Timeline #3 - The Classical Era

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    Francois Couperin

    French composer who wrote in the Rococo Style
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    Jean-Philippe Rameau

    French composer and theorist, tried to establish a rational foundation for harmonic practice, “Treatise on Harmony”(1722) the beginning of theideas of modern music theory
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    Pietro Metastasio

    Court poet in Vienna: primary librettist for opera seria in the late Baroque and Classic periods, incredibly famous as a librettist: set the standard for opera style circa 1750
  • Invention of the Pianoforte

    Invented by Bartolomeo Cristofori
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    Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach

    Worked in Berlin for Frederick the Great (Frederick II) who reigned over the Kingdom of Prussia from 1740 to 1786,
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    Charles Burney

    Organist, amature composer, writer, and music scholar
  • The start of the classical style

    It developed in the 1730s in Italy beginning in opera
  • Thematic Development

    Composers and works judged by how themes are developed
    Cadences define sections of forms
    Motivic Development: a short musical idea that is used as the basis of a piece – think Beethoven 5 mvt. 1
  • Rondo Form

    based on the notion of a main refrain (A) that is repeated, ABACABA
  • Rounded Binary Form

    2 sections, the second section usually ends with a partial return of the first section, A BA'
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    Classic Style Musical Traits

    Singable melodies, symmetrical phrasing, easier harmonies, simple relationships of V to I, slower harmonic rhythms, easy accompanimental figures as opposed to the difficult figured bass of the Baroque
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    The Rococo Style

    Rococo is “over-the-top” in ornamentation and decoration, French, Many ornaments including trills, turns, grace notes, in the classical period everything simplified and became more “natural:” less ornamented and decorated
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    Empfindsamkeit

    The style of Empfindsamkeit desired to be, above all, simple and expressive of “natural” feeling, the primary composer of this style was the eldest son of J.S. Bach, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach(1714-88), this style strove to be “natural”
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    Franz Joseph Haydn

    One of the most original and inventive composers, lived under Esterhazy's court for most of his adult career, was not allowed to sell his music at first because it was property of the court, composed many string quartets, 104 numbered symphonies, composed nearly 25 operas
  • Invention of the Symphony

    Giovanni Battista Sammartini (1700-75) invented the symphony in Milan, Italy
  • Scherzo

    Replaced a minuet in a multi-movement work, similar to a minuet, but usually faster and more vigorous, scherzo = “joke” or “jest” in Italian, same form as a minuet: ABA
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    William Billings

    One of our first American composers, a tanner, taught himself to compose music, his first publication was “The New-England Psalm-Singer” (1770)
  • The First String Quartets

    The inventor of the string quartet genre was Franz Xaver Richter (1709-89), first composed in the 1750s, it was a prestigious chamber music genre; appealed to aristocratic social life
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    Antonio Salieri

    popular composer in Vienna, composed many operas in Italian, German and French
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    Maria Anna Mozart

    Mozart’s older sister: often described as equal in talent and skill, toured with Mozart during her childhood, when she was twelve, Leopold Mozart said that she was one of the most skillful players in Europe
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    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    A child prodigy, keyboard virtuoso, a good violinist and dancer, Musical influences from his travels: learned the Italian style during his three trips to Italy between 1769 and 1773, studied counterpoint with Padre Martini in Bologna, Influenced by music of Sammartini and other Italian symphonists, learned the current styles in Vienna in 1773, his music is most known for lyrical melodic lines, colorful orchestration and dramatic content
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    Maria Theresa von Paradis

    Excellent pianist and organist, renowned for her remarkable musical memory (60 concertos at a time), blind, composed two concertos, a piano trio, songs, cantatas, operas, and other chamber music
  • Opera Buffa

    Comic operas with more realistic characters and serious topics, Mozart wrote 3 very famous opera buffa
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    The Industrial Revolution

    Made mass production possible
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    Sonata Form

    The most widely used form in the 1770s and 80s for symphonic and chamber pieces, Mozart heard numerous pieces with the form, and, like every other composer of the day, wrote many pieces with the form
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    The American Revolution

  • Le nozze di Figaro

    Dramma giocoso in four acts, based on a play that had been banned in France
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    The French Revolution

  • Symphony No. 100 in G major

    One of the London (Salomon) Symphonies, used trumpet fanfares, Turkish military percussion instruments
  • String Quartet in C Major, Opus 76, No. 3 (1797), Mvt. 2

    Theme and variations
  • Minuet and Trio

    Overall structure is A B A, Minuet is A, Trio is B and Minuet is A again