4. CLASSICAL PERIOD -...
Transcript of 4. CLASSICAL PERIOD -...
4. CLASSICAL PERIOD
1750 - 1820
The Classical period characterized the brief era
(between c. 1750 and c. 1800) between the Baroque and
Romantic periods. Music was elegant and simplicity. The
period is known as “Viennese Classical” because
Vienna was the base of its three leading representatives:
Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. Instrumental and secular
music became popular at this time. The classical sonata
and the symphony orchestra were born and new
instruments appeared, such as the clarinet and the
fortepiano.
The Classical period saw improvements in areas such
as education, agriculture and science. The French
Revolution (1789) declared the principle of equality for
all citizens and the end of absolute monarchy. The
philosophy of the Enlightenment (Ilustración) promoted
the values of reason and science.
Music is considered to be a form of
entertainment.
Public concerts are popular, with more people
becoming music lovers.
Composers and performers are hired by the aristocracy
and bourgeoisie as employees with a salary, but their
social status improves nonetheless.
Some sell their scores and receive a percentage of the
sales of concert tickets.
❑A natural and regular rhythm.
❑Melodies are simple, memorable and with little
ornamentation.
❑Harmony is clear with simple time signatures.
❑A textura based on accompanied melody, the figure bass
disappeared.
❑New instrumental forms: symphony, sonata, concerto,
quartet.
❑New sounds: the symphony orchestra and the chamber
orchestra.
Haydn - Symphony No.101 in D major (The Clock)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jN8sV0CPXr8
Mozart - Piano Concerto No.21 in C major, K.467
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mxJ1zMNrns
Beethoven - Symphony No.9, Op.125
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfuBE5EPMZs
Beethoven & Pérez Prado – Symphony 5 & Mambo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ph4VLq2lKM
Musical form is the way that music is organised and
structured.
Types of form:
• Vocal: only voices
• Instrumental: instruments only
• Simple: short and with a single movement
• Strophic: AA, AA
• Binary: AB
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OF8e3JHs6Bk
• Ternary: ABA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBjjfUexPCA
• Rondo: ABACADA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HD3ApJmKxA4
• Variation: A A1 A2 A3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8A9GJ734nGs
Complex: Works which are long or with various movements
(suite, opera, oratorio, sonata, symphony, concerto).
Sonata form
In the Classical period the classical sonata was created. A
sonata form is a composition with a máximum of four
movements with contrasting sections (fast, slow, quite fast
and fast). The term “sonata form” can also refer to the
structure of the first movement: exposition, development and
recapitulation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEdwkm1fqnc
Eine kleine Nachtmusik, (German: “A Little Night Music”) Serenade No. 13 in G Major, K 525
In the Classical period, composers wrote less religious
music. However, some important examples are “The
Creation” by Haydn, “Requiem Mass” and the “Mass in C
Major” by Mozart, and “Missa Solemnis” by Beethoven.
A requiem is a work composed to honour a person who has
died, and can also refer to the music of a Mass for the dead.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnRRcMC8XHU
Requiem in D minor, K.626 (Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus) – Tuba Mirum
Requiem in D minor, K.626 (Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus) – Lacrimosa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43xIMg6KkQY
Die Schöpfung (The Creation), Hob.XXI:2 (Haydn, Joseph) – Adam and Eve duet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnRRcMC8XHU
Opera developed during the Classical period. In Italy, comic
opera (opera buffa) became more popular. These were simple
operas, narrating everyday situations. Gluck was the precursor
of classical opera, and Mozart developed the genre in Vienna
(Cosi fan tutte, The Marrieage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, The
Magic Flute). Mozart’s compositions have a great sense of
theatrical drama. Beethoven composed just one opera,
Fidelio, with little success.
Orphée et Eurydice, Wq.41 (Gluck, Christoph Willibald) - J'ai perdu mon Eurydice
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MCOKMuwKkA
A lot of instrumental music was written during this period.
The orchestra envolved and grew, new instruments were
invented, and there were new groupings for chamber music.
The first symphony orchestra usually consisted of the
following instruments: violins, violas, cellos, double basses
(string); flutes, trumpets, trombones (wind); timpani (drums).
Later on, the clarinet and a new kind of trumpet were
introduced.
In keyboard instruments, the clavichord was replaced by the
fortepiano, invented by Cristofori in 1711, as it could produce
both loud and soft sounds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdviLNSGznQ
Classical Period Instruments
The term sonata referred to compositions for one instrument
(sonatas for piano, violin, etc.).
Symphony was the term applied to orchestral music (duets,
trios, quartets, etc.) were accompanied by smaller chamber
groups.
The concerto was for a solo instrument accompanied by
orchestra.
Joseph Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn was an Austrian
composer of the Classical period. He 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.
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".
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Mozart born in Salzburg and showed prodigious
ability from his earliest childhood. He
played keyboard and violin, he composed from
the age of five and performed before European
royalty. At 17, Mozart was engaged as a musician
at the Salzburg court but traveled in search of a
better position. While visiting Vienna in 1781, he
was dismissed from his Salzburg position. During
his final years in Vienna, he composed many of
his best-known symphonies, concertos,
and operas, and portions of the Requiem, which
was largely unfinished at the time of his early
death at the age of 35. The circumstances of his
death have been much mythologized.
Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer
and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between
the classical and romantic eras in classical music, he
remains one of the most recognized and influential
musicians of this period, and is considered to be one
of the greatest composers of all time.
At age 21, he moved to Vienna as a result of the
French Revolution, and studied composition with
Joseph Haydn. Beethoven then gained a reputation
as a virtuoso pianist, and was soon courted by
Prince Lichnowsky.
His hearing began to deteriorate in his late twenties,
yet he continued to compose, conduct, and perform,
even after becoming completely deaf.
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