Classical Era

1
Classical Era
2
Classicism Defined

• The period of the ancient Greeks and Romans
• A standard (enduring)
• Genre of music
• Time period

1750-1820
3
Architecture

• Recalled ancient classical
• U.S. Capital
• Monticello

4
Music of the Classical Era

• Began death of Bach
• Ended Beethoven (mid-life)

5
Classical Thinking

• Reason was supreme
• Sought the perfect society
• Enlightenment
• Beauty
• Rules were valuable

6
Music of the Classical Era

• Written for middle class
• Non-sophisticated Listener
• Simple and Melodic Themes
• Large Room
• Movements have beginning, middle, end
• Easier to play

7
LIFE-TIME-LINES
BEETHOVEN 1770-1827
MOZART 1756-1789
HAYDN 1732-1809
1770
1820
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Joseph Haydn

• Father figure to Mozart and Beethoven
• Worked for Prince Esterhazy
• Father of the symphony
• Included jokes in his symphonies
• Wrote in most genres
• Freely gave time and advice
• Relationship with Mozart

9

• I write my music in order that the weary and
  worn or the men burdened with affairs might enjoy
  a few minutes of solace and refreshment.
• Haydn

10
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

• Began composing before age 5
• Life of depression and creativity
• In Salzburg
• Court composer
• Vienna
• Friendship with Haydn
• Struggle for money

11
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart1756-1791

• Born in Salzburg
• 7th child of Leopola and Anna Maria
• only he and sister Nannerl survived infancy

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The Mozart Family
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Mozart played for kings and queens. This
portrait of him was painted in 1762, when he was
six years old.
Children during Mozarts time dressed just like
adults. He just finished playing for Empress
Maria Theresa of Austria.
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As Mozart grew older, his reputation spread. Not
only was he a gifted musician, but he could also
compose his own music.
Mozart at 14, 1770.
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• Able to hear complete pieces in his head
• Capability for output
• 10 years
• 8 Symphonies
• 17 Piano Concertos
• 6 Operas
• Clarinet quartet and quintet
• Requiem Mass
• 11 String Quartets
• 5 String Quintets
• Many Individual Works

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• Though it be long, the work is complete and
  finished in my mind. I take out of the bag of my
  memory what has previously been collected into
  it. For this reason the committing to paper is
  done quickly enough.
• Mozart

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• What a delight this is I cannot tell all this
  producing takes place in a pleasing, lively
  dream.
• Mozart

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Mozart was 36 years old when he died in 1791. In
his short life he wrote over 600 compositions.
This portrait, painted after Mozarts death, is
said to look the most like him. It was painted
in 1819.
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Mozarts Music

• Simple melodies
• Contrasting moods
• Rich orchestration
• Perfected the serenade

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Mozarts Music

• Favored the piano
• Concertos written for his performance
• Later symphonies considered his best
• Operas

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Ludwig Van Beethoven

• 1770-1827.
• Born in Bonn.
• Died in Vienna.

22
Young adulthood

• Beethoven went to Vienna, Austria to learn more
  about composing when he was 17.
• He had to return home when his mother died, and
  help raise his brothers.

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Ludwig van Beethoven

• Supported his family as a child
• Scholarship to Vienna
• Played for Mozart
• Made the piano popular
• Second scholarship to Vienna
  
• Taught by Haydn

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• I carry my thoughts within me long, often very
  long before I write them down. As I know what I
  want, the fundamental idea never deserts me. It
  mounts, it grows in stature. I hear, I see the
  picture in its whole extent standing all of a
  piece before my spirit, and there remains for me
  only the task of writing it down.
• -Beethoven

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Beethovens Music

• 2 periods of composition
• Classical
• Romantic
• May have been caused by his oncoming deafness
• Sadness
• Moonlight Sonata

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Beethoven Symphonies

• Supreme architect
• Tied all movements into a theme
• 5th
• Fate versus hope
• 9th
• Finale
• Ode To Joy

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Jacques Louis David
Napoleon in his study
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Jacques Louis David
Coronation of Napoleon
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• How humiliated I have felt if somebody standing
  beside me heard the sound of a flute in the
  distance and I heard nothing...It is impossible
  for me to say to people, Speak louder, for I am
  deaf. How would it be possible for me to admit
  to a weakness of the one sense that should be
  perfect to a higher degree in me than in theirs.
  So forgive me if you see me draw back from your
  company which I would so gladly share. I would
  have ended my life. It was only my art that held
  me back for it seemed impossible to leave the
  world until I have brought forth all that is
  within me.
• Beethoven

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• I am resolved to rise superior to every
  obstacle. With whom need I be afraid of
  measuring my own strength? I will take Fate by
  the throat. It shall not overcome me. O how
  beautiful it is to be alivewould that I could
  live a thousand times.
• -Beethoven

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Beethovens Deafness

• Though born with a fiery, active temperament I
  was soon to withdraw from society, to live a life
  alone. If at times I tried to forget all this, oh
  how harshly was I flung back by the doubly sad
  experience of my bad hearing. Yet it wasnt
  possible for me to say to people, Speak Louder,
  shout for I am deaf! Ah, how could I possibly
  admit to an infirmity in the one sense that ought
  to be more perfect in me than in others, a sense
  that I once possessed in the highest degree.

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He could hear the music inside his head.and he
wasnt bothered with other noises around him.He
wrote some of his best music during this time.
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Patronage System

• Exchange of artistic services for
• A place to live
• A Salary
• Clothes
• Rank in Society
• Depends on the patron.
• Servant to aristocratic patronage.

34
Ruminate on...

• patronage and
• Haydn
• Mozart
• Beethoven
• why the French Revolution and industrialization
  led to the demise of patronage.
• why less complex music is favored in classical
  culture.

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Patronage a Comparison

• Haydn patron was Prince Esterhazy

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His Later Years

• He still composed when he was deaf..how could he
  do this?

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Haydn?

• Haydn was a traditionalist first.
• Haydn believed that ISOLATION forces one to be
  come an original.
• He was isolated in the Esterhazy Palace for most
  of his career. His music is original.
• Beethoven will realize this pathos later in in
  career.

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• My prince was always satisfied with my works.
  I not only had the encouragement of constant
  approval, but as conductor of an orchestra, I
  could make experiments, observe what produced an
  effect and what weakened it, and was thus in a
  position to improve, alter, make additions, or
  omissions and be as bold as I pleased. I was cut
  off from the world. There was no one to confuse
  or torment me. I was forced to become original.
• Haydn

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Patronage a Comparison

• Mozart

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• My pay is too much for what I do, too little
  for what I could do.
• Mozart

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Patronage a Comparison

• Beethoven
• Beethoven manipulated the patronage system so
  that he could live more freely.
• Gave music lessons to wealthy families.
• Sold music to many publishers.
• Even when Napoleon was threatening the whole
  survival of continental Europeans, Beethoven had
  contacts with publishers in England who would
  continue to publish his music.
• Beethoven Patronage
• Invited into the homes of the aristocracy.
• Treated as an equal to the aristocracy.
• Believed that one must be treated as an equal if
  music is to be produced.

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Beethovens Contract

• But as it has been demonstrated that only one
  when he is free from care as possible can devote
  himself to a single department of activity and
  create works of magnitude which are exalted and
  which ennoble art, the undersigned have decided
  to place Herr Ludwig van Beethoven in a position
  where the necessities of life shall not cause him
  embarrassment or clog his powerful genius.

43
Beethovens Contract

• All Beethoven had to do was to declare Vienna his
  home.
• It is good to walk among the aristocracy, but
  first you must MAKE them respect you.