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“Western music” comes from the artistic music from the americas and european cultures, as
well as the greek culture.
● Almost everything we are learning about comes from roman and greek origin
● The majority of the music discussed will have a religious origin.
● Art music is formalized through notation of it
● Epitaph of Seikilos - first century CE
○ One of first examples of pitch, rhythm, and text to be discovered in notation
○ It was written on a tomb steele, a sort of large gravestone stone.
○ Monophonic Texture
Not a lot of transition between the greek and early christian music
● Ancient greeks, music is tied to poetry (considered almost synonymous)
● Tragedy was considered as an art of singing
● Ethos - ethical character and the way of behaving
● Human souls were considered to be able to be organized through mathematical
numerals
● Theory of Imitation (330 B.C.E) - Aristotle (330 BCE Politics) was talking about how
music is imitating the state of the soul
● The different modes offered different feelings from the people and the ethos of their
souls, as well as rhythms can cause different emotions and feelings
● Plato (380 BCE Republic) and Aristotle believed gymnastics for the body and music for
the mind)
Greek Music Theory
● Pythagoras (580-500 BCE) Believed that numbers were the center of the universe that
was discussed earlier as important and a key part of music. Discovered the octave, the
4th, and the 5th through ratios in a piece of string that provides a basic pitch. These
were considered consonant intervals
● In this period, the octave and the 4th and the 5th were prominent in this time period of
music, not like building triads with 3rds in music common today.
● By the 5th century BC, Rome was weakened and it started to spread to the European
era that we know so commonly through the 10th century.
● Most of the music of the time was written for the church, was believed it could influence
the character of the individuals through the christian church.
● The last emperor of Rome lost the throne in 476 CE (The Fall of Rome). This is where
the middle ages begin (400-1400 CE) (also known as the medieval times)
● Beautiful things exist to remind the people of the divine beauty and the greater things of
the church. It was not believed that the music was made to be able to indulge in
personal enjoyment.
● The concept of beautiful music was believed to inspire people to join the church for its
beauty, not for its intrinsic feelings it brought forth for personal pleasure.
● Greek theoretical concepts were brought to the western during the church range.
● Boethius (6th century) had the idea of the quadrivium (the things you are supposed to
study) including math and harmonics, particularly music.
● It is still believed that the divine of the cosmos can still be explained through numbers in
mathematics of the time.
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● Boethius wrote De Institutione Musica, and for 1000 years was known as the most
important singular music theory authority. This is for the majority of the middle ages
● Musical practice of the early christian church is the same thing as the cultivation of god,
not for simple personal enjoyment. There will be no music festivals or competitions, to
make sure it stays divine and does not fall back into the pagan past. It was all tied to the
ceremony and the rituals of the church
● Because of this, for this 1000 year span of time there was virtually only unaccompanied
singing.
● Use of latin liturgy in the church and is still used in the catholic church to this day. The
text was written down, the melody was not, so different regions have their own variety of
melody within these texts in the catholic church.
● Between the 13th and the 16th century, the liturgy of the church was more romanized
and centralized. The way they unified the liturgy of the church was to finally write it down,
and this is within the 9th century frankish (monks and nuns) were held responsible to
write down these notations and melodies to stay consistent.
● This repertoire is referred to as chant (Gregorian).
● St. Gregory was the reason behind the gregorian chants and legends say that he would
have a dove sing into his ear and then notate that into the chants.
● Modes were used to organize the melody making it easier to sight read the chants
● Grouped into authentic (odd) or plagal (even) modes
1. Dorian (starts on D)
2. Hypodorian
a. A 4th below it’s authentic modes
3. Phrygian (starts on E)
4. Hypophrygian
a. A 4th below it’s authentic modes
5. Lydian (Starts on F)
6. Hypolydian
a. A 4th below it’s authentic modes
7. Mixolydian (Starts on G)
8. Hypomixolydian
a. A 4th below it’s authentic modes
● Projects the chants through the rituals of the mass
● 2 types of service
○ Divine office
■ Centers on prayers and communal reading of Psalms
■ Group of Nuns and Monks to prayer regularly (every few hours)
○ Central Mass
■ Centered around the last meal of christ and the communion
■ 3 main sections: intro prayers, liturgy of word (sermon), the eucharist
Can classify chants in different ways
○ By text (biblical/not biblical, poetry, etc
○ Manner of performance (antiphonal, responsorial, or direct)
○ Musical style (syllabic, melismatic, Neumatic)
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○ Melodic structure (commonly an arching form, occasionally starting at the highest

pitch)
3 primary chant forms
○ Psalm Tones - 8 melodies, meant to be used to chant psalms, meant to fit any
word of psalm
■ 5 melodic elements for a psalm tone
● Intonation /> reciting tone/tenor -> semi cadence (mediant)
->reciting tone/tenor, \> termination| Doxology
○ Melody sung for each stanza of the text (doesn’t change)
○ Free Form - original or combination of the other 2 forms
○ Antiphons are the most numerous of all of the chants (over 1000+)
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● Prolation is the division of semibreves into minims into 3

● Breve acts as a whole note in a time signature

⭕
● Longs are 3x longer than the breve

🔴
● (circle w/ dot) means 9/8 time (major prolation)
● (circle no dot) means ¾ time (minor prolation)
● Imperfect - major prolation is a C with a dot in it and means 6/8 time
● Imperfect time -minor prolation Looks like a C and is 2/4

● Isorhythmic
○ Talea - repeated rhythmic
○ Color
Gen Characteristics of Renaissance music
● Appeal to the senses, over symbolism; transparency over needless complexity
● Panconsonant - minimizing dissonance (until later in the period)
● Duple rhythm is favored for its naturalness; like a beating heart, respiration, or walking;
duple organized by breve was preferred (alla breve)
● Equal voice polyphony; tenor is not the only part with the primary melody (cantus firmus)
● Interest in rhythmic and melodic inflection to achieve musical punctuation, declamation
of text is important
● Early examples of imitation and fugal writing but without the invisibly complex isorhythm
or other such devices of the later Middle Ages
● Genres: motet, Mass (cyclical with each part sharing music material), chanson, madrigal
and other national styles (frottola, air, villancio, chanson)
The Rise of National Styles
● Petrucci’s printing press allowed for secular music in the vernacular to be distributed
broadly and this led to the development of national styles of music. Music was not only a
performance done by a small number of trained musicians. People of the literate middle
class and upper class were expected to have proficiency in reading notation and
performing music
● Spain - Ferdinand and Isabella successfully unified Spain and the desire for the uniquely
Spanish idiom was a result. Villancios were the most important secular genre of
polyphonic music in 16th century Spain
● Italy - Petrarch’s poetry was experiencing a resurgence and was a key inspiration for the
16th century Italian madrigal (differing from the Trecento madrigal).
● French chanson (song) was a simple strophic song without much word painting or
imitation; movement away from complex motets
● England - Italian everything was en vogue but madrigals were the vanguard for music.
16th century Italian madrigal
● Earliest composers of madrigals were…NOT Italian (cue Maury with the line). They were
emigrants from the north
● Form - through-composed - each line of the poetry has a new musical setting; artful and
elevated in tone and borrowed from the pastoral genre for amorous topics. Text and
music were intertwined
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● Initially performed for the enjoyment of the singers themselves often in mixed choruses
singing after meals or at academies (intellectual societies); in the courts virtuosic
madrigal singers were employed and thousands of madrigals were published in well
under a century
● A trio of highly virtuosic female singers in the Duke of Ferrara’s court led to an insatiable
appetite for high voices
● By the end of the 16th century this intimate social song was an extroverted, dramatic
sensation
● Was up to 5 voices near the end of the century
Early Composers of Madrigals
● Jaques Arcadelt - Franco-Flemish composer who worked as a singer in the pope’s choir
as well as in the royal chapel in paris. One of the most famous of early madrigals II
bianco e dolce cigno
● Cipriano de Rore - Flemish by birth but worked in Italy. Revered by composers in the
latter part of the 16th century (particularly Monteverdi). De la belle contrade d’oriente
Reformation of church and its music
●
Abstract Works - the beginning of solo instrumental music
● Based on improb. And written for and performed by lute or keyboard inst.
● Why improv? Tuning, shutting people up, filling time, setting mode of piece
St. Mark stuff
● Giovani Gabrieli developed polychoral technique at the St. Mark Basilica
● Architecture supported advancements in liturgical music for choir and instruments
● Canzona - based on French chanson; no standard form to these pieces
● Gabrieli was among first composers to specify instruments in the score and is also
among the first to include dynamics in his manuscripts*****
The Baroque Era and the Age of Reason (Hanning Ch. 10)
● 1600-1750 Palace of Versailles
● 1609 - Kepler’s astronomical laws (building upon Copernicus)
● 1620 - Mayflower arrives in New England with first English colonists
● 1637 - first public opera house opens in Venice
○ Galileo Galilei - laws of motion; telescope
○ Sir Isaac Newton - Law of Gravitation
○ Middle and upper class demand for published music, instruments, and lessons
○ Public concerts with paid admission were not common until into the 17th century
● Doctrine of Affections: by invoking the correct musical device a composer can
involuntarily arouse the emotions of their audience. Affections were states of the soul,
when external stimuli via the senses stirred the humors the specific emotions were
yoked from the soul
● Dramatic movement: the humanists of the Renaissance favored balance and clarity but
in the Baroque period there was interest in movement and drama to express artistic
ideas. Composers seek to express universal emotions
General Characteristics of Baroque Music
● Harmonic Developments
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● Basso Continuo
● Giulio Caccino - Le Nuove Musiche
● Homophonic texture becomes more relevant (alike to Basso Continuo)
● Strozzi
Genres and Forms
● Variations
○ Chaconne/passacaglia (variations over bass line/harmonic progression)
○ Partita (set of variations)
● Abstract works
○ Improvisatory types for kb or lute - toccata, fantasia, prelude
○ Continuous works often in imitative counterpoint - ricercare, fantasia, fancy, fugue
○ Sectional works with contrasting textures and sections - canzona -> sonata
● Dance Music
○ Some intended for dancing!
○ Stylized and grouped together into pairs
● Biagio Marini (1594-1663) - Sonata IV per violino per sonar con due corde c. 1626
○ Due corde means double stops. Marini was the first to publish works for violin
with notated double stops
○ Great violin makers of the Baroque period: Nicolo Amati, Antonio Stradavari,
Andreas Guarneri
○ The violin was scared of the glorified position of the voice in the instrumental
world. It was considered to be capable of producing the same artistic power.
Works for violin showcased this expressive quality but enhanced it with idiomatic
and virtuosic figures that were only possible on the violin
● Development of the Sonata
○ The term sonata, from Italian “sounded”, was originally modeled after the
canzona in form
■ Independent work for instruments
■ Typically one or two instruments with basso continuo
■ Both sacred and secular
■ Modeled after expressive vocal style while highlighting the idiomatic
capabilities of the melodic instrument(s)
● Dieterich Buxtehude (1637-1707) - Lutheran organist and composer in Lubeck,
Germany
○ Organ music in Protestant churches was prelude to something else
○ Buxtehude’s toccatas alternate between free and imitative sections
■ *The free sections simulate improvisation by contrasting irregular rhythm
with an unceasing stream of sixteenth notes, by using phrases that are
deliberately irregular or have inconclusive endings, and by featuring
abrupt changes of texture, harmony, or melodic direction.” - Manning
○ Chorale as basis for the work: chorale chorale partita (variation), chorale fantasia,
chorale prelude
○ -> chorale preludes use the chorale tune as the basis for a single variation which
could employ multiple variation techniques
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● Clavecin (French for harpsichord) flourished in France after a long reign by the
lute
○ Clavecinists emulated lute style in their works (style brise)
○ Volumes of harpsichord works are increasingly marketed for domestic music
making (well-to-do amateurs)
● Elisabeth-Claude Jaquet de la Guerre ~ the OG child prodigy
● Dance Music
○ Dance Suite - common with French and German composers
○ Prelude (typically in France at this point)
○ Allemande - 4/4, continuous flowing rhythm, starts on upbeat
○ Courante - triple or compound, moderate, often starts on upbeat
○ Sarabande - 3/4 or 3/2, emphasizes second beat, dignified and slow
○ (O)ther
○ Gigue - 6/8 or 12/8, fast, continuous eighths and often dotted rhythms
Ensemble Music - Italy dominated instrumental chamber scene into the early 18th
century
● Sinfonia - Sonata
● Canzona - sonata
● By 1660 two distinct types of sonata emerged:
○ Sonata de camera - chamber sonata; multiple movements of stylized dances and
prelude
○ Sonata de chiesa - church sonata; more abstract forms, some may be dances or
binary form but not labeled as danes
● (by 1670) instrumentation is typically two treble instruments (usually violins) plus
continuo (cello plus harpsichord, organ or lute to fill out chords)
Trio Sonata
● Utilizes the popular texture for sonata de camera and chiesa
○ Two treble melodic instruments (violin) plus continuo
○ Emphasizes the contrast between florid soprano and foundation bass as well as
the interplay between melodic instruments
○ “Trio” refers to the three parts (two melodic instruments and basso continuo), but
this genre actually utilizes 4 or more performers
Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713)
● Sonatas and concertos were well known across Western Europe
● Church sonatas - 4 movements (slow-fast-slow-fast)
● Chamber sonatas - begin with a Prelude followed by 2 or 3 dance movements
● Solo violin sonatas - more virtuosic than trio sonatas
Italy - Divas, impresarios, and SO MANY ARIAS
● Plots were increasingly devoid of comic material - opera seria
● Sinfonia - instrumental opening number with three independent, contrasting movements
(fast - slow - fast); dancing is all but gone from Italian opera by this point
● Choruses decline leaving a chain of recitative and aria pairs
● Recitativo secco - slow harmonic rhythm and rapid rhythms in the vocal part without
much melodic contour
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● Arias are increasingly virtuosic with a characteristic melodic and rhythmic profile
governing the affect desired
● Da capo aria - musical design that coordinates text, thematic material, and harmonic
plan
Rit. 1 (main key) -> Text A Solo A1 -> Rit. 2 (new key) -> Text A Solo A2 -> Rit. 3 (main key) || Text B Solo (other keys) -> D.C.
Concertos
● Sonatas were occasionally played with parts doubled, tripled, etc. with contrast in
the size of the groupings. In a concerto, the concertato medium is demonstrated
within a purely instrumental genre
○ Concertino ~ small solo group that plays throughout
○ Tutti or concerto grosso ~ full ensemble that reinforces passages
○ Ripieno ~ another term for the full ensemble
○ Solo concerto, concerto grosso, and ripieno concerto come into focus
● Ritornello form as first defined by Giuseppe Torelli then expanded by Vivaldi:

TUTTI SOLO TUTTI SOLO TUTTI

Ritornello I (a,b) Ritornello II (a, b) Ritornello III (a,b)

I/i Modulates to V / III V/III IV/V7 I/i

Antonio Vivaldi
● Venetian composer (1678-1741)
● Nickname: The Red Priest
● Virtuoso violinist and ordained priest
● Employed to teach music and compose at the Pio Ospedale della Pietà
● Commissioned to write operas (mostly for Venice but some elsewhere)
● Publisher paid for the publication of most of his concertos
● Prolific composer of nearly 500 concertos, 21 surviving operas, 64 solo sonatas, 38
cantatas, etc.
● Made scads of money on publications but spent it all and had a pauper’s funeral
1. Allegro non molto
Vivaldi Violin Concerto No. 2 in g minor, op. 8, “Summer”
Under a hard Season, fired up by the Sun
Languishes man, languishes the flock and burns the pine
We hear the cuckoo’s voice;
Then sweet songs of the turtledove and finch are heard.
Soft breezes stir the air, but threatening
The North Wind sweeps them suddenly aside
The shepherd trembles,
Fearing storms and his fate

France - early 18th century

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● Some interest in adopting Italian styles but in genres pioneered in Italy, especially the
music of Corelli and Vivaldi (sonatas and concertos)
● King Louis XV did not hold music in as high a regard as his great-grandfather, Louis XIV
● The only place to find success and support as a musician was in Paris, while other
countries had more than one cultural center
Francois Couperin
● Employed by the king, organist at a church, taught private lessons and earned some
money publishing his works -> patronage more diffuse
● L’art de toucher le clavecin - treatise that explained ornamentation, fingering and
instructions about how to play his pieces for harpsichord. One of the primary sources for
performance practice from the Baroque period
● Ordres - sets of pieces, like a suite, with stylized dances bearing sometimes whimsical or
evocative titles (published between 1712-1730)
Jean-Philippe Rameau
● Proof that it is never too late to be successful…
● Worked as an organist in a province, became famous as a music theorist in his 40s and
then was recognized as a composer at age 50
● Unable to achieve fame composing opera initially, then sas supported by a wealthy tax
collector who funded the production of his opera Hippolyte et Aricie
● Had the audacity to criticize the priest administering his last rites for chanting poorly
● Followed his own theoretical procedures that dictate all melody is rooted in harmony
Rameau - Traité de l’harmonie (1722)
● The influence of Descartes and Newton are evident in Rameau’s approach to defining
tonality. He thought music study (continue here)
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750)
● NO PARENTS LOSER
● Raised by his older brother
● Pacabell was his first piano teacher
● Handel and Bach were born in the same year, but never met.
● Statements of the subject are the ritornello and he used it a lot in his music
● First permanent job was as an organist in Arnstadt (1703-1707) and Muhlhausen
(1707-1708)
● Last position was in 1723 where he was a cantor at the St. Thomas Church and School,
and Director of Music for Leipzig for the rest of his career.
Domenico Scarlatti, a prodigious nepo baby
● Born the same year at Bach and handel; born in Italy but resided in Portugal and then
Spain
● Utilized folk elements from Spanish culture, guitar influence, acciaccatura, “vamp”. And
thick chords influenced by those played on guitar
● Essercizi (now called Sonatas) were written for pedagogical purposes. Scarlatti often
grouped 2 or 3 together and the use of binary forms shows the development of sonata
form as we know it today
○ Wrote over 500 sonatas
Vocal Works in the Early Classical period
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● Comic opera, referred to as opera buffa in Italy, was favored for its natural expression of
emotion. Serious characters were set alongside comic counterparts. The comic parts
were often based on “stock characters” from improvised plays
● Plot centers on the foibles of aristocrats and commoners alike and at times showed a
penchant for disrupting the social order
● Sung throughout (not the case in other countries with their comic musical theater)
● Intermezzo: a type of Italian comic opera performed between acts of a serious play or
opera
● Pergolesi: La serva padrona
○ Intermezzo in two acts with only three characters; Uberto the rich old bachelor
(basso buffo), his maid Serpina and his mute valet Vespone
○ “Ah, quanto mi sta male” - recit. after Serpina has told Uberto she is promised to
another man and Uberto responds in an accompanied recit. followed by an aria
○ “Son imborgliato io” - Uberto’s aria reflecting on whether he wants to pursue
Serpina
Ballad Opera in England
● There was a general reaction to opera in England that Italian opera was, “exotic and
irrational entertainment” (as one critic put it). This sentiment is also reflected in Handel’s
decision to shift his efforts to oratorio instead of opera
● Popular tunes, known as ballads, set with new words and some songs that parody Italian
arias
● John Gay - The Beggar’s Opera
○ A play in which all of the characters sing
○ Depicts characters such as thieves, prostitutes, and such instead of mythic
figures from antiquity or nobility.
○ Scene 13: Macheath, a highwayman, is hiding out with a woman named Polly
whom he secretly married. They intone their affections and constancy in this part
of the story.
Opera Reform and Opera Seria in the Early Classical Period
● Johann Adolf Hasse - regarded as the master of opera seria and adopted the Italian
musical style so thoroughly that he earned the nickname, “il caro Sassone” or dear
Saxon
○ Digil ch’io son fedele from Cleofide: da capo Aria
○ Main ideas for the ‘A’ section are presented in the ritornello
○ Phrases set apart by rests are characteristic of the galant style
○ Accented suspensions on downbeats create a “sigh motive’ with a syncopated
cadence common at this time
● Opera Reform
○ Chorus, Ensembles and orchestra given more importance
○ Less contrast between recitative and aria
○ Christoph Willibald Gluck - cosmopolitan born in Germany, studied in italy, visited
London, toured with an opera troupe in Germany, and worked for marie
Antoinette
○ Act II Scene 1 Orpheus pleads with the Furies to release Eurydice but they resist
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Empfindsamer Stil
● The German aesthetic approach as a result of late Baroque “learned style”.
● Empfindsamkeit - sensibility or sentimentality
● Emotional content is not static, instead it is a constant fluctuation of feelings that might
thereby juxtapose different styles within a single movement.
● C.P.E Bach - Bach’s 2nd son
○ Worked in Berlin for Frederick the Great and his #1 job was to accompany the
king who was a flute player
○ C.P.E was a proponent of the Empfindsamer Stil, writing:
■ A musician cannot move others unless he too is moved. And so,
constantly varying the passions he will barely quiet one before he rouses
another.” It was reported that Bach’s playing took this expression of
feeling seriously, “(He) grew so animated and possessed that he not only
played, but looked like one inspired. His eyes were fixed, his under lip fell,
and drops of effervescence distilled from his countenance.”
○ The lied,”Die Trennung” illustrates characteristics of Empfindsamkeit
○ First stanza: “The parting bell is sounding to separate us so cruelly! How shall I
live, o maiden, without you?”
○ Pleading descending melodic lines, surprising harmonic shifts, sighing gestures
at phrase endings, lines broken up by gasping rests
○ Piano Sonata in A Major from Clavier Sonaten für Kenner und Liebhaber (for
connoisseurs and amateurs)
Development of the Symphony
● Symphonia - agreement or concord of sound
● After the Baroque period this term connotes an instrumental work (previously the term
was used in titles of vocal works that may have used instrumental accompaniment such
as Schutz’s Symphoniae sacrae)
● Italian opera overtures, called sinfonias, developed into the symphony as we know it
today. The overtures were in three sections: fast-slow-fast
● At first, these pieces called for strings and basso continuo, later they did away with the
basso continuo and added winds, brass, and timpani
● In Milan, Sammartini takes the operatic sinfonia out of the pit and on stage, leading with
the harpsichord
● Johann Stamitz leads a large and highly regarded orchestra in Mannheim. Stamitz’s
advances in scoring and structure change how composers write for this instrumental
medium
● “It was here that crescendo and diminuendo had birth; and the piano which was before
chiefly used as an echo, with which it was generally synonymous, as well as the forte,
were found to be musical colours which had their shades, as much as red or blue in
painting.” -Charles Burney
Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
● Did NOT come from a family of musicians
● Father loved music and played harp for friends and neighbors
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● Showed great aptitude and at age 6 he was sent to live with his uncle to receive musical
training. He never returned home.
● At age 8 he was taken on as a chorister at the Cathedral of St. Stephen in Vienna.
● Age 18 his voice changed and he was no longer needed for the choir.
● Forced to freelance
● Studied theory and composition in off hours, favoring C.P.E Bach
● Road to a secure financial life was long (like me LOL)
● There was an assortment of freelance work, then work as the accompanist for an italian
composer and teacher, patronage of a nobleman, then a count, and finally the most
important post of his life, Assistant conductor for Prince Esterhazy
● Worked for Esterhazy family, Hungarian royalty, for over 30 years
● Last part of his life was a free agent, but reputation earned him secure footing.
● He was brought to London by an impresario named Saloman to give concerts, teach,
and compose. Died quite respected and wealthy.
● The Haydnsaal at the Esterhazy palace was originally a banquet room, and it is now a
treasured concert hall that holds nearly 100 performances a year.
● In Haydn’s work he had work responsibilities such as:
○ Tafelmusik (dinner music)
○ Two academies (concerts) a week
○ Music for regular and marionette opera
○ Sacred music for princes worship services
○ Special commissions for Prince Nicholas (primarily chamber music with baryton)
○ Music for the organ clock
● Major Works of Haydn
○ 104 Symphonies
○ 20 Concertos
○ 68 String Quartets
○ 29 Keyboard Trios
○ 47 Keyboard Sonatas
○ 126 Baryton Trios
○ 12 Masses
○ 15 Operas
○ 3 Oratorios
○ … Plus numerous other vocal and instrumental works
● Music of the Enlightenment period (Classical period) depended on conventions in
structure and style. A standardized overall outline for various types of instrumental music
permitted composers to meat a high standard of craftsmanship working with
multi-movement pieces
● This outline can be referred to as sonata plan - several self contained movements
centering around a prevailing tonality
● Symphonies by mid-18th century have 4 movements
I. Longest, most serious, primary material and key for the whole work
II. Slow, more sentimental, Empfindsamer stil or cantibile, often in the
subdominant or, in the case of a minor key, the submediant
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III. Minuet, tonic, two binary-form minuets (the second called trio) with the
first returning after the second played without repeats
IV. Fast, light, brilliant, in the tonic, optimistic conclusion
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
● Big Ego
● Champagne taste on a beer budget
Ludwig Von Beethoven
● “When you get the feeling that whatever note succeeds the last is the only possible note
that can rightly happen at that instant, in that context, then chances are you’re listening
to Beethoven…. Our boy has the real goods, the stuff from Heaven, the power to make
you feel at the finish; Something is right in the world. There is something that checks
throughout, that follows its own law consistently: something we can trust, that will never
let us down - But that is almost a definition of god - I meant it to be”
■ Leonard Bernstein, The Joy of Music
● Contemporaries, Historical Events
○ Joseph Haydn
○ Carl Maria von Weber
○ Niccolo Paganini
○ Franz Schubert
○ Franz Liszt
○ Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
○ Gioachino Rossini
○ 1789 - George Washinton took office; French Revolution begins
○ 1804 - Lewis and Clark Expedition begins; Napoleon crowns himself Emperor
○ Industrial Revolution (~1760 - 1840) began in Britain and then spread across the
globe
● Major Works
○ 9 Symphonies
○ Piano Sonatas
○ 16 String Quartets
○ One opera - Fidelio
○ Two Masses
○ 11 Overtures
○ 5 Piano Concertos
○ 5 Cello Sonatas
○ 10 Violin Sonatas
○ Many piano variations, songs, and other works
● Beethoven - 1st Period (to ca. 1802)
○ Received an annuity from a few patrons so that he would stay in Austria,
concertized, published works, and gave lessons. Independent from Kapellmeister
or court composer positions.
○ Studied with Haydn
○ Conceived of works on a grand scale - piano sonatas in 4 movements, like a
symphony, and he soon had Scherzo replace the minuet
 XII

○ Piano Sonata op. 13 in c minor “Pathetique”

Beethoven Second Period (ca. 1803-1816)
● Beethoven was acknowledged throughout Europe as the foremost pianist and composer
for piano of his time and a symphonist on a par with Haydn and Mozart
● Befriended by the most prominent families of Vienna and attracted devoted and
generous patrons.
● Would have his publishers bid against each other and followed Haydn’s lead in
publishing works in several countries at once to preserve his rights and maximize returns
● In part to his growing deafness, Beethoven carried around notebooks in which he
scribbled bits of conversation
● Kept sketchbooks in which he jotted down themes and plans for compositions, worked
out the continuity of each piece, and gradually filled in details.
● Beethoven discovered his deafness getting worse, and that it would be permanent.
Suffering a psychological crisis, he writes a letter from Heiligenstadt, where he writes of
committing suicide, before ultimately making the decision to continue composing through
his deafness.
● Beethoven would begin to work on his only opera, Fidelio, right after the completion of
his 3rd symphony.