Classical Period Flashcards
Galant
A term widely used during the 18th century to denote music with lightly accompanied, periodic melodies, and the appropriate manner of performing the same. ‘Being galant, in general’, wrote Voltaire, ‘means seeking to please’.
o The style galant (Ger.: galanter Stil) was typical of Rococo rather than Baroque attitudes, and it served the Enlightenment ideals of clarity and naturalness. In music it resulted in an emphasis on melody with light accompaniment rather than on equal-voiced part-writing and fugal texture.
o Many composers, Italian and German as well as French, aimed at the light, deliberately pleasing effects of the style galant, ranging from François Couperin, Pergolesi, Telemann, and Muffat to J. C. and W. F. Bach, Galuppi, and Sammartini.
o In the 1770s the simple and attractive, but by then rather superficial, galant style was given a new lease of life in Germany in the sensitive, emotional empfindsamer Stil (see Empfindsamkeit), particularly by C. P. E. Bach.
Rococo
A term used to describe a late 17th- and early 18th-century French style of decorative art and architecture characterized by delicacy, elegance, and wit, in contrast to the more severe lines of the Baroque era. The term itself was applied later with a pejorative connotation. By analogy it has been applied, somewhat loosely, to the lighter, often small-scale French music of the period, notably the works of François Couperin, particularly his character pieces on pastoral subjects. The style was widely imitated, particularly in southern Germany and Austria.
o The concept of a Rococo in music has never been seriously elaborated. Critics have applied the term to a wide variety of musical phenomena, most of them more appropriately described by the 18th-century expression ‘galant’. Pergolesi’s La serva padrona has been called ‘Italian Rococo’, which illuminates neither artistic nor musical connections between France and Italy.
Empfindsamkeit:
A musical aesthetic associated with north Germany during the middle of the 18th century, and embodied in what was called the ‘Empfindsamer Stil’. Its aims were to achieve an intimate, sensitive and subjective expression.
o German ‘Empfindsamkeit’ was part of a wider European literary and aesthetic phenomenon, largely British in origin, which posited immediacy of emotional response as a surer guide than intellect to proper moral behavior.
o C.P.E. Bach best embodied the ideals of ‘Empfindsamkeit’ with respect to music. In his Versuch über die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen (1753) he stated that music’s main aims were to touch the heart and move the affections; to do this he specified that it was necessary to play from the soul (‘aus der Seele’).
o In music, it was a reaction to the ‘strict’ or ‘learned’ style and elsewhere was apt to go under the name ‘galant’. A main difference was that the north Germans tended to avoid lavish decoration. Some have noted a galant-‘empfindsam’ symbiosis.
o Some historians have posited ‘Empfindsamkeit’ as a musical parallel to ‘Sturm und Drang’. The dramatic fluidity sought by both encourages such a parallel. C.P.E. Bach wrote that he wanted to express many affects, closely following upon one another; and emphasis upon a fluid, transitional discourse, ranging quickly from one emotion to another, can be found in many of his pieces. Yet the intimate, almost private, aspect of C.P.E. Bach’s art represents a quality that helps define ‘Empfindsamkeit’ and set it apart as a parallel phenomenon, one that anticipates and runs alongside the more popular appeal of ‘Sturm und Drang’. It was more personal, demonstrated by his reluctance to allow his literary friends to add text to his keyboard fantasies; not to mention his preference for the clavichord, considered the supreme instrument of the ‘Empfindsamkeit.’
Harmonic Rhythm
Literally, the rhythm or rhythmic pattern of harmonic progression in a musical passage; that is, the rhythm articulated by the chords that make up the progression. Usually, however, the term refers simply to the rate of change of chords, which could equally well be called ‘harmonic tempo’.
o Harmonic rhythm offers important indications about the relative weight and stability of harmonic events in a composition. It has a sub-surface function in distinguishing between chord repetitions which prolong the function of a single harmony and genuine changes of chord which create changes of function.
Alberti Bass
Left-hand accompaniment figure in keyboard music consisting of broken triads whose notes are played in the order: lowest, highest, middle, highest, and taking its name from Domenico Alberti (c1710–1746). Research has suggested that, obvious as this little figure may seem, Alberti was in fact the first to make frequent use of it. The term ought to be restricted to figures of the shape described and not extended loosely to other types of broken-chord accompaniment.
o Although such composers as C. P. E. Bach, Haydn, and Mozart made effective use of the formula, in the hands of the numerous composers of rococo and galant keyboard music it soon became stereotyped and commonplace.
Intermezzo
Literally, an entr’acte. The term was applied during the 18th century, in place of the earlier Intermedio, to a miniature comic opera in Italian (the French counterpart is the Intermède) involving two characters (rarely three or more), performed in segments between the acts of a larger work, usually an opera seria. The genre flourished during the first half of the 18th century, then gradually disappeared, giving way to the fully-fledged comic opera (the opera buffa). The intermezzo is unified by a single plot and cast of characters.
o The intermezzo traces its ancestry to the comic scenes of 17th century opera which, towards the end of the century, were beginning to fade away, removed from opera as a glaring breach of taste. One important consequence of their reduction was to deprive the specialized buffo singers of their niche. For this reason, Venice became the site of the earliest known intermezzi (there may have been earlier intermezzo, however, it was not until 1707 that the Venetian censorship required the publication of intermezzo librettos).
o In Naples, the custom during the first two decades of the 18th century was to incorporate comic scenes into nearly every new opera; local composers added the traditional scene buffe to works first produced elsewhere without them. After 1720, when the comic elements finally gained complete independence from the opera seria libretto, the Neapolitan intermezzo entered a golden age, exemplified in the works of Pergolesi (La serva padrona, 1733).
o Moliere’s comedies became an important source of librettos. Another influence was the commedia dell’arte.
o Musical scores furnish abundant examples of written-out portrayals of laughter, sneezing, weeping, the palpitations of a love-sick heart and the like. Other important characteristics of the buffo style exemplified in the intermezzo include a lively, frequently disjunct vocal line; constant repetition of short, balanced phrases; parody effects directed mainly at the musical conventions of opera seria; and – above all – absolute fidelity of music to text, frequently manifested by extreme changes of tempo and style within a single aria or duet. As a contrast to the prevailing buffo style, composers sometimes introduced mock-pathetic numbers and arias modelled on dance rhythms.
o Stock comedy figures, such as the old man and the braggart captain, people the world of the intermezzo. By far the most common of the intermezzo’s stock types is the cunning servant girl, widow or shepherdess who, despite her humble station, through feminine wiles plays a trick on her male partner or ensnares him in matrimony.
o The intermezzo exhibits nearly as rigid a standard musical format as contemporary opera seria. Each ‘part’ customarily contains one or two arias for each of the two singing roles (one or more mute roles frequently appear) and a final duet, all in da capo form and separated by secco recitatives. Accompanied recitative appears infrequently and usually in a parody context, while overtures and other types of independent instrumental music are lacking altogether or confined to short, concluding dance pieces. But stylistically it is more progressive; its simple harmonies, homophonic accompaniments, general melodiousness and symmetrical phrase structure are clear harbingers of later 18th-century Classical style.
o Traveling singers spread the intermezzo throughout Europe to nearly every city that supported Italian opera, most notably in Paris.
o They began to fade in importance as the 18th century progressed, replaced largely by the ballet.
Metastasio (1698-1782)
Italian poet, librettist and moralist. Although his fame rests chiefly on his 27 opera seria librettos, his works intended for musical setting also include a comic intermezzo, close to 40 occasional pieces (ranging from elaborately staged feste teatrale to simple complimenti for two participants), 8 oratorios, 37 cantatas, 8 solo complimenti, 7 canzonettas, 33 strofe per musica and other lyrical stanzas.
o Over 400 composers utilized Metastasian texts, which were known across Europe, Britain, Scandinavia and imperial Russia during the period from about 1720 to about 1835, and even reached pockets of the New World.
o Metastasio’s entire literary career flourished within the milieu of the Arcadian movement. It was particularly relevant to the Arcadian dictum, drawn from antiquity, that dramatic poets should teach moral principles under the guise of giving pleasure, and should move the emotions of audiences and readers in favor of the moral stance. This moral element was particularly important.
o Follows Aristotelian notion that poets, unlike historians, should demonstrate what might be rather than record historical truth.
o The operas are often built around certain formal expectations: conceived in three acts, scenes change in the operas according to the entry or exit of a character, action usually begins in media res, the action of most scenes or events is laid out in dialogue (for recitativo semplice), occasional monologue (for recitativo obbligato) and final exit aria, with the character’s state of mind usually set before the aria begins. The individual lines of verse are all musically conceived and are generally cast in two stanzas to accommodate the prevailing da capo settings, with vowel placement appropriate, to vocal rendition.
o Metastasian drama fell out of favor in Vienna by 1765; however, they did not disappear. Mozart and Gluck used Metastasian texts and volumes of his collected works were popular among many people, including Mozart and Thomas Jefferson.
Gluck, Christoph Willibald Ritter von (1714-1787)
Austrian composer.
o In his early 20s he went by way of Vienna to Milan, where he was probably a pupil of Sammartini. His first eight operas, of which the music is mostly lost, appeared rapidly, during 1743 and 1744, in Milan and Venice. Six are based on librettos by Pietro Metastasio and all are opere serie; Gluck wrote no opera buffa.
o In 1746 he presented two operas in London, with scant success; but he improved his musical understanding, as he later told Burney, by contact with Handel and English taste.
o Gluck was notable for reusing some of his earlier material, which later caused some controversy in the French press.
o Many of his works served as models for Mozart, including his Don Juan and La Rencontre imprévue, a model for Mozart’s Entfuhrung.
o He was most closely associated with his work in Vienna and Paris.
o He notably collaborated with Calzabigi, who contributed to some of Gluck’s most influential and innovative works (many of the reform operas, such as Orfeo and Alceste).
o More successfully than any of his contemporaries, he translated the widespread agitation for reform of opera and theatrical dance on the part of European intellectuals into actual works for the stage, first in pantomime ballets and Italian serious operas for Vienna and then in operas of various sorts for Paris.
o Some of his most important works include Orphée, Alceste, Don Juan, and Iphigénie en Aulide.
o In publishing the score of Alceste in 1769 Calzabigi wrote, and Gluck signed, the dedication to the Grand Duke of Tuscany (later Leopold II) which is the manifesto of reform: denouncing the abuses of composers and singers, the authors ‘have striven to restrict music to its true office of serving poetry by means of expression and by following the situations of the story, without interrupting the action or stifling it with useless superfluity of ornaments’. Gluck made the overture integral to the opera, through its somber character and by linking it to the first scene.
o Gluck’s greatness depends on his restoration of the balance between music and poetry, with due attention to visual elements. He established the composer as the dominant dramatic force in the creation of opera, a position endorsed from their diverse points of view by Mozart, Verdi, and Wagner, as well as his disciples Spontini and Berlioz.
o Among the Romantics he continued to inspire respect and, from Berlioz and Wagner, emulation. Berlioz supervised productions of Orphée and Alceste in Paris (1859 and 1866). Wagner wrote about Gluck in Oper und Drama, having learned much from deep study of Iphigénie en Aulide, of which he made a modernized performing version (Dresden, 1847). In 1890, for Weimar, Richard Strauss similarly adapted Iphigénie en Tauride.
Lied
The German Generalbass or continuo lied of the 17th and early 18th centuries is a secular, strophic song for one or occasionally more voices, with an instrumental bass accompaniment and sometimes with additional instruments playing obbligatos or ritornellos. The musical style varies from simple, syllabic, homophonic dance-songs to relatively ornate, more melismatic, contrapuntal art songs, but in all cases there is a careful synchronization of musical and poetic prosody.
o The history of the continuo lied is inextricably linked with the history of its poetry. Many lieder collections were compiled by poets who determined the nature of the collection and invited minor composers to write music to fit the texts. In the early 18th century, the poet was of the utmost importance, the composer and his music second.
o Like the 19th-century lied, that of the 18th century was sparked by German poets embarking on a new path.
o Berlin was an important centre of lied composition in the second half of the 18th century, with Frederick the Great’s patronage encouraging what was later known as the First Berlin School, formed by C. G. Krause on precepts that the lied should be folk-like and easily singable, express the text, and have a simple accompaniment. Composers associated with him included Franz Benda and C. P. E. Bach. A move away from the limitations of these strophic songs was initiated chiefly by C. G. Neefe, whose songs are generally in modified strophic form so as to match the progress of the text. About 1770 there arose the Second Berlin School, whose composers included C. F. Zelter.
o In many ways, the lied provided a type of national musical identity for the Germans. There was within the music a simplicity that attempted to match the joy of unadorned nature.
o Many people have ignored the lied before Schubert; however, it does represent an important part of German musical culture at the time.
Sonata form
A term that refers to the typical form of one movement, more especially the first movement. To avoid this anomaly the terms ‘first-movement form’ or ‘sonata-allegro form’ have sometimes been substituted, but they too are inaccurate, because the form referred to is not confined either to first movements or to allegros.
o Sonata form owes a number of features to a variety of earlier trends, such as binary form, a movement away from the notion of Affekt towards diversity (seen in da capo aria, French overture, concerto, etc.). The origins of the ‘simultaneous return’ are more complex. A return of the opening music in the tonic was common following a ‘trio’, and in the da capo aria, the Italian opera overture, the concerto and the simple aria (final ritornello in the tonic). But none of these is equivalent to a true simultaneous return following a development; rounded binary form lacks both this feature and a full recapitulation in the tonic. Sonata form transformed the division within the second part of rounded binary form into a return to the original theme in the tonic, making it the primary event.
o Sonata form is principally associated with the Classical period, when it was ubiquitous, but it was developing before that time and was used for long afterwards. It occurs most regularly in the first movement of a sonata, a multi-movement chamber work (such as a trio, quartet, or quintet), or a symphony. It is also often found in the other movements of such works, or in such single-movement pieces as an overture, tone-poem, or character piece, and it influenced many other genres including the concerto and the aria. Fugues, mass movements, anthems, and orchestral ‘storms’ were often constructed in sonata form during the height of its fashion, and even the famous ‘Representation of Chaos’ in Haydn’s oratorio The Creation betrays its influence. It would be difficult to explain why this particular formula proved so durable in such widely differing contexts.
o Sonata form comprises a two-key tonal structure in three main sections. Section 1, the exposition, generally presents all the thematic material of the movement, opening with one theme, or group of themes, in the tonic key. The first (or principal) theme of the first group is also known as the ‘first subject’. The exposition then moves, often by means of a modulatory section called a transition or bridge passage, to a second theme or group of themes in a contrasting key. The first (or principal) theme of the second group is also known as the ‘second subject’. The key of the second group is usually the dominant for movements in the major and the relative major for movements in the minor, though other keys may be used. For example, in the 19th century it became quite common to use the mediant as the second main key area. The exposition generally closes with a codetta, a short and sometimes reiterated cadential figure in the key of the second group. A double bar, usually with repeat marks, signifies the close of the first main section.
o The second section, the development, exploits the thematic material of the exposition, though new thematic material may be presented. These themes are often broken down into their motivic components, which are freely juxtaposed and developed. The section is tonally unstable, exploring a wide variety of keys by means of harmonic sequence and other modulatory devices. It leads most usually to the dominant chord of the principal key, in preparation for the recapitulation, the third section.
o The recapitulation marks the return to the tonic key and also a return to the thematic material of the exposition. It repeats most of the themes of the exposition in the same order, but here the second group remains in the tonic key. This means that if there was a transition between the first and second groups it must now be tonally adjusted so that the modulation of the exposition is not effected. And if the movement is in a minor key, the second theme group, formerly in the relative major, may be recapitulated either in the tonic major (as usually in Haydn’s works) or in the tonic minor, with necessary modification (Mozart’s preference). After all the material of the exposition has been recapitulated and a decisive cadence has been heard in the tonic key, there is sometimes a double bar indicating a repeat from the beginning of the development section. A coda may conclude the movement. It follows the cadence and double bar (if any). Codas vary in length from a few bars of cadence confirmation to the large section, with new musical ideas, often found in mature works of Beethoven.
o This is not a rigid formula by any means.
Sonata-Rondo
As the name implies, the sonata rondo is a hybrid design incorporating elements from both sonata form and rondo form. It may be represented by the letter-scheme ABACABA. B denotes not, as in rondo form, an episode but rather a second subject; C denotes the development or, if new material is introduced, an episode; and the final A is the coda based on the rondo theme, i.e. first subject.
o Thus a sonata rondo is differentiated from sonata form by the additional appearance of the first subject in the tonic key after the second subject and before the development; it is differentiated from rondo form because the second subject—B—returns in the tonic key.
o The form was often used for the final movement of multi-movement works by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and their contemporaries. Like sonata form it is not a rigid formula, and therefore the scheme illustrated can be taken as only a rough guide to its general features.
Variations
In variation form a self-contained theme is repeated and changed in some way with each successive statement. Variations may be continuous, as in ostinato movements, or discrete, as in strophic variations. The number and type of variations are not fixed.
• Types:
o a) cantus firmus or constant melody, in which the melody remains constant while other parameters change (e.g. the second movement of Haydn’s ‘Emperor’ Quartet op. 76 no. 3);
o (b) constant bass or ostinato, in which the bass pattern remains constant (e.g. ground bass, passacaglia, and chaconne);
o (c) fixed harmony, in which the harmonic framework of the theme remains constant (e.g. variations on the folia and the romanesca, Bach’s ‘Goldberg’ Variations);
o (d) melodic outline, in which the melodic shape of the theme is either decorated with additional notes or replaced by a paraphrase of the original: the most common variation type in the late 18th and 19th centuries;
o (e) formal outline, in which the form and phrase structure of the theme are the only elements to remain constant (e.g. Schumann’s Symphonic Variations op. 13);
o (f) characteristic variations, in which elements of theme are reworked in different genres and types (e.g. Britten’s Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge op. 10);
o (g) fantasia variations, in which all parameters can be subjected to radical change though a narrative structure may shape the work (e.g. Strauss’s Don Quixote and Elgar’s ‘Enigma’ Variations);
o (h) serial variations, in which the note row forms the theme for the variations (e.g. the second movement of Webern’s Symphony op. 21).
• Variation form derives from the practice of improvising embellishments in successive strophes of songs and dances during the 16th century.
• In the 17th century the development of the basso continuo led to a proliferation of fixed-bass variation types, especially ostinato dances like the passacaglia and chaconne.
• The Classical ideal of melodic-outline variations was articulated by Rousseau, who compared the embellishments to embroidery, through which ‘one must always be able to recognize the essence of the melody’. Variation form was important to the leading Classical composers. Haydn used variations on original themes as movements in his keyboard sonatas, quartets, and symphonies. He had a predilection for such hybrid forms as rondo-variations (in which freer and stricter variations alternate) and alternating variations on two themes in contrasting modes (as in his Variations in F minor for piano). Mozart’s career as a performer is reflected in his piano variations. He too carefully patterned his variations into coherent larger forms. His independent sets progress from figurative embellishments to variations that treat the theme more freely (changing to the minor mode, developing motifs contrapuntally or in imitation, and reworking the theme as a lyrical Adagio). They end with a longer fantasia-like section, a cadenza, or a reprise of the theme.
Minuet and Trio
In the Classical period, the minuet was adopted as a movement in the evolving forms of symphony, solo sonata, and string quartet. At first it acted as a finale (e.g. in the symphonies of Abel, J. C. Bach, Johann Stamitz, and Arne; in the piano sonatas and trios of Haydn; and in some Mozart concertos), but eventually the standard tripartite minuet and trio was adopted as the third movement of the four-movement plan of symphonies and quartets, generally designed to provide light relief between the slow movement and the finale.
o The common stereotype of a minuet paired with a single trio contrasting in key, thematic material, scoring and general mood. The last form, appearing frequently as the third of four movements in symphonies and string quartets written after about 1770, typically consisted of a ternary minuet section (e.g. two 12-bar strains, each repeated) and a shorter ternary trio, the minuet being repeated da capo with repeats. About mid-century the trio was normally in a closely related key, usually either the tonic minor or the relative minor of the minuet.
Rondo
One of the fundamental forms in music, in which a repeated section alternates with at least two different episodes. At its simplest it can be represented as ABACA. It is to be found in many cultures and periods, for example in the medieval carol, where the burden represents the A section. The term ‘rondo’ (Fr.: rondeau) was first used in conjunction with this form in late Baroque suite movements, and then in Classical instrumental works, where it became typical for the last movement of a multi-movement work. Self-contained rondos were also published, and the form was sometimes used in songs, dances, and opera movements.
o In the Classical rondo, the A section, or ‘rondo theme’ (which may be preceded by an introduction), always recurs in the tonic key, whereas the episodes modulate to related keys and may include new themes in those keys.
Rondò
A type of opera aria that became popular in the late 18th century. It has an opening slow section, which is repeated, followed by a fast section, also repeated. There are early examples by J. C. Bach, and Mozart wrote several.
o As a form, the rondò begins with an opening slow section, often laid out in an ABA pattern, which gives way to a faster section, and its text, in which a new theme is established (sometimes a variation of the opening section’s A theme). The main themes of either the fast or slow sections (or both) are usually assigned ‘gavotte’ rhythms, and sometimes the main theme of a rondò’s slow section, and its text, will recur in the aria’s second half. In the opera, these arias are generally assigned only to the prima donna or primo uomo and strategically placed close to the concluding scene or to the final number of a three-act opera’s second act.
o The term ‘rondò’ was often used loosely, along with ‘rond’ and ‘rondeau’, terms frequently applied to what is now identified as the vocal rondò with a recurring theme in the tonic key that creates the basic pattern ABACA. Arias identified by any of these terms tend to express moments of high emotional intensity, unless singled out for a specific comic effect.
o 18th-century usage also suggests that a two-tempo aria could attain ‘rondò’ (or ‘rondeau’) status through content alone. Mozart’s ‘Non mi dir’ (Don Giovanni), for example, an unquestioned rondò of profound emotional content assigned to the tragic heroine immediately before the opera’s last finale, does not comply in all respects to the formal specifications of the rondò given above.
