Music of the
Classic
Franz Joseph Wolfgang Ludwig
Haydn Amadues Mozart Beethoven
(1732-1809) (1756-1791) (1770-1827)
Western Europe: GERMANY &
AUSTRIA
Classic or
describe a period of musical style
Classical
approximately before the middle of the
18th century through the first decade
of the 19th Century
• Europe began to identify with antiquity
– especially ancient Greece and the
ideals manifest in culture.
• the arts – music, sculpture, and
architecture – became icons that gave
new life to classical ideals of balance,
restraint, symmetry, purity of line and
form.
Newton Historical
Background
Marked by the rise of the lower
and middle classes in a
democratic spirit which asserted
by itself in the French Revolution
William themes: Liberty, Equality and
Blake Fraternity (Period 1730-1820).
(1757-1827)
New alliances of countries: Prussia
“Equations allied with England and fought
changed against Austria and France which
our view of then spread through Europe, India
the world to and America. The American
being one Revolution and their declaration of
determined independence belong to this
by period.
mathematic
al laws.”
Taking of the
Bastille
Historical
Background
The predominant philosophy
was rationalist manifested in the
works of German Immanuel
by
Kant and the French Denis
Jean-Pierre
Diderot and the
Louis Laurent
Houel
Encyclopedists. Other important
(1735-1813)
people in literature and
philosophy were Voltaire
The Bastille (François-Marie Arouet) and
(prison) served Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
as a potent
symbol of
everything
despised under
the aristocratic
French social
and political
system.
Historical Figures
Denis Diderot Voltaire
Immanuel (1713-1784)
(1724-1804) (1694-1778)
Kant French philosopher, write
German (François-Marie Arouet)
and Editor-in-chief of the French writer, essayist, deist
philosopher
famous and philosopher
In sociology, Scottish political economist and moral
philosopher
Jean-Jacques Rousseau Adam Smith wrote Inquiry into the Nature.
(1712-1778) and Causes of the Wealth of the Nations
Genevan philosopher whose ideas
influenced the French Revolution, the This is a significant work as one of the earliest attempts
development of socialist theory
and the growth of nationalism. to study the historical development of industry and
commerce in Europe. This helped to create the modern
academic discipline of economics and provided one
of the best known intellectual rationales for free
trade, capitalism and libertarianism.
General Music Characteristics
of the Classical Period
Classical Period Music can be described as
objective, showing emotional restraint, polish,
refinement, and a certain amount of superficiality.
•Form
-The sonata form emerged from the Classical period.
•Melodic Style
-A new type of melody which has individual and compact
character
develops.
-often folk-like in clarity and simplicity.
-replaces the long lines, figurations and ornamentations
styles of
Baroque polyphony.
•Homophonic Style
-The homophonic style became more preferred than the
polyphonic
•Counterpoint.
a device that was still employed but became of secondary
importance.
Contrapuntal forms (many simultaneous voices or instrument
parts) were abandoned.
•Harmony
simple harmony.
harmonic developments occurred during the time of
Beethoven who was a transition composer from the Classical
to the Romantic era.
•Musical phrases
more regular, shorter and clearer than those of the Baroque
period.
•Orchestration
The Classical period established the basis and standardization
of modern orchestration and instrumentation.
•Dynamics
There are considerable effects of loud and soft in the works of
the Classical masters as expressed in the crescendos and
decrescendos or diminuendos in the performance of works.
•Musical Output
There was an enormous increase in the production of all kinds
of music in the Classical period. This was enhanced by the
expansion of music publishing business.
•Advent of the Piano
Although invented a century earlier, the piano began to
make progress as a music medium and replaced the older
keyboard instruments like harpsichord, clavichord et al
because it has a greater sonority than the other keyboard
instruments of the earlier periods.
Picture on left is the Bartolomeo Cristofori di
harpsichord which is a Francesco of Italy created
technological precursor to the first working model of
the modern (baby) grand the pianoforte as early as
piano on the right. 1701
