Review of classical period music in the West

The classical period in the history of music refers to the period that includes the music of Haydn, Mozart and the early works of Beethoven. During this period, due to the rise of the middle class, art and music were also removed from the possession of the nobles and the court, and ordinary people could participate in concerts. The texture of the music in the classical period was simpler and lighter than the baroque period, and it had more clarity and less complexity.
During this period, the city of Vienna was considered one of the most important music centers in Europe. All three great classical masters Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven were attracted to Vienna to study and gain fame. At the age of sixteen, Beethoven went to Vienna to play piano with Mozart. In Vienna, music was performed in aristocratic assemblies as well as in the open air.you can download and play music in anylanguage you like in melorafy.
The orchestra, which began to form in the Baroque period, grew in the Classical period, and wind instruments, especially horns, were used in it. Also, the number and position of musicians in the orchestra gradually became fixed. In the classical period, for the first time, music making became more important than vocal music.

Harmony and tonality in classic music

In their works, the composers of the classical period rarely went beyond the scale of A-major (or its relative scale of F-sharp-minor) and the E-flat-major (or D-minor) scale. In the entire history of music, there have never been as many works written in the tonalities of R, F, C, and C-flat as in this period. The reason for this was not due to the performance technique of the instruments, but mainly due to the simplicity of the classical composers. Because simplicity of tonality, like simplicity in rhythm, tempo and form, was a part of the universal language and a sign of attention to the understanding of the majority of the society.

The abundant use of major tonality in the classical period had a striking contrast with the baroque period. Throughout the works of Haydn and Mozart, pieces in the minor key are rarely found, and minor keys are often used in exceptional cases and situations.

This tendency towards the use of major tonality can be seen as the result of the desire of the composers of the classical period to make their works bright and cheerful. During the transition to the late classical period, the scope of using different and varied tonality increased greatly, so that in the middle period, Haydn used tonalities such as F-flat major or C-major in his symphonies, piano sonatas and quartets without causing any problems. Used for various instruments of the orchestra.

The harmony of the works of Italian, Bohemian, and North German composers in this period is based on the movement of the base note to the dominant and subdominant notes. Early Classical composers were limited in their choice of harmony, and it was only in the late period that relatively richer harmony and more complex and unexpected modulations were employed.

In the classical period, the relationship between the tonality of the moments of a work became important, and as a result, each of the moments was composed in different tonalities. For example, the tonality of the slow movement of a sonata had a contrasting function with the rest of the movements, and the trio minuet was always in relative tonality or sometimes in the base note of major or minor. In Beethoven’s works, such a tonality relationship is more contrasting and far from each other. The presence of different tonalities in the middle of a movement is another characteristic of the classical style compared to the baroque.

Early classical composers, including Domenico Scarlatti, Platti, and especially Sammartini and Pergolesi, have used several independent and relatively contrasting melodic themes in one movement, each of which has a different tonality but is closely related to the main tonality; And each of these themes includes its own rhythmic, harmonic and dynamic factors, so the important feature of classical music style compared to baroque is to provide different areas of musical expression in each movement, which is done by the contrast of tonalities and Each of these tonalities have contrasting rhythms and regular and periodic sentences. During the greatness of classicism, the relationship of different tonalities in each movement became regular and became a general rule and remained until the romantic period. For example, in one moment in the sonata form, the tonality relationship between the two main themes was established as a degree. Of course, in some of Haydn’s works, these two regions of different tonalities still lacked contrasting themes. In the works of Beethoven’s late period, the structural value of changing tonalities was mixed with the value of orchestral coloring, and as a result, changing tonalities was used to strengthen coloration and the power of musical expression (this method was later popularized in the Romantics, especially the works of Wagner and Richard Strauss). Of course, this method was against the early classics and even the early romantics (Schubert and Weber), who mostly used tonality changes for the structural principles of the piece.

Texture in classical music:

The topic of detailed texture has been investigated in the harmony period. One of the types of textures is homophonic texture, which means that the melody line was accompanied by non-melodic or less melodic elements. One of the forms of bass accompaniment is Alberti, which was created by the Italian composer Domenico Alberti (1710-1740). In this method, broken chords in the form of simple patterns or repeated arpeggios accompany the melody.

Important composers of the classical period

The most famous composers in this period are Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, and other notable names: Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Johann Christian Bach, Luigi Boccherini, Domenico Cimarossa, Museo Clementi, Christoph Willibald Gluck, Andre Gretri, Pierre Alexander. Moncini, Léopold Mottlev, Giovanni Paisello, François-André Danican Philidor, Niccolò Piccinni, Antonio Salieri, Christian Cannabich, and the Chevalier de Saint-Georges are considered a Romantic composer or a Classical period composer who was part of the transition to the Romantic era.

Signs of classical music style

• The early classical music style that spans until the 1770s and includes two styles, Rococo and Expressive. The Rococo style matured especially in France, and the French name Style Galant (advanced style) was often used as a synonym for it. The founders of the expressive style, which became popular later, were German composers and its equivalent in the German language (sensitive and dignified style). These two styles are the result of giving importance to the two voices of the parties in baroque music. But in the 18th century, the bass line lost its importance, leadership, and contrapuntal independence and became a mere supporter of the melody while the middle voices merely filled out the harmony. The Rococo or Gallant style emerged in the dignified gatherings of the aristocracy and was a very elegant, precise, agile, witty, easy, glorious and glorious style. Rococo is the same style of excessive ornamentation as the Baroque period, but without grandeur. On the other hand, the expressive style (meaning expressive and meaningful) was more related to the middle class of the society and was generally the style of the bourgeois. In contrast to Rococo, this style was not only pompous and ornate, but sometimes deliberately and exaggeratedly simple.
• The style of the classical period of greatness, in which forms and styles remained basically fixed, composers found an opportunity to shape the thoughts and events that their free imaginations demanded. Historians have called the period of classical greatness the “Vienna Classical School” for two reasons: firstly, that all its important composers worked in Vienna or Austria, and secondly, the musical factors common in Vienna (or Austria) found their way into classical style music. and left many effects on it.

Orchestra and instruments

Woodwind instruments: flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, krangle Brass wind instruments: horn, trumpet, trombone, tuba Percussion instruments: timpani, cymbals, drums, big drum, side drum are generally stringed instruments for music melody. Woodwind for musical color. Brass for powerful passages, percussion for emphasis and rhythm.