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)
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