Classical Flashcards
The Classical Era
• 1730-1800
• Main Composers: Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven
• Pre-Classical
• High or Mature Classical
o Engages the listener – Pulls you in
o Winds get independent role
o Rejection of the Baroque style
• Allowed the Symphony to flourish
o Helped with the birth of the middle class
• Demand for professional musicians
• Creation of Music Societies
o 1725: Concert Spirituel
• Helped do away with the patronage system
• Taking place in theatres -> Especially in Vienna
o Against the law for Operas on certain days
• No law against public concerts
The Enlightenment
• Strong interest in science, the way nature functioned and rationale thought
• Less church oriented view of the world – reason dominates over faith
• Freedom of the press – public opinions sphere
• Under the law – men equal
• Birth of the Middle Class
o Place in society based on own worth and how it was obtained
• Ends as a result of French Revolution
Rococo Art and Architecture
- Classical
- No question about what the subject is
- Sense of action disappears
- Style is light, delicate, pleasure, loveable
- Background images do not draw away from the center
- Very detailed -> folds in clothing, frilly stuff, ornamented, decorated
- In music -> gets brought out in Stil Galant
Neoclassical Art and Architecture
• Classical
• Return to classical ancient Greek and Roman designs, especially architecture
• Result fo Herculaneum being discovered from being covered in Volcanic Ash
• People excited about discoveries
o Art begins to focus on Greek and Roman subject matter
• People just sitting, wearing classic Greek and Roman attire
• Artist leave a lot of blank space -> focus on the subject without confusion
Stil Galant
- Galant Style
- Homophonic style with frequent cadenzas
- Light texture
- Begins in France -> spreads out
- Melody -> significant ornamentiation
- Accompaniment -> Simple
- Multiple emotions
- Longer, more in-depth, better organized
- Francis Couperin
Empfindsamer Stil
Relationship to Stil Galant • Classical • North German Sensitive style • Dialect of Galant o Surprise harmony o Chromaticism o Speech-like melodies • Direct representation of emotion • Vocal melody -> Simplistic, pure, heartfelt • Appoggiaturas, vast dynamic contrast • Keyboard -> intricate but refined o Ornamental o Complex rhythms • C.P.E. Bach
The Symphony
• Classical
• Origins in Italian Opera Overture
o Precursor to the symphony
o Overture begins to appear as an independent work on programs
• Early symphonies only have a Three movement Form
• 1740’s Centers of Symphony Composition
o Vienna: Haydn
o Mannheim: Johann Stamitz
o Berlin: C.P.E. Bach
• Large work for orchestra
• Contains 4 mvts
o I – Fast, In sonata form
o II – Slow, ABA, Sonata, theme/variations, etc
o III- Fast, Minuet & Trio
o IV – Fast, Sonata form, Rondo Form, or Both
• 4 Mvt work also referred to as a symphony cycle
• Concerts started with 1st mvt -> Grand music, started the concert loud
• No vocalist -> allowed the composer to show-off
• Originally 3 mvts -> 4th added to provide balance
o 4th mvt becomes the finale -> match the tempo and (maybe) the form of the 1st mvt.
Minuet and Trio
- 3rd movement of a symphony
- Int triple meter
- Combines 2 binary minuets into single work ABA
- A section – Minuet
- B section – Trio
- Second A section is a shortened version of the first
- Minuet based on Baroque Minuet
- When the trio is presented -> significant texture change
Manheim
• Center for symphonic composition
• Johann Stamitz – Best orchestra director of the time
o Employed the best musicians
o Extremely virtuosic performances
o Major use of dynamics
• Softest softs and loudest ff
• Manheim, Germany -> became well-known throughout Europe
Sonata Form
Themes, Keys, sections • Exposition o P , T, MC, S, EEC • Development o 2nd theme is broken into short motives, modulates all over, but returns to tonic by the end • Recapitulation o P, T, MC, S, ESC • Coda: 1st theme material
Classical Concerto
• Dbl Exposition
• Long Exposition (Ritornelo – Orchestra only) followed by Soloist exposition
• Function of the Dbl Expo
o Presents the themes the soloist will play
• Cadenza
o Links the recapitulation to the coda – Features soloist virtuosity
• Designed to be dramatic -> Soloist is center of attention
• Rise of traveling virtuoso
• Three mvts: I- Fast, II – Slow, III – Fast
• Forms
o I: Combination of Sonata & Ritornello Form
• Double Exposition, Development, Recapitulation, Coda
o II: Any Form
o III: Fast – Must have a refrain after all new material
Traveling Virtuosos (“Cult of Virtuoso”)
• Classical
• Music Celebrities
o i.e. Franz Liszt, Clara Schumann
Franz Joseph Haydn
• • Classical
• 1732-1809
• Hailed as the greatest composer alive in his time
• Patronage system: 1761 Worked for the Esterhazy family (Hungarian Prince)
o Worked for the Esterhazy family for the rest of his life
o Spent a short time in London – London Symphonies
• Symphony No. 92 “Oxford Symphony” Performed when he received an honorary doctorate from Oxford University
• Became friends with Mozart
• 104 symphonies, 68 String Quartets
Wolfgang Amadeaus Mozart
- Prolific Composer
- Age 6 to 35 (died in prime of life -fever)
- Works epitomize the elements of the Classical tradition
- Born in Salzburg Austria
- Child prodigy
- By age 7 he Could harmonize after 1 hearing, improvise variations on any tune handed to him
- Buried in a Paupers grave - unknown where to this day
- Compositions number near 600
- Opera, masses, requiem, symphonies, piano concertos, string quartets, etc
String Quartet (Changes under Haydn)
X
Public Concerts
Impresarios
• Birthed the middle class (Enlightenment)
• Professional performers were demanded
• Development of Music Societies in Cities
o 1725 Concert Spirituel (Society)
• Decline of the patronage system
• Concerts take place in theatres
• Vienna
o Had many theatres but could not perform opera in theaters because of Royalty law but law did not prohibit public concerts
Comic Opera in the Classical Era
• Less Lofty -> more realistic subject matter
• Uses “normal” people -> more lifelike, more comic
• More unison passages
• Less complex forms
• Shorter melodies, more repeated text
• Scene: Develops in the finale
o Series of arias without recitatives
o Aria not just about reflection -> action can continue
o One ensemble after another
• For the middle class
Opera Buffa
• Comic opera -> About Pleasure • Begins in Italy -> sung in Italian • Sung all-through • For aristocracy • In Italian regardless of where it is composed • Middle Class Comic Opera o Made fun of Opera Seria • Ballad Opera -> US/Britain • Singspiel -> Germany/Austria • Opera Comique _> France
Opera Seria in the Classical Era
-serious Italian opera with no comic characters or scenes
- standard form came from poet Metastasio
Focus on the singer
5 Part da capo form
Pietro Metastasio
• Classical • Poet • Composed with legendary figures • 27 opera serias (set over 1000 x’s) • Everything had similarities • Captures elements of the times • Metastasian Opera’s o Increased Sa Capo Aria o Aria, Recitative, Aria Recitative o Aria becomes the focal point • Intense glorification of the virtuoso • Show-off the talent of the singer not the composer
Opera Reform
(Changes in the Opera Seria)
• Mid 18th Centruy
• Public was tired of singer-centered performances
• Wanted more drama, variety
• Music should follow what the drama needed
• Christoph Willibald Gluck
Christoph Willabald Gluck
• Opera Reform • Orfeo ed Euridice o 3 singers and a chorus o Series of scenes that focus on character emotions o Wide variety of ensembles o Clean, unornamented melodies • Work Unnoticed in Italy
Ludwig Von Beethoven
• Classical • The most recognizable name in music • 1st Period o 1770 – 1802 o Classical Style o Majority piano concerto’s o Elaborate piano sonata sketches o Started to write sonatas in 4 mvts -> mimics symphonic outline o Emancipation of the composer -> writes what he wants and presents to the public o Beethoven survives on his own -> but given money to stay in Vienna • 2nd Period o 1802-1814 o Heroic Era o Romantic era begins in terms of musical language o Piano Concerto’s o Symphonies 3-8 • Symphony No 3: Erocia • Dynamics, brass, percussion, texture o Works become the canon for everyone o Public wanted repeated performances o Heiligenstadt Testament • 3rd Period o 1814-1827 o Symphony No 9 o Largest collection of exp works • Long drawn-out melodies • Wants more intimate connection with the audience
Heroic Style
• Classical
• Dynamics, brass, percussion, textured
• Related to the 2nd period of Beethoven’s life (1802-1814
o Beethoven started going deaf during this time
The Heilgenstadt Testament
- Late Classical
- Written by Beethoven after moving to Heigenstadt per Dr’s orders
- Stated he wanted to be the hero of his own life
Piano Sonata (Changes Under Beethoven)
• Piano Sonata taken seriously
• Piano Sonata was very important to Beethoven
• Elaborate sketches
• New techniques -> Experiments
• Started writing sonatas in 4 movements
o Mimics the arrangement found in symphonies
o Grand Sonata
Church music in the New World
- New England Puritans who were Calvinists
- metrical psalm singing
- revised the Bay Psalm Book to contain 13 melodies for singing the psalms
- congregations learned to read notes
- singing schools taught students how to sing these psalms
- William Billings (most prominent of these composers)
- created the New England Psalm Singer (108 psalm and hymn settings and 15 anthems and canons for chorus)
- most were “plain tunes”, homophonic 4-part harmonizations of his newly invented melodies
- later included “fuging tunes”
Alberti Bass
- named for Italian composer
- device used to break up chords into repeating patterns of short notes to create a discreet chordal background
