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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