Musical Style: Baroque vs. Classical

•Longer•More “Florid”•More Disjunct

•Stilted•Less Regular

•Complex

•Often Polyphonic

•Shorter Phrases•Simpler•“Catchy”/Singable

•Natural•Regular/repetitive

•Straightforward

•Usually Homophonic

Baroque Classical

Melody

Rhythm

Harmony

Texture

ROCOCO

• Style of ornamentation in furniture-making, architecture, painting and decorative

• Reaction against the ponderous Baroque style of Louis XIV

• Prized:– Elegance– Lightness– Natural Forms

Enlightenment

• Philosophical assertion of the rights of man as a rational being

• Stressed:– Knowledge– Freedom– Happiness

• Aesthetic Connotations:– Naturalness– Simplicity

Jean Jacques Rousseau

(1712-1778)

Musical Developments: The Styl Galant

Musicians began to react against the stiff contrapuntal practices and affected emotionality of the Baroque (seen as antiquated and unnatural)

Directness of Expression:

Musicians pursued a style which abandoned the artifice, virtuosity, and complexity of Baroque practices in favor of a simpler, more self-evident style

Style Galant:

•“Seeking to please” (Voltaire)

•Self-Assured

Musical Qualities:

•Lightly Accompanied

•Periodic Phrases

•Simplified Melody and Harmony

Voltaire

(1694-1778)

Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710-1736)

1733: La Serva Padrona (The Maid as Mistress)

A comic Intermezzo in 2 parts

The Early Symphony

The Symphony evolved out a number of important Baroque genres:

•The “Sinfonia” from Italian Opera (where is gets its name)

Specifically, the “Italian Overture” is a source for the early three-movement structure of the Symphony)

•The Baroque Concerto (another source for the three-movement structure)

•Other formal models found in

•Baroque Suites

•Baroque Sonatas

•Da Capo aria

Giovanni Battista Sammartini

(1700?-1775)

Johann Stamitz (1717-1757)

“Mannheim School”

Stylistic considerations: “Learned Style” vs. Greater Naturalism

Baroque Connotations:

•Construction

•Technique

•Static

New Values:

•Dynamic/Flexible

•Easily Comprehensible

“Classical” vs. “Romantic”

Classical:

Connotes ancient Greece and Rome

Classic:

Connotes something timeworn, universal

Romantic:

Stresses communication of a subjective state or impression

Celebrates nature and naturalism

William Blake’s Illustration for the title page of his Songs of Innocence and of Experience

C.P.E. Bach (1714-1788)and the “Empfindsamer Stil”

Empfindsamkeit:

•Sensitivity

•Sentimentality

•Sensibility

Wrote about the purpose of musical performance being the communication of emotional states

New Aesthetic Values

• Communication• Simplicity• Naturalness• Unforced emotional

subjectivity

Musical Qualities:– Simplified textures– Shorter, simpler melodies– Shorter, regular phrase-

construction– Greater flexibility and

contrast (especially in terms of dynamics)

Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)