CHAPTER 44

Classical Music in Vienna

• Vienna was the capital of the Holy Roman Empire and a melting pot of cultures.

• There the greatest musicians of the time found generous patrons among the many Viennese aristocratic families.

• Viennese school: a group of composers that includes Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert, all of whom worked in Vienna at the height of their careers.

Vienna

Neoclassical architecture: an 18th-century style of architectural design that revived classical (especially Roman) architecture.

Symmetrical units, long lines, and restrained ornamentation characterize this style.

The Classical style derives many of its characteristics from the galant style: clarity, simplicity, formal balance, and naturalness.

Between 1770 -1820, the Classical style dominated Western art music, which for this reason has come to be known as "Classical" music.

Classical forms

• Rounded binary: ABA‘:

- A ends in a new key (usually the dominant or relative major)

- B begins in the new key and gradually gives way to an altered reprise, A'.

- In the Classical period scherzos and minuets are almost always in this form.

• Ternary:

- ABA, where A begins and ends in the tonic and is repeated note for note.

- B, which modulates to complementary keys.

Classical composers often used strict ternary form in the third movements of symphonies and string quartets.

Classical forms

• Theme-and-Variations: a theme that is subsequently varied: – melodically– harmonically– rhythmically– and/or by ornamentation.

• Rondo: a refrain (A) is set against

contrasting material (B, C, or D), thus creating the pattern ABACA, ABACABA, or even ABACADA. – it was usually employed in the last

movements of sonatas and symphonies.

Sonata form

• Sonata form is the most important formal innovation of the Classical period.

• Composers usually employed sonata form in fast (allegro) first movements of a sonata, quartet, concertos, or symphony.

Sonata form (cont.)

• Exposition: the first section of a movement in sonata form in which the primary thematic material is presented. It usually consists of a first theme in the tonic, a second theme in the dominant or relative major, and sometimes a closing theme.

• Transition or bridge: the passage that modulates between the tonic and the new key in the exposition.

• Development: the second section in which the themes of the exposition are varied and developed.

• Retransition: the end of the development which brings back harmonic stability (often in the form of a dominant pedal point).

• Recapitulation: the return to the thematic material of the exposition, varied to ensure that the second theme remain in the tonic key.

• Coda: Italian for "tail," an additional closing section sometimes appended to the recapitulation.

Classical genres

• Symphony: during the 18th century it replaced the solo concerto and concerto grosso as the leading genre of large-scale instrumental music.

• From the Classical period onward, the symphony formed the heart and soul of almost all orchestral concerts.

• Concerto: while the concerto grosso mostly disappeared, composers wrote solo concertos mostly for violin and piano.

• Divertimento and serenade: a musical diversion for various types of chamber ensembles characterized by a lighter style and a five-movement format: – fast/minuet and trio/slow/minuet and trio/fast.

Classical genres (cont.)

• String quartet: conceived by Haydn in the 1750s by adding a viola to the old Baroque trio texture.

• The string quartet featured four more-or-less evenly matched instrumental parts. – unlike the symphony and the concerto, it was

designed for private ("chamber") performances.

• Sonata: a type of domestic instrumental chamber music in two, three, or, more rarely, four movements for soloist or small ensemble.

• Sonatina: Italian for "small sonata," it denotes a short and easy sonata, mostly intended for amateur aristocratic musicians.

The Classical orchestra

• The orchestra between 1750 and 1820 experienced a significant growth as the performance of the symphony moved from the private salon to the public auditorium.

• Most of this increase occurred in the string section. • The standard woodwind section now included pairs of oboes, clarinets, flutes, and bassoons while trumpets and drums might be occasionally added in festive occasions.

• The typical "mid-size" orchestra counted between 35-40 players.

Crook: a small piece of pipe that altered the length of tubing, and consequently the pitch, of the natural horn and natural trumpet.