3.12 Music and the Enlightenment

• After 1850, the Classical style emerged
  • Developed especially in Vienna
  • Vienna is located at the crossroads of 4 other musical nations, and was in a lot of European conflicts
  • Hapsburg empress Maria Theresa and emperor Joseph II supported music and lit w/ patronage

The Enlightenment and Music

• Joseph II was “enlightened”
• The Enlightenment was centered in France, had roots in Britain, Germany, and Austria
  • Source of development was the “faith in reason”
• 2 French philosophers mentioned when talking about the Enlightenment
  • Voltaire (aka François Marie Arouet; 1694-1778), a “tireless satirist and campaigner for justice and reason”
  • Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), younger and more radical
  • Had a direct impact on music

“The Pursuit of Happiness”

• Social justice became big after Thomas Jefferson and the Magna Carta
• 18th century had salons (party/seminar) and public concerts
• Enlightenment “holds special resonance for America”

Art and Entertainment

• Art was to please
• Rococo, a “light and often frothy” style was popular (midcentury)
  • Common genre at the time was divertimento, a piece to “divert” (entertain)
  • We don’t study this much?

Jean-Jacques Rosseau and Opera

• Rosseau was a novelist, philosopher, and self taught composer, among other things
• He wanted opera that portrayed “real people in actual life”
  • This lead to the formation of opera buffa, Italian comic opera that did just that
  • Lively and catchy

The Novel

• New literary genre, “the Enlightenment’s greatest artistic legacy to more recent times”
• Ideally, they were realistic observations of contemporary life

The Rise of Concerts

• Public concerts became big
• There were regular concert series and charity concerts
• First concert hall was the Holywell Music Room in Oxford, England
• Purely orchestral music “moved into the public domain”
• Public concerts were not great for making money

Style Features of Classical Music

• Ideal music was natural and pleasing
• There was still some complexity
• New expressive quality

Rhythm

• Biggest change
• Highly flexible in rhythm
• Tempo and meter may be constant
• Less predictable, more interesting

Dynamics

• More variety and flexibility
• Notated in music now (f, p, ff, etc.)
• Lots of crescendo and diminuendo
• Piano started to replaced harpsichord
  • Pianoforte!

Tone Color: The Classical Orchestra

• Basis for symphonic orchestra
• Heart was (still) stringed instruments
• Classical orchestra had violins 1 and 2, violas, cellos, basses, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 2 french horns, 2 timpani, and optionally 2 clarinets and/or trumpeuts
• Woodwinds provided “pleasing variety” and strengthened strings
• Brass provided support for main harmonies in the middle range

Melody: Tunes

• Uncomplicated and singable (simple)
• Closer to popular/folk music
• Tunes were worked into larger compositions
• Theme and variation form became popular

Texture: Homophony

• Primary texture is homophony
  • Considered more “natural” than polyphony
• Easier to compose, in some ways
• Precisely specified harmonies
• “Continuo” was discontinued

Classical Counterpoint

• Some Classical composers still used a “more delicate, unobtrusive” counterpoint
• Attracted special attention
• More intense and artificial
• Heart in sonatas, often in the development section

Form in Classical Music

Repetitions and Cadences

• Themes in classical music are repeated immediately and many times
• Preceded distinctively?
• Closed off distinctively

Classical Forms

• Most important forms were…
  • Sonata form
  • Minuet form
  • Rondo form
  • Theme and variations form
• “Commonly understood frame of reference [for music]”

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