Classical Music Essay

The Classical period of music has also been called the “Rococo” period. The Classical time period was between the 18th and 19th centuries. Spanning the years of 1750-1820. The transition from the Baroque period to the Classical took the music from polyphonic to homophonic where even though it seems like that would make the music less complex we look at a whole different type of complexity. The music typically contained two different melodies and a contrast in sections. This made the chords in the music much more defined and the tonal part of the music became more defined. The Classical period had a significant influence on several aspects of music. Chamber music had a sonata form. This means it had an exposition, a transition, and a recapitulation. Composition in the Classical time was mainly dominated by eclecticism which made the music more diverse. Concerto was driven at first by the Italians. They started the idea of the solo concerto. Orchestration was mainly developed during this musical time period. This is partly due to some of the most talented musicians that lived during this time. They did a lot of work in making the orchestra mainly string instruments. Some of these being the violin, viola, cello, and the contrabass, just to name a few. All of these things had a great influence in the way the music made the transition from the Baroque period to the Classical period.

The Baroque period began around the 1600’s until around the 1750’s. The Baroque era of music was one of the most revolutionary periods in music history. This era saw the development of functional tonality, brought new instrumental playing techniques and more elaborate and complex compositions. Baroque music was complex, tonal, and had clear common patterns of chords. This era also featured many well-known composers, such as Bach, Handel, and Vivaldi. This era also brought about developments in musical terms and concepts which are still used in today’s music.

Composers since the early classical era have used sonata form to express through music ideas which are at once complex and unified. This form contains a variety of themes and permutations of these themes, but is brought together into a comprehensible whole when these excerpts reappear. Beethoven, in the first movement of his Piano Sonata Opus 2 Number 3 utilizes this form to its full potential, modifying the typical structure in his characteristic way.

To begin with , the 18th century was the Classical era. In which music had order, symmetry, and formal restraint. Composers such as Franz Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven began creating music that pulled away from music that was mainly created for churches. This secular music they created became entertainment for the aristocrats and the nobility. A composer by the name of Johann Stamitz  organized one of  preliminary forms of the classical orchestra. This orchestra consisted of the string section, the woodwind section, the brass section, and the percussion section. The largest of the orchestra was called a symphony.

Classical composers exploited the individual tone colors of orchestral instruments. A classical piece has greater variety—and more rapid changes—of tone color. A theme might begin in the full orchestra, shift to the strings, and then continue in the woodwinds.

The Baroque period in music began 1600 and ended around 1750. The unique instruments and styles defined the Baroque period as composers began to withdraw new and

The Baroque period stretched across half of European history. It began shortly before 1600 and ended with the death of Bach in 1750. During this time, there were change and

Beethoven contributed one of the most significant musical developments through his fifth and ninth symphonies. He used a musical motive as the basic of his entire piece. (Beethoven described the motive as “Fate knocks at the door”.) It was the first time in history that anyone had done such a thing for a multi-movement piece. Beethoven’s contribution has become a norm in the music world, even to this day.

Music is constantly changing. The Baroque period (1600-1750) and the Classical period (1750-1820) have both differences and similarities in elements such as form, texture, and dynamics. I will be comparing the first movement of Spring from the Four Seasons composed by Antonio Vivaldi and the first movement of Symphony No. 5 in C minor by Ludwig van Beethoven. I will construct a stylistic comparison of the two compositions and their musical stylings with regard to the periods of music of which they belong.

Early eighteenth century marked the beginning of the middle period, which was said to be the most productive period out of his three compositional periods as some of his most magnificent works were produced during this time (Lockwood, 194). In this paper, I will examine the heroic style - why it came about, what are some characteristics of ‘heroic’ music and through the analysis of a ‘product of the times’ (Taruskin) , compare the differences between the music of the heroic style and that of before. The middle period is also known as the heroic period from 1803 – 1812 is after the Viennese period and before the Late

In the classical era Symphony was the time when live concert where perform more often. The concerts that during the past millennium, classical music has been created by some of the musical mind the world has ever seen with Beethoven, Mozart and many more. The wide of Range of genres that these great artist composers, including orchestral, instrumental, choral and opera. The era’s the music used the two theory of natural and pleasing variety and The two ideas that can be traced in all the elements of musical technique rhythm, dynamics, tone, melody, texture and form. With the styles of a classical symphony An important form of instrumental music was the symphony, The basic form of the classical symphony was the Italian overture which is,

In classical music, the structures emphasize more the grace of proportion and balance, moderation and control; polished and elegance in character with expressiveness and formal structure held in perfect balance. Furthermore, the forms do not vary as much as the Romantic era, they had forms like sonatas, symphonies etc. The melodic phrases are usually balanced and symmetrical made up of two phrases of the same length. For an example, in Mozart's Clarinet Quintet, the music is very symmetrical and well balanced, in a variation form. However, in Romantic music, they rather emphasize on the emotional content than trying to sound balanced and symmetrical, and expanded their use of forms and created new forms, like impromptu, ballade, etude, nocturnes etc,. Moreover, the melodies normally have either really long or short phrases, increased in range, but also increased in chromaticism. For example in Mahler's symphony no.1 in D major "Titan", we can see that except it is in a ABA form, the whole movement was not as symmetrical and well balanced as the Mozart, although it is in a variation form, the melodic phrases have increased in range, are either really long, for example in the first 18 bars, or really short, where the melody can be hardly seen in bar 134-137.

Ludwig Van Beethoven was one of the most influential composers of his time. The decades around the 1800’s were years of many changes and Beethoven’s new approach to music was something that reflected that. “His symphonies, concertos, string quartets and piano sonatas are central to the repertory of classical music.” This essay will focus on the historical and theoretical aspects of the third movement of Sonata Op. 28 No. 15.

The Classical Period had lasted from around 1750 -- 1820, and was itself a revolt against the previous Baroque era. The arts moved away from the heavily ornamented styles of the Baroque to a cleaner, uncluttered style, thought to be reminiscent of Ancient Greece, and many people interested in music were now the aristocracy rather than the church or monarchy. The social upheavals of the latter part of this period challenged these ideas, and the Age of Reason became the age of the individual, and the beginnings of Romanticism, with its non-rational and disordered reasoning, became predominant.

Constantly, music has been a part of everyday life for centuries, dating back to the earliest Biblical records. But over the years there have been many ages contributing to music. All of them were significant to history, but only three were the most inspiring. All three discovered new ways to compose melodies people around the world still listen to and perform. These influential eras in music are: the Renaissance era, the Baroque period, and the Classical era. The subjects will be in order from earliest and so on, starting with the Renaissance.