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55
Der Schulmeister
E flat major
Joseph Haydn
Classical period
The dates of the Classical period in Western music are generally accepted as
being between about 1750 and 1820. However, the term classical music is used
in a colloquial sense as a synonym for Western art music, which describes a
variety of Western musical styles from the ninth century to the present, and
especially from the sixteenth or seventeenth to the nineteenth.
The classical period or era was a time in history the Baroque period, and when
Western music really started to properly develop and evolve from the
foundations of Baroque music into what it is today, an extremely complicated
but amazing system of creating, listening, playing music.
Also during this time, the first Viennese school was set up. The First Viennese
School is a name mostly used to refer to three composers of the Classical
period in late-18th-century Vienna: W. A. Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven. Franz
Schubert is occasionally added to the list.
Classical Period Composers
Classical music has a lighter, clearer texture than Baroque music and is less complex. It
is mainly homophonicmelody above chordal accompaniment (but counterpoint by no
means is forgotten, especially later in the period). It also make use of style galant in
the classical period which was drawn in opposition to the strictures of the Baroque
style, emphasizing light elegance in place of the Baroque's dignified seriousness and
impressive grandeur
Variety and contrast within a piece became more pronounced than before. Variety of keys,
melodies, rhythms and dynamics (using crescendo, diminuendo and sforzando), along with
frequent changes of mood and timbre were more commonplace in the Classical period than
they had been in the Baroque. Melodies tended to be shorter than those of Baroque music,
with clear-cut phrases and clearly marked cadences. The orchestra increased in size and
range; the harpsichord continuo fell out of use, and the woodwind became a self-contained
section. As a solo instrument, the harpsichord was replaced by the piano (or fortepiano).
Early piano music was light in texture, often with Alberti bass accompaniment, but it later
became richer, more sonorous and more powerful.
Franz Joseph Haydn
22-29: Strings unison tremolo, The music is clearly travelling but does not
begin to suggest its likely destination until:
29-36: Full orchestra; harmonised over a repeated quaver F as bass pedal
which will become the dominant of the new key almost reluctant to let go
of A but driving forward, legato, P with f
36-43: Full orchestra-louder-strings, strings tremolo, move to dominant key
2nd subject
(43-61)
43/44: 2nd violins; continue the bass F quaver pedal to make a seamless link;
p
45-54: strings (2nd violin continuing its quaver F); lyrical; harmonised The
1stviolins figure in 47/48 is repeated (49/50) with its 2nd bar compressed
rhythmically to allow repetition of the staccato 3-note figure (derived
from 47), this also repeated before a 2nd note is added (52/53),giving
continuous movement and increasing urgency. Haydn has already started
developing his material.
54-61: Full orchestra; explosive interruption; unison but 1st and 2nd violins
interpolatewide leaps up to the dominant note (now the new tonic)
finished off with strong perfect cadence.
Created by
Finn and Owen