Change in Society and in the Arts in the Classical Pepriod
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David Jacques-Lois
Madame Recamier
The eighteenth century is often described as the Age of Reason. As philosophers and scientists began to challenge traditional assumptions about the nature of belief and potency, they chosen into question the unfettered power of the Church and the Monarchy. Their spirit of research was rooted in a critical arroyo, which did much to spawn the turbulent events that were soon to engulf the Western globe.
The Rococo
In the heart of the century, however, these upheavals were distant clouds on the horizon. The prevailing way in the arts was the Rococo, a style that epitomized the elegance and sophistication of ladylike life. The term derived from the rocaillc, or decorative shellwork, that French architects had introduced in order to soften the severe grandeur of High Baroque design. Its hallmarks were grace, frivolity, and sensual pleasure.
In painting, the Rococo found its prime exponents in the French artists Jean-Antoine Watteau and Francois Boucher, while its finest architecture was produced in southern Federal republic of germany and Austria. The sheer abundance of decoration inside the Bavarian church of Die Wies (1745-54) and at the abbey church of Ottobeuren (1748) demonstrate Rococo'south potential for hedonism and overindulgence.
The musical equivalent of the Rococo was the Style galant, which laid a like accent on lightness and elegance by replacing the circuitous schemes of Baroque music with free-flowing melodies. In Germany the way, which was described equally "empfindsam" (sensitive), assumed a more sentimental character. It flourished in the 1750s and 1760s. finding its fullest expression in the music of C.P.Eastward. Bach.
The emotional side of the style heralded the appearance of the Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress) movement that dominated German cultural life in the 1770s and 1780s. Especially associated with this influential literary tendency is Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who, together with his friend Friednch Schiller, created some of Deutschland's greatest drama and poetry. Goethe's masterpiece, Faust, provided enduring inspiration for artists and composers. In England the literary scene was dominated by Samuel Johnson, who single-handedly composed a Dictionary of the English, but is remembered as much for his witty, acerbic conversation, recorded by his biographer James Boswell. The novel also developed during this period, afterward early models by Samuel Richardson and Henry Fielding.
David Jacques-Lois
The Intervention of the Sabine Women
The Age of Enlightenment
As the eighteenth century wore on, reaction fix m against both the stylistic extremes of the Rococo and the blazon of society that had generated it. Critics could look at the canvases of a painter like Watteau, where figures grand masquerade disport themselves in dreamy, parkland settings, and argue that they were the product of a government far as well absorbed in its own bogus pleasures and utterly cut off from the all too evident sufferings of its people.
These grumblings were most evident in France, where a group of writers known as the "Philosophes" (philosophers) laid the groundwork for the French Revolution in a movement known as the Enlightenment. At their caput, the brilliant but scathing essayist Voltaire attacked religion as mere superstition and promoted instead the human virtues of reason, tolerance, and justice.
Voltaire himself believed in the value of enlightened despotism, just in his wake in that location followed writers who were more eager to uphold the crusade of democracy and the rights of the individual. Thomas Paine, the radical English-born political theorist who dedicated the American colonists confronting Britain, was 1 of the leading lights of this cause. In France, the philosopher and writer Jean-Jacques Rousseau in particular captured the revolutionary spirit of the historic period in his almost famous work. The Social Contract, with its fusion of morality and politics.
David Jacques-Lois
The Death of Socrates
The American RevolutionThe Philosophes advocated change and progress, and their hopes were fulfilled m the most dramatic fashion possible. Trouble had been brewing m the Due north American colonies since the early 1760s, as the English language government unwisely sought to impose a series of punitive taxes on its distant colonies. "No Taxation without Representation" was the rallying cry, as the colonists fiercely resisted such measures as the Sugar Deed (1764), the Stamp Act (1765), and the Tea Act (1773). The final precipitated the ''Boston Tea Party" of December 1773, when three shiploads of imported tea were unceremoniously dumped into the harbour by citizens of Boston as a protest against taxes on tea and the trading monopoly given to the Eastward India Company.
The English language parliament responded bullishly to the situation, and the crisis rapidly turned into open rebellion. The first shots were fired yard 1775, and a year afterwards the Proclamation of Independence, drafted by Thomas Jefferson, was signed. It took the colonial revolutionaries a further seven years to plough this resolution into hard reality, but geography and dogged determination finally tipped the scale. For the British government, waging a war 3,000 miles away, while also contending with hostile European neighbours, posed too stern a chore. In 1783, the English forces finally capitulated. Peace was sealed past the Treaty of Paris in the same year, and in 1789 George Washington became the first President of the United States of America.
The last such meeting had been chosen in 1614. The states General was equanimous of three sections: the Nobility and the Clergy - both of whom were anxious to defer much-needed reforms in order to maintain their privileges - and the Third Estate, representing the balance of the customs. When the different parties could not agree, the Third Manor broke away, declaring its sectional right to exist seen equally the truthful National Assembly. Louis Xvi opposed this, just his hand was weakened by rioting in Pans and, in particular, by the storming of the Bastille, the urban center's prison-fortress, on 14 July 1789.
From this point on, the revolutionary tide was unstoppable. The Parisian disturbances were repeated in the provinces and the Male monarch's authority- gradually ebbed abroad. In 1791, he tried to abscond with Queen Marie Antoinette, but the couple were intercepted at Varennes and taken back to the majuscule in disgrace. This encouraged the radical elements in the National Assembly. The following yr Louis Xvi was removed from office and imprisoned, and in 1793 both he and Marie Antoinette were executed. In a decisive suspension with the past, the newly elected Convention announced that 1792 was to be Year 1 of the new Republic.
David Jacques-Lois
The Loves of Paris and Helen
Classicism
Pregnant developments in the art world echoed these momentous events. Hither, the vehicle for change was Classicism — an influence made more than confusing past the different contexts in which the term itself is used.
On ane level, "Classicism" relates to the influence of the ancient cultures of Greece and Rome. This is most evident in areas such equally architecture, where there are obvious models to imitate. In a field such as music, the allusion is far less clear. Hither, "Classical" can refer to those qualities that were almost prized by the artists of the ancient world — clarity, simplicity, moderation, and remainder. In practical terms, this meant a divergence from the complex polyphony of Baroque music and a greater reliance on unadorned melody and harmony.
"Classicism" can as well be used as a dissimilarity to the term "Romanticism." While a Romantic artist might be described equally 1 who gave gratuitous rein to the emotions in his work, a Classical creative person would accept a more detached, intellectual approach. Used in this sense, "Classical" is a stylistic rather than a historical term. Thus Mozart, whose music is passionate but too highly controlled, can be seen as the quintessential Classical composer. Beethoven, on the other hand, is non and then easily categorized and is oftentimes seen as representing a bridge betwixt the Classical and Romantic eras. Although he lived during the Classical period, many of his works conceptualize Romanticism and he is taken past many to exemplify the Romantic artist.
The stimulus for the Classical revival of the belatedly eighteenth century came from two chief sources. On the one hand, it developed as a natural reaction against the fussiness and credible superficiality of the Rococo mode. At the same fourth dimension, it stemmed from some exciting new archaeological discoveries. The marvels of the ancient earth had retained their entreatment ever since the Renaissance and, throughout the eighteenth century, a visit to the antiquarian ruins in Rome remained a highlight of the Grand Tour, that essential chemical element in the didactics of every wealthy swain. This interest greatly increased post-obit the excavations at Herculaneum in 1737 and at Pompeii in 1748. It was further enhanced past the writings of Edward Gibbon, who began his monumental Refuse and Fall of the Roman Empire in 1773 and finally completed it in 1788, and by the work of Johann Winckelmann, a High german antiquarian and scholar, who helped to establish the superior qualities of ancient Greek civilisation and to spread enthusiasm for Classicism to all branches of the arts.
In architecture, Englishmen such as William Chambers and Robert Adam led the way. The latter's remodelling of Syon House (1762-ix), about London, for example, featured an opulent Roman dues-room; his work at nearby Osterley Park included a highly decorative Etruscan Room. In the emerging U.s., too, the Classical mode was clearly in favour. A particularly fine case can exist found at Monticello (built between 1770 and 1775, with subsequently alterations), the elegant state firm near Charlottesville, Virginia, which Thomas Jefferson designed for himself.
David Jacques-Lois
Sappho
Music in the Classical era
In the musical sphere, these trends were almost evident in the growing taste for simplicity and restraint. In Vienna, for case, Christoph Gluck introduced his "reform" operas during the 1760s. He declared that the office of music was to serve the text and the demands of the plot, and sought to eliminate coloratura singing (the florid elaboration of vocal lines, usually by sopranos). He boosted the roles of both the chorus and the orchestra to compensate for this omission.
The blossoming role of the orchestra was not bars exclusively to the realm of opera. For the starting time fourth dimension in the history of music, instrumental forms took precedence over song ones. The orchestra itself developed into a comparatively stable performing unit of measurement, a recognizable precursor of the ensemble that we know today. The harpsichord gradually disappeared from its ranks and the chief emphasis started to autumn upon the strings. The principal difference from today's orchestras was size. Whereas a mod orchestra contains approximately 100 instrumentalists, its eighteenth-century equivalent rarely exceeded 35. Even the Mannheim orchestra in Germany - the most prestigious outfit of its 24-hour interval, whose discipline and controlled audio were renowned throughout Europe — boasted fewer than fifty musicians. In 1756, its make-up consisted of xx violins; four each of violoncellos, violas, and double basses; a pair of oboes, flutes, horns, and bassoons; and a harpsichord. Occasionally, trumpets or kettledrums might be added.
The rise of orchestral music fostered the popular success of both the symphony and the concerto. The quondam originated equally an operatic overture, but was greatly expanded during the eighteenth century, gaining acceptance as an independent piece, with its traditional core existence the four-motility pattern of the sonata. Haydn, who composed more than than 100 symphonies, was the kickoff acknowledged principal of the form and is sometimes called "the father of the symphony." The concerto, which had already become popular in the Baroque period, connected to develop as information technology gained prominence. Essentially, the format consisted of a musical exchange between a solo instrument and the orchestra. Usually, this solo instrument was the violin, but the Classical period witnessed the growing sophistication of the pianoforte — then chosen because its activeness enabled it to be played softly (piano) or loudly (forte) -and this offered telescopic for wider variation.
In some means, the restrained and disciplined graphic symbol of the music of this period scarcely seems to reverberate the turbulent, oft violent events that were taking place on the political stage. Withal, in certain areas, particularly painting, the revival of Classicism produced art that clearly responded to its historical moment.
COLORATURA An elaborate, highly ornamented style of singing particularly suited to a light, high, and active soprano vocalism.
SYMPHONY An instrumental limerick in three or 4 movements, having the structure of a sonata only played by a total orchestra. The symphony traditionally consisted of three or 4 movements: a lively opening motion (allegro); a slower, lyrical passage (andante or adagio); a lighter trip the light fantastic toe sequence (oft a minuet); and a vivacious finale. The Classical symphony was perfected by Haydn and Mozart, but the class was greatly expanded by Beethoven and later composers, including Brahms and Mahler.
CONCERTO A composition for one or more solo instruments and orchestra, usually in three movements, established in its modern
form by Mozart. In each movement the soloist may play a cadenza — initially an opportunity to brandish his or her virtuosity past improvising on some of the themes from the movement. During the Classical period it became usual for the cadenza to be written down. SONATA Originally a piece of music for instruments every bit opposed to a cantata, which was sung. It evolved into an extended composition in several contrasting merely related movements, written for one or more than instruments, commonly including a keyboard instrument. The sonata reached its greatest expression during the Classical era in works by Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. Haydn and Mozart generally wrote sonatas of three movements (fast-slow-fast), but Beethoven introduced a 4th into many of his works.
David Jacques-Lois
The Oath of the Horatii
The paintings of David
Nowhere was this more than evident than in the paintings of Jacques-Louis David, who worked under the shadow of the French Revolution. Ostensibly his pictures illustrated scenes from Roman history, just David'due south contemporaries understood their truthful meaning. They were in fact thinly disguised comments on the current land of French republic, brilliantly catching the mood of the fourth dimension. The Oath of the Horatii (1785), for example,
which showed a father proffering a cluster of swords to his 3 sons, was a provocative battle cry, urging the use of force as the only answer to the land'southward bug. Four years afterward, David expanded on this theme when he produced The Lictors Bringing Brutus the Bodies of his Sons. Brutus had allowed his children to be executed for taking up arms against the Commonwealth, and the warm reaction to David'southward film, a stern metaphorical lecture on patriotism and sacrifice, has a piquant relevance when i considers the long list of French men and women who were soon to perish on the guillotine.
David Jacques-Lois
Napoleon at the St. Bernard Pass
Napoleon Bonaparte
The initial euphoria generated by the Revolution turned to disenchantment afterwards 1793, when the executions of Louis 16 and Mane Antoinette unleashed an orgy of killing. During the height of "the Terror", more than 1,300 victims were beheaded within the space of six weeks. Even the revolutionary' leaders did non escape: Marat was stabbed to expiry in his bath, while Danton, Desmoulins, and Robespierre all went to the guillotine. Amid such mayhem, it seemed cruelly ironic that in a moving ridge of Enlightenment zeal the cathedral of Notre Dame had just been renamed the "Temple of Reason."
Out of the vacuum, Napoleon Bonaparte emerged to take control. His successful Italian campaign of 1796-seven brought him to prominence, and inside a decade French republic was in his grip. On 2 December 1804, in a motility calculated to evoke memories of Charlemagne, he crowned himself Emperor, while the Pope stood in omnipresence. Through a succession of stunning military victories, Bonaparte and then transformed the map of Europe; for a time, much of present-twenty-four hour period Germany, Italy, Holland, Switzerland, and Spain lay at his disposal. Ultimately, only his own excessive appetite defeated him. His disastrous Retreat from Moscow in 1812, which saw the elimination of all but 50,000 of his 600,000 troops, set up him on the road to rum. The Duke of Wellington, in command of the British forces, delivered the coup de grace at Waterloo in 1815.
From 1789 to 1815, France had been the dominant force ш European politics. Just post-obit Napoleon's decline, every bit the four "Cracking Powers" — United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland, Austria, Russian federation, and Prussia — met at the Congress of Vienna in 1814, a sense of relief prevailed. The flames of revolution, which had spread throughout Northward America and France and threatened to unseat the other European monarchies, appeared to accept been extinguished. With the restoration of the Bourbons in France (Louis XVIII became king in 1814, Louis XVII having died in prison in 1795), information technology seemed that the old order had been preserved.
David Jacques-Lois
Induction of the Emperor Napoleon I and Coronation of the Empress Josephine
Vienna and the growth of the suburbia
In fact, this was non the case. Dynamic changes continued in Europe, but they advanced through social rather than political developments. Some indication of their strength can exist gleaned from the state of affairs in Republic of austria. For most of the Classical period, and certainly between 1780 and 1828, Vienna was the musical upper-case letter of Europe. The iv greatest composers of the age —Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert —all had potent connections with the city.
For all its attractions, however, the Austrian court was not the power centre that Burgundy had been in the fifteenth century, or that Versailles had been nether Louis Xiv. Quite autonomously from the Napoleonic invasion, Republic of austria had recently lost territories in Italy and kingdom of the netherlands, while, in 1806, Francis II (Austria'southward king) had lost his imperial title when the Holy Roman Empire ceased to exist. As a consequence, both the Crown and the nobility were leading far less ostentatious lifestyles and spending less on the arts. The Hungarian Esterhazy dynasty was alone in maintaining the grandiose cultural standards that had once been expected of the elite, and this was only possible because the Hungarian provinces had not still felt the full effect of the Austrian economic reforms.
Despite these setbacks, Vienna managed to retain its cultural ascendancy because an important new source of patronage was emerging from the ranks of the suburbia. This expanding, upwards mobile course owed its increasing prosperity to a serial of economic reforms and to the early effects of the Industrial Revolution, which during the nineteenth century spread throughout northern Europe from its origins in U.k.. A serial of labour-saving inventions had ushered in an age of mechanized mass production. Archaic gild restrictions and the vestiges of feudalism were swept away, to be replaced by more efficient working practices. Large factories, able to adjust a thousand specialized workers under a unmarried root, overshadowed both the smaller undertakings on manorial estates — which had only survived because of their monopolies and privileges - and the erratic output from the inmates of poor-houses. In Lower Republic of austria the number of people employed in manufacture almost doubled between 1783 and 1790. The key to commercial success shifted from privilege to enterprise.
The ascension of the bourgeoisie had significant consequences for musicians. Hitherto, it had been vital for any aspiring composer to seek out a royal appointment or attach himself to a noble household. By the end of the eighteenth century, this was no longer the case. A pop artist might also work on a freelance basis, attempting to earn a living through public performances. In Vienna, for example, 2 of the mainstays of cultural life were the subscription concert and the salon. For the former, groups of individuals, both aristocratic and middle-class, clubbed together to fund a concert. The salons, meanwhile, were more intimate musical gatherings held in private households. Once again, the patrons of these soirees might just as hands be bourgeois as noble. Both represented potential sources of income for composers.
David Jacques-Lois
Belisarius Receiving Alms
Evolution of the music industry
The rapid pace of change is readily discernible in the contrasting fortunes of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. Haydn had the well-nigh traditional career design of the 3, holding the post of Kapellmeister (managing director of courtroom music) at the Hungarian court of Prince Esterhazy for some 30 years. Mozart tried in vain to obtain a similar court appointment, but was ultimately obliged to earn the bulk of his income from giving subscription concerts. Past contrast, Beethoven (whose career bridged the Classical and Romantic traditions) was far less dependent on majestic patronage and could afford to have informal relations with those of the elite who did sponsor him. Possibly the first successful "freelance" composer, he earned a living through commissions, sales of his music, and public concerts.
The diversity of Beethoven's sources of income illustrates just how far the music business had evolved by this stage. Nigh major cities could now boast at to the lowest degree one public concert venue. A Music Hall had opened in Dublin as early on as 1741. Seven years later, information technology was followed past the Holywell Music Room at Oxford, the beginning establishment of its kind in England. Popular concerts could also be heard at the Vauxhall Gardens, on the south bank of the River Thames in London. James Boswell reported that the music there was "vocal and instrumental, not also refined for the general ear", although the Gardens did play host to a public rehearsal of Handel's Music for the royal fireworks in 1749. This attracted an audition of more than 12,000 people, rendering London Bridge impassable to traffic for more than than three hours.
Past the finish of the century, music publishing had become a significant industry, complemented by a fast-developing music printing. Even the professional music critic had made an appearance. The new journals that sprang up contained reviews of the latest concerts, along with helpful advice for the growing number of amateur musicians who wished to play at home. Refined manufacturing techniques had brought down the prices of well-nigh musical instruments, and it was becoming stylish to regard a modicum of musical ability as a necessary social achievement.
Beethoven, forward-looking in this respect as in many others, was broken-hearted that his music should not be reserved for privileged minorities, just should appeal to the broad spectrum of humanity. This attitude in itself reveals how far the democratic ideals of the Enlightenment were fulfilled. Before 1750, music was created mainly for the benefit of the Church, the dignity, and the Crown; during the Classical era, its enjoyment was fabricated available to many other levels of society; the following Romantic age would provide music for the individual.
David Jacques-Lois
The Lictors Returning to Brutus the Bodies of his Sons
Boosted Composers
Although the achievements of Haydn, Mozart, and Schubert have naturally tended to dwarf those of their contemporaries, many of these produced far from negligible music. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788), for case, was not only the virtually famous of J.Due south. Bach'south sons, but an innovative and often visionary composer in his own right. The influence of his father is heard strongly in the splendidly celebrating Magnificat (1749). but his almost personal and imaginative music is establish in his Symphonies and. above all, one thousand the keyboard collections of Sonatas, Rondos and Fantasias "... fur Kenner und Liebhaber'' ("for connoisseurs and amateurs").
Johann Christian Bach (1735-1782) spent much of his busy career in London, where in 1764 he befriended 8-twelvemonth-sometime Mozart, who was greatly influenced past the ltalianate elegance and fashionable craftsmanship of Bach's music. These qualities are shown m such operas every bit Orione and La demenza di Scipione, in the Half-dozen grand overtures. Opus eighteen. and in such charming bedchamber works as the sets of Quintets, Opus Ii and Opus 22.
Giovanni Pergolesi (1710—1736) in La serva padrona and Domenico Cimarosa (1749 — 1783) in Il inatriniouio segreto made significant contributions to Italian comic opera; while the Catalan Antonio Soler (1749-1801) followed the lead of Domenico Scarlatti with his 120 keyboard sonatas.
Johann Stamitz (1717—1757) developed his orchestra at Mannheim into the about famous of its time, historic for its precision and range of dynamics; his 58 extant symphonies exploit its virtuosity and luminescence, every bit well as exploiting predominantly a iv- rather than the three-movement structure. His son, Carl Stamitz (1745-1801), the Viennese Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf (1739-1799) and, in Pans, Francois-Joseph Gossec (1734—1829) all wrote expert, characterful symphonies.
Two prolific composer-pianists on the edge betwixt Classicism and Romanticism arc the Bohemian Jan Ladislav Dussek (1760-1812) and the Austrian Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837). As well as some works of rather tawdry brilliance, Dussek wrote a number of piano sonatas of a most imaginative sensitivity and passionate virtuosity — those in A flat, Opus 64 (Le retour a Paris), and m F sharp pocket-sized. Opus 61. Hummel was all the same more highly renowned in his time, writing opera and sacred music, every bit well as piano works: in his large output, works such as the Piano concertos in A minor and D minor stand up out, anticipating so much in Weber, Mendelssohn, and Chopin.
Source: http://www.all-art.org/history700_classical_music_4classical_era.html
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