Core 4: Topics in the Modern World
IDS 2400
Focus: Fine Arts
LECTURE NOTES
Enlightenment Music: The "Classical Style" (cont.)
Hearing “pleasing variety” and “natural simplicity” in Mozart.
RHYTHM. Tempo and Meter remain constant, but rhythms differ both obviously and subtly
MOZART G minor SYMPHONY:
1ST movement
-- first theme is active, steady
-- second theme has longer, shorter notes
(FIRST THEME in 8th notes, SECOND in dotted half, quarter, dotted half, four sixteenths)
what would you say? intellectual? rational? At the least it was more interesting, less DRY than the previous Baroque...? More DRAMA in a way
DYNAMICS: a wide variety, sensitivity. crescendoes and dim. a NEW THING! if
you can imagine. But keep in mind what you’re hearing as we move into
Beethoven...we will compare to see what happens. It is said that dramatic
crescendoes used to cause audiences to get so excited they rose out of their
seats
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NOW, think about pleasing variety and natural simplicity
‘Rules’ set up expectations. Titles set up expectations. The first sounds you hear set up your own personal expectations (recall the opening of ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’ and Conell’s immediate reaction...)
Hearing the Enlightenment: something called sonata form
--audiences in the 18th c. KNEW it, understood how it worked.
--the only time when pop/art music ONE & THE SAME
--sonata form was EXPECTED in symphonic music as well as in instrumenatl music (as in Piano Sonata)...
Mozart gm symphony again
Exposition: 1st theme, bridge [0:34]; 2nd theme group [2] , REPEATED
for clarity/reassurance, understanding: NATURAL, SIMPLE, PLEASING
...then Developmental material from [3] until Recap [4], Coda
[5]
but Mozart was subtle, snuck in great emotional depth, in the way he colored certain shades w/ harmony, the way he extended by one meas. a theme, etc., etc.
now listen to a Beethoven sonata
(op 2/1, I) written when he was young. Does it follow the form you just heard?
explanation of opus numbers
MOVEMENTS OF A TYPICAL SYMPHONY IN THE CLASSICAL PERIOD: Psychological narrative of symphonies in the Enligntenment
I - the intellect
II - the heart (songful, beautiful)
III - the body (stylized dance), usually a minuet ABA
IV - simplest, least demanding intellectually...fast, showy (rondo easy to follow, for ex. or variations: u always know where you are)
You can hear the emotional progression of Beethoven’s life experiences from his early works to his late works, after he was completely deaf.
[the opening mvt of the 9th Symphony of Beethoven]:
ambiguity deliberately created. HOW?
1. There’s something about the opening...open hollow fifths, neither major nor minor (musicians can hear it)
2. Where are the tunes??? the themes???? There ARE none, at least none as easily recognizable as in the Mozart
3. Clear? or Ambiguous? pleasing variety? NATURAL simplicity?
I don’t think so!
(QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF as you listen)
Where does it "feel" like we are in the movement? A beginning, a middle (developmental material), or an ending?
Are there clearcut sections w/ beginnings and endings?