Transcript Musical characteristics of the Classical period include

THE CLASSICAL PERIOD (17751825)
• 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 Bellato
Why Vienna?
• Vienna was the center of a large Empire, the Austro-(Hungarian) Empire
• Although 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 opera
• There 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 Haydn
Why Vienna?
• 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.
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 balance
• mainly 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=xpscshv3Exk
• short well-balanced melodies and clear-cut question and answer
phrases
• use of contrasting moods
• mainly simple diatonic harmony
• there 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.
Section A: The ‘First Viennese School’ 1770–1827
(35 marks)
Prescribed Works:
Haydn Symphony no. 55 (The Schoolmaster), Hob. 1: 55
Mozart Piano Concerto in G major, K453
Beethoven Symphony no. 5 in C minor, Op 67
Schubert Piano Quintet in A major, D.667 (The Trout), 4th movement
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.
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.
‘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
movement
‘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 danger
The 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.
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How many parts in the main theme?
Structure?
How many phrases?
Melodic Shape
Are 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 cello
Main theme
• How many parts in the main theme?
• Structure? Can you hear any repeats? How many
phrases?
• Describe the melodic Shape
• Are there any hints in the music that link it to the
Trout
• Describe the parts played by the double bass and also
the viola and the cello
Main theme
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How many parts in the main theme?
Structure?
How many phrases?
Melodic Shape
Are 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 cello
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How many parts? – 4 parts – Homophonic
How many phrases? – Melody line is in 4 bar phrases
Time signature is 2/4
First section 8 bars long, Second section 12 bars long
Hints at it being water like, rippling, the trout or the movement of the trout
In 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”
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
Variation 1
• 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 1
• 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 line
Variation 1
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The string accompaniment now hints at the original song with playful broken
chord figures exchanged between the violin and cello
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.
Low strings play pizzicato, upper strings have
fluttering figure; trills in violin in B section.
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.
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
variation
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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 timbre
The 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.
2.58
double-bass would probably make an ungainly job of giving the
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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
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(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
accompaniment
Piano swirls rapidly around, again in octaves high in the treble playing a
counter melody f above bass and cello. Very virtuosic
Candidates 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.
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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 violin
pp 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
4:41
V: offers a different contrast and an opportunity to hear
• Variation
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?).
has theme transformed into lyrical legato melody and exaggerated
• Cello
dotted rhythm
accompaniment
• Sparse
strings joined by piano in high register
• Accompanied
• 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
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(Candidates are not required to know the names of the keys but should be able to hear
Variation VI:
signals a pause before the final variation starts,
• Schubert
arguably to create a moment of anticipation.
tempo
• Quicker
original ‘Trout’ figure finally accompanies the melody.
• The
are exchanges of roles, between violin and cello
• There
sharing the melody, and violin and piano sharing the
accompaniment.
very brief ‘closing’ passage winds the music down on
• Arepeated
tonic chords, the cello having the very last word
with the ‘Trout’ figure.
its key relationships: tonic/dominant,
perfect/imperfect cadences, major/minor
Useful Links
• Here are 20 essential facts about the great man http://www.classicfm.com/composers/schubert/guides/schub
ert-20-facts-about-great-composer/
• Why pop stars should thank Schubert http://www.cpr.org/classical/blog/why-adele-and-other-popstars-should-thank-franz-schubert
• http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/11/arts/music/11vienna4.
html?_r=0