General Notes on the Enlightenment
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Advances in Science--Newton
Writings of the Philosophes
Period begins around 1685, climaxes in the excesses of the French Revolution
Advances in concepts of individual freedom contrast sharply with political reality.
For example, Louis XIV (r. 1643-1715) and Louis XV (r. 1715-1774) rule for a
combines 135 years! The average length of rule by the major Absolute Monarchs
was 50 years.
Freemasonry--viewed with increasing suspicion by the government, even though
some were nominally Freemasons
Changes in Musical Life
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Development of the Public Concert
Popularization of Art and Learning
Style Galant compared to Baroque Aesthetics:
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Advocated by J.B. Harrer (Bach’s successor at Leipzig) and practiced by his sons
Decline of the figured bass
Lightening of the bass line and a more homophonic texture
Periodicity preferred to “spun-out” melodies
Slower harmonic rhythm
Departure from the idea of a single Affection
Singability of the melody
Three Main Rococo Styles
Style Galant
Empfindsamer Stil
Sturm und Drang
In another view, the Rococo and, later, the high Classical Style composers concerned
themselves with Topics and Styles, and consciously referred to them. Examples include:
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Military and Hunt Music
Singing Style
Brilliant Style
French Overture
Musette and Pastorale
Turkish Music
Storm and Stress, and Empfindsamkeit
Strict or Learned Style
Fantasia
Formal Considerations: Development of Sonata Form
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Role of thematic material--Koch (1802) expressed a somewhat Baroque view that
the thematic material should be unified. He did refer to a “catabler Satz” (a
singing theme) at the point of the dominant
Classical theorists all describe the form (incipient sonata form) as a bipartite form.
The bipartite view rests on its harmonic dynamism while the tripartite view is
essentially static
The first theorist to use the term “sonata form” was Adolph Bernhard Marx in his
three volume work Composition, written between 1841-51.
Dominico Scarlatti (1685-1757)
1685
1701-03
1703
1709-1713
1713-1719
--1719-1728
1724-1728
1728-1757
born in Naples
studies with father
writes first opera
Composer at a private Court
Composer at Basilica Giulia
At Lisbon as tutor to Maria Barbara
(travels back to Italy, visits father; marries Maria Caterina Gentili)
Resides in Madrid
Carl Philip Emmanuel Bach (1714-1788)
1714
1721
1731
1734
1738
1753
1762
1762
born to JS Bach and Maria Barbara Bach
Maria Barbara dies in Coethen
JS marries Anna Magdalena Wilke
Attends Leipzig University;
Assists father
Attends University of Frankfurt-an-der-Oder
Employed by Crown Prince Frederick
Publishes Versuch, I
Publishes Versuch II
Becomes Telemann’s successor at Hamburg
A Chronology of Sonata Form Development
Ca. 1700
Baroque binary form
1720s
Rounded Binary--Incipient sonata form
1740s
Sinfonia and sonata
Three movement plan--CPE Bach
Symphony, modeled on the Italian opera overture
Three movement plan with sonata form--Sammartini
Symphony in Mannheim
Four movement plan with two themes
Credited to J. Stamitz
1st practiced by Jommelli