Classical Symphony: Baroque to Beethoven's Revolution

The Baroque Era and J.S. Bach

Music, like other forms of art, evolved from numerous traditions that, when taken together, formed a new way of thinking about and performing certain types of works. Audiences change over time, and certain musical compositions that sound odd or strange to one audience are often accepted by others — as illustrated by the rioting during the premiere of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. When people think of classical music, for instance, they tend to think of the three B's: Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms. Certainly, these three giants of music were part of the evolution from the Baroque to the Romantic, each building upon the other's work over two centuries. However, in that time there were numerous other composers who helped develop and forever change harmony, theory, instrumentation, and all manner of musical interpretation. This paper begins with an overview of the Baroque era as a basis for studying the classical symphony — a form that still tends to define symphonic music for many people — then turns to an overview of the transition to the Classical era, focusing on Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven in both biographical and stylistic terms, followed by individual analyses of some of their major works in the symphonic tradition. Particular attention is given to their importance to the Viennese Classical School, the ways history, philosophy, and politics were reflected in music, and the development and evolution of the symphonic form.

Of the many artists of the Baroque, the music of Johann Sebastian Bach seems to epitomize the era more than any other composer. Bach composed at a time when the entire philosophical framework of the arts and culture was rapidly changing: new worlds had been discovered in faraway places, philosophers and politicians were advancing new ideas, and a radical concept of individual rights — and the ability to intellectually transcend the ordinary into the sublime — was gaining traction. Many times this ran in tandem with religion, but there was also new secularization within the constructs of culture. To understand the composers who came after Bach, we must understand his style, for it was Bach who began the tradition that would later be embellished by Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven.

We must keep in mind that the historical view of eras is an artificial way of linking trends in art, architecture, and philosophical thought. The Baroque was a style that began to arise out of the Renaissance in the later part of the sixteenth century, and depending on the medium, lasted until the early eighteenth century. Most describe it as more florid, dynamic, and emotional — a move away from Renaissance religiosity toward more secular thought. However, there were hundreds if not thousands of compositions of a religious nature in the Baroque, and much of the spread of Baroque art, music, and sculpture was a result of the spread of Christianity and the building of new churches. This became even more critical with the Lutheran schism and Protestantism, which tended to emphasize simplicity and a more direct relationship with God. In essence, then, we can look at the Baroque as not just a freer, less religion-centered way of viewing the world, but as a mindset that allowed humans to risk more, to explore more, and to move beyond Ancient Greece and Rome as the sole encyclopedia of knowledge and behavior (Friedell, 2009).

Many define this period as the beginnings of the Age of Humanism — not as a strict philosophy, but as a way of learning. In the Middle Ages and early Renaissance, learning focused on resolving contradictions between ideas and authors. Instead, this later period used a more logical, empiricist approach: taking known curriculum, applying the principles set forth in a given text, defining what is observable, repeatable, and logical, and arriving at truth. In doing so, interpretation based on robust examination of the text provides greater reliability and accuracy (see, for example, Burkhardt, 1978). It was this environment that formed Bach's musical and philosophical underpinnings, making him a true master of his time.

The Age of Reason and the Classical Era

J.S. Bach lived from 1685 to 1750. He was a prolific composer, organist, harpsichordist, violinist, and teacher. He excelled at counterpoint and harmony, and possessed a way of understanding music theory that allowed him to borrow new rhythms, textures, and forms from French and Italian Renaissance traditions and evolve them into a more advanced and intellectual musical state. Much of Bach's music is intellectual, yet contains themes drawn from folk music and peasant dances. He was a prodigious composer, working in concerti, keyboard works, Passions, Cantatas, Masses, and solo pieces for most instruments of the day. He came from a musical family and produced several talented children who became composers in their own right. His foundations in theory and harmony, and the "rules" he established for tonality, formed the basis upon which the Classical composers would build. In fact, Beethoven was so taken with Bach's style that he called him the Urvater der Harmonie, or the "Originator of Harmony" (Lockwood, 2003). Bach also lived in a world of transition in which the major powers of Europe were spending vast sums exploiting the New World, Africa, and Asia. With this came new rivalries, new philosophical ideas, and new tendencies in the way the individual interacted with the State.

The Baroque tended to use harmony and polyphony — multiple harmonies — to express emotion and style. We can visualize this as a simple two- or three-part interplay, AB or ABA. As the Baroque matured, composers began to give greater importance to a single melodic line and embellished the harmonies in the background. As this evolved into the Classical Period, composers typically employed at least two contrasting themes followed by two variations (or expositions), then a second variation of the main theme, and finally a coda that returned to the major theme. The importance of this structure was that the variations and transitions were seen as reflections of the overall human condition — birth, maturation, old age, and reflection — art again mirroring philosophy and the interplay between ideas as well as sound (Wright & Simms, 2005).

Classical Music as a Reflection of Culture

The other major change between the Baroque and Classical eras focused on technology — specifically, the development of improved and entirely new instruments that expanded what was possible for composers. The harpsichord, for instance, evolved into the pianoforte and then the piano. Brass instruments advanced with valves and improved techniques, while woodwinds benefited from new keys, materials, and playing methods — all allowing more color and tone from the orchestra. As these changes occurred, composers naturally took advantage of the improvements, which in turn built upon one another to create a larger evolution in compositional techniques and possibilities. Additionally, a fact not often discussed is that with improved medical knowledge, many composers lived far longer and enjoyed four to five decades of productive compositional output, in contrast to earlier periods when the average age of death was in the mid-to-late forties (McNeese, 2000; Sachs, 2006).

Artistic periods do not exist in a vacuum. They are a product of the culture of the times, the perception of the world held by artists, and the way the artistic mindset affects the listener or viewer. We can think of music as modifying emotions and perception, and thus changing the way society looks both inward and outward. The Baroque seems to represent a transition from the hyper-religiosity of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, moving between the sacred and the secular. Many Baroque composers used religious themes to produce some of their most famous works, particularly since wealthy patrons and audiences were ready and willing to support such music. Similarly, there was a growing realization that the human condition could be celebrated across numerous art forms — as in Handel's Water Music or Bach's Brandenburg Concerti.

The Symphony as an Art Form

In the Classical Period, however, life was changing, and with it came new expectations and ideas. The works of Locke and Rousseau set the tone for the idea that humans are, by nature, free and equal. Locke's "Theory of the Mind," for instance, seems to inform the compositional ideas of Haydn, Mozart, and especially Beethoven, in that the individual's relationship to society was open for exploration rather than predetermined by religion alone. The Baroque composer, as a reflection of society, celebrated the world through prayer and spiritual awareness. The Classical composer dealt more with the possible, the potential, and the capacity of art — through poetry, painting, literature, sculpture, and especially through the new combination of voice, literature, and music — to express the desire for actualization and improvement (Heartz, 2004).

In the Baroque era, the words symphony and sinfonia were used for a wide range of compositions, including solo pieces, sonatas, and concertos. Most musical scholars believe that the Italian Overture — popular due to the new rage for opera — used a structure of three contrasting movements (fast, slow, fast) and served as the forerunner of the symphony. Rather than being part of an opera or other larger work, the classical symphony was intended to stand alone as a concert performance, with themes and variations not necessarily tied to a specific story. The first symphonies were sometimes used as entr'actes and followed the three-movement style.

Haydn and Mozart composed their earlier symphonies in this style, but allowed the form to evolve into a four-movement work: (1) an opening sonata or allegro; (2) a slow movement or adagio; (3) a minuet or trio, the scherzo; and (4) a final allegro, rondo, or sonata. Variations on these movements were possible, and though the symphony was performed all over Europe, it was Haydn (108 symphonies) and Mozart (56 symphonies) who ensured the form's popularity and established what became known as the Viennese School. Another significant factor in the symphony's growing popularity was that increased urbanization led to the development of the professional orchestra, which was no longer confined to palaces and cathedrals but found in most urban centers where there were enough professional musicians and patrons to sustain the art. This produced a domino effect: the more orchestras, the more need for music, and the more need for composers (The Symphony — An Interactive Guide, 2010; Steinberg, 1995).