Victoria&Aminah

Victoria & Aminah

Enlightenment Music

Rise of opera, oratorio, sonata, concerto, and the symphony.

Italians were the first to develop new styles, followed by Germans, Austrians, and English.

Major composers- Handel, Bach, Haydn, Mozart

Context: Growing population, growing middle class

Philosophes- Voltaire and Rousseau preached ideas against aristocracy, class division, racial/ethnic injustice. Other cultures should be embraced.

Salons- open conversations, dialogue between intellectuals’

Music: Ideas absorbed into the music.

Christoph Willibald Gluck, less well known composer, sought to rid musical expression of “useless, excessive ornamentation” and draw from the ideals of “simplicity, truth and naturalness” (enlightened).

Growing middle class, beginning of public concerts. Music was no longer only for rich aristocrats.

Haydn- new ways to engage large audiences, narrative themes (rising action, suspense, climax, etc.).

Haydn also invoked “salon” idea with string quartets. No longer single dominant voice, but four voices in an open “civilized” conversation.

Mozart used the enlightenment to branch out, become full-fledged composer (Vienna) not just a servant. His opera “The Marriage of Figaro” epitomized the new ways of thinking by giving servants a central role. Previously, servants were comic figures to be laughed at; but, building on ideas in the play by Beaumarchais, Mozart presented them as equally worthy of serious attention as any noble aristocrat, equality!

Appearance of symphonies, sonatas, concertos, and chamber music, less interest was shown in mere accompaniment for religious services or operatic performances

Music from this time period is broken down into two types: Baroque and Rococo. Both were elaborate, had simple one-line melodies and its composers wanted to capture beauty by writing this type of music. They wanted perfect order in their music.

This music is much more developed and technical than any previous musical compositions in history New "forms" were discovered (fugue, canon, chorale, different instrumentation)

popular instruments from this era: Violin, Harpsichord, Organ Then the piano was invented by Gottfried Silbermann (who worked with Bach)

Baroque characterized by reason, order, proportion, and logic. This music is exuberant, but still controlled (Bach, Handel)

Rococo (late Baroque) was a delicate and fanciful extension of Baroque music (Mozart, Haydn) This style came particularly from France.

__Works Cited__

Spielvogel @http://www.npr.org/programs/specials/milestones/990602.motm.enlightenment.html http://www.gdn.peachnet.edu/PT_Faculty/j_richards/lectures/Hist1122EnlightenmentMusic.htm http://library.thinkquest.org/27110/noframes/periods/classical.html

Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OZCyp-LcGw

Pachelbel's Canon in D: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvNQLJ1_HQ0

Bach's Prelude to Cello Suite No. 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU_QR_FTt3E