Classical Flashcards
Age of Enlightenment
a european intellectual movement of the late 17th and 18th centuries emphasizing reason and individualism rather than tradition. it was heavily influenced by 17th century philosophers such as Descartes, Locke, and newton, and its prominent figures included Kant, Gothe, voltaire, rousseau, and Adam smith. (concise oxford)
Stressed the power of humanity through the application of reason, to understand and improve its condition and the power of the individual, granted sufficient liberty, to use reason above all else
Kant: Mans emergence from his self imposed immaturity”
Idea still resonate to our society today.
Do not just do what you’re told, think for yourself and educate yourself
Glorious revolution
The Glorious Revolution,also called the Revolution of 1688, and the bloodless revolution, was the overthrow of King James II of England (James VII of Scotland and James II of Ireland) by a union of English Parliamentarians with the Dutch ruler: William of Orange. William’s successful invasion of England with a Dutch fleet and army led to his ascending of the English throne as William III of England jointly with his wife Mary II of England, in conjunction with the documentation of the Bill of Rights 1689.
François-Marie Arouet (Voltaire)
(1694 - 1778)
was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher famous for his wit, his attacks on the established Catholic Church, and his advocacy of freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and separation of church and state. Voltaire was a versatile writer, producing works in almost every literary form, including plays, poems, novels, essays, and historical and scientific works. He wrote more than 20,000 letters and more than 2,000 books and pamphlets. He was an outspoken advocate of several liberties, despite the risk this placed him in under the strict censorship laws of the time. As a satirical polemicist, he frequently made use of his works to criticize intolerance, religious dogma, and the French institutions of his time. Became a leader among a group of French thinkers who called them selfs: philosophies
Denis Diderot
(1713-1784)
was a French philosopher, art critic, and writer. He was a prominent figure during the Enlightenment and is best known for serving as co-founder, chief editor, and contributor to the Encyclopédie
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712 - 1778),
was a philosopher, writer, and composer of the 18th century. His political philosophy influenced the Enlightenment in France and across Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolution and the overall development of modern political and educational thought.
Glorious revolution
The Glorious Revolution,also called the Revolution of 1688, and the bloodless revolution, was the overthrow of King James II of England (James VII of Scotland and James II of Ireland) by a union of English Parliamentarians with the Dutch ruler: William of Orange. William’s successful invasion of England with a Dutch fleet and army led to his ascending of the English throne as William III of England jointly with his wife Mary II of England, in conjunction with the documentation of the Bill of Rights 1689.
François-Marie Arouet (Voltaire)
(1694 - 1778)
was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher famous for his wit, his attacks on the established Catholic Church, and his advocacy of freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and separation of church and state. Voltaire was a versatile writer, producing works in almost every literary form, including plays, poems, novels, essays, and historical and scientific works. He wrote more than 20,000 letters and more than 2,000 books and pamphlets. He was an outspoken advocate of several liberties, despite the risk this placed him in under the strict censorship laws of the time. As a satirical polemicist, he frequently made use of his works to criticize intolerance, religious dogma, and the French institutions of his time. Became a leader among a group of French thinkers who called them selfs: philosophies
Denis Diderot
(1713-1784)
was a French philosopher, art critic, and writer. He was a prominent figure during the Enlightenment and is best known for serving as co-founder, chief editor, and contributor to the Encyclopédie
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712 - 1778),
was a philosopher, writer, and composer of the 18th century. His political philosophy influenced the Enlightenment in France and across Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolution and the overall development of modern political and educational thought.
In 1752 wrote Le Devin du Village (1752)
simple music (drawn from folk songs)
plot: shepherd and sheaperdess love each other that drew on conventions of Italian opera Buffa.
Simple unpretentious music that everyone liked. Became very popular.
Rouseau writes about the drawbacks of french music too in his letter on French music. in this he is saying that this debate is pointless
Philosophes
An optimistic group
Believed that human beings were innately good, and society could be perfected if reason was permitted to replace superstition and tradition in the shaping of the social order.
This led to the new outlook on the relationship between the individual in the state and God.
Encyclopédie
A movement in the classical era to write down and categorize all knowledge
Seven years war
Began in America
1756-1763
Showed the military strength of Prussia and Frederick the great
long dispute between France and great Brittian. Also happened in India
It’s steaks were the supremacy in the growing world economy, control of the colonies, and command of the sea.
Both were fairly evenly matched in territory and resources.
Expulsion on the Acadians, plains of Abraham. British dominance over North America.
William Pitt guided Brittian through the seven years war.
Could be considered the First World War
Britain emerged as one of the great powers
Prussia gained military status
American Revolution
(1775-1781)
Industrial revolution
From hand made things to factory made things
Textile mills
is a factory housing powered spinning or weaving machinery for the production of yarn or cloth from cotton,[1] an important product during the Industrial Revolution when the early mills were important in the development of the factory system.
Spinning jinny: 1764
Steam engine
1745-1755
Technological improvements to music printing and instruments
Allowed the music trade to become international in the second half of the 18th century.
Instruments became more affordable.
More cities = more people = more people who want concerts.
Music periodicals
Audiences wanted to know more about the Music that was being performed at the concerts they were at.
Important because composers were starting to become cultural icons and consequently less dependent upon the patronage system.
Examples:
German composer and theorist Johann nikolaus attempted to educate the general public so they could appreciate music more.
John mainwarings: memoirs of the late Handel.
Musicologist
A musicologist is someone who studies music (see musicology). A historical musicologist studies music from a historical perspective. An ethnomusicologist studies music from the perspective of different world cultures (see ethnomusicology).
Charles Burney (1726-1814)
Organist and composer
Wrote the general history of music. A four volume work published in 1776-89 that he traveled greatly for.
Classical
Period between 1750 and 1800
Although short it gets its own era because of what happened in these few short years.
Classical is enduring, the ideas developed here are the building blocks of our modern society.
Related to balance, proportion, and naturalness. To understand what happens in history after this period one has to understand classicalism. The “craziness” of the romantics and modern era make sense then,
natural’ / ‘artificial
avoid artifice or too much ornamentation
polarity between natural and artificial.
this is what they want for their art.
its a reaction to the ornamentation going on at the end of the baroque.
invite nature into your compositions and avoid artifice.
Ornate (baroque) to simple (classical)
Passionate
Homophony
one melodic line that is harmonically supported but never up staged
“Subordinate voice or voices support and single prominent melodic line- as opposed to the continuo homophony of the baroque era.
Prominence of B.C fades away (expectation: conservative opera and church music). the bass line in the baroque is kinda its own part. but here it kinda fades in except for those 2 genras)
Bass line
Is no longer and independent voice in the classical.
Periodic Phrase Structure
symmetry
antecedent/ consequent (call and response)
things doing what you expect them to do.
every thing is balanced.
Found in operas, symphonies, concertos, and chamber music.
Antecedent / Consequent musical statements
when a weakly conclusive phrase (antecedent) pairs with a stronger more conclusive phrase (Consequent). There WILL be a cadence after the first part.
Syntactic vs paratactic form:
fewer paratactic forms so more:
syntactic form: means melodic material comes back. paratactic means you go from one thing to the next to the next…….
“A few thematic ideas are manipulated in various ways over the course of a movement” over “discrete thematic ideas that follow each other in sequence”
Harmonic rhythm
Slowing of the amount harmonies changed in a phrase or set of phrases
in the baroque it is not unusual to have different harmonies for every note. this is one of the things that makes it interesting. Classical they dial this back. harmonies change for larger functional reasons. So we are focusing on the melody line and not much else essentially.
Balance / proportion
Asymmetry and irregularity.
At a glimps classical music is this was, it is apparently ordered.
“The sence of balance And proportion that characterizes the classical style, it is equally countered by and undercurrent asymmetry and Irregularity.
We tend to think that composers were shackled by rules but in fact there were only conventions to observe, and consequently bend.
Painting of the girl: the illusion of order.
Sonata form
Exposition: exposes thematic ideas Development: manipulates these Recap: return of exposition. See RCM for more details. Listening: Scarletti sonata in D+
Empfindsamkeit
German for sensibility.
Describes A characteristic aesthetic associated with the new style.
German for Sensitivity. Emfind is a German word that means to sense something. to find inside one self. sam makes it an adjective, and keit is a noun. so a noun and a verb to find in side one self ish. basically very hard to follow in English.
other labels for some movement: Galant, rococo
Simultaneously emotion and refined.
Rococo/ Galant
Term borrowed from art history and used by some music historians to describe The musical style of the mid 18th century, emphasizing qualities of lightness and grace
Alberti Bass
Repeated figurations on a series of Triadic harmonies
Carl Philippe Emmanuel Bach
(1714-1788)second surviving son of bachs first wife Maria,
Chamber musician and clavencinist to Frederick the great of Prussia.
In 1753 he published the first volume to volume treatise on harpsichord technique,
second oldest son of bach chamber musician and harpsichord player for Frederick the Great (Fredrik II) at potsdam
great musicians there, including Quantz (flute)
he hired the best people he could find and gave them all this freedom.
Candidacy to replace his father in Leipzig denied
got hamburg job as a replacement for Telemann.
Charles Burney watched CPE play and writes an account of it. he gets sweaty basically.
Johann Christian Bach
(1735-1782)
youngest son of J.S.B
the London Bach
studied first with dad, then CPE (big bro)
went to Italy (organist at Milan Cathedral, 1760) then London England (1763)
his opera Orione, was a success in London and it encouraged his to move there
Became music master for Queen Charlotte
his music stops selling.
died in debt, Queen charlotte paid a pension for his wife (and his debts)
Heinrich Christoph Koch (1749-1816)
Just As a linguistic sentence consists of a subject and a predicate so can music.
applies linguistic idea of subject and predicate to music
he is trying to set out all the musical rules of german music like grammar.
So he takes for example:
subject: the main noun in a sentence, what it is about.
predicate: tells us something about the subject. I am eating an Apple, I is subject and apple is predicate. It is the completion of the thought.
So musically, what is the subject?
first 2 or 4 bars of a melodic line, also known as the antecedent
and what is predicate?
second following 2, or 4 bars of the melodic line, also known as the consequent.
Hauptsatz
German for head sentence or topic sentence.
The inner coherence of an instrumental work, according to Koch, depends on how the composer manipulates and sustains the Hauptsatz.
