This was the first era in music history in which public concerts became an important part of the musical scene. Music was still being composed for the church and the court, but the advent of public concerts reflected the new view that music should be written for the enjoyment and entertainment of the common person. Unlike the Renaissance or Baroque eras, which included many important composers and trends, the choral music of the classical era was dominated by three composers: Franz Joseph Haydn , Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , and Ludwig van Beethoven For the first time, during the Classical period most of the important stylistic advances that occurred can be observed most clearly in the instrumental forms: the symphony, concerto, sonata, and in instrumental chamber music e.
Church music tended to be more conservative than secular compositions, which also helps to explain why stylistic innovations were seen most clearly in instrumental music but were less prevalent in the choral music of the period. Choral and instrumental forms overlapped during the Classical period to an unprecedented degree. Forms developed in the instrumental area were appropriated and used to good effect in choral music. Sonata allegro form, for example, often found in sonata or symphony movements, is also used in sections of classical masses.
Beethoven included choral sections in two instrumental works, his Choral Fantasia and the Ninth Symphony. This period in music history is sometimes referred to as "the Viennese Classic period," and it was centered in Vienna. Beethoven, Haydn, and Mozart, though none was a native Viennese, all worked in Vienna for significant periods in their careers. Although Vienna was the focal point for musical activity of the period, classical music is not parochial but universal in spirit and in style.
The mass continued to be an important form for each of the three primary Classical composers. During the Classical period, masses involved orchestra, soloists, and choir in a fully integrated work, utilizing organizational principles derived from instrumental forms.
Missa Brevis. This concise treatment of the mass text may consist of strictly delimited development, simultaneous setting of several lines of text, or the omission of certain sections of the mass. Missa Solemnis. When choral musicians refer to the Missa Solemnis they are usually speaking of Beethoven's Mass in D Major, a milestone in the development of choral music.
In a broader sense, however, the term refers to a more elaborate and extended musical treatment of the mass text than that employed in the Missa Brevis. The Baroque oratorio tradition, begun by Carissimi and culminating in the works of Handel, was continued in the Classical period primarily by Haydn, who wrote two oratorios, The Creation and The Seasons, which have remained an important part of the choral repertoire.
Although many musical settings of the Requiem were composed during the Renaissance and Baroque periods, the Classical period produced a setting by Mozart completed by a student following Mozart's death that has become a staple of the choral repertoire and two settings by Cherubini that are also often performed.
Mozart wrote two settings of this service each of which includes psalms and the Magnificat, written for choir, quartet of soloists, and orchestra. Choral Symphony. A symphony which includes sections written for choir and orchestra. One such was the court of Mannheim where an orchestra under the direction of Johann Stamitz raised orchestral playing to a standard unheard of previously. A new era, breaking away from the contrapuntal writing of the later Baroque, was ushered in.
This can be summarised as music which is notable for its masterly economy of form and resources and for its lack of overt emotionalism. If Bach and Handel dominated the first half of the 17th century, Haydn and Mozart are their counterparts for the latter half and represent all the virtues of the Classical style. This can be traced back to a generation or so before the birth of Haydn to the rococo style of Couperin and Rameau and, more powerfully, in the invigorating keyboard works of Domenico Scarlatti whose more than short sonatas composed in his sixties demonstrate a brilliance that only Bach equalled.
Scarlatti, though, writing on a smaller scale, had the specific intent of delighting and instructing his pupil, the Queen of Spain.
His near-contemporary Georg Philipp Telemann brought the rococo style to Germany. Lighter and even more fecund than Bach, Telemann was held in far greater esteem in his lifetime than Johann Sebastian. Now the sonata became a formalised structure with related keys and themes. These Bach developed into extended movements, as opposed to the short movements of the Baroque form.
Listening to CPE, perhaps the most original and daring composer of the midth century, one becomes aware of the serious and comical, the inspired and the routine, lying side by side with engaging unpredictability.
Parallel to this was the work of Johann Stamitz. His music is rarely heard today yet he and his son Carl were pioneers in the development of the symphony. This form had grown out of the short quick-slow-quick one-movement overtures or sinfonias of Italian opera. Stamitz, in the employ of the Mannheim court, had one of the most distinguished orchestras in Europe under his direction.
He was the first to introduce the clarinet into the orchestra and was probably the first to write a concerto for the instrument , also allowing the brass and woodwind greater prominence. His orchestral crescendos, a novel effect at this time, were said to have excited audiences to rise from their seats.
Italy had dominated the musical world of the 17th and early 18th centuries with its operas and great violinists. From the middle of the 18th century, the centre of musical pre- eminence moved to Vienna, a position it would retain until the last of the Hapsburg emperors in the early years of the 20th century.
The Hapsburgs loved music and imported the best foreign musicians to court; the imperial chapel became a second centre of musical excellence. With the Viennese court as its focus, all kinds of influences met and mingled from nearby Germany, Bohemia and Italy. Bach and Handel were still composing when Haydn was a teenager. Without doubt, the most important element of this was the development of the sonata and symphonic forms.
During this period, a typical example generally followed the same basic pattern: four movements — 1 the longest, sometimes with a slow introduction, 2 slow movement, 3 minuet, 4 fast, short and light in character. Working within this formal structure, each movement in turn had its own internal structure and order of progress.
Like all his well-trained contemporaries, Haydn had a thorough knowledge of polyphony and counterpoint and, indeed, was not averse to using it but his music is predominantly homophonic. His symphonies cover a wide range of expression and harmonic ingenuity. The same is true of the string quartets. With its perfect balance of string sound two violins, viola and cello , the implicit economy in the scoring, the precision and elegance in the handling of the medium, the string quartet is the quintessential Classical art form.
It was Mozart, too, who raised opera to new heights. Here, for the first time, opera reflected the foibles and aspirations of mankind, themes on which the Romantic composers were to dwell at length.
Nationalism, the struggle for individual freedom and self-expression were reflected and indeed created by all the arts — the one fed off the other. The neat, well-ordered regime of the periwig and minuet gave way to the impetuous, passionate world of the tousle-headed revolutionary. Ludwig van Beethoven coupled his genius for music with profoundly held political beliefs and an almost religious certainty about his purpose.
With the possible exception of Wagner, no other composer has, single-handedly, changed the course of music so dramatically and continued to develop and experiment throughout his entire career. His early music, built on the Classical paths trod by Haydn and Mozart, demonstrates his individuality in taking established musical structures and re-shaping them to his own ends.
Unusual keys and harmonic relationships are explored, while as early as the Third Symphony Eroica , the music is vastly more inventive and cogent than anything Mozart achieved even in a late masterpiece like the Jupiter. No wonder so many composers felt daunted by attempting the symphonic form after Beethoven and that few ever attempted more than the magic Beethovenian number of nine. His chamber music tells a similar story, building on the classical form of the string quartet, gradually making it his own listen to the Middle Period Razumovsky quartets until the final group of late quartets which contain music of profound spirituality and deeply felt personal statements — light years from the recent world of his illustrious predecessors.
His single opera Fidelio , while not a success as a piece of theatre, seems to express all the themes that Beethoven held most dear — his belief in the brotherhood of man, his disgust at revolutionaries-turned-dictators, the redeeming strength of human love.
All this was achieved, romantically enough, while he himself struggled with profound deafness. His music is the titanic span between the two. Those who followed revered him as a god. Schubert , the next great Viennese master, 27 years younger but who survived him by a mere 18 months, was in awe of Beethoven. He did not progress the symphonic or sonata forms, there was no revolutionary zeal in his make-up.
What he gave was the gift of melody. Schubert is arguably the greatest tunesmith the world has ever known and in his more than songs established the German song or Lied tradition. For the first time, too, the piano assumed equal importance with the vocal part, painting a tone picture or catching the mood of the piece in its accompaniment.
And it was the new iron-strung pianos which came to be the favoured instrument of the first part of the Romantic era. A bewildering number of composer-pianists were born just after the turn of the century, the most prominent of whom were Liszt , Chopin , Schumann and Mendelssohn. Of these, Mendelssohn relied on the elegant, traditional structures of Classicism in which to wrap his refined poetic and melodic gifts.
Many of his piano works his Songs Without Words , for example and orchestral pieces Hebrides Overture and Italian Symphony, No 4 describe nature, places, emotions and so forth. Almost his entire oeuvre is devoted to the piano in a string of highly individual and expressive works composed in the short period of 20 years. Fifty years after his early death in , composers were still writing pieces heavily influenced by him. Chopin rarely used descriptive titles for his work beyond such labels as Nocturne, Berceuse or Barcarolle.
The technical and lyrical possibilities of the instrument were raised to new heights in such masterpieces as the Four Ballades, the final two of three piano sonatas and the many short dance-based compositions. Most of these derived from his homeland of Poland and, as a self-imposed exile living in Paris, Chopin was naturally drawn to expressing his love of his country. Rebellion and freedom of expression lie at the heart of the Romantic movement in music, literature, painting and architecture, a self-conscious breaking of the bonds and belief in the right of the artist.
Berlioz was not a pianist. Perhaps that is why he is the most important composer of the period in terms of orchestral writing. Berlioz wrote on an epic scale, employing huge forces to convey his vision: the Grande Messe des Morts , for example, requires a tenor solo, brass bands and a massive chorus as well as an expanded orchestra.
The prop of the symphonic structure was needed less, though, writing this at the beginning of the 21st century, many still enjoy the challenges of composing in that form.
The third Titan of the Romantics was the most written- and talked-about composer of all time: Richard Wagner. Some of his ideas had been anticipated 40 years earlier by Carl Maria von Weber, one of the first to insist on total control of all aspects of the production of his work and who, as early as , wrote of his desire to fuse all art forms into one great new form. The orchestral contribution was at least as important as the vocal element.
But Wagner was more than just an operatic reformer. He opened up a new harmonic language, especially in the use of chromaticism see page XXXI. This had not only a profound influence on succeeding generations of composers but led logically to the atonal music of the 20th century. Brahms was the epitome of traditional musical thought. His four symphonies are far nearer the style of Beethoven than those of Mendelssohn or Schumann, and the first of these was not written until , when Wagner had all but completed The Ring.
Indeed Brahms is by far the most classical of the German Romantics. We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. Manage consent. Close Privacy Overview This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website.
Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. Dating from the same period is the Bohemian composer Johann Stamitz , who was employed at the court of Mannheim, a music stronghold at the time.
In his symphonies — 58 in all — Stamitz increased the size of the orchestra and usually structured them around four movements.
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