.g., Baroque ornamentation), and a familiarity with the style/musical idiom expected for a given composer or musical work (e.g., a Brahms symphony or a Mozart concerto).[citation needed]

text: Some "popular" genre musicians have had significant classical training, such as Billy Joel, Elton John, the Van Halen brothers, Randy Rhoads, Ritchie Blackmore, and Dream Theater members.[citation needed] Moreover, formal training is not unique to the classical genre. Many rock and pop musicians have completed degrees in commercial music programs such as those offered by the Berklee College of Music and many jazz musicians have completed degrees in music from universities with jazz programs, such as the Manhattan School of Music and McGill University.[citation needed]

text: Gender of performers[edit]

text: Historically, major professional orchestras have been mostly or entirely composed of musicians who are men. Some of the earliest cases of women being hired in professional orchestras was in the position of harpist. The Vienna Philharmonic, for example, did not accept women to permanent membership until 1997, far later than the other orchestras ranked among the world's top five by Gramophone in 2008.[30] The last major orchestra to appoint a woman to a permanent position was the Berlin Philharmonic.[31] As late as February 1996, the Vienna Philharmonic's principal flute, Dieter Flury, told Westdeutscher Rundfunk that accepting women would be "gambling with the emotional unity (emotionelle Geschlossenheit) that this organism currently has".[32] In April 1996, the orchestra's press secretary wrote that "compensating for the expected leaves of absence" of maternity leave would be a problem.[33]

text: In 1997, the Vienna Philharmonic was "facing protests during a [US] tour" by the National Organization for Women and the International Alliance for Women in Music. Finally, "after being held up to increasing ridicule even in socially conservative Austria, members of the orchestra gathered [on 28 February 1997] in an extraordinary meeting on the eve of their departure and agreed to admit a woman, Anna Lelkes, as harpist."[34] As of 2013, the orchestra has six female members; one of them, violinist Albena Danailova became one of the orchestra's concertmasters in 2008, the first woman to hold that position.[35] In 2012, women still made up just 6% of the orchestra's membership. VPO president Clemens Hellsberg said the VPO now uses completely screened blind auditions.[36]

text: In 2013, an article in Mother Jones stated that while "[m]any prestigious orchestras have significant female membership—women outnumber men in the New York Philharmonic's violin section—and several renowned ensembles, including the National Symphony Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony, and the Minnesota Symphony, are led by women violinists", the double bass, brass, and percussion sections of major orchestras "...are still predominantly male."[37] A 2014 BBC article stated that the "...introduction of 'blind' auditions, where a prospective instrumentalist performs behind a screen so that the judging panel can exercise no gender or racial prejudice, has seen the gender balance of traditionally male-dominated symphony orchestras gradually shift."[38]

text: Complexity[edit]

text: Works of classical repertoire often exhibit complexity in their use of orchestration, counterpoint, harmony, musical development, rhythm, phrasing, texture, and form. Whereas most popular styles are usually written in song form, classical music is noted for its development of highly sophisticated instrumental musical forms,[6] like the concerto, symphony and sonata. Classical music is also noted for its use of sophisticated vocal/instrumental forms, such as opera.[citation needed] In opera, vocal soloists and choirs perform staged dramatic works with an orchestra providing accompaniment. Longer instrumental works are often divided into self-contained pieces, called movements, often with contrasting characters or moods. For instance, symphonies written during the Classical period are usually divided into four movements: (1) an opening Allegro in sonata form, (2) a slow movement, (3) a minuet or scherzo (in a triple metre, such as 3/4), and (4) a final Allegro. These movements can then be further broken down into a hierarchy of smaller units: first sections, then periods, and finally phrases.

text: History[edit]

text:
Periods and eras of
Western classical music

Early

Medieval
c. 500–1400

Renaissance
c. 1400–1600

Common practice

Baroque
c. 1600–1750

Classical
c. 1730–1820

Romantic
c. 1780–1910

Modern and contemporary/postmodern

Impressionist
c. 1890–1925

Expressionist
c. 1908–1950

Modern

c. 1890–1975

20th century
(1901–2000)

Contemporary
Postmodern

c. 1930–present

21st century
(2001–present)

v
t
e

text: The major time divisions of classical music up to 1900 are the early music period, which includes Medieval (500–1400) and Renaissance (1400–1600) eras, and the Common practice period, which includes the Baroque (1600–1750), Classical (1750–1820) and Romantic (1810–1910) eras. Since 1900, classical periods have been reckoned more by calendar century than by particular stylistic movements that have become fragmented and difficult to define.[citation needed] The 20th century calendar period (1901–2000) includes most of the early modern musical era (1890–1930), the entire high modern (mid 20th-century), and the first 25 years of the contemporary (1945 or 1975–current) or postmodern musical era (1930–current). The 21st century has so far been characterized by a continuation of the contemporary/postmodern musical era.

text: The dates are generalizations, since the periods and eras overlap and the categories are somewhat arbitrary, to the point that some authorities reverse terminologies and refer to a common practice "era" comprising baroque, classical, and romantic "periods".[39] For example, the use of counterpoint and fugue, which is considered characteristic of the Baroque era (or period), was continued by Haydn, who is classified as typical of the Classical era. Beethoven, who is often described as a founder of the Romantic era, and Brahms, who is classified as Romantic, also used counterpoint and fugue, but other characteristics of their music[vague] define their era.

text: The prefix neo- is used to describe a 19th-, 20th-, or 21st-century composition written in the style of an earlier era, such as Classical or Romantic. Stravinsky's Pulcinella, for example, is a neoclassical composition because it is stylistically similar to works of the Baroque era.[clarification needed]

text: Roots[edit]

text: Burgh (2006), suggests that the roots of Western classical music ultimately lie in ancient Egyptian art music via cheironomy and the ancient Egyptian orchestra, which dates to 2695 BC.[40] The development of individual tones and scales was made by ancient Greeks such as Aristoxenus and Pythagoras.[41] Pythagoras created a tuning system and helped to codify musical notation. Ancient Greek instruments such as the aulos (a reed instrument) and the lyre (a stringed instrument similar to a small harp) eventually led to the modern-day instruments of a classical orchestra.[42] The antecedent to the early period was the era of ancient music before the fall of the Roman Empire (476 AD). Very little music survives from this time, most of it from ancient Greece.[citation needed]

text: Early period[edit]

text: The Medieval period includes music from after the fall of Rome to about 1400. Monophonic chant, also called plainsong or Gregorian chant, was the dominant form until about 1100.[43] Polyphonic (multi-voiced) music developed from monophonic chant throughout the late Middle Ages and into the Renaissance, including the more complex voicings of motets. The Renaissance era was from 1400 to 1600. It was characterized by greater use of instrumentation, multiple interweaving melodic lines, and the use of the first bass instruments. Social dancing became more widespread, so musical forms appropriate to accompanying dance began to standardize. It is in this time that the notation of music on a staff and other elements of musical notation began to take shape.[44] This invention made possible the separation of the composition of a piece of music from its transmission; without written music, transmission was oral, and subject to change every time it was transmitted. With a musical score, a work of music could be performed without the composer's presence.[43] The invention of the movable-type printing press in the 15th century had far-reaching consequences on the preservation and transmission of music.[45]

text: Typical stringed instruments of the early period include the harp, lute, vielle, and psaltery, while wind instruments included the flute family (including recorder), shawm (an early member of the oboe family), trumpet, and the bagpipes. Simple pipe organs existed, but were largely confined to churches, although there were portable varieties.[46] Later in the period, early versions of keyboard instruments like the clavichord and harpsichord began to appear. Stringed instruments such as the viol had emerged by the 16th century, as had a wider variety of brass and reed instruments. Printing enabled the standardization of descriptions and specifications of instruments, as well as instruction in their use.[47]

text: Notable Medieval composers include Hildegard of Bingen, Guillaume de Machaut, Léonin, Pérotin, Philippe de Vitry, Francesco Landini, and Johannes Ciconia.

text: Notable Renaissance composers include Josquin des Prez, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, John Dunstaple, Johannes Ockeghem, Orlande de Lassus, Guillaume Du Fay, Gilles Binchois, Thomas Tallis, William Byrd, Giovanni Gabrieli, Carlo Gesualdo, John Dowland, Jacob Obrecht, Adrian Willaert, Jacques Arcadelt, and Cipriano de Rore.

text: Common-practice period[edit]

text: The common practice period is usually defined as the era between the formation and the dissolution of the hegemony[citation needed] of common-practice tonality. The term usually spans roughly two-and-a-half centuries, encompassing the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic periods.

text: Baroque music[edit]

text: Baroque music is characterized by the use of complex tonal counterpoint and the use of a basso continuo, a continuous bass line. Music became more complex in comparison with the songs of earlier periods.[15] The beginnings of the sonata form took shape in the canzona, as did a more formalized notion of theme and variations. The tonalities of major and minor as means for managing dissonance and chromaticism in music took full shape.[48]

text: During the Baroque era, keyboard music played on the harpsichord and pipe organ became increasingly popular, and the violin family of stringed instruments took the form generally seen today. Opera as a staged musical drama began to differentiate itself from earlier musical and dramatic forms, and vocal forms like the cantata and oratorio became more common.[49] Vocalists began adding embellishments to melodies.[15] Instrumental ensembles began to distinguish and standardize by size[clarification needed], giving rise to the early orchestra for larger ensembles, with chamber music being written for smaller groups of instruments where parts are played by individual (instead of massed) instruments. The concerto as a vehicle for solo performance[clarification needed] accompanied by an orchestra became widespread.

text: The theories surrounding equal temperament began to be put in wider practice, especially as it enabled a wider range of chromatic possibilities in hard-to-tune keyboard instruments. Although Bach did not use equal temperament, as a modern piano is generally tuned, changes in the temperaments from the meantone system, common at the time, to various temperaments that made modulation between all keys musically acceptable, made possible Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier.[50]

text: Important composers of this era include Johann Sebastian Bach, Antonio Vivaldi, George Frideric Handel, Henry Purcell, Claudio Monteverdi, Domenico Scarlatti, Georg Philipp Telemann, Arcangelo Corelli, Alessandro Scarlatti, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Jean-Baptiste Lully, and Heinrich Schütz.

text: Classical-era (or -period) music[edit]

text: The Classical era, from about 1750 to 1820, established many of the norms of composition, presentation, and style, and was also when the piano became the predominant keyboard instrument. The basic forces required for an orchestra became somewhat standardized (although they would grow as the potential of a wider array of instruments was developed in the following centuries). Chamber music grew to include ensembles with as many as 8 to 10 performers for serenades. Opera continued to develop, with regional styles in Italy, France, and German-speaking lands. The opera buffa, a form of comic opera, rose in popularity. The symphony came into its own as a musical form, and the concerto was developed as a vehicle for displays of virtuoso playing skill. Orchestras no longer required a harpsichord (which had been part of the traditional continuo in the Baroque style), and were often led by the lead violinist (now called the concertmaster).[51]

text: Wind instruments became more refined in the Classical era. While double reeded instruments like the oboe and bassoon became somewhat standardized in the Baroque, the clarinet family of single reeds was not widely used until Mozart expanded its role in orchestral, chamber, and concerto settings.[52]

text: Major composers of this period include Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Joseph Haydn, Christoph Willibald Gluck, Johann Christian Bach, Luigi Boccherini, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Muzio Clementi, Antonio Salieri, and Johann Nepomuk Hummel.

text: Romantic-era music[edit]

text: The music of the Romantic era, from roughly the first decade of the 19th century to the early 20th century, was characterized by increased attention to an extended melodic line, as well as expressive and emotional elements, paralleling romanticism in other art forms. Musical forms began to break from the Classical era forms (even as those were being codified), with free-form pieces like nocturnes, fantasias, and preludes being written where accepted ideas about the exposition and development of themes were ignored or minimized.[53] The music became more chromatic, dissonant, and tonally colorful, with tensions (with respect to accepted norms of the older forms) about key signatures increasing.[54] The art song (or Lied) came to maturity in this era, as did the epic scales of grand opera, ultimately transcended by Richard Wagner's Ring cycle.[55]

text: In the 19th century, musical institutions emerged from the control of wealthy patrons, as composers and musicians could construct lives independent of the nobility. Increasing interest in music by the growing middle classes throughout western Europe spurred the creation of organizations for the teaching, performance, and preservation of music. The piano, which achieved its modern construction in this era (in part due to industrial advances in metallurgy) became widely popular with the middle class, whose demands for the instrument spurred a large number of piano builders. Many symphony orchestras date their founding to this era.[54] Some musicians and composers were the stars of the day; some, like Franz Liszt and Niccolò Paganini, fulfilled both roles.[56]

text: The family of instruments used, especially in orchestras, grew. A wider array of percussion instruments began to appear. Brass instruments took on larger roles, as the introduction of rotary valves made it possible for them to play a wider range of notes. The size of the orchestra (typically around 40 in the Classical era) grew to be over 100.[54] Gustav Mahler's 1906 Symphony No. 8, for example, has been performed with over 150 instrumentalists and choirs of over 400.[57]

text: European cultural ideas and institutions began to follow colonial expansion into other parts of the world. There was also a rise, especially toward the end of the era, of nationalism in music (echoing, in some cases, political sentiments of the time), as composers such as Edvard Grieg, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and Antonín Dvořák echoed traditional music of their homelands in their compositions.[58]

text: Prominent composers of this era include Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Frédéric Chopin, Hector Berlioz, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Felix Mendelssohn, Franz Liszt, Giuseppe Verdi, Richard Wagner, Johannes Brahms, and Johann Strauss II.

text: Prominent composers of the early 20th century include Igor Stravinsky, Claude Debussy, Dmitri Shostakovich, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Sergei Prokofiev, Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, Alban Berg, Aram Khachaturian, George Gershwin, Edvard Grieg, and Béla Bartók. Although composers of this time can be considered Romantic, usually their works are not in the style of the period.[clarification needed]

text: 20th and 21st centuries[edit]

text: Modern, high modern, post-modern, post-postmodern, or contemporary music[edit]

text: Encompassing a wide variety of post-Romantic styles composed through the year 2000, 20th-century classical music includes late romantic, impressionist, neoclassical, neoromantic, neomedieval, and postmodern styles of composition. Modernism (1890–1930) marked an era when many composers rejected certain values of the common practice period, such as traditional tonality, melody, instrumentation, and structure. The high-modern era saw the emergence of neo-classical and serial music. A few authorities have claimed high-modernism as the beginning of postmodern music from about 1930.[59][not in citation given][60][not in citation given] Others have more or less equated postmodern music with the "contemporary music" composed from the late 20th century through to the early 21st century.[61][62]

text: Women in classical music[edit]

text: Almost all of the composers who are described in music textbooks on classical music and whose works are widely performed as part of the standard concert repertoire are male composers, even though there has been a large number of women composers throughout the classical music period. Musicologist Marcia Citron has asked "[w]hy is music composed by women so marginal to the standard 'classical' repertoire?"[63] Citron "examines the practices and attitudes that have led to the exclusion of women composers from the received 'canon' of performed musical works." She argues that in the 1800s, women composers typically wrote art songs for performance in small recitals rather than symphonies intended for performance with an orchestra in a large hall, with the latter works being seen as the most important genre for composers; since women composers did not write many symphonies, they were deemed to be not notable as composers.[63] In the "...Concise Oxford History of Music, Clara S[c]humann is one of the only [sic] female composers mentioned."[64] Abbey Philips states that "[d]uring the 20th century the women who were composing/playing gained far less attention than their male counterparts."[64]

text: Timeline of composers[edit]

text: Significance of written notation[edit]

text: Literalist view of the significance of the score[edit]

text: While there are differences between particular performances of a classical work, a piece of classical music is generally held to transcend any interpretation of it. The use of musical notation is an effective method for transmitting classical music, since the written music contains the technical instructions for performing the work.[citation needed]

text: The written score, however, does not usually contain explicit instructions as to how to interpret the piece in terms of production or performance, apart from directions for dynamics, tempo and expression (to a certain extent). This is left to the discretion of the performers, who are guided by their personal experience and musical education, their knowledge of the work's idiom, their personal artistic tastes, and the accumulated body of historic performance practices.[citation needed]

text: Criticism of the literalist view[edit]

text: All critics express the opinion that it is only from the mid-19th century, and especially in the 20th century, that the score began to hold such a high significance.[citation needed] Previously, improvisation (in preludes, cadenzas and ornaments), rhythmic flexibility (e.g., tempo rubato), improvisatory deviation from the score and oral tradition of playing was integral to the style.[clarification needed] Classical musicians tend to use scores and the parts extracted from them to play music. Yet, even with notation providing the key elements of the music, there is considerable latitude in the performance of the works. Some of this latitude results from the inherent limitations of musical notation, though attempts to supplement traditional notation with signs and annotations indicating more subtle nuances tend to overwhelm and paralyse the performer.

text: Some quotes that highlight a criticism of overvaluing of the score:

text:
"... one of the most stubborn modern misconceptions concerning baroque music is that a metronomic regularity was intended" (Baroque Interpretation in Grove 5th edition by Robert Donington)
"Too many teachers, conditioned to 20th century ideas, teach Bach and other Baroque music exactly the wrong way. This leads to what musicologist Sol Babitz calls 'sewing machine Bach'."[clarification needed][65]
"... tendency to look alike, sound alike and think alike. The conservatories are at fault and they have been at fault for many years now. Any sensitive musician going around the World has noted the same thing. The conservatories, from Moscow and Leningrad to Juilliard, Curtis and Indiana, are producing a standardized product.
[...] clarity, undeviating rhythm, easy technique, 'musicianship'. I put the word musicianship in quotes, because as often as not, it is a false kind of musicianship—a musicianship that sees the tree and not the forest, that takes care of the detail but ignores the big picture; a musicianship that is tied to the printed note rather than to emotional meaning of a piece.
The fact remains that there is a dreadful uniformity today and also an appalling lack of knowledge about the culture and performance traditions of the past." ("Music Schools Turning out Robots?"[65] by Harold C. Schonberg)

tag: ul

text: Improvisation[edit]

text: This section is written like a personal reflection or opinion essay that states a Wikipedia editor's personal feelings about a topic. Please help improve it by rewriting it in an encyclopedic style. (July 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

text: Improvisation once played an important role in classical music. A remnant of this improvisatory tradition in classical music can be heard in the cadenza, a passage found mostly in concertos and solo works, designed to allow skilled performers to exhibit their virtuoso skills on the instrument. Traditionally this was improvised by the performer; however, it is often written for (or occasionally by) the performer beforehand. Improvisation is also an important aspect in authentic performances of operas of Baroque era and of bel canto (especially operas of Vincenzo Bellini), and is best exemplified by the da capo aria, a form by which famous singers typically perform variations of the thematic matter of the aria in the recapitulation section ('B section' / the 'da capo' part). An example is Beverly Sills' complex, albeit pre-written, variation of "Da tempeste il legno infranto" from Händel's Giulio Cesare.[citation needed]

text: Its[clarification needed] written transmission, along with the veneration bestowed on certain classical works, has led to the expectation that performers will play a work in a way that realizes in detail the original intentions of the composer. During the 19th century the details that composers put in their scores generally increased. Yet the opposite trend—admiration of performers for new "interpretations" of the composer's work—can be seen, and it is not unknown for a composer to praise a performer for achieving a better realization of the original intent than the composer was able to imagine. Thus, classical performers often achieve high reputations for their musicianship, even if they do not compose themselves. Generally however, it is the composers who are remembered more than the performers.

text: The primacy of the composer's written score has also led, today, to a relatively minor role played by improvisation in classical music, in sharp contrast to the practice of musicians who lived during the medieval, renaissance, baroque and early romantic eras. Improvisation in classical music performance was common during both the Baroque and early romantic eras, yet lessened strongly during the second half of the 20th century. During the classical era, Mozart and Beethoven often improvised the cadenzas to their piano concertos (and thereby encouraged others to do so), but for violin concertos they provided written cadenzas for use by other soloists.[citation needed] In opera, the practice of singing strictly by the score, i.e. come scritto, was famously propagated by soprano Maria Callas, who called this practice 'straitjacketing' and implied that it allows the intention of the composer to be understood better, especially during studying the music for the first time.[66]

text: Relationship to other music traditions[edit]

text: Popular music[edit]

text: Classical music has often incorporated elements or material from popular music of the composer's time. Examples include occasional music such as Brahms' use of student drinking songs in his Academic Festival Overture, genres exemplified by Kurt Weill's The Threepenny Opera, and the influence of jazz on early and mid-20th-century composers including Maurice Ravel, exemplified by the movement entitled "Blues" in his sonata for violin and piano.[67] Certain postmodern, minimalist and postminimalist classical composers acknowledge a debt to popular music.[68]

text: Numerous examples show influence in the opposite direction, including popular songs based on classical music, the use to which Pachelbel's Canon has been put since the 1970s, and the musical crossover phenomenon, where classical musicians have achieved success in the popular music arena.[69] In heavy metal, a number of lead guitarists (playing electric guitar) modeled their playing styles on Baroque or Classical era instrumental music, including Ritchie Blackmore and Randy Rhoads.

text: Folk music[edit]

text: Composers of classical music have often made use of folk music (music created by musicians who are commonly not classically trained, often from a purely oral tradition). Some composers, like Dvořák and Smetana,[70] have used folk themes to impart a nationalist flavor to their work, while others like Bartók have used specific themes lifted whole from their folk-music origins.[71]

text: Commercialization[edit]

text: Certain staples of classical music are often used commercially (either in advertising or in movie soundtracks). In television commercials, several passages have become clichéd, particularly the opening of Richard Strauss' Also sprach Zarathustra (made famous in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey) and the opening section "O Fortuna" of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana; other examples include the "Dies irae" from the Verdi Requiem, Edvard Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain King" from Peer Gynt, the opening bars of Beethoven's Symphony No. 5, Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" from Die Walküre, Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee", and excerpts of Aaron Copland's Rodeo.[citation needed] Several works from the Golden Age of Animation matched the action to classical music. Notable examples are Walt Disney's Fantasia, Tom and Jerry's Johann Mouse, and Warner Bros.' Rabbit of Seville and What's Opera, Doc?

text: Similarly, movies and television often revert to standard, clichéd excerpts of classical music to convey refinement or opulence: some of the most-often heard pieces in this category include Bach´s Cello Suite No. 1, Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik, Vivaldi's Four Seasons, Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain (as orchestrated by Rimsky-Korsakov), and Rossini's "William Tell Overture". The same passages are often used by telephone call centres to induce a sense of calm in customers waiting in a queue.[citation needed] Shawn Vancour argues that the commercialization of classical music in the early 20th century may have harmed the music industry through inadequate representation.[72]

text: Public domain[edit]

text:
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text: This section relies largely or entirely on a single source. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please help improve this article by introducing citations to additional sources. (September 2016)

text: Since the range of production of classical music is from the 14th century to 21st century, most of this music (14th to early 20th century) belongs to the public domain, mainly sheet music and tablatures. Some projects like Musopen and Open Goldberg Variations were created to produce musical audio files of high quality and release them into the public domain, most of them are available at the Internet Archive website.

text: The Open Goldberg Variations project released a braille format into the public domain that can be used to produce paper or electronic scores, Braille e-books, for blind people.[73]

text: Education[edit]

text: During the 1990s, several research papers and popular books wrote on what came to be called the "Mozart effect": an observed temporary, small elevation of scores on certain tests as a result of listening to Mozart's works. The approach has been popularized in a book by Don Campbell, and is based on an experiment published in Nature suggesting that listening to Mozart temporarily boosted students' IQ by 8 to 9 points.[74] This popularized version of the theory was expressed succinctly by the New York Times music columnist Alex Ross: "researchers... have determined that listening to Mozart actually makes you smarter."[75] Promoters marketed CDs claimed to induce the effect. Florida passed a law requiring toddlers in state-run schools to listen to classical music every day, and in 1998 the governor of Georgia budgeted $105,000 per year to provide every child born in Georgia with a tape or CD of classical music. One of the co-authors of the original studies of the Mozart effect commented "I don't think it can hurt. I'm all for exposing children to wonderful cultural experiences. But I do think the money could be better spent on music education programs."[76]

text: In 1996/97, a research study was conducted on a large population of middle age students in the Cherry Creek School District in Denver, Colorado, US. The study showed that students who actively listen to classical music before studying had higher academic scores. The research further indicated that students who listened to the music prior to an examination also had positively elevated achievement scores. Students who listened to rock-and-roll or Country music had moderately lower scores. The study further indicated that students who used classical music during the course of study had a significant leap in their academic performance; whereas, those who listened to other types of music had significantly lowered academic scores. The research was conducted over several schools within the Cherry Creek School District and was conducted through the University of Colorado. This study is reflective of several recent studies (i.e. Mike Manthei and Steve N. Kelly of the University of Nebraska at Omaha; Donald A. Hodges and Debra S. O'Connell of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro; etc.) and others[full citation needed] who had significant results through the discourse of their work.[77]


document_title: Public Provident Fund (India)

question_text: when can you withdraw money from ppf account

text: Public Provident Fund (India)

text: Eligibility[edit]

text: Individuals who are residents of India are eligible to open their account under the Public Provident Fund, and are entitled to tax-free return later.

text: Investment and returns[edit]

text: A minimum yearly deposit of Rs. 500 is required to open and maintain a PPF account. A PPF account holder can deposit a maximum of Rs 1.5 lacs in his/her PPF account (including those accounts where he is the guardian) per financial year. There must be a guardian for PPF accounts opened in the name of minor children. Parents can act as guardians in such PPF accounts of minor children. Any amount deposited in excess of Rs 1.5 lacs in a financial year won't earn any interest. The amount can be deposited in lump sum or in a maximum of 12 installments per year. However, this does not mean a single deposit once in a month.

text: The Ministry of Finance, Government of India announces the rate of interest for PPF account every quarter. The current interest rate effective from 1 January 2018 is 7.6% Per Annum' (compounded annually). Interest will be paid on 31 March every year. Interest is calculated on the lowest balance between the close of the fifth day and the last day of every month.

text: Interest rates[edit]

text:
Period
Interest Rate

2014 - March 2016
8.7%

tag: table

text:
Quarter
Interest Rate

April 2016 - June 2016[3]
8.1%

July 2016 - September 2016[4]
8.1%

October 2016 - December 2016[5]
8.0%

January 2017 - March 2017
8.0%

text:
Quarter
Interest Rate

April 2017 - June 2017[6]
7.9%

July 2017 - September 2017[7]
7.8%

October 2017 - December 2017
7.8%

January 2018 - March 2018
7.6%

text:
Quarter
Interest Rate

April 2018 - June 2018[8]
7.6%

text: Duration of scheme[edit]

text: Original duration is 15 years. Thereafter, on application by the subscriber, it can be extended for 1 or more blocks of 5 years each.

text: PPF maturity options[edit]

text: Subscriber has 3 options once the maturity period is over.[9]

text:
Complete withdrawal'
Extend the PPF account with no contribution – PPF account can be extended after the completion of 15 years, subscriber doesn’t need to put any amount after the maturity. This is the default option meaning if subscriber doesn't take any action within one year of his PPF account maturity this option activates automatically. Any amount can be withdrawn from the PPF account if the option of extension with no contribution is chosen. Only restriction is only one withdrawal is permitted in a financial year. Rest of the amount keeps earning interest.
Extend the PPF account with contribution - With this option subscriber can put money in his PPF account after extension. If subscriber wants to choose this option then he needs to submit Form H in the bank where he is having a PPF account within one year from the date of maturity (before the completion of 16 yrs in PPF). With this option subscriber can only withdraw maximum 60% of his PPF amount (amount which was there in the PPF account at the beginning of the extended period) within the entire 5 yrs block. Every year only a single withdrawal is permitted.

tag: ol

text: Loans[edit]

text: Loan facility available from 3rd financial year up to 5th financial year. The rate of interest charged on loan taken by the subscriber of a PPF account on or after 01.12.2011 shall be 2% more than the prevailing interest on PPF. However, the rate of interest of 1% more than PPF interest p.a. shall continue to be charged on the loans already taken or taken up to 30.11.2013.

text: Up to a maximum of 25 per cent of the balance at the end of the 2nd immediately preceding year would be allowed as loan. Such withdrawals are to be repaid within 36 months.

text: A second loan could be availed as long as you are within the 3rd and before the 6th year, and only if the first one is fully repaid. Also note that once you become eligible for withdrawals, no loans would be permitted. Inactive accounts or discontinued accounts are not eligible for loan.

text: Features[edit]

text: The public provident fund is established by the central government. One can voluntarily open an account with any nationalized bank,selected authorized private bank or post office. The account can be opened in the name of individuals including minor.

text: The minimum amount is Rs.500 which can be deposited. The rate of interest at present is 7.6% per annum, which is also tax-free. The entire balance can be withdrawn on maturity. Interest received is tax free. The maximum amount which can be deposited every year is Rs. 1,50,000 in an account at present. The interest earned on the PPF subscription is compounded annually. All the balance that accumulates over time is exempted from wealth tax. Moreover, it has low risk – risk attached is Government risk. PPF is available at post offices and banks.

text: Withdrawals from PPF account[edit]

text: There is a lock-in period of 15 years and the money can be withdrawn in full after its maturity period. However, pre-mature withdrawals can be made from the start of the seventh financial year. The maximum amount that can be withdrawn pre-maturely is equal to 50% of the amount that stood in the account at the end of 4th year preceding the year in which the amount is withdrawn or the end of the preceding year whichever is lower.

text: After 15 years of maturity, full PPF amount can be withdrawn and all is tax free, including the interest amount as well.

text: Nomination[edit]

text: Nomination facility is available in the name of one or more persons. The shares of nominees may also be defined by the subscriber.

text: PPF defaults and revival[edit]

text: If any contribution of minimum amount in any year is not invested, then the account will be deactivated. To activate the bearer needs to pay Rs.50 as penalty for each inactive year. He/she also needs to deposit Rs.500 each as each inactive year’s contribution.

text: In case death of account holder then the balance amount will be paid to his nominee or legal heir even before 15 years. Nominees or legal heirs are not eligible to continue the account of the deceased.

text: If balance amount in the account of a deceased is higher than Rs.1,50,000 then the nominee or legal heir has to prove the identity to claim the amount

text: Premature closure of PPF account[edit]

text: The Public Provident Fund (Amendment) Scheme, 2016 made changes in Paragraph 9, for sub-rule 3(C) of Public Provident Fund Scheme, 1968 to facilitate the premature closure of PPF Account.[10] Premature closure of PPF account is permitted after completion of 5 years for medical treatment of family members and for higher education of PPF account holder. However, premature closure comes with an interest rate penalty of 1%.

text: Transfer of account[edit]

text: The account can be transferred to other branches/ other banks or Post Offices and vice versa upon request by the subscriber. The service is free of charges.

text: Step 1 – Approach the bank or post office branch where the PPF account is held and ask for the form for making the transfer. The bank or post office will provide you with a form which is to be filled.

text: Step 2 – The existing bank will then forward the certified copy of the account, the account opening application, nomination form, and specimen signature. It will also forward the cheque/dd for the outstanding amount in the PPF account to the new bank at the branch specified by the customer.

text: Step 3 – Once your bank receives these documents, the bank will inform you and ask you to submit a new PPF account opening form along with the old PPF passbook. You can also provide nominations for this new account. You will also be required to submit the KYC documents.

text: Step 4 – If you hold an internet banking facility with your bank, after a few weeks, check that the transferred PPF account now shows up under the PPF account tab/link in your login. If that is not the case, inquire the local bank branch.

text: PPF tax concessions[edit]

text: Annual contributions qualify for tax deduction under Section 80C of income tax. The tax benefit is capped at Rs 1.5 lacs per financial year. Contributions to PPF accounts of the spouse and children are also eligible for tax deduction.

text: PPF falls under EEE (Exempt,Exempt,Exempt) tax basket. Contribution to PPF account is eligible for tax benefit under Section 80C of the Income Tax Act. Interest earned is exempt from income tax and maturity proceeds are also exempt from tax.


document_title: Land reform in Mexico

question_text: who was the mexican president who distributed land to the peasants in the 1930s

text: Land reform in Mexico

text: History of land tenure in Central Mexico[edit]

text: Land tenure in Mexico has over the long term seen the transfer of lands into the hands of private proprietors engaged in agricultural production for profit. But the social and economic problems that resulted from this concentration of ownership brought reformist solutions that attempted to reverse this trend. In the current era, there is a retreat from agrarian land reform and a return to consolidation of land holding of large enterprises.

text: Prehispanic era[edit]

text: The rich lands of central and southern Mexico were the home to dense, hierarchically organized, settled populations that produced agricultural surpluses, allowing the development of sectors that did not directly cultivate the soil. These populations lived in settlements and held land in common, although generally they worked individual plots. During the Aztec period, roughly 1450 to 1521, the Nahuas of central Mexico had names for civil categories of land, many of which persisted into the colonial era.[5] There were special lands attached to the office of ruler (tlatoani) called tlatocatlalli; land devoted to the support of temples, tecpantlalli, but also private lands of the nobility, pillalli. Lands owned by the calpulli, the local kin-based social organization, were calpullalli.[6][7] Most commoners held individual plots of land, often in scattered locations, which were worked by a family and rights passed to subsequent generations. A community member could lose those usufruct rights if they did not cultivate the land. A person could lose land as a result of gambling debts,[8] a type of alienation from which the inference can be drawn that land was private property.

text: It is important to note that there were lands classified as "purchased land" (in Nahuatl, tlalcohualli).[9] In the Texcoco area, there were prehispanic legal rules for land sales, indicating that transfers by sale were not a post-conquest innovation.[10] Local-level records in Nahuatl from the 16th century show that individuals and community members kept track of these categories, including purchased land, and often the previous owners of particular plots.[11][12]

text: Colonial era[edit]

text: When the Spanish took control of central Mexico in the early 16th century, they initially left intact existing indigenous land tenure, with the exception of the disappearance of lands devoted to the gods.[13] A 16th-century Spanish judge in New Spain, Alonso de Zorita, collected extensive information about the Nahuas in the Cuauhtinchan region, including land tenure.[14][15] Zorita notes there was a diversity of land tenure in central Mexico, so that if the information he gives for one place contradicts information in another it is due to that very diversity [16] Zorita, along with Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl, a member of the noble family that ruled Texcoco, and Franciscan Fray Juan de Torquemada are the most important sources for prehispanic and early colonial indigenous land tenure in central Mexico.[17]

text: In early colonial Mexico, many Spanish conquerors (and a few indigenous allies) received grants of labor and tribute from particular indigenous communities as rewards for services via an institution called encomienda. These grants did not include land, which in the immediate post-conquest era was not as important as the tribute and labor service that Indians could provide as a continuation from the prehispanic period. Spaniards were interested in appropriating products and labor from their grants, but they saw no need to acquire the land itself. The crown began to phase out the encomienda in the mid-16th century by limiting the number of times the grant could be inherited. At the same time, the indigenous population was decreasing due to epidemics and Spanish migration to Mexico created a demand for foodstuffs familiar to them, such as wheat rather than maize, European fruits, and animals such as cattle, sheep, and goats for meat and hides or wool. Spaniards began acquiring land and securing labor separate from the encomienda grants. This was the initial stage of the formation of Spanish landed estates.[18][19]

text: Spaniards bought land from individual Indians and from Indian communities; they also usurped Indians’ land; and they occupied land that was deemed "empty" (terrenos baldíos) and requested grants (mercedes) to acquire title to it. There is evidence that nobles sold common land to Spaniards, treating that land as private property.[20] Some Indians were alarmed at this transfer of land, and explicitly forbade sale of land to Spaniards.[21]

text: The Spanish crown was concerned about the material welfare of its indigenous vassals and in 1567 set aside an endowment of land adjacent to Indian towns that were legally held by the community, the fundo legal, initially 500 varas.[22][23] The legal framework for these entailed indigenous community lands was the establishment of settlements (designated pueblos de indios or merely pueblos) as legal entities in Spanish colonial law, with a framework for rule established with via the town council (cabildo).[24] Land traditionally held by pueblos was now transformed to entailed community lands.[25][26] There was not a unitary process of the creation of these lands, but a combination of claims based on occupation and use since time immemorial, grants, purchase, and a process of regularization of land titles via a process known as composición.[27]

text: To protect Indians' legal rights, the Spanish crown also set up the General Indian Court in 1590, where Indians and indigenous communities could litigate over property. Although the Juzgado de Naturales supposedly did not have jurisdiction in cases where Indians sought redress against Spaniards, an analysis of the actual cases shows that a high percentage of the court’s casework included such complaints.[28] For the Spanish crown, the court not only protected the interests of its Indian vassals, but it was also a way to rein in Spaniards who might seek greater autonomy from the crown.[29]

text: Indian communities experienced devastating population losses due to epidemics, which meant that there was for a period more land than individual Indians or Indian communities needed. The crown attempted to cluster remaining indigenous populations in new communities in a process known as congregacion or reducción, with mixed results. During this period Spaniards acquired land, often with no immediate damage to Indians’ access to land. In the 17th century, Indian populations began to recover, but the loss of land could not be reversed. Indian communities rented land to Spanish haciendas, which over time left those lands vulnerable to appropriation. There were crown regulations about sale or rental of Indian lands, with requirements for the public posting of the proposed transaction and an investigation as to whether the land on offer was, in fact, the property of the ones offering it.[30]

text: Since the crown held title to all vacant land in Central Mexico, it could grant title to whomever it chose. In theory, there was to be an investigation to see if there were claims on the property, with notice given to those in the vicinity of the proposed grant.[31] The Spanish crown granted mercedes to favored Spaniards, and in the case of the conqueror Hernán Cortés, created the entailment of the Marquesado del Valle de Oaxaca.

text: In the 17th century, there was a push to regularize land titles via the composición, in which for a fee paid to the crown clouded titles could be cleared, and indigenous communities had to prove title to land that they had held "since time immemorial," as the legal phrase goes.[32] This was the period when Spaniards began regularizing their titles via composición.[13]

text: Landless or land-poor Indians were often driven to sell their labor to Spanish landed estates, haciendas on a seasonal basis. Others took up residence on haciendas on a permanent basis. Others migrated to the cities or to other regions, such as the northern mining districts where labor was well paid. However, many indigenous communities continued to exist with the fundo legal held in common a guarantee of some access to land.

text: In the 18th century, the Spanish crown was concerned about concentration of land in the hands of a few in Spain and the lack of productiveness of those landed estates. Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos drafted the Informe para una ley Agraria ("A report for an Agrarian Law") published in 1795 for the Royal Society of Friends of the Country of Madrid ("es:Real Sociedad Económica Matritense de Amigos del País") calling for reform. He saw the need for disentailment of landed estates, sale of land owned by the Catholic Church and privatizing common lands as key to making agriculture more productive in Spain.[33] Barriers to productive use of land and a real estate market that would attract investors kept land scare and prices high and for investors was not a profitable enough enterprise to enter agriculture.[34] Jovellanos was influenced by Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations (1776), which asserted that the impetus for economic activity was self-interest.[35]

text: Jovellanos’s writings influenced (without attribution) a prominent cleric in independence-era New Spain, Manuel Abad y Queipo, who compiled copious data about the agrarian situation in the late 18th century and who conveyed it to Alexander von Humboldt. Humboldt incorporated it into his Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain,[36] an important text on economic and social conditions in New Spain around 1800. Abad y Queipo "fixed upon the inequitable distribution of property as the chief cause of New Spain’s social squalor and advocated ownership of land as the chief remedy."[36]

text: The crown did not undertake major land reform in New Spain, but it moved against the wealthy and influential Society of Jesus in its realms, expelling them in 1767. In Mexico, the Jesuits had created prosperous haciendas whose profits helped fund the Jesuits’ missions in northern Mexico and its colegios for elite American-born Spaniards. The most well-studied of the Jesuit haciendas in Mexico is that Santa Lucía.[37] With their expulsion, their estates were sold, mainly to private-land owning elites.[38] Although the Jesuits owned and ran large estates, in Mexico the more common pattern was for the Church to extend credit to private individuals of means for long-term real estate mortgages.[39] Small holders had little access to credit, which meant it was difficult for them to acquire property or expand their operations, thereby privileging large land owners over small.

text: The landed elite and the Catholic Church as an institution were closely connected financially. The church was the recipient of donations for pious works (obras pías) for particular charities as well as chantries (capellanías). Through the institution of the chantry, a family would lien income from a particular piece of property to pay a priest to say masses for the soul of the one endowing the funds. In many cases, families had sons who had become priests and the chantry became a source of income for the family member. At the turn of the 19th century the Spanish crown attempted to tap what it thought was the vast wealth of the church by demanding that those holding mortgages pay the principal as a lump sum immediately rather than incrementally over the long term. The Act of Consolidation in 1804 threatened to bring down the whole structure of credit to landed elites who were seldom in the position of enough liquidity. Bishop-elect of Michoacan Manuel Abad y Queipo protested the crown’s demands and drafted a lengthy memorial to the crown analyzing the situation. From the point of view of the landed elite, the crown’s demands were "a savage capital levy" which would "destroy the country’s credit system and drain the economy of its currency."[40] The availability of credit had enabled haciendas to increase in size, but they were not efficiently run in general, with much land not planted. Hacienda owners were reluctant to lease lands to Indians for fear that they would then claim land as part of the fundo legal for a newly established community.[41] Abad y Queipo concluded "The indivisibility of haciendas, the difficulty in managing them, the lack of property among the people, has produced and continues to produce deplorable effects for agriculture, for the population, and for the State in general."[42] One scholar has suggested that "Abad y Queipo is best regarded as the intellectual progenitor of Mexican Liberalism."[43] Mexican liberalism in mid-19th-century Reforma attacked the legal basis of corporate land ownership of the Roman Catholic Church in Mexico and indigenous communities, seeking these reforms to create a nation of small yeoman farmers. Once Mexico achieved independence in 1821, the paternalistic crown protections of the Indians institutionalized in the General Indian Court and the special status of Indians before the law ceased to exist, leaving the indigenous population and their lands vulnerable to those more powerful.

text: Insurgency for independence and agrarian violence 1810–21[edit]

text: The outbreak of the insurgency in September 1810 led by secular cleric Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla was joined by Indians and castas in huge numbers in the commercial agricultural region of the Bajío. The Bajío did not have an established sedentary indigenous population prior to the arrival of the Spaniards even though the area had fertile soils. Once the Spanish pushed fierce northern indigenous from the region, Spaniards created towns and commercial agricultural enterprises that were cultivated by workers who had no rights to land via indigenous communities. Workers were entirely dependent on the haciendas for employment and sustenance.[44] When Hidalgo denounced bad government to his parishioners, (in what is known as the Grito de Dolores ), he quickly gained a following, which then expanded to tens of thousands.[45]

text: The Spanish crown had not seen such a challenge from below during its nearly 300 years of colonial rule. Most rural protests lasted about a day, had local grievances, and were resolved quickly often in the colonial courts.[46] Hidalgo’s political call for a rising against bad government during the period when Napoleon’s forces controlled the Iberian peninsula and Spain’s Bourbon monarch had been forced to abdicate in favor of Joseph Bonaparte meant that there was a crisis of authority and legitimacy in the Spanish empire, touching off the Spanish American wars of independence.

text: Until Hidalgo's revolt, there had been no large mobilization in New Spain. It has been argued that the perception that the ruling elites were divided in 1810, embodied in the authority figure of a Spanish priest denouncing bad government, gave the masses in the Bajío the idea that violent rebellion might succeed in changing their circumstances for the better.[47] Those following Hidalgo’s call went from town to town in the Bajío, looting and sacking haciendas in their path. Hacendados did not resist, but watched the destruction unfold, since they had no means to effectively suppress it. Hidalgo had hoped to gain the support of creole elites for the cause of independence and he tried to prevent attacks on haciendas owned by potential supporters, but the mob made no distinction between Iberian-born Spaniards’ estates and those of American-born Spaniards. Any support those creole estate owners might have for independence disappeared as the mob destroyed their property. Although for the largely landless peasants of the Bajío inequality of land ownership fueled their violence, Hidalgo himself did not have an economic program of land reform. Only after Hidalgo’s defeat on the march to Mexico City did he issue a proclamation to return lands rented by villages to their residents.[48]

text: Hidalgo appeal to indigenous communities in central Mexico to join his movement, but they did not. It is argued that the crown’s protection of indigenous communities’ rights and lands made them loyal to the regime and that the symbiotic relationship between indigenous communities and haciendas created a strong economic incentive to preserve the existing relationships. In central Mexico, loss of land was incremental so that there was no perception that the crown or the haciendas were the agents of the difficulties of the indigenous.[49] Although the Hidalgo revolt showed the extent of mass discontent among some rural populations, it was a short-lived regional revolt that did not expand beyond the Bajío.

text: More successful in demonstrating that agrarian violence could achieve gains for peasants was the guerrilla warfare that continued after the failure of the Hidalgo revolt and the execution of its leaders. Rather than a massed group of men attempting to achieve a quick and decisive victory pitted against the small but effective royal army, guerrilla warfare waged over time undermined the security and stability of the colonial regime.[50] The survival of guerrilla movements was dependent on support from surrounding villages and the continuing violence undermined the local economies, however, they did not formulate an ideology of agrarian reform.

text: Hidalgo did not formulate a program of land reform, although the inequality of land ownership was at the core of the Bajío peasants’ economic situation. The political plan of secular priest José María Morelos likewise did not revolve around land reform, nor did the Plan de Iguala of Agustín de Iturbide. But the alliance that former royalist officer Iturbide with guerrilla leader Vicente Guerrero to create the Army of the Three Guarantees that bought about Mexican independence in September 1821 is rooted in the political force that agrarian guerrillas exerted. The agrarian violence of the independence era was the start of more than a century of peasant struggle.

text: Post-independence era, 1821–present[edit]

text: Liberal reform and the 1856 Lerdo Law[edit]

text: During the Reform War, a reform instituted by the liberals who came to power following the ouster of Antonio López de Santa Anna in 1854 was aimed at restructuring the country on liberal principles. Initially a series of individual laws were passed, one of which dealt with land tenure and was named after the Finance Minister, Miguel Lerdo de Tejada.

text: The lerdo law (Ley Lerdo) empowered the Mexican state to force the sale of corporately held property, specifically those of the Roman Catholic Church in Mexico and the lands held by indigenous communities. The Lerdo Law did not directly expropriate ecclesiastical property or peasant communities but were to be sold to those renting the properties and the price to be amortized over 20 years. Properties not being rented or claimed could be auctioned. The church and indigenous communities were to receive the proceeds of the sale and the state would receive a transaction tax payment.[51] Not all church land was confiscated; however, land not used for specific religious purposes was sold to private individuals.[52]

text: This law changed the nature of land ownership allowing more individuals to own land, rather than institutions.

text: One of the aims of the reform government was to develop the economy by returning to productive cultivation the underutilized lands of the Church and the municipal communities (Indian commons), which required the distribution of these lands to small owners. This was to be accomplished through the provisions of Ley Lerdo that prohibited ownership of land by the Church and the municipalities.[53] The reform government also financed its war effort by seizing and selling church property and other large estates.

text: The aim of the Lerdo Law with Indian corporate land was to transform Indian peasants pursuing subsistence agriculture into Mexican yeoman farmers. This did not happen. Most Indian land was acquired by large estates, which had the means to purchase it and made Indians even further dependent on landed estates.[54]

text: Land tenure and calls for land reform during the Porfiriato[edit]

text: During the presidency of liberal general Porfirio Díaz, the situation of landless Mexicans became increasingly worse, since the economic boom of the late 19th century meant that haciendas expanded and actively utilized more of its land, displacing squatters who were not a problem when land was not needed. By the end of the Porfiriato, virtually all (95%) of villages lost their lands.[55][56] In Morelos, the expansion of sugar plantations triggered peasant protests against the Díaz regime and were a major factor in the outbreak and outcomes of the Mexican Revolution. There was resistance in Michoacán.[57]

text: In 1906, the Liberal Party of Mexico wrote a program of specific demands, many of which were incorporated into the Constitution of 1917. Leftist Ricardo Flores Magón was president of the PLM and his brother Enrique Flores Magón was treasurer. Two demands that were adopted were (Point 34) that landowners needed to make their land productive or risk confiscation by the state. (Point 35) demands that "The Government will grant land to anyone who solicits it, without any conditions other than that the land be used for agricultural production and not be sold. The maximum amount of land that the Government may allot to one person will be fixed."[58]

text: Some historical studies of land tenure and attempts at land reform remain important for understanding the issue, although written in the first half of the 20th century. In particular, George McBride's The Land Systems of Mexico,[59] Helen Phipps's "Some aspects of the agrarian question in Mexico: A historical study,",[60] Frank Tannenbaum's The Mexican Agrarian Revolution,[61] Eyler N. Simpson's The Ejido: Mexico's Way Out[62] and Nathan Whetten's Rural Mexico.[63]

text: A key influence on agrarian land reform in revolutionary Mexico was of Andrés Molina Enríquez, who is considered the intellectual father of Article 27 of the 1917 Constitution. His 1909 book, Los Grandes Problemas Nacionales (The Great National Problems) laid out his analysis of Mexico’s unequal land tenure system and his vision of land reform.[64] On his mother’s side Molina Enríquez had come from a prominent, politically well-connected, land-owning family, but his father’s side was from a far more modest background and he himself had modest circumstances. For nine years in the late 19th century, Molina Enríquez was a notary in Mexico State, where he observed first-hand how the legal system in Porfirian Mexico was slanted in favor of large estate owners, as he dealt with large estate owners (hacendados), small holders (rancheros), and peasants who were buying, transferring, or titling land.[65] In his observations, it was not the large estates or the subsistence peasants that produced the largest amount of maize in the region, but the rancheros and considered the hacendado group "inherently evil".[66] In his views on the need for land reform in Mexico, he advocated for the increase in the ranchero group.[67]

text: In The Great National Problems, Molina Enríquez concluded that the Porfirio Díaz regime had promoted the growth of large haciendas although they were not as productive as small holdings. Citing his nearly decade long tenure as a notary, his claims were well-founded that haciendas were vastly under-assessed for tax purposes and that small holders were disadvantaged against the wealth and political connections of large estate owners. Since title transfers of property required payment of fees and that the fee was high enough to negatively affect small holders but not large. In addition, the local tax on title transfers was based on a property’s assessment, so in a similar fashion, small holders paid a higher percentage than large holders who had ample means to pay such taxes.[68] Large estates often occupied more land than they actually held title to, counting on their size and clout to survive challenges by those on whom they infringed.[69] A great number of individual small holders had only imperfect title to their land, some no title at all, so that Díaz’s requirement that land be properly titled or be subject to appropriation under the "vacant lands" law (terrenos baldíos) meant that they were at risk for losing their land. Indian pueblos also lost their land, but the two processes of land loss were not one and the same.[70]

text: Land loss accelerated for small holders during the Porfiriato[71] as well as indigenous communities.[72] Small holders were further disadvantaged in that they could not get bank loans for their enterprises since the amounts were not worth the expense to the bank of assessing the property.[73] Molina Enríquez’s work published just prior to the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution had a tremendous impact on the legal framework on land tenure that was codified in Article 27 of the Mexican Constitution of 1917. Peasant mobilization during the Revolution brought about land reform, but the intellectual and legal framework in how it was accomplished is extremely important.

text: Land reform from 1910 to 1934[edit]

text: In 1914, Constitutionalist generals Alvaro Obregón and Pancho Villa called upon Venustiano Carranza, the political leader of the northern opposition to the government of Victoriano Huerta, to form a policy of land distribution.[74] One of Carranza's principal aides, Luis Cabrera Lobato drafted the Agrarian Decree of January 1, 1915, which promised to provide land for those in need of it.[74] During the Álvaro Obregón presidency (1920 - 1924), Mexico began to concentrate on land reform. Agrarian reform was a revolutionary goal for land redistribution as part of a process of nationalization and "Mexicanization". Land distribution began almost immediately and affected both foreign and large domestic land owners (hacendados). The process was very slow, however. Between 1915 and 1928, 53,000 square kilometres was distributed to over 500,000 recipients in some 1500 communities. By 1930, ejidal (communal land holdings) constituted only 6.3% of national agricultural property (by area) or 9.4% by value.

text: The revolution reversed the Porfirian trend towards land concentration and set in motion a long process of agrarian mobilization. The power and legitimacy of the landlord class, which had underpinned Porfirian rule, never recovered. The radical and egalitarian sentiments produced by the revolution had made landlord rule of the old kind impossible.

text: Cardenista land reform 1934 to 1940[edit]

text: President Lázaro Cárdenas passed the 1934 Agrarian Code and accelerated the pace of land reform. He helped redistribute 45,000,000 acres (180,000 km2) of land, 4,000,000 acres (16,000 km2) of which were expropriated from American owned agricultural property.[75] This caused conflict between Mexico and the United States. Cárdenas employed tactics of noncompliance and deception to gain leverage in this international dispute.[75]

text: Agrarian reform had come close to extinction in the early 1930s. The first few years of the Cárdenas' reform were marked by high food prices, falling wages, high inflation, and low agricultural yields.[76] In 1935 land reform began sweeping across the country in the periphery and core of commercial agriculture.[77] The Cárdenas alliance with peasant groups was awarded by the destruction of the hacienda system. Cárdenas distributed more land than all his revolutionary predecessors put together, a 400% increase. The land reform justified itself in terms of productivity; average agricultural production during the three-year period from 1939 to 1941 was higher than it had been at any time since the beginning of the revolution.[78]

text: Step back 1940 to 1970[edit]

text: Starting with the government of Miguel Alemán (1946–52), land reform steps made in previous governments were rolled back. Alemán's government allowed entrepreneurs to rent peasant land. This created phenomenon known as "neolatifundismo," where land owners build up large-scale private farms on the basis of controlling land which remains ejidal but is not cultivated by the peasants to whom it is assigned.

text: 1970 and statization[edit]

text: In 1970, President Luis Echeverría began his term by declaring land reform dead. In the face of peasant revolt, he was forced to backtrack, and embarked on the biggest land reform program since Cárdenas. Echeverría legalized take-overs of huge foreign-owned private farms, which were turned into new collective ejidos.

text: Land reform from 1991 to present[edit]

text: In 1988, President Carlos Salinas de Gortari was elected. In December 1991, he amended Article 27 of the Constitution, making it legal to sell ejido land and allow peasants to put up their land as collateral for a loan.

text: Further reading[edit]

text:
Bazant, Jan. The Alienation of Church Wealth in Mexico. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press 1971.
Harvey, Neil. Rebellion in Chiapas: Rural Reforms, Campesino Radicalism and the Limits of Salinismo. La Jolla: University of California, San Diego 1994.
Historia de la cuestión agraria mexicana. 9 vols. Mexico City: Siglo XXI, 1988.
Holden, R.H. Mexico and the Survey of Public Lands: the Management of Modernization, 1876 - 1911. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press 1993.
Katz, Friedrich. "Mexico: Restored Republic and Porfiriato, 1867 - 1910," in The Cambridge History of Latin America: vol. 5, edited by Leslie Bethell. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press 1986.
Katz, Friedrich, ed. Riot, Rebellion, and Revolution: Rural Conflict in Mexico. Princeton: Princeton University Press 1988.
Kroeber, Clifton B. Man, Land, and Water: Mexico's Farmlands Irrigation Policies, 1885 - 1911. Berkeley: University of California Press 1983.
Lira, Andrés, Comunidades indígenas frente a la Ciudad de México. Zamora: El Colegio de Michoacán, 1983.
Markiewicz, Dana. The Mexican Revolution and the Limits of Agrarian Reform. Boulder: Lynne Rienner 1993.
Mejía Fernández, Miguel. Política agraria en México en el siglo XIX. Mexico City: Siglo XXI 1979.
Miller, Simon. Landlords and Haciendas in Modernizing Mexico. Amsterdam: CEDLA 1995.
Powell, T.G. El liberalismo y el campesinado en el centro de México, 1850 - 1876. Mexico City: Secretaría de Educación Pública 1974.
Randall, Laura, ed. Reforming Mexico's Agrarian Reform. Armonk NY: M.E. Sharpe 1996.
Sanderson, Susan Walsh. Land Reform in Mexico, 1910 - 1980. Orlando FL: Academic Press 1984.
Silva Herzog, Jesús. El agrarismo mexicano y la reforma agraria: exposición y critica. Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1959. 2nd. edition 1964.
Simpson, Eyler Newton. The Ejido: Mexico's Way Out. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press 1937.
Stevens, D.F. "Agrarian Policy and Instability in Porfirian Mexico," The Americas 39:2(1982).
Tutino, John. From Insurrection to Revolution in Mexico. Princeton: Princeton University Press 1986.
Wasserman, Mark. Capitalists, Caciques, and Revolution: the Native Elite and Foreign Enterprise in Chihuahua, Mexico 1854 - 1911. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press 1984.
Wolfe, Mikael D. Watering the Revolution: An Environmental and Technological History of Agrarian Reform in Mexico. Durham: Duke University Press 2017.
Wood, Stephanie, "The Fundo Legal or lands Por Razón de Pueblo: New Evidence from Central New Spain." In The Indian Community of Colonial Mexico: Fifteen Essays on Land Tenure, Corporate Organization, Ideology and Village Politics. Arij Ouweneel and Simon Miller, eds. pp. 117-29. Amsterdam: CEDLA 1990


document_title: Soil salinity

question_text: describe how soil damage due to salinity could be reduced

text: Soil salinity

text: Natural occurrence[edit]

text:
Salts are a natural component in soils and water. The ions responsible for salination are: Na+, K+, Ca2+, Mg2+ and Cl−.
As the Na+ (sodium) predominates, soils can become sodic. Sodic soils present particular challenges because they tend to have very poor structure which limits or prevents water infiltration and drainage.

text: Over long periods of time, as soil minerals weather and release salts, these salts are flushed or leached out of the soil by drainage water in areas with sufficient precipitation. In addition to mineral weathering, salts are also deposited via dust and precipitation. In dry regions salts may accumulate, leading to naturally saline soils. This is the case, for example, in large parts of Australia. Human practices can increase the salinity of soils by the addition of salts in irrigation water. Proper irrigation management can prevent salt accumulation by providing adequate drainage water to leach added salts from the soil. Disrupting drainage patterns that provide leaching can also result in salt accumulations. An example of this occurred in Egypt in 1970 when the Aswan High Dam was built. The change in the level of ground water before the construction had enabled soil erosion, which led to high concentration of salts in the water table. After the construction, the continuous high level of the water table led to the salination of the arable land.

text: Dry land salinity[edit]

text: Salinity in drylands can occur when the water table is between two and three metres from the surface of the soil. The salts from the groundwater are raised by capillary action to the surface of the soil. This occurs when groundwater is saline (which is true in many areas), and is favored by land use practices allowing more rainwater to enter the aquifer than it could accommodate. For example, the clearing of trees for agriculture is a major reason for dryland salinity in some areas, since deep rooting of trees has been replaced by shallow rooting of annual crops.

text: Salinity due to irrigation[edit]

text: Salinity from irrigation can occur over time wherever irrigation occurs, since almost all water (even natural rainfall) contains some dissolved salts.[2] When the plants use the water, the salts are left behind in the soil and eventually begin to accumulate. Since soil salinity makes it more difficult for plants to absorb soil moisture, these salts must be leached out of the plant root zone by applying additional water. This water in excess of plant needs is called the leaching fraction. Salination from irrigation water is also greatly increased by poor drainage and use of saline water for irrigating agricultural crops.

text: Salinity in urban areas often results from the combination of irrigation and groundwater processes. Irrigation is also now common in cities (gardens and recreation areas).

text: Consequences of salinity[edit]

text: The consequences of salinity are

text:
detrimental effects on plant growth and yield
damage to infrastructure (roads, bricks, corrosion of pipes and cables)
reduction of water quality for users, sedimentation problems
soil erosion ultimately, when crops are too strongly affected by the amounts of salts.

text: Salinity is an important land degradation problem. Soil salinity can be reduced by leaching soluble salts out of soil with excess irrigation water. Soil salinity control involves watertable control and flushing in combination with tile drainage or another form of subsurface drainage.[3][4] A comprehensive treatment of soil salinity is available from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.[5]

text: Salt tolerance of crops[edit]

text: High levels of soil salinity can be tolerated if salt-tolerant plants are grown. Sensitive crops lose their vigor already in slightly saline soils, most crops are negatively affected by (moderately) saline soils, and only salinity resistant crops thrive in severely saline soils. The University of Wyoming [6] and the Government of Alberta [7] report data on the salt tolerance of plants.

text: Field data, under farmers' conditions, in irrigated lands are scarce, especially in developing countries. However, some on farm surveys were made in Egypt,[8] India,[9] and Pakistan.[10] Some examples are shown in the following gallery with crops arranged from sensitive to very tolerant.[11].

text:
Graphs of crop yield and soil salinity in farmers' fields ordered by increasing salt tolerance.

Fig. 1. Berseem (clover), cultivated in Egypt's Nile Delta is a salt sensitive crop and tolerates an ECe value up to 2.4 dS/m whereafter yields start to decline.

Fig. 2. Wheat grown in Sampla, Haryana, India is slightly sensitive tolerating an ECe value of 4.9 dS/m.

Fig. 3. The field measurements in wheat fields in Gohana, Haryana, India, showed a higher tolerance level of ECe = 7.1 dS/m.
(The Egyptian wheat, not shown here, exhibited a tolerance point of 7.8 dS/m).

Fig. 4. The cotton grown in the Nile Delta can be called salt just tolerant with a critical ECe value of 8.0 dS/m. However, due to scarcity of data beyond 8 dS/m, the maximum tolerance level cannot be precisely determined and may actually be higher than that.

Fig. 5. Sorghum from Khairpur, Pakistan is quite tolerant, it grows well up to ECe = 10.5 dS/m

Fig. 6. Cotton from Khairpur, Pakistan is very tolerant, it grows well up to ECe = 15.5 dS/m

text: Regions affected[edit]

text: From the FAO/UNESCO Soil Map of the World the following salinised areas can be derived.[12]

text:
Region
Area (106 ha)

Africa
69.5

Near and Middle East
53.1

Asia and Far East
19.5

Latin America
59.4

Australia
84.7

North America
16.0

Europe
20.7