History of Western Classical Music
Lecture 18: Classical Style Overview
THE CLASSICAL PERIOD
Definition: There are different meanings of the term "Classic"
 It stems from the Latin work "classicus" meaning a "citizen" of the highest class. Therefore, it means top rate, the standard by which others are measured. It is often used to
describe the golden age of Rome and of Greece. But also, and in connection with literature, we call important works "classics", such as works of William Shakespeare
and Charles Dickens.
 "Classical" is also used as a more broad and general term for a style in art and architecture. Here it means order, clean lines, balance, poise, restraint and simplicity as opposed to the excesses of the Baroque or the somewhat superficially decorative, ornamental Rococo (taken from "rocaille" or "shell work", referring to ornaments used frequently during this Rococo era) of the late Baroque. Also, it means a concentration on
formal aspects, in contrast to the emotional expressivity of the Romantic period that
favored ideals of strangeness, exuberance, and wonder.
 In music, "classical" is often opposed to "pop". However, within "classical music" it
refers to a specific time period between the Baroque and Romantic eras, about 17501825 (some scholars are placing it between 1730 and 1810).
Cultural Background: It was a time of further scientific advancement: with the inventions
of the steam engine (James Watt, 1760s) and the spinning jenny (1760s), and cotton gin
(1790s), the industrial revolution was on its way. Electricity was discovered, medical
vaccination was perfected, the element oxygen was discovered. Out of a desire to systemize knowledge, the first encyclopedias were written in France and Britain.
Political developments: The American Revolution (1775-83) and the Declaration of
Independence voiced the ideals of human equality and freedom “all people have the
right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” (Thomas Jefferson and others).
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History of Western Classical Music
Lecture 18: Classical Style Overview
The storming of the Bastille in Paris 1789
The Declaration of Independence in Washington
The French Revolution 1789-99 also called for liberty, fraternity, equality for all human beings. To the rising middle class, the Ancient Greeks represented city states that
rose against tyrants and absolute power.
In philosophy, the Classical Era more or less coincides with the "Age of Reason" and
with the Enlightenment. Voltaire (1694-1778) and Denis Diderot (1713-1748) held that
human reason is the best guide for human conduct, not tradition or custom; and they
championed progress over tradition. General opinion emphasized reason over belief and
favored freedom for the individual; general opinion was also against privilege and in
favor of equal rights and universal education, ideals which eventually brought down
the structures of the nobility and the clergy. In fact, philosophers like Locke, Hume, Voltaire and Rousseau were social activists and the American Declaration of Independence
and Constitution grew out of criticism against the inequalities between the common people and the privileged class in Europe. The glorification of natural feelings, of “natural
man” (Jean Jacques Rousseau), coincided with the rise of the middle class. This time
was also a cosmopolitan age, where national differences were minimized in comparison to the common humanity of mankind. There was again a revitalized interest in the
literature and arts of Classical Antiquity (like already in the 12th century and in the Italian
Renaissance of the 15th century).
Esterhazy estate,
Prince Nicolas Esterhazy
During the classical era, there happened a shift with regards to the patrons of the arts.
The nobility and clergy were still the main patrons and composers could still be employed by aristocracy, as Haydn was in the service of Prince Esterhazy and Dominico
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History of Western Classical Music
Lecture 18: Classical Style Overview
Scarlatti composed at the Spanish Court. But composers became increasingly unhappy
with their status as (more or less) servants. Popular taste had already been catered to in
the operas of the Baroque. Music was not anymore composed mainly for the church or
court, and its performance was moving more and more from the palace to the concert halls, increasing a trend that had begun in the Baroque Era. The many opera houses
in, for example, Venice, London, and Paris were very well attended by the public.
The place and status of composers in society began to change: Handel had been a successful entrepreneur running a public opera house. Mozart left an appointment by the
Archbishop of Salzburg and tried his luck as a freelance composer with varying success. And Beethoven is the archetype of our modern understanding of an artist composer: a highly characteristic individual, often at odds with his/her environment, showing
idiosyncratic qualities (a strange, peculiar personality) that a musician employed by a patron simply could not afford to display.
The Characteristics of Classical Music: (Review the handout comparing Baroque and
Classical styles). While Baroque composers had experimented with contrast in sonorities (as in the concerto grosso and the solo concerto), Classical composers furthermore
explored contrast in thematic material. Rather than the single affection (mood, character) that used to be predominant within a Baroque style movement, (where contrast of
thematic material had occurred mainly between the individual movements), in a classical
style composition, contrast of themes and moods within a single movement is a prominent feature. In this way, sections were differentiated, which affected the structure of
classical compositions (see for example Sonata-Allegro-Form and Rondo form).
Mozart: symphony no. 40 in g minor, first movement, [see listening guide 27]
Classical melodies are elegant, lyrical, easily sing-able, and structured symmetrically
with balanced four-bar phrases (question and answer), defined by clear cut cadences
(rather than the overlapping voices of the Renaissance that create a continuum, or the
spinning melodies of the Baroque). Clarity is created by repetition and by use of sequences (repeating a motive on a higher or lower pitch within the development of a melody), which helps to create balanced structures that (more or less consciously) are easily
understood by the listener.
Sections would also contrast with regards to rhythm, as opposed to the homogeneous,
driving rhythms of the Baroque. Classical rhythms helped establish the clarity and
supported the creation of regular cadences. Classical pieces move at a steady tempo,
generally in one of the main meters of 4/4, 3/4, 2/4, or 6/8. Both, folk elements and
courtly dance rhythms were popular.
Texture: there was not an abrupt change, as homophony was already favored in the Rococo, but the largely homophonic textures of the Classical period had more emphasis on
harmonic movement through chords and on functional harmony, than the polyphony
of the late Baroque counterpoint - even though Baroque counterpoint had existed already
within the framework of major-minor tonalities. In classical compositions polyphony was
used, but it took a back seat; except for in religious music like in the oratorios and masses
of Haydn and Mozart.
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History of Western Classical Music
Lecture 18: Classical Style Overview
Classical harmony uses chords that are firmly rooted in their keys and do not change too
abruptly. Major-minor tonality is largely diatonic: establishment of the home key,
movement to closely related keys and return to a home key.
Absolute music, which means music that is not related to words or a story, became important in the genres of sonata and symphony (predecessors in the Baroque are had been
the concerto and concerto grosso as well as the sinfonia and the French overture).
Instruments of the Classical Era: For the first time in Western music history, instrumental
music overtook vocal music in importance. Instrumentation: In the Baroque period,
instruments had been specified, but were still somewhat inter-changeable, when melodies
that were indicated for strings were often played by wind instruments and vice versa.
This did not occur much in the Classical era, where the differing characters and colors of
instruments became increasingly important. Improvisation: More and more details that
had previously been left to the discretion, ability and taste of the performer were now
worked out by the composer. Instead of a "continuo", where a harpsichord would improvise and low strings would fill out a bass, all parts were written out. Singers still added
some ornamentation of their own, but in general performers played what the composer
wrote.
Dynamics: There were new contrasts as well in loud and soft. The "Mannheim crescendo" (Mannheim is a town in Germany, with one of the finest and earliest orchestras), a
gradual crescendo, or getting louder, done for the first time with an entire orchestra was
quite a sensation. (This orchestra also used other brilliant techniques: The” Mannheim
Rocket” is a rapid ascension via broken chords from low to high register, as used for example in the beginning of Eine Kleine Nachtmusik by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.) The
pianoforte, invented around 1700 and overtaking the harpsichord in the middle of the
century, made possible all the gradations of loud and soft that had been impossible on
Baroque keyboard instruments (and in Baroque times had been achieved by changing
“registers” that added a set of strings or organ pipes, or by increasing the number of players in for example a concerto grosso). In classical style, a wide range of dynamic nuances
became increasingly important.
The orchestra in the Classical period settled into four sections: strings, woodwinds,
brass and percussion. The number of musicians varied, from relatively small to as
much as for example 60 musicians, as Haydn directed 1795 in London, and to even larger
scale.
As music for instruments presented increasing demands on the skills of performers, and
while instruments themselves were developing, as for instance the piano, treatises on
how to play were written more frequently. We have mentioned Carl Philipp Emmanuel
Bach’s "True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments". Johann Quantz, who served in the
Court of Frederick the Great, wrote a book on how to play the transverse flute.
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