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Classical Music Essay

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The classical music period extends from 1740 to 1810, which includes the music of Haydn, Mozart, and the first period of Beethoven. The classical period of music combined harmony, melody, rhythm, and orchestration more effectively than earlier periods of music. With the natural evolution of music slowly changing with the culture, the baroque era had ended. That era had left a structure, articulation and periodic phrasing of music which would shape classical music. Among the many musical types of the period, the classical period is best known for the symphony, a form of a large orchestral ensemble. The symphonic pieces generally had three movements, the sonata, the minuet and the finale. Building of the achievements of earlier composers, …show more content…

Once the irregular evolution was developed, classical music became very structured. The animation of classical music began to increase; the transition was a natural growth of what comes before. Never before in history had it been possible to move from one kind of tempo, to another so naturally, with such grace. The kind of rhythmic transition is the touch stone of classical style (Rosen 60). For the classical composer, the Perpetuum Mobile1, where adding it, creates another challenge the composer has to overcome to achieve the added desire to break up the rhythmic texture of the piece and to create the tension required to add a dramatic force. Additionally, rhythmic transition in the late eighteen-century is achieved with discrete well-defined elements, generally related to one another; the movement from one rhythm to another was felt as a transition and not as a contrast (Rosen 64). Many composers had developed a variety of styling though out the era of classical music, which was originally given the name “classical” because of the art being formed during this era, which had consisted of three different periods within the classical era. Three periods of significance for the music of the eighteenth-century, one began the later half of 1730, the seventeenth-century baroque, this did not fully develop until 1740. The second period, 1760-1780 this consisted of the baroque and rationalistic traits in Bach and

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