The Enlightenment

The Enlightenment and the Classic style

Enlightenment as intellectual context for music • Builds on rationalism but tends away from it toward empiricism — deductive replaced by inductive thinking • Attempts to bring order to experience in various fields • Empirical science • Practical technology • Progressive political thought — empiricism leads to egalitarianism • Literature — novel brings plot to new importance

The “classic” outlook • Term suggests standard or model, enduring value • Based on ideas of Classical Antiquity, specifically Apollonian spirit • clarity, simplicity • symmetry, balance, order • objectivity • Visual art imitates ancient models — “neoclassic” • Only partly applicable in music (no ancient models as for visual arts)

Political and social contexts for music • Feudal system replaced by enlightened monarchy, e.g., • Frederick the Great in Prussia (r. 1740–1786) • Maria Theresia (r. 1740–1780), Joseph II (r. 1780–1790) in Austria • Aristocratic patronage important • Expansion of urban, commercial class • sales of music and instruments to amateur public • demand for teaching • concert series made music available to ticket buyers

Comparison of musical careers — Haydn and Mozart Franz Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) Musical family — father, Leopold, was important violinist Trained by Leopold, traveled widely Early international successes Chafed under patronage in Salzburg, eventually independent in Vienna • Nonmusical family — father was village wheel maker • Trained as Vienna choirboy • Poor gigging musician in his 20s • Thrived under patronage of Prince Nicholas Esterhazy

Opera reform in the mid–eighteenth century • Composers (and librettists) and audiences turning away from Metastasian artificiality and rhetorical excess • Viennese reform • Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714–1787) — composer • Raniero Calzabigi (1714–1795) — librettist • Ideals — outlined in Preface to Alceste • music to serve drama rather than the reverse • “beautiful simplicity” — classicist • “simplicity, truth, and naturalness” — Enlightenment

Four-movement sonata plan Symphony, String quartet • Fast movement, tonic key, sonata form • Slow movement, usually subdominant or submediant key, various forms • Minuet, tonic key, composite ternary form • Fast movement, tonic key, sonata or rondo form

Three-movement sonata plan Sonata, concerto • Fast movement, tonic key — sonata form or special variant for concerto • Slow movement, subdominant or submediant key, various forms • Fast movement, tonic key, sonata or rondo form

Sonata form I.II. 1. 2. 3. 4. P T S K P T S K ||: :||: :|| I –– →→ V – –– – V →→ I –––––––– I

Sonata form in minor keys I. II. 1. 2. 3. 4. P T S K P T S K ||: :||: :|| i–– →→ III– –III→→ i––––––– – i or I – – – I

Rondo form Five-part Rondo — A B A C A or A B A B A I I I I I I Seven-part Rondo — A B A C A D A or A B A C A B A I I I I I I I I

Concerto first-movement form (with integration of sonata and ritornello forms) RitornelloI.Rit.II.Ritornello Tutti Solo Tutti Solo TuttiSoloTutti 1. 2. 3. 4. 1P 2P K 1P T S/2P K 1P T S/2P K[Cadenza] I ––––– II –– → V ––– V––– V→ →I ––––––––I6/4–– V7I –––I NB: The thematic outline shown is only an example. Different concertos have different thematic plans.

“Topics” in eighteenth-century music Some examples of expressive tospos • Military • Singing — cantabile, aria • Dances • upper social classes — minuet, gavotte, • lower classes — contredanse, Ländler, rustic waltz • Ecclesiastical • Empfindsam • Sturm und Drang • Hunt • Brilliant

Questions for discussion • How were ideals of the Enlightenment and neoclassicism reflected in music in the middle of the eighteenth century? • Why did Haydn’s and Mozart’s careers differ so strikingly? • What elements of the eighteenth-century symphony can be traced to roots in the preceding period’s style? • Given the importance of convention in eighteenth-century music, what value should be placed on originality in music of the period, and how might the composer make her or his work original?

The Enlightenment