prelude

• musical life in the early classic period reflected the international culture that spread throughout europe during the enlightenment

• shared humanity mattered more than national and linguistic differences so the ideal musical style was made up of the best features from all nations

• galant style became the foundation for the classical style

where does classical music start

• pre 19th century - mozart duh, haydn is okay, then beethoven, then everyone else

• 19th century - bach is the father of all great german music and most great music is german

• early 20th century - did anyone write good music between bach and mozart? nah

• 20th century - hold up

general characteristics of the new style

• focus on melody

• periodicity - frequent resting points break the melodic flow into related segments

  • musical ideas were articulated through phrases that formed periods

  • creates a structure marked by frequent cadences and unified through small motivic correspondences

• musical rhetoric - terminology borrowed from rhetoric

  • compared melody to sentences or composition to a speech

• alberti bass

  • arpeggiated underlying chords in simple repeating pattern

• form

  • coherence, differentiation of material according to its function

  • beginning, middle, or ending gesture; levels of relative strength

• koch wrote the most thorough guide to melodic composition based on rhetorical principles

• division of melody into phrases and periods is supported by harmony and shaped by weaker and stronger cadences, slower harmonic rhythm animated with rhythmic devices such as alberti bass

• differentiation of musical material by function - each segment was recognizable as a beginning, middle, or ending statement

• understanding that emotions were constantly changing introduced contrasting moods within phrases, movements and themes

opera buffa

• more open to innovation because it didn’t have such a strong hold on tradition

• opera buffa

  • full length sung through, satirical, comic cast complemented by serious characters

  • dialogue in rapid and sparsely accompanied recitative

  • arias in galant style

  • plots entertained, served moral purpose

  • focused on normal people

  • stock characters - often parodied commedia dell’arte and aristocrats

• intermezzo

  • another form of italian comic opera with two or three contrasting or parodying musical interludes inserted between acts of a serious opera

  • alternating recitatives and arias

  • comic plots, two or three people, contrast the serious drama of the main plot

  • pergolesi - la serva padrona, relies heavily on humour, contrast, musical style is evolving to reflect humans’ internal dialogue

• comic opera took different forms in different countries

  • homegrown comic opera librettos were always written in the national tongue and musical idiom

  • comic opera librettos written in the national tongue

  • accentuated national musical idioms

  • historical significance - comic opera responded to widespread demand for naturalness and anticipated the trend toward musical nationalism

• opera comique

  • french opera buffa counterpart

  • consisted of pop music (vaudevilles) or simple melodies until an italian comic opera troupe visited paris and generated a mixed italian-french style (ariettes), which gradually replaced vaudevilles altogether

  • used spoken dialogue instead of recitative, dealt with social issues

  • gluck, gretry

• ballad opera

  • rose to popularity in england after the beggar’s opera by john gay

  • music consists of popular tunes (ballads) set to new words and a few numbers that parody familiar operatic airs

  • signaled a general reaction in england against foreign opera

  • the entire genre is just to make fun of opera seria

• german singspiel

  • success of english ballad opera inspired its revival

  • librettists adapted english ballad operas

  • translated or arranged french comic operas

the new world

• opera didn’t become popular in the new world for a while because settlers had little time for entertainment, resources were scarce, population was scattered

• puritans had disdain for theater and distrust of pleasure

• spanish colonies carried on theatrical productions

• early american music grew out of the religious traditions of settlers

  • villancicos in spanish colonies, french Catholic music in canada, english hymns in anglican churches in british north america

• puritans of new england

  • calvinist - metrical psalms, rhyming, easily singable

  • published psalm books - bay psalm book, first book published in north america

  • singing schools were established and the availability of singers invited composers to write new music

  • billings new england psalm singer

• moravians of pennsylvania and north carolina

  • cultivated sophisticated genres of german speaking protestants

  • concerted arias and motets in current styles

  • substantial sacred and secular music libraries

  • performed chamber music and symphonies