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Lesson 5

Music in the Classical Period (a. 1730 – a. 1800)

Age of Enlightenment (mid. 1700)

• Emphasis on reasoning from experience and careful observation favored
the study of the human mind, the emotions, social relations and
organizations.

• Preferred naturalness.

• Equality of all human being; emphasis individual rights.

• Reason and knowledge could solve social and practical problem.

• Contemporary philosophers and social reformers: Rousseau, Montesquieu,

and Voltaire.

• Cosmopolitanism in Europe; Vienna became the international center.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2f/Secretaire_-
_Bernard_II_van_Risamburgh_-_M%C3%BCnchner_Residenz_-_DSC07490.JPG

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/74/BasilikaOttobeurenHaupts
chiff02.JPG

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/57/L%27Embarquement_pou
r_Cythere%2C_by_Antoine_Watteau%2C_from_C2RMF_retouched.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/Madame_de_Pompadour.
jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/Fragonard_-_swing.jpg

In Music
• Private patronages emerged; composers / musicians gave public concerts.

• Music was published in periodicals, amateur musician could purchase

music to play; also interested in reading and discussing music.

• New musical taste:

♪ Music should be universal, not limited by national boundaries

♪ Should be noble as well as entertaining
♪ Should be expressive within the bounds of decorum
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♪ Should be natural – simplicity and capable of immediately

pleasing any sensitive listener
♪ Melodic periodicity: distinct phrases, typically two or four
measures length
♪ Harmonic periodicity: slow –moving and conventional
harmonies; modulations were less adventuresome
♪ “Alberti Bass”: breaking each of the underlying chords into a
simple pattern of short notes that is repeated to produce a
discreet chordal background.

• The term “Classical”:

♪ Adopted from the art and literature of the Greeks and Romans.
♪ Suggested art works should reached a consistently high standard,
possessing the qualities of noble simplicity, equilibrium,
perfection of form, diversity with unity, serious and freedom
from excesses of orientation and frills.

• A Viennese School: Gluck, Haydn, Mozart

• The “Rococo” Style:

♪ Delicate architectural arabesques and similar features in music
♪ Highly ornamented clavecin music.

• Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress)

♪ A movement in German literature and art
♪ Relished tormented, gloomy, terrified, irrational feeling
♪ Later, composers brought this emotionalism under control.

OPERA IN THE EARLY CLASSICAL PERIOD

• Types of Opera:
♪ Opera buffa: comic opera
♪ Opera seria: serious opera
♪ Both were sung throughout by recitatives and arias

• Italian Operas: singers dominated

• Emphasis on aria, less dramatic elements, choruses was rarely used.

• Popularity of “Castrato” singers: castrated male singers.

• Opera reformer: Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714 – 1787)

♪ Orfeo ed Euridice (1762): the reformed opera
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♪ To serve the poetry and advance the plot, not the outworn
conventions of the da capo arias or the singes to show off their
skill in ornamental variation.

Orfeo ed Euridice, Act 2 Scene 1 by C. W. Gluck

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKpMTBQJ6Bo

INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC
• Keyboard Sonata

• Domenico Scarlatti (1685 – 1757)

♪ Composed around 555 single movement keyboard sonatas
♪ Form: binary, dance style

Sonata in D Major, K. 119

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9W37dXmiDA
• Fortepiano: permitted the player to vary the loudness from piano to forte

• Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714 – 1788)

♪ Son of the great J. S. Bach
♪ Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments (1753 – 62)

• Sonata
♪ Transformed from Sinfonia, Fast – Slow – Fast in separated
movements

• Sonata Form
♪ 1st movement of a Sonata
♪ 3 sections: Exposition – Development – Recapitulation

ORCHESTRAL MUISC
Symphony
• The Mannheim School
♪ The orchestra was formed by a group of virtuoso players

♪ Symphonic composers: Stamitz, Sammartini and J. C. Bach

♪ Use of wide range in dynamic: from pianissimo to fortissimo

♪ Orchestra size: around 25 players; Strings, flutes, 2

oboes, 2 bassoons, a harpsichord, with trumpet and
Timpani occasionally
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♪ Structure: Sonata form (fast) – Adagio (slow) – Minute and

Trio (moderate) and Finale (fast)

Concerto
• Standardized in 3 movement: Fast – Slow – Fast
• Use of Double Exposition in the 1st movement.
• Cadenza added before the end of the 1st movement.

Franz Joseph Haydn (1732 – 1809)

• Born March 31 in Rohrau, Austro-Hungary.
• 1740: joined choir and school of the St. Stephen’s Cathedral, Vienna
• 1758: became the Kapellmeister at the Court of Count F. van Morzin
• 1761: worked for Prince Esterházy
• 1766 – 90: Kapellmeister at the Esterházy Court
• 1791 – 95: visited England twice
• 1809: died in Vienna

• Major Works:
♪ 104 + symphonies: Titled symphonies: No. 6 – 8 Le Matin (morning),
Le Midi
(afternoon) and Le Soir (evening); No. 45 in f# minor, “The Farewell”
– use of unusual key; No. 82 – 87 “the Paris Symphonies; 12
“London” Symphonies (No. 93 – 104); others: No. 94 (Surprised),
No. 100 (Military), No. 101 (The Clock), and No.
103 (Drum Roll) – all subtitles were named after the work was
composed.
♪
Symphony No. 45 in F# minor (Farewell) Hob. I:45; IV Finale
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfdZFduvh4w

Symphony No. 94 in G Major (Surprise) Second Movement: Andante

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOLy6JxEDLw

Symphony No. 104 (London) in D Major: Finale

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GULp70vT2Nk

♪ String Quartets (2 violin, 1 viola and 1 cello)

- The earliest String Quartets (Opp.1 and 2) were composed in
1757 and 1761.
- The “Prussian” Quartet (Op. 50, No. 6) was composed in 1787
- All in 4 movements, setting same as Symphonies

String Quartet Op. 64, No. 5: Finale, Vivace

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KuqSbxXqco
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♪ Keyboard Sonatas
♪ Operas, Masses, 2 Oratorios “The Creation” and “Season”

“The Heaven is telling” from “The Creation”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4lSauxyFWo

Characteristics:
• Symphonies from 1768 - 74: influenced by “Sturm und Drang”; with deeply
emotional and agitated character.

• Slow introduction was added in the 1st movement of the London

Symphonies

• Orchestration of Haydn’s symphonies

♪ Trumpets and timpani are alwayes included.
♪ Clarinets were used in the last 6 London Symphonies (except No.
102).
♪ Trumpets became having individual parts instead of doubling the
horns.
♪ Featured solo strings against the full orchestra.
♪ Woodwind parts became more prominent.

• Harmony
♪ Use of mediant relationship in modulations, not only the
conventional IV or V.
♪ Harmonic imagination played an important part in the slow
introductions.
♪ With sense of humor: Rhythmic displacements and
unexpected rests mock the normal logic of melodic succession.

• Added “Minuet and Trio Form” as the 3rd movement of Symphonies.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 – 1791)

• Born January 27, Salzburg, Austria
• 3 years old: played harpsichord
• 5 years old: started composing
• 9 years old: composed symphonies
• 12: composed opera
• giving concerts to show his prodigious talents throughout Europe.
• Can sight-read concertos; improvised variations, fantasias and fugues.
• 1771 (15 years old): was appointed by the Archbishop in Salzburg
• 1772: met J. C. Bach whom influenced Mozart in songful themes,
tasteful appoggiaturas and triplets and harmonic ambiguities.
• 1781: moved to Vienna to seek for a better career and married
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Constancy von Weber in 1782

• 1785: met Haydn; composed 6 “Haydn” String Quartet.
• 1791: died in Vienna; buried in an unmarked grave.
• “K” The Köchel listing for Mozart’s composition was used after Ludwig von
Köchel in 1862.

• Major Works:
♪ 41 Symphonies
♪ Concerto:
- 17 for solo Piano, 1 for Two Pianos and 1 for Three Pianos
- 5 for solo Violin
- 4 for solo French Horn
- 2 for solo flute
- Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon (1 of each)
- Sinfonia Concertante (Violin and Viola)
♪ Piano Sonatas
♪ Sonata for piano and solo instruments
♪ Serenades and Divertimentos: “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” K. 525
♪ String Quartets
♪ Major Operas:
- Opera Seria: Idomeneo (1781), La clemenza di Tito (1791)
- Opera Buffa: Le nozze di Figaro (1786), Don Giovanni (1787),
Cosìfan tutte
(1790) with libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte (1749 – 1838)
- Singspiel: Die Entführung aus dem Serail (1782), Die
Zauberflöte (1791)
• Use of popular tunes and strophic songs.
♪ Church Music: Masses, Motets and Requiem (incomplete)

Characteristic:
• Brilliant in melody writing: unfold naturally and spontaneously,
careful shaping and grooming
• Excellent in giving depth to the characters in his operas
• Delineation of character occurs not only in solo arias but ensemble singing.

Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (A Little Night Music), K. 525, Allegro (1st movement)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqN-5EujyaM

Piano Sonata in C Major, K545. Allegro (1st Movement)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNbqRC4xtEg

Piano Concerto in A major, K. 488 , Allegro (1st movement)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXeBFhqViYg
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Opera Excerpts:
Le Nozzi di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro)
Voi che sapete che cosa è amor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNRF-SEl27o

Canzonetta sull'aria
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MsZQ9aWyC4

Don Giovanni:
Madamina
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJjHVTCm4HE

La ci darem la mano
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqcA2fx04Y8

The Magic Flute

Papageno: “Der Vogelfänger Bin Ich, Ja!” (Strophic Song)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ku-BGOTAlx0&t=47s

Queen of Night: “Der Hölle Rache”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuBeBjqKSGQ

Reading:
Sonata Form: https://www.britannica.com/art/sonata-form