Chapter 11
Prelude: Music and
the Enlightenment
The Enlightenment
and Music
Where we are
Feb 16th-Intro to Classical Period 1750-1827
Feb 28 back-Haydn and Mozart Symphony and
form.
March 2nd-Other classical forms and exam
review. I will give you a study sheet.
March 7th EXAM
8-classes left after that with guest speakers!
Key Terms
The Enlightenment
“The Pursuit of
Happiness”
Rococo
Divertimento
Opera buffa
Novel
Neoclassicism
Classical style
Classical Timeline
Classical Timeline
Prelude
Classical style emerged in second part of
the eighteenth century
• Pioneers included composers in Italy & Bach’s
sons working in Germany & London
• Reached maturity in the hands of great
composers in Vienna–Haydn & Mozart
Vienna an important crossroads
• Capital of Hapsburg (Austro-Hungarian) empire
• Influence of Germany, Bohemia (Czech
Republic), Hungary, & Italy
Vienna (1)
Vienna’s golden years—1780-1790
Emperor Joseph II an enlightened ruler
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Emancipated peasants
Furthered education
Reduced power of the clergy
Supported music & literature
Encouraged free press
Many composers were drawn to Vienna
Vienna (2)
Composers in Vienna
Haydn was Europe’s principal composer
• Worked in nearby Eisenstadt
• Wrote symphonies for far-off Paris & London
Mozart came from Salzburg in 1781
• Spent final decade of his life in Vienna
• Wrote many of his greatest works
Beethoven arrived from Bonn in 1792
• Came to study with Haydn
• Launched his career in Vienna
The Enlightenment and Music
France the center of the Enlightenment
• Influenced by English philosophy
• Influential in Germany & Austria
• Major figures included Voltaire & Rousseau
Rooted in a faith in reason
• Derived from Baroque scientific orientation
• Science now to be used for human benefit
Applied rational methods to social sphere
• Public morality, education, & politics
Social injustice & religion came under fire
“The Pursuit of Happiness”
American contribution to Enlightenment
was profound
• Declaration of Independence & Federalist
Papers
• Notion that a new state could be founded on
rational principles
• Emphasis on human rights–“life, liberty, and
the pursuit of happiness”
An age that valued good living
• Encouraged intelligence, wit, & sensitivity
• Invented salon, coffee house, & public concert
Art and Entertainment
Arts expected to entertain, to please
• Not to instruct, impress, or express
Rococo style fashionable at midcentury
• Light, decorative style
• Popular in painting, furniture, jewelry design
Music developed a similar style (galant)
• Light & charming
• Divertimento a typical genre–designed to
divert, amuse, & entertain
Jean-Jacques Rousseau &
Opera (1)
Rousseau the first “alienated” intellectual
Emphasis on nature & the individual
• The “natural man” an influential idea
• Social institutions seen as too stifling
Wrote articles on politics & music for the
great French Encyclopédie (1751-65)
Rousseau attacked Baroque opera!
• Encouraged a simpler, more natural music that
focused on real people, real life
Jean-Jacques Rousseau &
Opera (2)
Rousseau was excited by a new Italian
comic opera
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Pergolesi’s La serva padrona
Lively, catchy music
No coloratura singing or exaggerated emotion
Story of servant girl who tricks a rich bachelor
into marriage
Encouraged French comic opera as well
Comic opera became the most progressive
operatic form of the day
The Novel (1)
New genre took hold around 1750
• Literary equivalent of the new comic opera
Features that made the novel popular
• Sharp, realistic observation of contemporary
life
• Sensitive depiction of feeling
• Many managed to be sexually explicit,
sentimental, & moralistic all at the same time
The Novel (2)
Well-known early novels included—
• Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones
• Samuel Richardson’s Pamela
• Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Emma,
Persuasion, etc.
Many novels were turned into operas
Mozart’s great operas can be compared to
great novels
• Penetrating, sympathetic portrayal of
characters
Neoclassicism
Important movement in the visual arts
Emphasis on “the natural”
Influence of Greek & Roman classics
• Return to simple, natural values
• Rejection of complex Baroque solemnity
• Rejection of pleasant Rococo frivolity
Gluck attempted to reform serious opera
• Austere yet dramatic classical subjects
• Simpler, more natural melodies