The Classical era grew in part out a reaction for the artistic and philosophical values of the Baroque Era. The very term Baroque was applied backward from this time to criticize the overly complicated and ornate styles of art, architecture, and music. The term Classical refers to a return to the clear, natural styles of classical Roman and Greek art and architecture. Examples of this are the Supreme Court Building on Center Street in New York City (famous from "Law and Order"), Thomas Jefferson's Monticello in Virginia, and the New York Public Library on 42nd St.
I n a broader socio-political context, these ideas were part of the Englightenment. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the Enlightenment was a "European intellectual movement of the late 17th and 18th centuries emphasizing reason and individualism rather than tradition. It was heavily influenced by 17th-century philosophers such as Descartes, Locke, and Newton, and its prominent exponents include Kant, Goethe, Voltaire, Rousseau, and Adam Smith."
Revolutions were in the air: the Scientific Revolution, as well as political revolutions: American (1776), French (1789), and Haitian (1791). The French Revolution was extended to the Napoleonic Wars, overthrowing various rulers, overthrowing the concept of the Divine Right of Kings. This Enlightenment belief is epitomized by the opening of the 1776 Declaration of Independence:
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
In music, the "art of the natural" led to a preference for clear, balanced melodies set in a homophonic style, as opposed to the long, elaborate, ornamented melodies with continuo of the Baroque period. Polyphony became the exception, rather than the rule. Instrumental music, considered to be the purest expression of emotion, became much more prominent, giving rise to genres like the symphony. Many of the most famous composers of the era were centered around Vienna, the capital of the Hapsburg Austro-Hungarian Empire. These include Josef Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven. We will examine various genres and the lives of these composers, as well as other composers in other genres. We will also look at how politics and nationalism were reflected through the music.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born into a musical family in the Austrian city of Salzburg, son of composer Leopold Mozart (1719–1787) . Both Wolfgang and his older sister, Maria Anna, nicknamed Nannerl, were child prodigies. Little Wolfgang wrote his first compositions at age 5, and composed his first symphony for orchestra at age 8.
The family went on an extensive European tour lasting 3 1/2 years, showcasing the talented youngsters. This was exhausting for all of them, and mother and daughter subsequently stayed at home, while father and son continued. Nannerl ultimately gave up composing and public performance.
Leopold, Wolfgang, and Maria Anna Mozart on Tour in Paris
Mozart initially worked, like his father, for the arch-bishop of Salzburg, but went to Vienna to look for better opportunities. He was never financially secure, which probably contributed to his early death at age 35.
According to Wikipedia,
Mozart's music, like Haydn's, stands as an archetype of the Classical style. At the time he began composing, European music was dominated by the style galant, a reaction against the highly evolved intricacy of the Baroque. Progressively, and in large part at the hands of Mozart himself, the contrapuntal complexities of the late Baroque emerged once more, moderated and disciplined by new forms, and adapted to a new aesthetic and social milieu. Mozart was a versatile composer, and wrote in every major genre, including symphony, opera, the solo concerto, chamber music including string quartet and string quintet, and the piano sonata. These forms were not new, but Mozart advanced their technical sophistication and emotional reach. He almost single-handedly developed and popularized the Classical piano concerto. He wrote a great deal of religious music, including large-scale masses, as well as dances, divertimenti, serenades, and other forms of light entertainment.
The central traits of the Classical style are all present in Mozart's music. Clarity, balance, and transparency are the hallmarks of his work, but simplistic notions of its delicacy mask the exceptional power of his finest masterpieces, such as the Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, K. 491; the Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550; and the opera Don Giovanni.
According to Wikipedia, Haydn
"was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the piano trio. His contributions to musical form have earned him the epithets "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet".
Haydn spent much of his career as a court musician for the wealthy Esterházy family at their remote estate. Until the later part of his life, this isolated him from other composers and trends in music so that he was, as he put it, "forced to become original". Yet his music circulated widely, and for much of his career he was the most celebrated composer in Europe.
He was a friend and mentor of Mozart, a tutor of Beethoven, and the older brother of composer Michael Haydn."
Haydn perfected the genre of the string quartet, which uses 2 violins, viola, and cello. The string quartet has four movements:
Fast (usually in Sonata Allegro form)
Slow--sometime Theme and Variations
Dance in 3--in this era, a minuet and trio
Fast--often in rondo form
This format was also followed by the symphony, which is for full orchestra.
Haydn and the Princes of Eszterházy
Haydn was fortune to work for three generations of Esterházy princes, the first of whom, Prince Nikolaus, commissioned Haydn to write over 200 pieces for the baryton, an instrument like the cello, but with additional sympathetic resonating strings. The following is an adagio (slow) movement from one of his baryton trios. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UP613tBAa6Q. Working at Eszterháza, Haydn trained and directed one of the finest orchestras in Europe--a dream situation for any composer.
After Prince Nikolaus died, his son Prince Anton cut back on music at court. Haydn was put in reduced wages, but had a pension from the late prince's will. Haydn, who was very popular in England, took the opportunity to go on leave twice, in 1791-1792 and 1794-1795. He was hugely popular, and earned a great deal of money, gaining financial security.
One of his enthusiastic audiences was the Anacreontic Society, named after an ancient Greek poet who wrote about drinking, singing, and getting together with friends. which was a group of rich amateur musicians, who organized concerts at their headquarters. They were wealthy enough to commission a song, "The Anacreontic Hymn." The first and last verses are:
Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser, unsern guten Kaiser Franz!
Lange lebe Franz der Kaiser, in des Glückes hellstem Glanz!
Ihm erblühen Lorbeerreiser, wo er geht, zum Ehrenkranz!
Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser, unsern guten Kaiser Franz!
God save Francis the Emperor, our good Emperor Francis!
Long live Francis the Emperor in the brightest splendor of bliss!
May laurel branches bloom for him, wherever he goes, as a wreath of honor.
God save Francis the Emperor, our good Emperor Francis!
This tune went on to be popular as a church hymn and ultimately became the German national anthem.
Haydn used it as the basis for the slow movement of the string quartet known as the Emperor String Quartet.
This slow movement uses the technique of theme and variations. Starting with the original theme, the variations get more and more complex, while keeping the original theme in one part or the other.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBmCcSz6HWw
Haydn liked to alternate soft and loud passages to keep people from falling asleep during his performances. An example of this strategy is the fourth movement of Symphony number 102 (one of Haydn's London Symphonies), which is in rondo form. In this form, there is a theme like a refrain, that alternates with episodes. In a textbook rondo, the rondo theme is repeated verbatim, as in this rondo for classical guitar by the Spanish composer Fernando Sor, a younger contemporary of Haydn https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o13jJ76G2tw
In Haydn's rondo, in addition to keeping the listeners on their toes with varying loud and soft, the compose also never repeats the rondo theme the same way, often starting it, then trailing off in some other direction.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUQslroHUVE
The minuet was originally a dance form from the Baroque period. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HePkPlB0zgk
It was in the form AABB (binary form), but in the Classical period, the B section ended with a repeat of the A section, so that it became AAB(A)B(A) (rounded binary form). The Trio was a minuet with a lighter texture (fewer parts). It would be sandwiched between two iterations of the minuet giving the form ABA (ternary). So, out of small building blocks, a larger form was constructed. This example is the third movement of the same Symphony number 102. In modern times, it is customary to not play all the repeats in the minuet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-9Vd0HjUwQ
One of the major developments of the Classical period was Sonata form, also know as Sonata Allegro form. It consists of three sections: Exposition, Development, and Recapitulation.
The following diagram illustrates this flow. The different colors represent different possible keys.
One example is the first movement of Mozart's 40th Symphony. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l45DAuXYSIs
Another example is his "Eine kleine Nachtmusik" (A Little Night Music) for strings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzEX0-nwN4Y
Mozart composed many operas in Italian. One of the genres in which he excelled was comic opera or opera buffa. The plots often involved slapstick, physical comedy. This comes out a long tradition dating back to Roman times, through the Renaissance comedia del arte.
"The Marriage of Figaro" (1786) with the libretto (literally, "little book'), or script, written by Lorenzo Da Ponte is a wild ride. Let's examine one scene in the beginning, starting at time mark 24:40 and going to time mark 39:35 of the following video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtDQvKB4kvA&t=2375s
The story takes place in the Spanish city of Seville in the mansion of Count Almaviva. who is married to Countess Rosina Almaviva. The countess's maid Susanna is engaged to marry the count's personal valet, Figaro. Among the characters involved in this scene are Cherubino, a young page (servant in training), which is played by a woman dressed as an adolescent boy,, and the gossiping music teacher, Basilio.
The count, although he acts as if he wants everyone in the house to behave in a moral manner, is actively trying to get Susanna to be his mistress--which she doesn't want, but this in an era when servants were often at the mercy of employers. She and Figaro are trying to outwit the count, and avoid this problem. Meanwhile, the young Cherubine, like many young men, has women on the brain. The following is the Wikipedia summary of the scene.
Cherubino then arrives and, after describing his emerging infatuation with all women, particularly with his "beautiful godmother" the Countess (aria: "Non so più cosa son" – "I don't know anymore what I am"), asks for Susanna's aid with the Count. It seems the Count is angry with Cherubino's amorous ways, having discovered him with the gardener's daughter, Barbarina, and plans to punish him. Cherubino wants Susanna to ask the Countess to intercede on his behalf. When the Count appears, Cherubino hides behind a chair, not wanting to be seen alone with Susanna. The Count uses the opportunity of finding Susanna alone to step up his demands for favours from her, including financial inducements to sell herself to him. As Basilio, the music teacher, arrives, the Count, not wanting to be caught alone with Susanna, hides behind the chair. Cherubino leaves that hiding place just in time, and jumps onto the chair while Susanna scrambles to cover him with a dress.
When Basilio starts to gossip about Cherubino's obvious attraction to the Countess, the Count angrily leaps from his hiding place (terzetto: "Cosa sento!" – "What do I hear!"). He disparages the "absent" page's incessant flirting and describes how he caught him with Barbarina under the kitchen table. As he lifts the dress from the chair to illustrate how he lifted the tablecloth to expose Cherubino, he finds ... the self same Cherubino! The count is furious, but is reminded that the page overheard the Count's advances on Susanna, something that the Count wants to keep from the Countess.
What you will notice is that in the aria "Cosa sento", which a trio between the Count, Susanna, and Basilio, sometimes they are singing the same words in harmony, and sometimes they are singing different words at the same time. This reflects the agreement or differing points of view of the characters.
All this running around and confusion continued in popular theater, and carried over into movies and television. A famous early example of this is the famous Mirror Scene from the 1933 Marx Brother's movie "Duck Soup." The premise is that Groucho Marx has been elected the prime minister of the republic of Fredonia. Meanwhile, Chicho and Harpo Marx are spies, trying to get state secrets. It is night time, and Chicho and Harpu disguise themselves to look like Groucho. They trying to hide, when Chico runs into a mirror. The rest is self explanatory in this video clip. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_fmUYyWSyE
Mozart and Opera in German
According to Wikipedia
The Magic Flute (German: Die Zauberflöte pronounced [ˈdiː ˈt͡saʊ̯bɐˌfløːtə] (
listen)), K. 620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form during the time it was written that included both singing and spoken dialogue.[a] The work was premiered on 30 September 1791 at Schikaneder's theatre, the Freihaus-Theater auf der Wieden in Vienna, just two months before the composer's premature death.
In this opera, the Queen of the Night persuades Prince Tamino to rescue her daughter Pamina from captivity under the high priest Sarastro; instead, he learns the high ideals of Sarastro's community and seeks to join it. Separately, then together, Tamino and Pamina undergo severe trials of initiation, which end in triumph, with the Queen and her cohorts vanquished. The earthy Papageno, who accompanies Tamino on his quest, fails the trials completely but is rewarded anyway with the hand of his ideal female companion, Papagena.
One of the most famous scenes is when the Queen of the Night is trying to force Pamina to kill Saurastro. This is one of the first uses of a very high soprano singing style known as coloratura. The so-called "Queen of the Night" aria is one of the most frightening in the opera repertoire. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuBeBjqKSGQ
Patriotic songs became a prominent part of the political landscape through much of Western society. We have previously seen the examples of "God Save the King" and "Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser." Add to that the French Revolutionary anthem "La Marseillsias" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4K1q9Ntcr5g.
During the American Revolution, various songs assumed the status of unofficial national anthems. Many of you are familiar with "Yankee Doodle."
| Yankee Doodle went to town | Yankee=A New Englander, Yankee Doodle=Unsophisticated New England farmer |
| A-riding on a pony, | Not a horse, as an upper-class Englishman might |
| Stuck a feather in his cap | Simple ornamentation, which he thinks is high fashion. |
| And called it macaroni. | Macaroni refers to a man of high fashion, or the fancy clothing he wears. |
So, this is, in effect, a statement of class warfare. It became popular as a marching tune during the Revolution.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVdTTGkTDgk
Now, we generally view it as something of a nonsense song. If you look at that verse carefully, and pick it apart, you see something different.
William Billings (October 7, 1746 – September 26, 1800)
William Billings was born in Boston, Massachusetts. At the age of 14, the death of his father stopped Billings' formal schooling. In order to help support his family, young Billings trained as a tanner. He possibly received musical instruction from John Barry, one of the choir members at the New South Church, but for the most part he was self-taught. Billings had an unusual appearance and a strong addiction to snuff. His contemporary wrote that Billings "was a singular man, of moderate size, short of one leg, with one eye, without any address & with an uncommon negligence of person. Still, he spake & sung & thought as a man above the common abilities." Billings died in poverty in Boston on September 26, 1800, leaving behind a widow and six children. His funeral was announced in the Columbian Centinel: "Died- Mr. William Billings, the celebrated music composer. His funeral will be tomorrow at 4 o'clock, PM from the house of Mrs. Amos Penniman, in Chamber-street, West-Boston. (Wikipedia)
His hymn "Chester" originally written in 1770, was re-written with political words in 1778. It became a popular marching tune and unofficial national anthem.
Let tyrants shake their iron rod,
And Slav'ry clank her galling chains,
We fear them not, we trust in God,
New England's God forever reigns.
Howe and Burgoyne and Clinton too,
With Prescot and Cornwallis join'd,
Together plot our Overthrow,
In one Infernal league combin'd.
When God inspir'd us for the fight,
Their ranks were broke, their lines were forc'd,
Their ships were Shatter'd in our sight,
Or swiftly driven from our Coast.
The Foe comes on with haughty Stride;
Our troops advance with martial noise,
Their Vet'rans flee before our Youth,
And Gen'rals yield to beardless Boys.
What grateful Off'ring shall we bring?
What shall we render to the Lord?
Loud Halleluiahs let us Sing,
And praise his name on ev'ry Chord.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--XA2OtAPnk