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Franz Joseph Haydn
A primary Austrian composer who served as innovator and mover within the new classic style; teacher, keyboardist, and violinist -
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Johann Christian Bach
Worked in Milan and London; son of J. S. Bach; friend and influence to Mozart; set up concert series in London with Abel -
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Classic
With the onset of the Romantic era in the wake of the French Revolution, composers began to view their own role in society as well as the social function of their work, and hence also its aesthetic prerequisites, in a radically different light. With respect to social function, Beethoven was actually the first musician of stature to achieve emancipation in the sense that his work reflected, with relatively few exceptions, purely personal artistic concerns. -
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Luigi Boccherini
Italian composer and cellist; prolific -
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William Billings
Most prominent composer in the New America; singing teacher; not a strong composer -
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The Art of the Fugue
An incomplete musical work of unspecified instrumentation by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750). Written in the last decade of his life, The Art of Fugue is the culmination of Bach's experimentation with monothematic instrumental works. Bach died while writing Contrapunctus XIV -
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Domenico Cimarosa
Italian composer; a central figure in opera in the late 18th century; extraordinarily successful in his day -
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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
German poet and writer; he was a literary force behind Romanticism; composers continue to set his works to music -
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Lorenzo Da Ponte
Italian librettist and poet; collaborated with Mozart -
String Quartets
Invented by Franz X Richter: musical composition for two violins, viola, and cello in several movements. It has been the predominant genre of chamber music since about 1750. -
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Antonio Salieri
Italian composer and teacher; he functioned in the transitional periods between the galant and the classic and then again between the classic and the romantic; extremely successful -
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Austrian composer; child prodigy; wrote in all genres; best innovations were in opera; he represents to many today the epitome of the classic style -
Opera Buffa
Genre of comic opera originating in Naples in the mid-18th century -
1st Industrial Revolution
Began in the 18th century, when agricultural societies became more industrialized and urban. The transcontinental railroad, the cotton gin, electricity and other inventions permanently changed society -
Modern Piano Invented
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Ludwig van Beethoven
Instrumental in moving music towards Romanticism; he is an icon in our present culture; he established the heroic topic in orchestral music and was the transitional composer between classicism and romanticism. -
Boston Tea Party
American colonists, frustrated and angry at Britain for imposing “taxation without representation,” dumped 342 chests of British tea into the harbor. -
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American Revolution
Arose from growing tensions between residents of Great Britain’s 13 North American colonies and the colonial government, which represented the British crown. -
U.S. Declaration of Independence
The Declaration announced that the Thirteen Colonies at war with the Kingdom of Great Britain would regard themselves as thirteen independent sovereign states, no longer under British rule. -
London: First Patented Piano
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Absolute Music
Instrumental music composed purely as music, and not intended to represent or illustrate something else. -
Treaty of Paris
Ended the American Revolutionary War. -
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Carl Maria von Weber
Founder of German Romantic Opera; studied with Michael Haydn; important conductor -
Mozart Became Imperial Royal Court Composer
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Don Giovanni
Opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart that premiered at the original National Theatre in Prague on October 29, 1787 -
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French Revolution
The revolutionary movement that shook France between 1787 and 1799 and reached its first climax there in 1789. -
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Franz Schubert
Austrian composer who created a genre of artistic and dramatic Lieder; expansive melodies; frequent modulations; many unfinished works; romanticized after his early death -
Valved Trumpet Invented
The first piston-valved musical instruments were developed just after the start of the 19th century. -
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Hector Berlioz
French composer, conductor, writer, and innovator; he was the leading French musician in his day; his works embody the notions of Romanticism -
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Mikhail Glinka
The father of Russian music; European trained; prolific -
Beethoven's "Symphony No. 5"
Widely recognized by the ominous four-note opening motif—often interpreted as the musical manifestation of “fate knocking at the door”—that recurs in various guises throughout the composition. -
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Richard Wagner
Creator of German Music Drama; conductor; writer; musical innovator; wrote about music of the future; Anti-Semite; profoundly influenced Western harmony; strove for endless melodies -
Congress of Vienna
Reorganized Europe after the Napoleonic Wars