Concise History of
Western Music
5th edition
Barbara Russano Hanning
Prelude IV
The Eighteenth
Century
Continuities between Seventeenth
and Eighteenth Centuries
Classical music and classical style
• Classic era: 1730–1815
• classical: mature music of Haydn, Mozart, and
Beethoven
• analogy to Greek and Roman art
 simplicity, balance, perfection of form, diversity within unity,
seriousness of purpose, restrained use of ornamentation
• galant style, 1730s
 French term for courtly manner: modern, sophisticated
 emphasis on “naturalness”
FIV-01
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Continuities between Seventeenth
and Eighteenth Centuries (cont’d)
Classical music and classical style (cont’d)
 simple melody with light accompaniment
• empfindsam style
 from German verb empfinden, “to feel”
 intimate, sensitive, subjective tendencies
Europe in the Eighteenth Century
Realignment and revolution
• balance of power among strong centralized states
• France had biggest army; Louis XIV’s lavish spending
depleted the treasury
• Britain: powerful navy, dominant power after Seven
Years’ War (1756–1763)
• Austro-Hungarian Empire increasingly influential
• Prussia became a kingdom, 1701
• Prussia, Russia, and Austria divided Poland’s
territories
Europe in the Eighteenth Century
(cont’d)
Realignment and revolution (cont’d)
• American Revolution (1775–1783); French Revolution
(1789)
Economic expansion after 1750
•
•
•
•
new agricultural methods, growing food supply
improved roads, faster travel
growth in manufacturing and trade
middle class grew in size and economic clout
Europe in the Eighteenth Century
(cont’d)
Economic expansion after 1750 (cont’d)
• landed aristocracy’s importance diminished
• continent more urbanized, nature idealized
Education and learning
•
•
•
•
new schools founded for elite and middle classes
London, 1702: daily newspapers
more books published, purchased, read, circulated
Enlightenment: Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau,
reason and science
FIV-02
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TIMELINE
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Europe in the Eighteenth Century
(cont’d)
The Enlightenment
• embraced rationalism: reason, combined with
experience and knowledge, could solve problems
 Immanuel Kant in Germany
 France: accumulate and codify knowledge
 Encyclopédie (1751–1772) edited by Denis Diderot
 individual faith and practical morality valued over
supernatural and the Church
• the philosophes
 French thinkers, social reformers
 developed doctrines about individual human rights
Europe in the Eighteenth Century
(cont’d)
The Enlightenment (cont’d)
 ideas incorporated into American Declaration of
Independence
• humanitarianism
 rulers promoted social change
 absolute power, use for betterment of their subjects
 Freemasonry: teachings of secret fraternal order of Masons
• the arts
 promise of new political and economic order echoed
in the arts
Europe in the Eighteenth Century
(cont’d)
The Enlightenment (cont’d)
 new genre of novels, celebrate ordinary people
 Henry Fielding Tom Jones (1749), Samuel Richardson Pamela
(1740–1741)
• Figaro
 fictional character, symbolizes challenge to the old order
 protagonist in two French comedies by Beaumarchais
 The Barber of Seville (1755), The Marriage of Figaro (1784)
FIV-03
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Europe in the Eighteenth Century
(cont’d)
The Enlightenment (cont’d)
• three phases of the French Revolution
 1789–92, reformist
 stimulated by Louis XVI’s ruinous fiscal policies
 popular uprisings: assault on the Bastille
 king accepted new constitution
 1792–94




1792, Austria and Prussia attacked France
radical group declared France a republic
king and queen executed
Reign of Terror
 third phase: more moderate constitution sought
Europe in the Eighteenth Century
(cont’d)
The Enlightenment (cont’d)
• Napoleon Bonaparte




1799 became First Consul of the Republic
consolidated power, crowned himself emperor, 1804
expanded French territories; ended Holy Roman Empire
defeat in 1814
FIV-04
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From Baroque to Classic
Aim of Classicism
• related to central ideas of Enlightenment
• renewed study of classical past
 architectural discoveries: Herculaneum (1738), Pompeii
(1748)
Realizations in the arts
• painter Jacques-Louis David
 featured morally uplifting themes from antiquity
 portrayed Napoleon in tradition of Roman Caesars
• sculptors: noble simplicity, calm grandeur
FIV-05
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FIV-06
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From Baroque to Classic (cont’d)
Realizations in the arts (cont’d)
• lecture halls styled after Greek and Roman
amphitheaters
• Royal Academy of Art in London (1768)
Sensibilité (“sensibility”)
• rationalism tempered by sentimentality
 feeling is more important than reason in apprehension
of truth
 Rousseau celebrated nature and emotions in his writings
From Baroque to Classic (cont’d)
Sensibilité (“sensibility”) (cont’d)
• Jean-Baptiste Greuze, painter
 themes of ordinary life
 depicted moral or pathetic subjects
• Jane Austen
 Sense and Sensibility embodies intellectual currents
of the age
FIV-07
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The Place of Music in the Classic
Era
Musical amateurs and connoisseurs
• amateurs bought music, publishers catered to them
 music to perform at home
• connoisseur: term coined early eighteenth century
 Sonatas for Connoisseurs and Amateurs, C. P. E.
Bach (1779)
Musical journals and histories
• catered to amateurs and connoisseurs
• first universal histories of music
 Charles Burney, A General History of Music (1776–89)
FIV-08
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The Place of Music in the Classic
Era (cont’d)
Public concerts
• new economy, private patronage declined
• affluent citizens emerge as modern audience
• Paris, Concert Spirituel: public concert series founded
1725
Musical tastes and styles
• variety of styles coexisted
• distinctive traditions developed national form of opera
The Place of Music in the Classic
Era (cont’d)
Musical tastes and styles (cont’d)
• preferred music: vocally conceived melody, short
phrases, spare accompaniment
 language of music should be universal
 preference for the “natural”
FIV-09
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Concise History of Western Music, 5th edition
This concludes the Lecture Slide Set
for Prelude IV
by
Barbara Russano Hanning
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