THE CLASSICAL STYLE (of Mozart, Haydn, and the young Beethoven)

• developed particularly in Vienna: an ideal city for it...Vienna was at a crossroads geographically and culturally (Germany, Austria, Bohemia (Czech Rep. now),Hungary, Italy
• capital of powerful Hapsburg Empire
• Vienna’s golden yrs: 1780-1790
• Joseph II, an “Enlightened Despot,” emancipated the peasantry; furthered education; reduced power of clergy, church; supported art/literature/music -- the arts
• Vienna during this time was a sophisticated, liberal city of 150,000: 300 newspapers(!) w/ every shade of opinion
• Haydn at Eisenstadt (Esterhazy palace) recognized as principal composer of Europe, w/ symphonies commissioned from far-off London
• Mozart drawn to Vienna in 1781 because of its reputation

THE ENLIGHTENMENT

• Enlightenment’s roots are in English/Scottish philosophy.
• faith in REASON, had led to great scientific discoveries in previous century
• NOW, emphasis on science used in trying to improve the SOCIAL sphere, turning natural forces to universal benefit, applying reason to solve problems of public morality,education, and politics
• social injustice came under fire
• religion criticized, STRONGLY: an anti-religious age, compared with the previous
  currents of outright atheism. William Blake, the English mystic and poet protests: Mock on, mock on, Voltaire, Rousseau; Mock on, mock on, ‘tis all in vain! You throw the sand against the wind, And the wind blows it back again.

Voltaire and Rousseau were important philosophers of the Enlightenment. Both fought passionately for social justice to that people might live good lives according to their own convictions.

Voltaire (1694-1778) the satirist (Candide)
Rousseau (1712-1778): “one of the few major figures of European philosophy who had a direct effect on the history of music” - as we shall see {the Romantic mvt!}

THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS

• first great contribution to Western civilization: American system of govt. The Declaration of Independence., and the Federalist papers called the “finest flowers of Enlightenment idealism”
• centered around an IDEA: that a new state could be founded on rational principles, set down on a piece of paper, and agreed to by men of good will
• “happiness” thought of for the first time as a self-evident right

ART AND ENTERTAINMENT

• For most people, “entertainment” means the good life, although Jefferson was thinking of more than entertainment when he said “the pursuit of happiness”
• entertainment not looked down upon: the arts expected to please, above all, NOT to instruct, impress, or even express
• the divertimento was popular: a light form of music not really meant to be listened to except as a diversion, an entertainment...played outdoors, often (like Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, or "A Little Night Music")
• The ”great” composers Haydn and Mozart never put pen to paper without thinking their music was going to, above all, PLEASE and ENTERTAIN. -----Here’s the deal: every period has its ‘pop’ music or light music or dance music. The Classical period in music is the ONLY time in music history where the highest quality music was put forth as entertainment. The two were one and the same. There was no boundary between “serious” music and “folk” music, or “art” music and “pop” music.
• Neo-CLASSICISM (in the sense of the Greeks as “classic”)--think architecture
• rejection of the complexities of the earlier Baroque period (J. S. Bach and others who composed much polyphonic music
• design, such as the Wedgewood pottery modeled on Roman busts, Greek vases, harkened back to the Classical age
• The opera composer Willibald Gluck thought opera should be “reformed” by simplifying and ennobling it.
• In all the arts, the watchword was moderation, simplicity, and balance
• We think now in cateogories of “Classicism” and “Romanticism” (and we’re about to do that here). But the Classical Age (the Enlightenment) thought of itself as “Romantic” (remember the handout of E.T.A. Hoffmann)
• Remember: the term “Classical” period was an INVENTION OF THE ROMANTICS:
  • Romanticism ordinarily construed as opposite of classicism: but it was only in the 19th c. that the concept of Classicism emerged in the first place, and that a selection of works classified as “repertoire” of concert hall, opera house
  • Palestrina for church music, Bach for the Protestants, Handel for oratorio, Gluck for musical tragedy, Mozart for opera buffa, Haydn for str. quartet, Beethoven for symphony, Schubert for lied etc.
  • Fundamentally new: overpowering presence of EARLIER music, for the first time. Only w/ romanticism did classicism come into existence AS SUCH

THE RISE OF PUBLIC (PAYING) CONCERTS

sociology and economics of music come into play here...the rise of public concerts: only in the 18th c. did this become a significant force in musical life, affecting the way composers composed.-------->

In 1748, the first public concert hall (still in use: the Holywell Music Room in London - seats 150 people)

BUT: the livelihood of professional musicians still depended on patronage, someone supporting them. WE WILL SEE HOW THIS CHANGED WITH BEETHOVEN

STYLE FEATURES OF ‘CLASSICAL’ MUSIC (and you should now use the term correctly!)

In the previous era, called the “Baroque” the single guiding concept was overstatement, exaggeration, a thorough and even rigorous quality to the music

Classical: two concepts always to keep in mind

1. natural
2. pleasing

With this, we come up with “pleasing variety” and “natural simplicity”
RHYTHM: The tempo(speed), and meter remain constant, but rhythms differ both obviously and subtly