THE CLASSICAL PERIOD (1775-1825) - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

THE CLASSICAL PERIOD (1775-1825)Slide2

In the middle of the 18th century,

Europe began to move to a new style in architecture, literature and the arts, known as Classicism

It sought to emulate the ideals of Classical antiquity especially of Classical Greece.

This period in music history is sometimes referred to as "the Viennese Classic period," and it was centered in Vienna.

View of Vienna in 1758, by

Bernardo

BellatoSlide3

Why Vienna?

Vienna was the

center of a large Empire, the Austro-(Hungarian) EmpireAlthough there were many other vibrant centers of musical life in the 18th century, including Paris, London, Berlin, Rome and Naples. Vienna was special, because of a particularly enlightened monarch, Joseph II, who was a patron of the arts and even commissioned Mozart to write an operaThere was not only money for music in the imperial budget, there also happened to be a large number of really talented musicians in Vienna, including some international superstars, most famous of which was HaydnSlide4

That fact that Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven all centered their careers in Vienna and lived there most of their lives pretty much secured Vienna its reputation as the epicenter of the classical style.

Success breeds success. Additionally, with well known musicians living there, others went to learn from them and so on

..they were also connected.. Schubert adored Beethoven .. once saw him in cafe but was too afraid to come over.. Beethoven in turn adored Mozart.. He (young Beethoven) even played to Mozart.. but that one wasn't too impressed until Beethoven started to improvise.Why Vienna?Slide5

Musical characteristics of the Classical period include:

Melodies

and plain-old good tunes took over from complex polyphony (everything playing at once)an emphasis on elegance and balancemainly homophonic textures (melody plus accompaniment) but with some use of counterpoint (where two or more melodic lines are combined) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpscshv3Exkshort well-balanced melodies and clear-cut question and answer phrasesuse of contrasting moodsmainly simple diatonic harmonythere was simply more to hum along to in the Classical period!Diatonic means using notes which belong to the key rather than chromatic notes which are outside the key

.Slide6

Section

A: The ‘First Viennese School’ 1770–1827 (35 marks)

Prescribed Works:Haydn Symphony no. 55 (The Schoolmaster), Hob. 1: 55Mozart Piano Concerto in G major, K453Beethoven Symphony no. 5 in C minor, Op 67Schubert Piano Quintet in A major, D.667 (The Trout), 4th movementSlide7

Franz Schubert

(1797–1828) was an Austrian romantic composer and although he died at the age of 31, he was a prolific composer, having written some 600 lieder

(songs) and nine symphonies. Slide8

Schubert

During a career lasting less than 20 years, Franz Schubert (1797-1828) produced a torrent of work, including operas and symphonies; 600 songs; overtures and masses; string quartets, quintets and an octet; 20 piano sonatas; and some 50 choral works. Slide9

‘Trout’ Variations (4th movement, Quintet in A major, D667), Schubert

The

best-known piece of music to be named after a fish!The title comes from one of Schubert’s most loved songs ‘The trout’ (Die Forelle) which forms the theme of the quintet’s fourth movementSlide10

‘Trout’ Variations (4th movement, Quintet in A major, D667), Schubert

Despite

the song’s light touch, it is based on rather a tragic poem. A man stands watching a young trout happily in the stream, but sees it caught by a cunning fisherman who has muddied up the clear waters so the trout cannot see the looming dangerThe 22-year-old Schubert was staying with the singer Johann Michael Vogl (for whom many of his songs were written) in the summer of 1819 when Sylvester Paumgartner, local mine-owner and music enthusiast, commissioned a quintet. He wanted it to include variations on 'Die Forelle', as well as a piece for an oddly-configured quintet made up by him and his friends.Slide11
Slide12
Slide13
Slide14
Slide15

How many parts in the main theme?

Structure?

How many phrases? Melodic ShapeAre there any hints in the music that link it to the Describe the parts played by the double bass and also the viola and the celloSlide16

How many parts in the main theme?

Structure? Can you hear any repeats? How many phrases?

Describe the melodic ShapeAre there any hints in the music that link it to the TroutDescribe the parts played by the double bass and also the viola and the celloMain themeSlide17

How many parts in the main theme?

Structure?

How many phrases? Melodic ShapeAre there any hints in the music that link it to the Describe the parts played by the double bass and also the viola and the celloMain themeSlide18

How many parts? – 4 parts – Homophonic

How many phrases? – Melody line is in 4 bar phrases

Time signature is 2/4First section 8 bars long, Second section 12 bars longHints at it being water like, rippling, the trout or the movement of the troutIn every pair of bars, the melody in the first one can always be heard to move more than in the second. Schubert maintains the momentum in the accompaniment, suggesting a sense of the music still moving forward even while the melody is static (e.g. the cello rhythm and upward line in bar 2, the cello viola in bar 4, even the double bass in bar 10, etc.).A homophonic texture is perhaps the most common texture we are likely to find in any piece of music. When a piece of music has a very clearly melody and chords supporting it or uses a "very similar rhythm”Slide19
Slide20
Slide21

Theme: a solemn, almost ‘hymn-like’, straight presentation of the theme by strings in an undemonstrative four-part homophonic texture does little to suggest that this is the lively tune of the original song (Die

Forelle

). The melody is in 4-bar phrases, the first 8 emphasising tonic/dominant – these can be heard particularly clearly in the first four bars. The opening figure, after resting the first time on an imperfect cadence, repeats to modulate with a perfect cadence in the dominant key, all typical of standard classical binary practice. Candidates should be encouraged to hear the repeat of the first eight bars (but without needing to know about the repeat sign) and to listen out for it in all the variations. As they will discover, the other three composers in Section A treat repeats differently, adding considerably to the possibilities for variety. The second ‘half’ of the melody begins and ends firmly back in the tonic key and would also be a matching eight bars long, were it not for its own repetition of the final four-bar phrase. In every pair of bars, the melody in the first one can always be heard to move more than in the second. Candidates might perhaps be asked to try to hear how Schubert maintains the momentum in the accompaniment, suggesting a sense of the music still moving forward even while the melody is static (e.g. the cello rhythm and upward line in bar 2, the cello viola in bar 4, even the double bass in bar 10, etc.).The rising sextuplet figure from the song's accompaniment is used as a unifying motif throughout the quintet, and related figures appear in four out of the five movements – all but the Scherzo. As in the song, the figure is usually introduced by the piano, ascending.[1]Slide22

How does Schubert vary the theme?

What differences can you hear in the instrumental parts in the roles they play or how they are played?

Variation 1Slide23

How does Schubert vary the theme?

What differences can you hear in the instrumental parts in the roles they play or how they are played?

Describe how the pianist plays the melody lineVariation 1Slide24
Slide25

The string accompaniment now hints at the original song with playful broken chord figures exchanged between the violin and cello

T

he viola maintains a more continuous flowing movement (suggestive of the leaping trout figure and a background of running water perhaps, but not a notion to be taken too seriously) This might be an opportune moment to discuss ornamentation. The variation is particularly rich in trills. There is also a very audible example of pizzicato string playing in the double bass part. Variation 1Slide26

Low strings play pizzicato, upper strings have fluttering figure; trills in violin in B section.Slide27

Variation I: the piano was silent in the Theme so is given the first chance to present it solo. Schubert immediately signals that the treatment of the instrument in this movement will be primarily as a melodic one. The melody is doubled in octaves in both hands. (For candidates who are unfamiliar with piano playing, some explanation, and possibly demonstration, of its usual way of playing a melody with the right hand in the treble and harmony with the left, in the bass, might be helpful.) The string accompaniment now hints at the original song with playful broken chord figures exchanged between the violin and cello while the

viola maintains

a more continuous flowing movement (suggestive of the leaping trout figure and a background of running water perhaps, but not a notion to be taken too seriously). This might be an opportune moment to discuss ornamentation. The variation is particularly rich in trills. There is also a very audible example of pizzicato string playing in the double bass part. Slide28
Slide29

Homework

Listen to Variations 2 and 3 and discuss with the use of the listening map the main ways that Schubert varies the original theme

For Variation 4 draw your own listening map to show the main musical features of this variationSlide30

2.00

The

viola takes the tune, an octave lower than originally. A rare opportunity to hear the instrument standing out clearly and candidates should be encouraged to listen attentively to its characteristic timbreThe violin provides a wide-ranging (in the pitch sense) continuous descent. Why the 2 fish?Piano imitates short phrases of the melody that also help to mask the breaks already noted in the original melody. Slide31
Slide32

2.58

The

double-bass would probably make an ungainly job of giving the theme on its own, and so is partnered by the cello, which takes the melody by itself at the end of the 1st half. Staccato theme in low register(As candidates encounter the other sets of variations they might notice that neither Haydn nor Mozart put their Theme at the very bottom of the texture – Schubert’s example is unusual.) Violin and viola provide a constant ‘chugging’ harmonic and rhythmic accompanimentPiano swirls rapidly around, again in octaves high in the treble playing a counter melody f above bass and cello. Very virtuosicCandidates will need to learn to distinguish between an increase in the number of notes played to a beat, which gives an impression of greater speed, and an actual change of tempo, i.e. a faster beat. This

might be a good opportunity for such an explanation. In many recordings there will be no change of tempo – the pace of the melody, the beat, will remain the same.

So far, each variation has offered contrasts in grouping and of figures that give variety to the accompanimental background while the Theme itself has remained unchanged.Slide33
Slide34

Variation 4

3:45

Minor key – D Minor (tonic minor)Dialogue between piano and strings - Piano and Strings play ff, powerful repeated chords in minor key and alternate with high violin phrase p in major. offers a much more marked contrast, perhaps one rightly to be described as ‘dramatic’. All the instruments at first joining together to produce dramatic effect. Trills in piano and violinpp song like phrases in cello, viola and violin The chords give way in the second half of the variation to a quieter, more reflective conversation – imitatively, particularly the trill figure – between all five instruments. No single instrument has the melody in this variation.It may seem to have been abandoned, but suggestive references are clearly discernible, especially in the outline of the first four bars (taking the highest note at each moment)

.Variation ends in minor Slide35
Slide36

4:41

Variation

V: offers a different contrast and an opportunity to hear another modulation, this time to an unrelated key (initially in its major mode but with persistent minor inflections – can candidates hear the significant note when it first occurs?). Cello has theme transformed into lyrical legato melody and exaggerated dotted rhythmSparse accompaniment Accompanied strings joined by piano in high register The melody is suggested by the cello, in its tenor register, but gradually dissolves via a series of harmonic shifts designed to return to the original key. Extended B Section(Candidates are not required to know the names of the keys but should be able to hear tonic/dominant and minor/major relationships, have some sense of the ‘remoteness’ conveyed by modulations to unrelated keys, and be aware of moments when chromaticism produces instability as the music gropes its way back towards its tonic key.)Slide37

Variation VI:

Schubert

signals a pause before the final variation starts, arguably to create a moment of anticipation. Quicker tempoThe original ‘Trout’ figure finally accompanies the melody.There are exchanges of roles, between violin and cello sharing the melody, and violin and piano sharing the accompaniment.A very brief ‘closing’ passage winds the music down on repeated tonic chords, the cello having the very last word with the ‘Trout’ figure.Slide38
Slide39

its key relationships: tonic/dominant, perfect/imperfect cadences, major/minorSlide40
Slide41

Useful Links

Here are 20 essential facts about the great

man - http://www.classicfm.com/composers/schubert/guides/schubert-20-facts-about-great-composer/Why pop stars should thank Schubert - http://www.cpr.org/classical/blog/why-adele-and-other-pop-stars-should-thank-franz-schuberthttp://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/11/arts/music/11vienna4.html?_r=0