Classical Era

1
Classical Era

• Art and Music of the Enlightenment

2
Classicism Defined

• The period of the ancient Greeks and Romans
• A standard (enduring)
• Genre of music
• Time period

1750-1820
3
Music of the Classical Era

• Began death of Bach
• Ended Beethoven (mid-life)

4
Classical Thinking

• Reason was supreme
• Sought the perfect society
• Enlightenment
• Beauty
• Rules were valuable

5
Viennese Classical Style
Characteristics of the Viennese Style
? Dedication to form from Germany
? Strong melody from Italy
Vienna
6
Music of the Classical Era

• Written for middle class
• Non-sophisticated Listener
• Simple and Melodic Themes
• Bach Fugue Mozart Eine Kleine
• Large Room
• Bach Air Beethoven 9th
• Movements have beginning, middle, end
• Bach Brandenburg Beethoven 5th
• Easier to play
• Bach Fugue Beethoven Für Elise

7

• I write my music in order that the weary and
  worn or the men burdened with affairs might enjoy
  a few minutes of solace and refreshment.
• Haydn

8
Structure of Music

• Melody carried the interest
• Form still needed to give meaning
• Note power of the human voice
• Instrumental music uses strong melody as power

9

• There can be no art without form.
• Igor Stravinsky

10
Musical Objectives

• Explore major-minor system
• Develop homophonic system
• Focus on simple melody
• Chords and cadences
• Large structures
• Cultivate human voice
• Explore new instruments

11
Music and Literary Analogy

• Musical notes
• Musical phrases
• Musical themes
• Musical movements
• Symphonies

• Letters
• Words
• Sentences
• Chapters or short stories
• Books

12
Forms of Movements

• Theme and Variation
• Rondo
• Minuet and Trio
• Sonata-allegro form

13
Sonata-Allegro Form
Mozart 40th Symphony, 4th Movement
1st Theme
2nd Theme
Development
Recap
Modulating Bridge
14
Sonata-Allegro Form
15
Sonata-Allegro Form
16
Forms of Entire Works

• Concerto (expanded)
• Symphony

17
Joseph Haydn

• Father figure to Mozart and Beethoven
• Worked for Prince Esterhazy
• Father of the symphony
• 88, 4th Movement
• Included jokes in his symphonies
• Wrote in most genres
• Freely gave time and advice
• Relationship with Mozart

18

• My prince was always satisfied with my works.
  I not only had the encouragement of constant
  approval, but as conductor of an orchestra, I
  could make experiments, observe what produced an
  effect and what weakened it, and was thus in a
  position to improve, alter, make additions, or
  omissions and be as bold as I pleased. I was cut
  off from the world. There was no one to confuse
  or torment me. I was forced to become original.
• Haydn

19
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

• Began composing before age 5
• Life of depression and creativity
• In Salzburg
• Court composer
• Vienna
• Salieri
• Friendship with Haydn
• Struggle for money

20

• My pay is too much for what I do, too little
  for what I could do.
• Mozart

21
Mozart

• Able to hear complete pieces in his head
• Capability for output
• 10 years
• 8 Symphonies
• 17 Piano Concertos
• 6 Operas
• Clarinet quartet and quintet
• Requiem Mass
• 11 String Quartets
• 5 String Quintets
• Many Individual Works

22

• Though it be long, the work is complete and
  finished in my mind. I take out of the bag of my
  memory what has previously been collected into
  it. For this reason the committing to paper is
  done quickly enough.
• Mozart

23

• What a delight this is I cannot tell all this
  producing takes place in a pleasing, lively
  dream.
• Mozart

24
Mozarts Music

• Simple melodies
• Contrasting moods
• Rich orchestration
• Perfected the serenade

25
Mozarts Music

• Favored the piano
• Concertos written for his performance
• Later symphonies considered his best
• Operas
• Marriage of Figaro Overture

26
Ludwig van Beethoven

• Supported his family as a child
• Scholarship to Vienna
• Played for Mozart
• Made the piano popular
• Second scholarship to Vienna
• Taught by Haydn

27

• I carry my thoughts within me long, often very
  long before I write them down. As I know what I
  want, the fundamental idea never deserts me. It
  mounts, it grows in stature. I hear, I see the
  picture in its whole extent standing all of a
  piece before my spirit, and there remains for me
  only the task of writing it down.
• -Beethoven

28
Beethovens Music

• 2 periods of composition
• Classical
• Minuet
• Romantic
• May have been caused by his oncoming deafness
• Sadness
• Moonlight Sonata

29

• How humiliated I have felt if somebody standing
  beside me heard the sound of a flute in the
  distance and I heard nothing...It is impossible
  for me to say to people, Speak louder, for I am
  deaf. How would it be possible for me to admit
  to a weakness of the one sense that should be
  perfect to a higher degree in me than in theirs.
  So forgive me if you see me draw back from your
  company which I would so gladly share. I would
  have ended my life. It was only my art that held
  me back for it seemed impossible to leave the
  world until I have brought forth all that is
  within me.
• Beethoven

30
Beethoven Symphonies

• Supreme architect
• Tied all movements into a theme
• 5th
• Fate versus hope

31

• I am resolved to rise superior to every
  obstacle. With whom need I be afraid of
  measuring my own strength? I will take Fate by
  the throat. It shall not overcome me. O how
  beautiful it is to be alivewould that I could
  live a thousand times.
• -Beethoven

32
Beethoven Symphonies

• 9th
• Finale
• Ode To Joy

33
Classical Period Art
34
Art in the 18th Century

• Baroque had been the style from 1600 to 1750
• Elaborate, impressive
• Show glory of church and/or state
• New direction was disputed

Baroque
Classical (Simpler)
Rococo (Sweeter, nature)
35
Rococo

• Emphasis on ultra beauty and nature
• Less dramatic (more sweet) than Baroque
• Themes aimed at the wealthy class
• Lighter, frivolous
• Picnics, lovers, Greek gods
• Portraits

36
Jean Antione Watteau

• Pilgrimage to Cythera

37
François Boucher
Europa
38
Jean-Honoré Fragonard
The Swing
39
Thomas Gainsborough

• Mary, Countess Howe

Blue Boy
40
Thomas Gainsborough
Mrs. Richard Brinsley Sheridan
41
Sir Joshua Reynolds
Collina
42
Sculpture

• Virtuosity
• Queirolo
• Release from Deception

43
Architecture
44
Architecture

• Cupids and gilded ornamentation
• The monastery church of our Lady Ettal,
  Oberammergau

45
Architecture

• (Ettal)

46
Architecture

• Wieskirche, Bavaria
• (Altar)

47

• Wieskirche (Nave)

48
Architecture

• Kaisersaal, Wurzburg

49
Art

• Rococo followed by Neoclassical
• American revolution
• Paintings

50
Jacques Louis David

• Death of Socrates

51
Jacques Louis David

• Oath of Horatii

52
Jacques Louis David

• Intervention of the Sabine Women

53
Jacques Louis David

• Napoleon Crossing the Alps

54
Jacques Louis David
Coronation of Napoleon
55
Jacques Louis David
Napoleon in his study
56
Sculpture and Architecture

• Horatio Greenough
• Washington

University of Virginia (Designer T. Jefferson)
57
Architecture

• Recalled ancient classical
• U.S. Capital
• Monticello

58
Classical Architecture and Music
59
Thank You
60
Music of the Classical Era

• Characteristics (Vienese style)
• Dedication to form
• From the Germans
• Strong melody
• From the Italians
• Homophonic

Vienna