Franz Joseph Haydn (1732–1809)

• Born in Rohrau, a village about 30 miles from Vienna.

• Was trained in St. Stephen’s Cathedral, Vienna as a choir boy where he studied the
harpsichord and violin.
• Praised as the greatest composer alive during his lifetime.
• A capable businessman and ambitious entrepreneur.
• 1757: became music director for Count Morzin.
• 1761: entered the service of the Esterházys.
• 1790-95: Johann Peter Salomon persuaded Haydn to come to London.
• 1795: returned to Vienna as court music director for Prince Nikolaus II Esterházy.

The Esterházy Princes

• Haydn spent most of his career with the Esterházy family.
• Hired as Vice-Kapellmeister in 1761 by Prince Paul Anton Esterházy.
• Nikolaus Esterházy succeeded the throne in 1766 and lived in Esterháza.
• Nikolaus was an avid music enthusiast who plays the cello, viola da gamba and
baryton.
• The palace had two theaters, and two large music rooms.
• Anton, Nikolaus’ son who succeeded him disbanded the orchestra.

Haydn’s Compositional Style

• Highly individual due to his isolation working at Esterhaza.
• The familiar was enriched by contrasts, reliance on conventions and immediate
appeal to audiences.
• Haydn wrote in the galant style: songful melody in short phrases, balanced period
over light accompaniment.
• Adopted the heightened expressivity of the empfindsam style.
• The learned style of counterpoint absorbed from Baroque composers.

Symphonies of 1768–72
• Presented at Esterháza in its elegant concert room.
• Mature technique and fertile imagination
• Some have been associated with Sturm und Drang.
• Longer, more rhythmically complex, more contrapuntal, and more dramatic
than earlier works
• Dynamic extremes, sudden contrasts, crescendos, and sforzatos are used to
startling effect.
• Harmonies are richer and more varied.

Symphonies of 1773–88
• Embraced a more popular style.
• More cheerful, perhaps influenced by his comic operas
• Symphony No. 56 in C Major (1774)
• This festive work encompasses a broad emotional range.
• Sturm und Drang elements contrast with arpeggiations, fanfares, and
songlike phrases.
Symphonies from 1780s
• In the 1780s, Haydn wrote for an orchestra of flute, two oboes, two bassoons, two
horns and strings.
• Symphonies Nos. 88–92 (1787–88) were written for commissions.
• Deep expression is combined with masterful technique.
• The mixture of popular and learned styles gave them wide, immediate, and
lasting appeal.
• The Paris Symphonies (Nos. 88–92)
• The Concerts de la Loge Olympique commissioned the works.
• Orchestra size: flute, two oboes, two bassoons, two horns, and strings,
occasionally augmented by trumpets and timpani
• Queen Marie Antoinette particularly liked Symphony No. 85, subsequently
called La Reine (The Queen).

London Symphonies
• The twelve London Symphonies, commissioned by Salomon, are Haydn’s greatest
symphonic achievements.
• Slow introductions
• Harmonic imagination plays an important part.
• They project a deliberate and dramatic quality.
• They often incorporate the tonic minor.
• Orchestra expanded with trumpets and timpani as standard instruments, clarinets.
• Woodwinds and string bass are used more independently.
Symphony
• The antecedent of the symphony is the sinfonia.
• Sinfonia or symphony was applied to earlier introductory movements of the operas,
cantatas, oratorios.
• The sinfonia had a three-movement structure.
• Allegro
• Short lyrical Andante
• Finale with a dance rhythm
• In the 18th century, it was largely cultivated in Vienna and in the rest of the Habsburg
Empire.
• By the 18th century, the symphony became an increasingly large and important part
of the public concert.
• The symphony was performed in a variety of social functions from state, institutional
events to church services.
• It was also featured often in a series of private concerts, sometimes accompanying
other activities such as card playing.
• Earlier symphonies are mainly scored for strings instruments in 4 parts with
harpsichord and bassoon in the continuo.
• By 1730-1740, the symphonies expanded to 8 parts including double oboes and
horns.
Exposition
• Opening theme
• Usually repeated immediately
• Turns of harmony often steer the music in a new direction.
• Transition or bridge
• The harmony modulates to the dominant or relative major or minor.
• Usually loud with dramatic, rushing figures
• Second thematic section
• Usually lightly scored, melodically distinctive, and harmonically stable
• Most symphonies of the 1770s and 1780s have contrasting material.
• In later symphonies, Haydn based the second thematic section on the
opening material.
• Closing section
• The exposition ends with the full orchestra playing a cadential, repetitive,
vigorous figure.
• The material may recall earlier themes, but it is usually distinct from the
primary and secondary subjects.
• Sometimes the secondary key section is devoted to the closing material.

Development
• Rarely introduces new thematic ideas
• Begins with a restatement of the opening subject, transitional material, or one of the
other subjects
• Motives from the exposition are manipulated, often in counterpoint.
• Abrupt changes and sudden silences are frequent.
• Over the course of his career, Haydn increased the length and artfulness of the
development.

Recapitulation
• An extended dominant pedal often precedes the recapitulation.
• Sometimes Haydn disguises the arrival.
• The opening statement is frequently rescored.
• All the material of the exposition returns in the tonic.
• Haydn often intensifies and animates the transition by simulating a modulation.
• The secondary and closing themes may be given more emphasis than in the
exposition.
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Beethoven the Person
• Extremely well established performer and frequently performed his own works
• Taught piano students from wealthy families
• Symphonies, piano sonatas, concertos and string quartets are still being seen as
significant works
• Challenged with increasing deafness throughout his career
• His success as a freelance artist gave him independence

Three Periods in Beethoven’s Career

First period: 1770-1802
• As a youth in Bonn and his first decade in Vienna
• Took lessons with Haydn, Salieri and Albrechtsberger
• Started publishing music in 1791
• Wrote piano works (sonatas, variations)
• 1800: Symphony no. 1 in C major premiered
Second period: 1803-1815
• 1802: Marked by his crisis in hearing evidenced in the Heiligenstadt
Testament
• 1803: Symphony no. 3 in E-flat major
• Composed in a more ambitious style, with increasing dynamism,
expansiveness and unusual features
Third period: 1815-1827
• Increasing deafness led to isolation
• Devaluation of currency and the value of his annuity
• Compositions were addressed to connoisseurs
• High degree of contrast in his compositions
• Wrote Missa solemnis, Symphony no. 9, last 5 piano sonatas and his last 5
string quartets

Beethoven’s Symphonies
• Wrote only nine symphonies but influenced most of the symphonic writing of the
nineteenth century through:
• expansion of form, leading to ‘monumental’ structures
• high degree of thematic unity
• expansion of orchestral forces by introduction of new instruments
(trombones, piccolo, contrabassoon etc.) and by increasing the number of
players assigned to one instrumental part;
• use of extra-musical references in the Sixth Symphony
• introduction of voices in the Ninth Symphony
The Eroica Symphony, No. 3 in E-flat Major (1803–4)
• Longer than any previous symphony written.
• The title suggests that the symphony is a celebration of a hero.
• The idea of heroism could be seen psychologically as Beethoven’s own struggle
against his increasing deafness.
• It is longer and more complex than any previous symphony.
• Beethoven originally named the symphony “Bonaparte,” but reportedly tore up the
title page when Napoleon declared himself Emperor.
• Premiered at a private concert at the estate of his patron Prince Franz Joseph von
Lobkowitz, public premiere of this was at Vienna in 1805.
• The first movement can be seen as a story of challenge, struggle, and victory.
• The first theme, a triadic fanfare, ends with a surprising C-sharp.
• The theme is subject to various adventures, but eventually it triumphs.
• Syncopations, heard near the beginning, reach a terrifying climax in the
development.
• An early entrance in the horn prior to the recapitulation creates a dominant-
tonic conflict.
• Recognised as a work of unprecedented scope and complexity.
• First movement is a large scale sonata form with some striking examples.
• Development is longer than the exposition.
• A new theme is presented in the development or is it a variant of the main theme in
the exposition.
• The second theme is debatable.
• Extraordinary changes of key especially in recapitulation and coda

First movement; opening theme

First movement; end of exposition

The 19th-century Orchestra
• Number of orchestras increased throughout Europe and United States of America
from the start of the 19th century.
• Orchestras included those founded by amateurs and professionals.
• Number of orchestral players increased from about 40 to 90.
• Greater variety of instruments provided wider range of colours and combinations.
• Tubas joined the brass section in the 1830s.
• Conductors role evolved to become interpreters of works and often drew attention
to themselves.

The Rise of the Classical Repertoire

• 19th-century concert programmes are diverse and feature varied styles of genres
performed alongside each other.
• Emergence of a permanent classical repertoire (canon) with works by Beethoven,
Haydn, Mozart and the early Romantics.
• Concert behavior of audiences changed to quiet and attentive.
• Composers of orchestras wrote in respond to Beethoven’s symphonies as exemplars
of orchestral music.

Hector Berlioz (1803–1869)

Symphonie fantastique (1830)
• Berlioz subtitled the work “Episode in the Life of an Artist” and gave it a program.
• The program functions as the words of a drama that are read but not spoken.
• The program reveals several literary influences, including Goethe’s Faust.
• The symphony’s narrative makes sense even without the program.
• Berlioz employs a recurring melody, which he called the idée fixe (“fixed idea”)
• The theme appears in each movement representing the hero’s beloved.
• The theme is transformed to suit the mood and situation of the story.
• It is first heard as the extended first theme of the first movement.
• Originality of Symphonie fantastique
• Using a symphony for a narrative
• Unifying a work through a recurring theme and thematic transformation
• Use of an astonishing array of instrumental colors

Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14

Piotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893)
• Most prominent Russian composer in the 19th century.
• Graduated from law school at 19 but later enrolled at the St. Petersburg
Conservatory.
• Taught at the Moscow Conservatory for 12 years.
• Personal life was difficult as he faced depression and was troubled by his realization
of his homosexuality.
• Nadezhda von Meck, a wealthy widow supported him financially and became his
intellectual confidante.
• Travelled throughout Europe as a conductor.
• Conducted the premiere of his Sixth Symphony in October 1893.

Symphonies
• Tchaikovsky completed six symphonies, which are noteworthy for their lyricism,
orchestration, and dramatic qualities.
• The last three symphonies by him are the most widely performed.
• His symphonies were not always well received immediately.
• Listeners appreciated the Fourth Symphony after its cool reception.
• The Sixth Symphony was met with mixed responses during its premiere but
celebrated when played after the composer’s death.
• Symphony No. 4 in F minor (1877-78)
• The horn motive from the introduction symbolizes fate.
• Key scheme of the first movement is organized around a circle of minor
thirds.
• Symphony No. 5 in E Minor (1888)
• Tchaikovsky builds on the cyclical techniques of earlier composers.
• The brooding opening theme appears in all four movements.
• The work demonstrates his mastery of orchestration.
• The scherzo is replaced by a waltz.
• Symphony No. 6 in B Minor, the Pathétique (1893)
• Seems to have an unspecified private programme.
• The first movement is dark with a somber slow introduction.
• The second movement is in a minuet and trio form, but uses a dance in 5/4
meter.
• The third movement begins with a light scherzo character and evolves into a
triumphant march.
• The symphony ends with a despairing slow movement.
• Tchaikovsky died 9 days after conducting at the symphony’s premiere.
• Some listeners interpreted that the slow finale is seen as a premonition of his own
death.
RICHARD STRAUSS (1864–1949)
• He was a dominant figure in German musical life.
• A famous conductor, he led most of the world’s best orchestras.
• Early compositions were conservative in nature, emulating Mozart, Beethoven and
Schubert.
• His compositional style was influenced by Wagner’s operas, especially Tristan und
Isolde.

Tone poems
• Preferred term instead of symphonic poems.
• A one movement programmatic work with sections of contrasting character and
tempo.
• Strauss’s works are modeled after the program music of Berlioz and Liszt.
• Colorful orchestration
• Thematic transformation
• Programs are often based on literature.
• Strauss’s depictions range from representational to literature to philosophical.
• Don Juan (1888-89), Macbeth (1888), Also sprach Zarathustra (1896), Symphonia
domestica (1902)

Don Quixote (1897)

• Premiered in 1898.
• Depicts the adventures of the knight Don Quixote and his squire Sancho Panza by
Miguel Cervantes’ novel.
• Amalgamation of genres such as the concerto and variations, as well as tone poem.
• Variation structure
• Much of the work sounds like chamber music.
• Don Quixote is represented by a solo cello, which is joined by solo violin and
English horn
• The bass clarinet and tenor tuba represent Sancho.
• Themes are altered using thematic transformation.

Don Quixote, Op. 35, themes:

Don Quixote

Don Quixote, Op. 35, themes:

Sancho Panza
ANTON WEBERN (1883–1945)
• Was one of the composers in the Second Viennese School.
• Webern began studying with Schoenberg in 1904 at the same time as Berg.
• He studied musicology under Guido Adler at the University of Vienna.
• He received a PhD in 1906.
• He felt that evolution in art was necessary and that history (and thus musical idioms
and practices) can move only forward, not backward.
• The Path to the New Music is a series of lectures in which Webern argued that
twelve-tone music was the inevitable result of music’s evolution.
• Twelve-tone method combined the most advanced approaches to pitch, musical
space and the presentation of musical ideas.
• Webern regarded each step of the way from tonality to atonality as an act of
discovery.
• Webern passed through the stages of late Romanticism, chromaticism, atonality, and
twelve-tone organization.
• His works are usually written for voice and instrumental, are mostly for chamber
ensembles.
• Wanted to write expressive music.
• Great art should do only what is necessary, sought to write concentrated works.

Musical Composition and Style

• Music is extremely concentrated.
• His atonal works include Six Bagatelles for String Quartet, Op. 9 (1911-13), No. 4 of
Five Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 10 and the last of his Three Little Pieces for Cello and
Piano, Op. 11.
• Pointillistic texture, dynamics very specified and seldom rise above forte.
• Often used Renaissance polyphony including canons in inversion and or retrograde.
• He began the last phase of twelve-tone compositional style in 1925 with the songs of
Op. 17.

Twelve-tone Procedures
• The abandonment of tonality has made compositions difficult to sustain without the
aid of a text.
• The twelve-note technique provided a solution to this.
• String Trio Op. 20 represented a return to instrumental forms in twelve-tone
technique.

Symphony, Op. 21, first movement (1927-28)

• Scored for a small chamber orchestra.
• Has only two movements.
• The first movement is based on sonata form.
• Reconceives the exposition, development and recapitulation in a new way.
• The entire first movement is a double canon in inversion
• The row is a palindrome, with the same intervals going forward and backward.
• Applies Klangfarbenmelodie: makes the change of instrumental colour part of the
melody.
Symphony Op. 21,
double canon at the opening
CONCERTO
• An symphonic work that maintains contrast between an orchestral ensemble and a
smaller group or solo instrument.
• The solo concerto became a popular vehicle for virtuosos to display their technical
skills in the late 18th century to 19th century.
• This occurred while the concerto grosso fell out of favour.
• The solo concerto built on forms adopted by Corelli, Torelli, Vivaldi, J.C. Bach.
• In the early 18th century, concertos were typically in three movements with two fast
movements around a slow middle movement.

Concerto Form
• The classical concerto combines the ritornello structure and textural contrasts of the
Baroque concerto with the techniques of sonata form.
• It alternates orchestral ritornellos with episodes that feature the soloist.
• The three solo sections take the shape of an exposition, development, and
recapitulation.
• The opening ritornello introduces the thematic material but remains in the tonic.
• Later ritornellos use elements from the first one.
• Cadenzas, improvised by soloists, occurred just before or within the last ritornello.
• Example: first movement of J. C. Bach’s Concerto for Harpsichord or Piano and
Strings in E-flat Major, Op. 7, No. 5

Concerto first-movement form

Johann Christian Bach (1735–1782)
• The youngest son of J. S. Bach; he studied in Italy.
• The first to compose piano concertos.
• After two successful operas, he moved to London, where he enjoyed a long and
successful career.
• He composed around forty keyboard concertos between 1763 and 1777.
• Young Mozart was impressed by the music of J. Bach

J. C. Bach’s Concerto for Harpsichord or Piano and Strings in E-flat Major, Op. 7, No. 5
• He and composer Carl Friedrich Abel produced an annual series of public concerts.
• Bach probably wrote these six concertos for keyboard and strings in 1770 as his
Op.7.
• Meant for this to be for amateurs and to be performed at home.
• Opening ritornello is the longest, presenting the movement’s thematic ideas.
• This concerto can be played by both harpsichord or piano. But the harpsichord
seemed to be more suited.
• Bach wrote out a longer cadenza for this movement, but here there is only a shorter
version.

Mozart’s Piano concertos

• Wrote altogether 23 piano concertos.
• The seventeen piano concertos composed in Vienna are major works in Mozart’s
compositional output.
• He wrote these works primarily for his own performance.
• The concertos project a wide range of moods, ranging from the light K. 488 in A
Major to the tragic K. 491 in C Minor.

Piano concertos
• Like the works of J. C. Bach, Mozart’s concertos are in three movements.
• The first movements combine elements of ritornello and sonata forms.
• The three solo sections resemble the exposition, development, and
recapitulation of a sonata form.
• The opening orchestral ritornello presents the first theme, transition, second
theme, and closing themes in the tonic key.
• The orchestra also punctuates the long solo sections.

Exposition from Piano Concerto

in A Major, K. 488
Piano Concerto in A Major, K. 488 (1786)
• Completed in March 1786.
• Sold this to Prince von Furstenburg.
• Emulated J.C. Bach’s Concerto for Harpsichord or Piano and Strings in E-flat Major,
Op. 7, No. ’s form of the first movement.
• Combined aspects of ritornello and sonata form.
Opening orchestra displays both thematic variety of a sonata form exposition and
characteristics of the Baroque concerto

Piano concertos
• Mozart’s cadenzas usually interrupt the final ritornello.
• The second movement of a Mozart concerto resembles a lyrical aria.
• The key is often the subdominant and sometimes the dominant or relative
minor.
• Typical forms: sonata without development, variations, and rondo
• The final movement is usually a rondo or sonata-rondo based on themes of a
popular character.
• Cadenzas grew in length and began to develop thematic material. Mozart’s
concertos are showpieces, but display is always balanced by other musical concerns.
Beethoven the Virtuoso
• Beethoven was well known as a pianist in Vienna.
• He undertook two artistic tours around Europe Prague, Dresden and Berlin in order
to demonstrate his skills as a pianist and composer.
• Most of his recorded performances were at public concerts.
• These are known as ‘benefits’, beneficiary concerts for both the organizer and the
performer.
• By the Autumn of 1808, there was an invitation for Beethoven to take up
appointment as Kapellmeister at Kassel for 600 gold ducats.
• In order to keep Beethoven in Vienna, his supporters (Archduke Rudolph, Princes
Lobkowitz and Kinsky) agreed to pay him 4000 florins for life.
•
Beethoven’s Middle Period Style
• 1803 to about 1816
• Rugged individualism asserted itself.
• Works: Symphonies Nos. 3–8, Fidelio, the last two piano concertos, the Violin
Concerto, five string quartets, and piano sonatas (through Op. 90)
Beethoven’s Piano Concertos
• Beethoven wrote 5 piano concertos in total.
• The first three piano concertos were composed in Vienna to play at his own
concerts.
• The concertos during the middle period resembled symphonies and are on a grander
scale.
• The Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat Major, Op. 73 (the Emperor, 1809) and the Violin
Concerto in D Major, Op. 61 (1807) expand the music’s expressive range and
dimensions.
Beethoven Piano Concerto no. 5 in E-flat Major, Op. 73
• First written in 1809 and premiered in 28 November 1811.
• The nickname of ‘Emperor’ was not given by Beethoven himself.
• It was a later invention.
• During the composition of this concerto, Beethoven was distressed by the invasion in
1809 by the French, led by Napoleon.
• He was also unhappy about the weak leadership of emperor of Imperial Vienna at
the time, Franz I of Austria.
• The title was merely symbolic rather than representative of any military association.
• List down the main differences of the piano concerto with the usual first movement
concerto form.
• What happens in the first few bars?
• How is the form of this concerto similar or different from the form that was
identified earlier with J.C. Bach’s first movement form?
• How many cadenzas were there in this movement?
• Soloist is often featured as equal with the orchestra.
• Soloist enters with a written out cadenza even before the orchestra exposition.
• There is a dramatic interaction between the soloist and orchestra.
• The first orchestral tutti section shows that it is based only on two themes.
• The second theme comes in two versions, the minor and later the major.
• The minor version here is reminiscent of an earlier form of dance, known as the folia.