Classical era: characteristics, culture, and historical significance

¶ … classical era which spanned from approximately 1750 to 1820.I shall discuss the stylistic changes sonata, string quartet and symphony and also the great composers of the time mainly Christoph Willibald Gluck, Johann Bach, and Joseph Haydn.

STYLISTIC CHANGES:

Sonata:

Sonata form is one, which is usually used as a part of multi-movement scheme, since it involves the musical structure of a single movement.

The basic structure of sonata comprises of the following three sections:

Exposition

Development

Recapitulation with a Coda added commonly.

The sonatas of Corelli Violin sonatas Op. 3 are a mixture of abstract and dance-type movements.

String quartet:

A string quartet is quite a complex style where the musical structure consists of four movements .It includes four string instruments which are two violins, a viola and cello.

In classical period string quartets were written for those who had a comprehensive knowledge of music since they were quite complex for the layman to understand.

In classical type of string quartet the outer movements are fast; the inner movements are slower and a dance movement for e.g. minuet, scherzo, and furiant in either order.

The popular string quartets include Claude Debussy's String Quartet in G Minor, op. 10, Bedrich Smetana's String Quartet No. 1 in E Minor "From my Life."

Symphony:

The term 'symphony' is derived from the Greek words syn meaning 'together' and phone meaning 'sounding'.

There are four movements in a symphony, but then again there are some that consist of two, three, or five. Usually, the movements are in this order: fast, slow, dance-like and fast.

Haydn's "London" symphonies and Mozart's last 5 symphonies are great examples for winds used in solos and are placed in high classical period.

COMPOSERS:

Christoph Willibald Gluck:

He was born at Erasbach in 1714, and died in Vienna in 1787.

He wrote his first opera, "Artaserse" in 1741. Pope Benedict XIV knighted Gluck in 1756 and awarded him the "Order of the Golden Spur" after which he used the title "Ritter von Gluck" or "Chevalier de Gluck."

When he died, he left about 35 completed operas, several ballets and instrumental works.

His aim was to make music an instrument through which poetry could be expressed based upon the situation of the story, instead of interrupting it for conventional orchestral ritornellos or florid and ornamental singing; to break down the sharp distinction between recitative and aria: in short, to get rid of all the unnecessary things which were against good sense and reason.

Carl Bach (1714-1788) and Johann Christian Bach (1735-1782) were half-brothers who carved a name for themselves in classical music. Carl Emanuel Bach was very well-known in his time and it was due to his musical skills that in 1740, he was appointed 'chamber musician' and 'clavecinist' by emperor Frederick of Berlin. His music was greatly inspired by his own father and was quite ahead of it's time. In his music there are very bold harmonic progressions followed by an abrupt change of mood. His music however experimental is immensely mesmerizing not to mention very elegant and original. Johann Bach on the other hand started his career once his half brother had already established his name. He was directly influenced by his brother's skills, talent and understanding of music. This led to his appointment as music director to Count Antonio in Italy in the year 1754. But Johann decided to move to England in 1762 where his fame won him a place as music master to Queen Charlotte.