This article is about the specific period from to The classical period falls between the baroque and the romantic periods. Ludwig van Beethoven is also regarded either as a romantic composer or a composer who was part of the transition to the romantic. In the middle of the eighteenth century, Europe began to move toward a new style in architecture, literature, and the arts, generally known as classicism.
This style sought to emulate the ideals of classical antiquity, especially those of classical Greece. In addition, the typical size of orchestras began to increase. This taste for structural clarity began to affect music, which moved away from the layered polyphony of the baroque period toward a style known as homophony, in which the melody is played over a subordinate harmony.
This move meant that chords became a much more prevalent feature of music, even if they interrupted the melodic smoothness of a single part.
As a result, the tonal structure of a piece of music became more audible. The new style was also encouraged by changes in the economic order and social structure.
As the eighteenth century progressed, the nobility became the primary patrons of instrumental music, while public taste increasingly preferred comic opera. This led to changes in the way music was performed, the most crucial of which was the move to standard instrumental groups and the reduction in the importance of the continuo —the rhythmic and harmonic ground of a piece of music, typically played by a keyboard harpsichord or organ and potentially by several other instruments.
One way to trace the decline of the continuo and its figured chords is to examine the disappearance of the term obbligato , meaning a mandatory instrumental part in a work of chamber music. Although a single philosophy cannot describe years of music from all over Europe, several concepts are important in the Baroque period. A belief in music as a potent tool of communication One of the major philosophical currents in Baroque music comes from the Renaissance interest in ideas from ancient Greece and Rome.
The Greeks and Romans believed that music was a powerful tool of communication and could arouse any emotion in its listeners. As French humanist scholar Artus Thomas described a performance in the late sixteenth century,.
I have ofttimes heard it said of Sieur Claudin Le Jeune who has, without wishing to slight anyone, far surpassed the musicians of ages past in his understanding of these matters that he had sung an air which he had composed in parts …and that when this air was rehearsed at a private concert it caused a gentleman there to put hand to arms and begin swearing out loud, so that it seemed impossible to prevent him from attacking someone: whereupon Claudin began singing another air…which rendered the gentleman as calm as before.
This has been confirmed to me since by several who were there. Such is the power and force of melody, rhythm and harmony over the mind. In the baroque, it is the spirit of the second practice—using the power of music to communicate—that came to dominate the era.
In modern times, artists frequently earn a living producing exactly the kind of art they are moved to create. Accordingly, we often think of the artist—and the degree of his or her artistic inspiration—as the starting point for a work of art.
Throughout much of the Baroque era, however, composers only earned a living writing music if they were fortunate enough to be on the payroll of a political or religious institution. The musical needs of that institution, therefore, dictated the music the composer produced. Bach wrote the number of cantatas he did, for example, not necessarily because he found the form inspirational, but because of the liturgical demands of the Leipzig church that employed him.
When viewed in this light, Baroque music can provide a fascinating window into history. Contrast as a dramatic element Contrast is an important ingredient in the drama of a Baroque composition. The differences between loud and soft, solo and ensemble as in the concerto , different instruments and timbres all play an important role in many Baroque compositions.
Composers also began to be more precise about instrumentation, often specifying the instruments on which a piece should be played instead of allowing the performer to choose. Brilliant instruments like the trumpet and violin also grew in popularity. Monody and the advent of the basso continuo In previous musical eras, a piece of music tended to consist of a single melody, perhaps with an improvised accompaniment, or several melodies played simultaneously.
As part of the effort to imitate ancient music, composers started focusing less on the complicated polyphony that dominated the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and more on a single voice with a simplified accompaniment, or monody. If music was a form of rhetoric, as the writings of the Greeks and Romans indicate, a powerful orator is necessary—and who better for the job than a vocal soloist?
The best philosophers agree, and the very nature of our voice, with its high, low and middle ranges, would indicate as much. Along with the emphasis on a single melody and bass line came the practice of basso continuo , a method of musical notation in which the melody and bass line are written out and the harmonic filler indicated in a type of shorthand.
As the Italian musician Agostino Agazzari explained in Since the true style of expressing the words has at last been found, namely, by reproducing their sense in the best manner possible, which succeeds best with a single voice or no more than a few , as in the modern airs by various able men, and as is the constant practice at Rome in concerted music, I say that it is not necessary to make a score… A Bass, with its signs for the harmonies, is enough.
But if some one were to tell me that, for playing the old works, full of fugue and counterpoints, a Bass is not enough, my answer is that vocal works of this kind are no longer in use. Different instrumental sounds After being ignored for decades, Baroque music has become increasingly popular over the last fifty years. As part of this new interest, scholars and musicians have spent countless hours trying to figure out how the music might have sounded to 17th and 18th century audiences.
While we will never be able to recreate a performance precisely, their work has unearthed several major differences between Baroque and modern ensembles:.
Before , however, there was no pitch standard. The note to which Baroque ensembles tuned, therefore, varied widely at different times and in different places. As a result, the music notated on a score might have sounded as much as a half tone lower than how it would traditionally be performed today.
The harpsichord was the primary keyboard instrument and an important member of the continuo group , and instruments important in the 16th and 17th centuries like the lute and viol , still continued to be used. Variations in instruments still popular today also gave the baroque ensemble a different sound. String instruments like the violin, viola and cello used gut strings rather than the strings wrapped in metal with which they are strung today, for example, giving them a mellower, sweeter tone.
Mechanical differences between baroque and modern instruments also suggest that the older instruments would have sounded differently, so ensembles like Music of the Baroque often adjust their technique to allow for this. Because baroque and modern bows are structurally different, for example, string players using modern bows often use a gentler attack on the string and crescendos and diminuendos on longer notes.
While forms from earlier eras continued to be used, such as the motet or particular dances, the interest in music as a form of rhetoric sparked the development of new genres, particularly in the area of vocal music.
Many of the forms associated with the baroque era come directly out of this new dramatic impulse, particularly opera, the oratorio and the cantata. In the realm of instrumental music, the notion of contrast and the desire to create large-scale forms gave rise to the concerto, sonata and suite. Opera: A drama that is primarily sung, accompanied by instruments, and presented on stage.
Operas typically alternate between recitative , speech-like song that advances the plot, and arias, songs in which characters express feelings at particular points in the action. Choruses and dances are also frequently included.
Later on, focus went beyond the Alps as the heyday of the Italian city-state system took hold, and many northern composers came south to find their fortunes. Italian composers started appearing too. In Rome, Allegri and Palestrina were the last great Renaissance composers, writing huge, flowing choral works that still enthrall the ears.
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