Musical Styles and Composers: From Enlightenment to Classicism

Posted on Jan 20, 2025 in Music

The Enlightenment

The Enlightenment was the 18th-century epoch marked by rationalism. Its features are:

  • The inspiration to create a cultured society
  • Questioning God
  • Compilation of the nature of scientific knowledge
  • Artistic interest in the ancient

Rococo (Style Galant)

Style Galant was the dominant ideal and is called the galant term. Characteristics:

  1. Polyphony was abandoned, and counterpoint was subordinated to companions.
  2. The parties to the main melodic line.
  3. The bass line acts as a support for the voice.
  4. The harmonic accompaniment is achieved through the D major chord tonality.

Style of Sensibility

It is a subjective and eccentric personal style, using melodies with large leaps, chromatic movements, minor keys, and harmonies of musical elements. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, son of Johann Sebastian Bach, stood out a bit.

Classical Style

In January 18th, the princes competed to bring the greatest European artists to their courts. Mannheim had been elected as the state capital, and its orchestra acquired a Palatine form under the direction of Johann Stamitz. The orchestra’s main section remains the strings, but wind instruments develop, and the clarinet appears. Elements of classical style:

  1. The melody dominates everything.
  2. The numbers are arranged in even bars.
  3. Melodic themes are based on brief elements.
  4. Exploited contrasts.

The importance of the time is reflected in Mattheson, Riepel, and Koch, who were the best songwriters.

The Melody and Form

The melody became the largest single element in classicism. It provoked major changes in the composition. The melody method uses very clear structures and phrases, based on a simple harmony.

Musical Elements: Period and Sentence

The melody has two phrases, each 8 bars, that are repeated. Its main elements are:

  • First sentence: The two semi-phrases are symmetrical, and only the first one changes. The first one ends with a dominant chord, and the second one with a tonic chord.
  • Second sentence: New material is presented, but the second section returns to the previous semi-phrases.

Notable Works and Composers

  • Claudio Monteverdi: Orfeo (opera)
  • J.S. Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier
  • Vivaldi: Violin Concertos
  • Lully: Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme
  • Boismortier: The Japanese Way
  • J. Gay: The Beggar’s Opera
  • Pergolesi: La Serva Padrona
  • Purcell: Come Ye Sons of Art
  • Handel: Lascia ch’io pianga
  • Pachelbel: Canon

Medieval Composers

  • Marco Polo
  • Martin Codax
  • Alfonso X the Wise
  • Gregory the Great
  • Saint Augustine
  • Adam de la Halle

Renaissance Composers

  • Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
  • Tomás Luis de Victoria
  • Francisco Guerrero
  • Cristóbal de Morales
  • Martin Luther
  • Josquin des Prez

Baroque Composers and Works

  • Joseph Haydn: The Creation
  • W.A. Mozart: Eine kleine Nachtmusik, Rondo for Piano, The Magic Flute
  • Beethoven: Pathétique Sonata, Missa Solemnis, 9 Symphonies
  • Domenico Alberti
  • Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
  • Rousseau: J’ai perdu tout mon bonheur (also a musical thinker)
  • Domenico Scarlatti: 555 Sonatas for Keyboard
  • L. Boccherini: Musica notturna delle strade di Madrid

Classicism

The epoch of classicism is approximately between 1750 and 1810, during the French and Industrial Revolutions. The galant style and sensibility were used. The melody uses very clear structures and phrases, and periods are given in instrumental music and voice. The first includes the sonata, chamber music, the symphony, and the concerto, and the second, opera.