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CHAPTER 1 MUSIC OF THE EARLY BAROQUE PERIOD

CHAPTER OBJECTIVES
After you complete the reading, study of the music, and study questions for this chapter, you
should be able to
1. describe the characteristics that distinguish Baroque music from music of earlier periods;
2. relate music of the Baroque period to the culture and art of the time;
3. describe the various styles of music that flourished and competed in the first half of the
seventeenth century;
4. trace the evolution of opera in Italy from its forerunners through the middle of the
seventeenth century;
5. describe the genres and styles of secular and sacred vocal music practiced in the early
seventeenth century;
6. explain what is distinctive about Venice and Venetian music in the late sixteenth and early
seventeenth centuries; and
7. name and briefly describe the most important genres and styles of instrumental music in the
early Baroque period.
PRELUDE
In music history, we invoke the term baroque to describe the period between 1600 and 1750.
While the word is sometimes used in its original, rather negative sense-deformed, abnormal,
bizarre, exaggerated, grotesque-art critics of the nineteenth century gave it a more positive spin.
For them, baroque summed up the delightfully flamboyant, decorative, and expressionistic
tendencies of seventeenth-century painting and architecture. Music historians followed suit and
adopted the word to describe the music of an entire era, although we now recognize that a single
term cannot adequately embrace the many different styles in use during these years.
As with other epochs, boundary dates for the Baroque era are only approximations. Many
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF BAROQUE MUSIC appeared before 1600 and many
were declining by the 1730s. But within the chronological limits of 1600 to 1750, composers
accepted a set of conventions for organizing music and adopted certain ideas about how music
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should sound. Most important, they believed that music, by acting on emotions, should move
the Listener.
In the political sphere, wealthy absolute governments ruled Europe between 1600 and 1750-the
time of American colonization-and their patronage helped cultivate new genres of music. Many
of the European courts were important centers of musical culture. The most imposing of these,
the court of Louis XIV of France, who reigned from 1643 to 1715, served as the model for all
Lesser establishments. Other patrons of music included popes, emperors, kings of England and
of Spain, and rulers of smaller Italian and German entities. City-states, such as Venice and
many of the north German towns, also maintained musical organizations, both ecclesiastical
and secular. The church, of course, continued to support music, though its role diminished
during the Baroque era. Aristocratic, civic, and ecclesiastical patronage shared the scene with
academies, private clubs that sponsored musical activities in many cities, but concerts open to
the public were still rare.
Italian trends dominated musical fashions during the Baroque era, and by 1750 the international
Language of European music had acquired a distinct Italian accent. Despite its political
fragmentation, Italy remained the most influential region of Europe in musical matters. Several
Italian cities Loomed disproportionately Larger on the musical map than their real size or
political power suggested. Florence, for example, hosted a brilliant period of musico- theatrical
innovation at the dawn of the seventeenth century that Led to the flowering of EARLY OPERA.
Rome continued to influence sacred music and for a time became an important center of opera,
several types of VOCAL CHAMBER MUSIC, and instrumental music. Venice, a Leading
musical city throughout the seventeenth century, nurtured the development of opera, as did
Naples in the eighteenth century. THE VENETIAN SCHOOL of com- posers centered at St.
Mark's Church wielded a mighty influence on Baroque choral music. Meanwhile, Bologna and
other northern cities witnessed no- table developments in instrumental music.
The religious break that had separated northern Protestant Europe from the Catholic south in
the sixteenth century continued to reverberate in seventeenth-century music. Several new
GENRES OF SACRED MUSIC-such as the sacred vocal concerto and the oratorio-developed,
and throughout Europe INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC flourished in both religious and secular
circles, expanding on genres that had their beginnings in the sixteenth century. But for the first
time in music history, solo and instrumental chamber music achieved a parity with vocal music,
both in quantity and quality.
The arts and sciences also flourished in the Baroque era. To realize the magnificence of this
age in the history of Western civilization, we need only recall the names of a few great writers
and artists of the seventeenth century: in England, Donne and Milton; in Spain, Cervantes; in
France, Corneille, Racine, and Moliere. The Netherlands, its musical golden age past, produced
the painters Rubens and Rembrandt. Spain, somewhat isolated and of secondary importance in
music, could boast the painters Velasquez and Murillo. Italy contributed the sculptor Bernini
(see Plate VI, facing page 209, and window, pages 200-01) and the architect Borromini. In the
seventeenth century, one of the great ages in the history of philosophy and science, Bacon,
Descartes, Leibniz, Galilee, Kepler, and Newton established the foundations of modern science,
mathematics, and rational thought.
The changes occurring in intellectual and artistic realms profoundly influenced the course of
music history. While seventeenth-century thinkers discarded outmoded ways of viewing the
world and proposed new explanations, musicians expanded their vocabulary to meet new
expressive needs. As philosophers developed new ideas within the frame of older methods, so
composers-such as Claudio Monteverdi in his madrigals and Giovanni Gabrieli in his motets-
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poured more intense and more varied emotions into the musical genres they inherited from the
Renaissance. Much early seventeenth-century music was truly experimental; but by the middle
of the century, the new resources of harmony, tone color, and form had created a common
Language with a clear vocabulary, grammar, and syntax.
The word "Baroque"
"Baroque" comes from the French, and, further back, from a Portuguese term (barroco) for a
misshapen pearl. It seems to have been used at first in the discussion of art and architecture,
mainly by writers at the end of the period itself and usually in a negative, critical way, implying
something that was clumsy, strange and overblown. Musicians adopted it, generally in the sense
of confused, overelaborate and harsh; the generation that followed the Baroque era, were eager
to simplify and regularize the language of music and regarded the style of their immediate
forebears as extravagant and irregular.
Though the word baroque has at various times meant bizarre, flamboyant, and elaborately
ornamented, modern historians use it simply to indicate a particular style in the arts. An
oversimplified but useful characterization of baroque style is that it fills space canvas, stone, or
sound with action and movement. Painters, sculptors, and architects became interested in
forming a total illusion, like a stage setting. Artists such as Bernini, Rubens, and Rembrandt
exploited their materials to expand the potentials of color, detail, ornament, and depth; they
wanted to create totally structured worlds.
Such a style was very well suited to the wishes of the aristocracy, who also thought in terms of
completely integrated structures. In France, for example, Louis XIV held court in the Palace of
Versailles, a magnificent setting that fused baroque painting, sculpture, and architecture into a
symbol of royal wealth and power.
The baroque style was also shaped by the needs of churches, which used the emotional and
theatrical qualities of art to make worship more attractive and appealing. The middle class, too,
influenced the development of the baroque style. In Holland, for example, prosperous
merchants and doctors commissioned realistic depictions of landscapes and scenes from
everyday life.
It's also helpful to think of baroque style against the backdrop of scientific discoveries during
the seventeenth-century. The work of Galileo (1564-1642) and Newton (1642-1727)
represented a new approach to science based on the union of mathematics and experiment; they
discovered mathematical laws governing bodies in motion. Such scientific advances led to new
inventions and the gradual improvement of medicine, mining, navigation, and industry during
the baroque era. Baroque art is a complex mixture of rationalism, sensuality, materialism, and
spirituality.
In music, the baroque style flourished during the period from 1600 to 1750. The two giants of
baroque composition were George Frideric Handel and Johann Sebastian Bach. Bach's death in
1750 marks the end of the period. Other baroque masters Claudio Monteverdi, Henry Purcell,
Arcangelo Corelli, Antonio Vivaldi were largely forgotten until the twentieth century. But the
appearance of long-playing records in the late 1940s spurred a "baroque revival" that made
these long-forgotten musicians familiar to many music lovers.
The baroque period can be divided into three phases: early (1600-1640), middle (1640-1680),
and late (1680-1750). Though the baroque music best known today comes from the latest phase,
the earliest was one of the most revolutionary periods in music history. Monteverdi (1567-
1643), for instance, strove to create unprecedented passion and dramatic contrast in his works.
In Italy, especially, music was composed for texts conveying extreme emotion, and the text
ruled the music. With this stress on drama and text, it is not surprising that Italian composers
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of the early baroque created opera -a drama sung to orchestral accompaniment. Their melodic
lines imitated the rhythms and inflections of speech.
Early baroque composers favored homophonic texture over the polyphonic texture typical of
Renaissance music. They felt that words could be projected more clearly by using just one main
melody with a chordal accompaniment. But note that this new emphasis on homophonic texture
characterizes only the early baroque; by the late baroque period, poly-phonic texture returned
to favor.
To depict the extreme emotions in their texts, early baroque composers, used dissonances with
a new freedom. Never before were unstable chords so prominent and emphatic. Contrasts of
sound were stressed one or more solo singers against a chorus, or voices against instruments.
In Renaissance choral music, instruments if used at all duplicated a singer's melody. But in the
early baroque, voices were accompanied by melodic lines designed for instruments.
During the middle phase of the baroque (1640-1680), the new musical style spread from Italy
to practically every country in Europe. The medieval or church modes scales that had governed
music for centuries gradually gave way to major and minor scales. By about 1680, major or
minor scales were the tonal basis of most compositions. Another feature of the middle baroque
phase was the new importance of instrumental music. Many compositions were written for
specific instruments, the violin family being most popular.
We will focus mainly on the late baroque period (1680-1750), which yielded most of the
baroque music heard today. Many aspects of harmony including the emphasis of the dominant
chord's attraction to the tonic arose in this period. During the late baroque, instrumental music
became as important as vocal music for the first time. Early baroque composers had emphasized
homophonic texture; late baroque composers gloried in polyphony. Let's look more closely at
some features of late baroque style. (From now on the word baroque will pertain to the late
baroque phase.)

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF BAROQUE MUSIC

Two practices
In 1605, with the publication of Monteverdi's fifth book of madrigals, the composer
distinguished between a prima pratica (Listen to a music from Palestrina) and a seconda
pratica, or a first and second “practice." By the first, he meant the style of vocal polyphony
codified by Zarlino. By the second, Monteverdi meant the adventurous style of the modern
Italians such as Rore, Marenzio, and himself. In the first practice, according to Monteverdi, the
musical values prevailed over the words, while in the second practice the text dominated and
dictated its musical setting. The seconda pratica, sometimes called the modern style, not only
used dissonances more freely but also broke many of the old rules of counterpoint in order to
express the words more effectively.
Idiomatic writing
Renaissance polyphony tended to homogenize instrumental and vocal writing, to the point
where almost any combination of voices and instruments was interchangeable. But even the
earliest music for solo lute organ, or harpsichord maintained a quality peculiar, or idiomatic, to
the instrument. In addition, the prominent role of the soloist-whether singer, violinist, or wind
player-enticed composers to adapt their writing to a particular medium, such as the violin or
the solo voice. Technical improvements in wind instruments made them suitable for exposed
solo performance. Famous teachers and practitioners of the art of singing promoted new
standards of virtuosity, vocal color, and projection. Instrumental and vocal styles began to
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diverge, and once they achieved their distinct idioms composers could mimic these styles,
writing a violin melody that sighed like a voice, or a vocal melody that blared like a trumpet.
MONTEVERD1 AND THE SECONDA PRATICA

The affections
Vocal and instrumental compositions were united in a common goal: to express or represent a
wide range of feelings vividly and vigorously, continuing the efforts begun in the late sixteenth-
century madrigal. Composers sought musical means to express or arouse the affections-thought
of as conditions or states of the soul-such as rage, excitement, grandeur, heroism, sorrow,
wonder, or joy. Composers were not trying to express their personal feelings; rather, they
wanted to represent human emotions in a generic sense. In Baroque architecture, sculpture, and
painting, the normal forms of objects were sometimes distorted, so that the images would
embody the passionate intensity of the artist's vision. Similarly, in music, composers expanded
the limits of the old order of consonance and dissonance, of regular and even rhythmic flow,
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exploiting instead harmonic and rhythmic extremes, and contrasts of color and texture, all for
the purpose of arousing or moving the affections.
Cruda Amarilli (Cruel Amaryllis, NAWM 67, Audio 001), from Monteverdi's fifth book of
madrigals, exemplifies some characteristics of the modern style and ignited a controversy that
would smolder for thirty years. Although this madrigal was printed in 1605, it must have been
in circulation before 16oo, the year that Giovanni Maria Artusi published his scathing
commentary, L’Artusi overo delle imperfettioni della moderna musica (The Artusi, or
Imperfections of Modern Music), which harshly criticized Monteverdi for the grating
dissonances and contrapuntal liberties in this piece (see Example 9.1, measures 2 and 6).
Monteverdi defended himself in a brief response, justifying his new approach on the grounds
that expressing the text through harmony was more important than following the traditional
rules of counterpoint.

MONTEVERDJ'S REPLY TO ARTUSI, 1605

Don't be surprised that I am giving these madrigals to the press without first replying to the objections that
Artusi made against some very minute portions of them. Being in the service of this Serene Highness of
Mantua, I am not master of the time I would require. Nevertheless I wrote a reply to let it be known that I
do not do things by chance, and as soon as it is rewritten it will see the light under the title, Seconda
pratica overo Perfettione della moderna musica [Second Practice, or the Perfection of Modern Music].
Some will wonder at this, not believing that there is any other practice than that taught by Zerlino [sic].
But let them be assured concerning consonances and dissonances that there is a different way of
considering them from that already determined, which defends the modern manner of composition with
the assent of the reason and the senses. I wanted to say this both so that the expression seconda pratica
would not be appropriated by others and so that men of intellect might meanwhile consider other second
thoughts concerning harmony. And have faith that the modern composer builds on foundations of truth.
Live happily.
-From C. V. Palisca, "The Artusi-Monteverdi Controversy," In The New Monteverdi Companion, ed.
Denis Arnold and Nigel Fortune (London, Boston: Faber & Faber, 1985), pp. 151-52.

Unity of Mood
A baroque piece usually expresses one basic mood, what begins joyfully will remain joyful
throughout. Emotional states like joy, grief, and agitation were represented. (At the time, these
moods were called affections.) Composers molded a musical language to depict the affections;
specific rhythms or melodic patterns were associated with specific moods. This common
language gives a family resemblance to much late baroque music.
The prime exception to this baroque principle of unity of mood occurs in vocal music. Drastic
changes of emotion in a text may inspire corresponding changes in the music. But even in such
cases, one mood is maintained at some length before it yields to another.
Rhythm, Harmony, and Cadence
In contrast to the smooth lines of Renaissance polyphony, music during the Baroque period was
rhythmically either very regular or very free. Regular dance rhythms characterized a lot of
earlier instrumental music, but not until the seventeenth century was most music (as opposed
to just dance music) written in measures separated by bar lines, implying regular patterns of
strong and weak beats. Baroque composers used regular, patterned rhythm to arouse a particular
affection, and irregular, flexible rhythm when writing speech-like recitative and improvisatory
solo instrumental pieces such as toccatas and preludes. The two types of rhythm could not, of
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course, occur simultaneously, but in succession they provided deliberate contrast, as we will
discover in the customary pairing of recitative with aria and of toccata or prelude with fugue.
Unity of mood in baroque music is conveyed, first of all, by continuity of rhythm. Rhythmic
patterns heard at the beginning of a piece are repeated throughout it. This rhythmic continuity
provides a compelling drive and energy the forward motion is rarely interrupted. The beat is
emphasized far more in baroque music than in most Renaissance music, for example.
Along with these changes came other, related ones. With the abandonment of polyphony (or,
more exactly, its relegation to the status of an old-fashioned method, to be used almost
exclusively in certain types of church music), a new way of constructing movements was
needed; and the emphasis on harmony led naturally towards the use of harmonic goals as
stopping-points in a piece of music. These stopping-points, or cadences, would be arrived at by
a sequence of harmonies of some standardized kind. Linked with these harmonic developments
are rhythmic ones. In vocal music, the need to reflect the sense of the words meant that the
music was obliged to follow, or even exaggerate, natural speech rhythms. In instrumental music
(and some kinds of vocal piece, choral ones especially), dance rhythms came to be used. The
bass patterns associated with the regular rhythms of dance music hastened the development of
a sense of key, of the music's gravitational pull towards particular notes. At the same time, new
instruments were developing that accelerated these processes, the most important being the
violin family. While the viol had a tone well adapted to polyphonic clarity but was weak in
rhythmic impetus, the violin with its clearly defined attack and its capacity for brilliant effect
was suited to music in dance rhythms and to sonatas of a virtuosity comparable with that of the
singers of monody. The interchange of vocal and instrumental idioms was a typical Baroque
device; it may seem strange that the Baroque should have created these different idioms only
to exchange them in its search for novelty and effect.
Basso Continuo or Figured Bass (Audio 002)

The typical texture of Renaissance music was a polyphony of independent voices; the typical
texture of the Baroque period was a firm bass and a florid treble, held together by subtle
harmony. A single melody line supported by accompanying parts was not in itself new-
something like it had been used in the performance of sixteenth-century songs and madrigals,
for example. New was the emphasis on the bass and the highlighting of the treble-the two
essential lines of the texture. This polarity between top and bottom resulted in a seeming
indifference to the inner parts, evident in the system of notation called thorough bass or basso
continuo. In this system, the composer wrote only the melody and the bass, leaving the players
to fill in the rest. Moreover, the notation appeared in score format rather than in parts, which
gave music an entirely new look on the page, as we see in the illustration below. The bass was
played on one or more continuo instruments-for example, harpsichord, organ, or lute-usually
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reinforced by a sustaining instrument such as a bass viola da gamba, violoncello, or bassoon.

Above the bass notes, the keyboard or lute player filled in the required chords, which were not
written out. If these chords were other than common triads in root position, or if the music
required non-chord tones (such as suspensions) or accidentals beyond those in the key
signature, the composer added interval numbers (figures) or accidental signs above or below
the bass notes to guide the performer.
The realization-the actual playing-of such a figured bass varied according to the type of piece
and the skill and taste of the player, who had a good deal of room to improvise within the given
framework. The performer might play only simple chords, introduce passing tones, or
incorporate melodic motives that imitated the treble or bass parts. Realizing the basso continuo
was not always essential: many pieces with a continuo already provided the full harmony in the
notated melodic parts. In motets and madrigals for four or five voices, for example, the continuo
instrument merely doubled or supported the voices. But for solos and duets, the continuo was
usually necessary to complete the harmonies as well as to produce a fuller sonority. This filling
was sometimes called ripieno, a term used in Italian cooking to mean stuffing."
Contrast and Terraced Dynamics
To create these strong effects, it was necessary to develop a new musical style. The smooth
polyphony of the Renaissance was not, generally speaking, adaptable to a set of priorities so
different from those of the era in which it had arisen. One of the most important creations of
the Baroque was the concept of contrast. Renaissance music is typified by its flowing,
interweaving lines, most commonly four or five in number, each of them singing (or playing)
music that moved at roughly the same pace. Textures of that kind became increasingly rare in
the years after 16oo, and when they were used it was almost exclusively in the realm of church
music - naturally the most conservative area because it was tied to traditional, unchanging
liturgical patterns.
Contrast could exist on various planes: loud and soft; one color and another; solo and tutti; high
and low; fast and slow (this could occur in two main ways, either a fast-moving part against a
slow-moving one, or a fast section against a slow one). All these, and others, had their place in
the musical schemes of the new Baroque era.
Paralleling continuity of rhythm and melody in baroque music is a continuity of dynamic level:
the volume tends to stay constant for a stretch of time. When the dynamics do shift, it's sudden,
as though one had physically stepped from one level to another. This alternation between loud
and soft is called terraced dynamics. Gradual changes through crescendo and decrescendo are
not prominent features of baroque music. However, singers and instrumentalists no doubt made
some subtle dynamic inflections for expressive purposes.
The main keyboard instruments of the baroque period were the organ and harpsichord, both
well suited for continuity of dynamic level. An organist or harpsichordist could not obtain a
crescendo or decrescendo by varying finger pressure, as pianists today can. A third keyboard
instrument, the clavichord, could make gradual dynamic changes, but only within a narrow
range from about ppp to mp. Sound was produced on it by means of brass blades striking the
strings. The clavichord was usually not used in large halls, since its tone was too weak. But for
home use by amateurs it was ideal; its cost was low and its expressive sound satisfying. It had
especially wide popularity in Germany.
The new counterpoint
The development of basso continuo texture-a firm bass supporting a florid treble - did not mean
a total rejection of sixteenth-century counterpoint. Composers continued to write
unaccompanied motets and madrigals (though they sometimes conformed with current practice
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by adding a basso continuo). And in vocal and instrumental ensemble pieces accompanied by
continuo, counterpoint remained the basis of composition. This was a new kind of counterpoint,
however, because the different melodic lines now had to fit into the pattern of chords set up by
the continuo. Such harmonically governed counterpoint, in which individual lines were
subordinated to a succession of chords, held sway through the remainder of the Baroque era.
Dissonance
Now that the chordal structure was spelled out so clearly, dissonance was recognized less as an
interval between two voices than as an individual tone that did not fit into a chord. As a result,
dissonances other than stepwise passing tones were tolerated more easily. Many of these
dissonances remained ornamental and experimental, but by the middle of the century various
conventions governing when and how to introduce and resolve these dissonances had arisen.
Eventually, the role of dissonance in defining the tonal direction of a piece became evident-
particularly in instrumental music of Arcangelo Corelli (I653-I7I3) and others where chains of
dissonant suspensions led inevitably to a cadence establishing the keynote or tonic.
Chromaticism
Chromaticism followed a similar development, from experimental forays on the one hand, to
freedom within an orderly scheme on the other. Gesualdo's chromatic harmonies in the early
16oos included expressionistic digressions within a loose structure that respected the confines
of a mode. Throughout the seventeenth century, composers used chromaticism in improvisatory
instrumental pieces, such as the toccatas of Frescobaldi and Froberger, and in vocal works to
express the most intense passions of a text. But later in the century, composers also submitted
chromaticism, as they did dissonance, to the control of tonal harmony.
Major-minor tonalities
Tonal harmony operated within the system of major-minor tonalities familiar to us from
eighteenth- and nineteenth -century music. All the harmonies of a given composition were
organized around a triad on the tonic supported primarily by triads on its dominant and
subdominant, and chords leading to these. Temporary modulations to different keys did not
diminish the supremacy of the principal key.
Like the medieval modal system, the major-minor system evolved gradually through musical
practice. The habitual, long-standing use of certain techniques eventually fostered a consistent
theory. Just as the repeated use in the early Middle Ages of certain melodic formulas led to the
theory of the modes, so the constant use in the seventeenth century of particular harmonic and
melodic successions led to the theory of major-minor tonality. The figured basso continuo was
important in this theoretical development because its notation drew attention to the succession
of chords. Indeed, figured bass became the link between counterpoint and homophony, bridging
the gap between a linear-melodic and a chordal- harmonic structure.
Texture
We've noted that late baroque music is predominantly polyphonic in texture: two or more
melodic lines compete for the listener's attention. Usually, the soprano and bass lines are the
most important. Imitation between the various lines, or "voices," of the texture is very common.
A melodic idea heard in one voice is likely to make an appearance in the other voices as well.
However, not all late baroque music was polyphonic. A piece might shift in texture, especially
in vocal music, where changes of mood in the words demand musical contrast. Also, baroque
composers differed in their treatment of musical texture. Bach inclined toward a consistently
polyphonic texture, whereas Handel used much more contrast between polyphonic and
homophonic sections.
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Words and Music

Like their Renaissance predecessors, baroque composers used music to depict the meaning of
specific words. Heaven might be set to a high tone, and hell to a low one. Rising scales
represented upward motion; descending scales depicted the reverse. Descending chromatic
scales were associated with pain and grief. This descriptive musical language was quite
standardized: a lament for a lost love might call forth the same descending chromatic scale used
to depict suffering in the Crucifixus of the mass.
Baroque composers emphasized words by writing many rapid notes for a single syllable of text;
this technique also displayed a singer's virtuosity. The individual words and phrases of a text
are repeated over and over as the music continuously unfolds.
Passion and grandeur
It is the pursuit of striking effect, above all, that marks out the Baroque era from those
immediately before and after. Composers aimed to move the passions (or the "affections", to
use the word favored at the time), and not just instantaneously: they tried to sustain the "affect"
of a movement - that is, the prevailing emotion that it expressed - throughout its length. The
idea of exciting appropriate emotion was, moreover, closely attuned to the spirit of the Counter-
Reformation. There are parallels to be seen between music and the other arts. The Baroque
emotional extravagance that we find in the grandiose motets of Italy and the other Catholic
countries in the early sixteenth century, some of them with multiple choirs and bold harmonic
effects, may be seen as analogous to, for example, the new architecture of Rome: this was the
period when the huge, overwhelming square and cathedral of St Peter's were built, and also the
main part of the cathedral of St John Lateran. Like the giant- Salzburg Cathedral across the
Alps, these are designed - in a sense that no Renaissance one was - to make the mere human
being who entered them feel puny beside these grand creations that embodied divine mysteries.
Similarly, the decorated lines of the music have much in common with the florid ornament
found in such buildings with their elaborate statuary - in Rome particularly, where the sculptor
Gianlorenzo Bernini (1598-168o) enriched the new churches and public buildings. Further
north, it was rather different, for this exuberant spirit was alien to Protestantism: the churches
and the music alike are more sober. But the new mercantile spirit encouraged by the reformed
faiths found musical outlets too, in the civic musical patronage of the north German cities like
Hamburg and Leipzig, for example. It was mainly in the northern lands that a middle-class
concert life arose towards the end of the seventeenth century - and in the eighteenth it was the
middle classes who lent support to Bach's concerts in Leipzig, where his concertos were first
heard, and to Handel's oratorio performances in London.
Patronage
Courts, however, remained important centers of musical patronage, along with the church. In
Italy, it was the Gonzaga family, the rulers of Mantua, who employed Monteverdi before he
worked for the church in Venice; and it was the great Venetian noble families who opened the
earliest opera house to a wider public. Composers like Alessandro Scarlatti, Corelli and Handel
were supported by the princely families around Rome. Germany suffered the Thirty Years' War
in the early seventeenth century; after it, in 1648, the country was divided into numerous
dukedoms, marquisates and the like, as well as some "free cities" (governed by city fathers)
and church lands (governed by bishops) : many of them had their own courts, with musical
establishments headed by a Kapellmeister or "chapelmaster" whose duties included the
organization of a choir and instrumental ensemble to provide music for worship and for
entertainment. In France and England, with a central court, musical patronage was based firmly
in Paris and London and there was relatively little musical activity elsewhere, except in the
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larger noble and ecclesiastical establishments, until the rise of the bourgeois groups towards
the end of the seventeenth century.
EARLY OPERA
THE ELEMENTS OF OPERA
The baroque era witnessed the development of a major innovation in music opera, or drama
that is sung to orchestral accompaniment. This unique fusion of music, acting, poetry, dance,
scenery, and costumes offers a theatrical experience of overwhelming excitement and emotion.
Since its beginnings in Italy around 1600, opera has spread to many countries, and even today
it remains a powerful form of musical theater.
An opera's characters and plot are revealed through song, rather than the speech used in ordinary
drama. Once we accept this convention, opera offers us great pleasure; its music both delights
the ear and heightens the emotional effect of the words and story. Music makes even a
complicated plot believable by depicting mood, character, and dramatic action. The flow of the
music carries the plot forward. In opera, the music is the drama.
Opera demands performers who can sing and act simultaneously. On stage are star solo singers,
secondary soloists, a chorus, and sometimes dancers all in costume. Besides the chorus of
professional singers, there may be "supers" (supernumeraries, or "extras"), who don't sing but
who carry spears, fill out crowds, drink wine, or do other things that add to the opera's effect.
Scenery, lighting, and stage machinery are intricate. They're called upon to create illusions of
fires, floods, storms, and supernatural effects. In the orchestra pit are the instrumentalists and
the conductor, whose awesome responsibility it is to hold everything together. A large opera's
personnel, from conductor to stage director and assorted vocal coaches, rehearsal accompanists,
technicians, and stagehands may reach a startling total of several hundred people.
The capacity of this combined force to create spectacle and pageantry accounts for much of
opera's appeal. Historically, opera has been associated with high social status. It originated in
the courts of kings and princes (who could afford it) and long continued as a form of aristocratic
entertainment. But as opera became more concerned with "real" people and less with royal
figures, it attracted popular audiences. Today, radio and television broadcasts, videos, and
recordings have changed opera's image as an exotic and expensive diversion for the very rich.
Millions of people from every economic background know opera for what it is: a powerful and
pleasurable emotional experience.
The creation of an opera results from the joint efforts of a composer and. a dramatist. The
libretto, or text, of the opera is usually written by the librettist, or dramatist, and then set to
music by the composer. But com-posers often collaborate with dramatists to ensure that the
texts meet their musical needs. W. H. Auden has said that a good libretto "offers as many
opportunities as possible for the characters to be swept off their feet by placing them in
situations which are too tragic or too fantastic for words. No good opera plot can be sensible,
for people do not sing when they are feeling sensible." And that is true opera characters are
people overwhelmed by love, lust, hatred, and revenge. They wear fantastic disguises and
commit extraordinary acts of violence. Yet the music makes them human and real. It evokes
the haughtiness of a countess or the simplicity of a peasant girl. It creates a dramatic entrance
for an outraged father, depicts the tension behind sword thrusts in a duel, and portrays the
bleakness of a winter dawn. A great opera composer is a master of musical timing and
characterization and has a keen sense of the theater, knowing just when to have a character sing
a simple phrase or a soaring melody, when to provide a stirring chorus or a graceful dance.
Through the music, the composer paces the drama, controlling the speed of gestures, entrances,
exits, and stage movements.
 12

Some operas are serious, some comic, some both. Operas may contain spoken dialogue, but
most are sung entirely. (Spoken dialogue is used mainly in comic opera, where stage action
must be performed quickly for the most humorous effect.) Since it normally takes longer to
sing than to speak words, the text of a 3-hour opera is shorter than that of a 3-hour play. The
librettist allows time for the composer's musical elaboration.
The range of characters found in opera is broad and varied; gods, empresses, dukes, servants,
priests, prostitutes, peasants, clowns, and cowboys all make appearances. Opera soloists must
create all these characters and so need acting skill as well as vocal artistry. During rehearsals,
the stage director coaches the singers to move well, gesture meaningfully, and identify with
their characters.
The basic voice ranges (soprano, alto, tenor, bass) are divided more finely in opera. Some of
the voice categories of opera are as follows:
Coloratura soprano Very high range; can execute rapid scales and trills
Lyric soprano Rather light voice; sings roles calling for grace and charm
Dramatic soprano Full, powerful voice; is capable of passionate intensity
Lyric tenor Relatively light, bright voice
Dramatic tenor Powerful voice; is capable of heroic expression
Basso buffo Takes comic roles; can sing very rapidly
Basso profundo Very low range, powerful voice; takes roles calling
for great dignity
Like plays, operas have from one to five acts subdivided into scenes. An act presents a variety
of vocal and orchestral contrasts. For example, a tenor solo might be followed by a duet for
soprano and bass, and then by a chorus or an orchestral interlude. A section may end definitely
and provide an opportunity for applause or it may be linked with the next section to form a
continuous flow of music within an act.
The main attraction for many opera fans is the aria, a song for solo voice with orchestral
accompaniment. It's an outpouring of melody that expresses an emotional state. In an aria, I
love you might be sung ten times to accommodate the expansion of the idea. Often the action
stops while the character's feelings are revealed through music. An aria usually lasts several
minutes. It is a complete piece with a definite beginning, high point, and end. If the performance
of an aria is brilliant, the audience responds with an ovation at its conclusion. This breaks the
dramatic flow but allows the audience to release its feelings through applause and shouts of
bravo! or brava!
Opera composers often lead into an aria with a recitative, a vocal line that imitates the rhythms
and pitch fluctuations of speech. In a recitative (from the Italian word for recite), words are
sung quickly and clearly, often on repeated tones. In a recitative, there's usually only one note
to each syllable, as opposed to an aria, where one syllable may be stretched over many notes.
Recitative is used for monologues and dialogues that connect the more melodic sections of the
opera. It carries the action forward and quickly presents routine information.
Besides arias, the soloists in an opera will sing compositions for two or more singers: duets (for
two singers), trios (for three), quartets (for four), quintets (for five), and sextets (for six). When
three or more singers are involved, the composition is called an ensemble. In a duet or
ensemble, the performers either face the audience or move through action that develops the
plot. Each character expresses his or her own feelings. Conflicting emotions like grief,
happiness, and anger can be projected simultaneously when different melodies are combined.
This special blend of feelings is the glory of opera and is possible only through music; it cannot
be duplicated in spoken drama.
 13

An opera chorus generates atmosphere and makes comments on the action. Its members might
be courtiers, sailors, peasants, prisoners, ballroom guests, and so on. Their sound creates a kind
of tonal background for the soloists.
Rising just over the edge of center stage, near the footlights, is the prompter's box. In this
cramped space, invisible to the audience, is the prompter, who gives cues and reminds the
singers of words or pitches if they momentarily forget. Occasional memory lapses are inevitable
with so much activity on stage.
Dance in opera is generally incidental. It provides an ornamental interlude that contrasts with
and relaxes the thrust of the plot. By and large, dance occurs as part of the opera's setting in a
ballroom, at a country fair, in a pagan court, while the soloists, downstage, advance the action
of the plot and work out their destinies.
The nerve center of an opera in performance is the orchestra pit -a sunken area directly in front
of the stage. An opera orchestra has the same instruments as a full symphony orchestra, but
usually it has a smaller string section. Covered lights attached to the players' music stands leave
the orchestra in a deep shadow that doesn't interfere with the audience's view of the stage. The
orchestra not only supports the singers but depicts mood and atmosphere and comments on the
stage action. During the performance, the conductor shapes the entire work. He or she sets
tempos, cues in singers, and indicates subtle dynamic gradations.
Most operas open with a purely orchestral composition called an overture, or prelude. Since
the eighteenth century, the music for an overture has been drawn from material heard later in
the opera. The overture is thus a short musical statement that involves the audience in the
overall dramatic mood. Orchestral introductions to acts in the opera other than the first are
always called preludes. We've already discussed one of these, the Prelude to Act III of
Lohengrin, where Wagner anticipates the wedding of the opera's hero and heroine. Because
overtures and preludes, like arias, are complete compositions, they frequently appear on
symphony orchestra programs.
Should opera be translated? This question has long aroused controversy, and the battle
continues. Most of the best-loved operas are in Italian, German, or French. Champions of
translations into English argue that an audience should be able to understand the plot as it
develops. Why tell jokes in a comic opera if they can't be understood? On the other hand, a
composer takes pains to make a special fusion of pitch and the original words. This results in a
tonal color that seems absolutely right. But no matter how well a singer articulates, some words
are bound to be lost, whatever the language: For example, a sung melody can stretch one vowel
over many notes; it takes a while to get to the end of a word. If the melody is placed in a
soprano's highest range, the listener is really aware only of the silvery vowel and not of the
word as a whole. Some operas seem to work well in translation; others don't. Much depends on
the style of the opera and on the sensitivity of the translator.
In many recent opera productions, a translation of the libretto is projected above the stage. This
device called supertitles has also been a source of controversy. Its advocates consider that it
provides the best of both worlds, since it allows an opera to be sung in the original language
while the audience is enabled to understand the words. But its opponents feel that it detracts
from the music and the action on stage.
Before you attend a live opera performance, in any language and with or without supertitles,
it's a good idea to read the libretto or a synopsis of the plot. Even better, watch a video or listen
to a recording while following the libretto. This way, you're freer at the performance to
appreciate the quality of production and interpretation.
 14

OPERA IN THE BAROQUE ERA

Opera was born in Italy. Its way was prepared by musical discussions among a small group of
nobles, poets, and composers who began to meet regularly in Florence around 1575. This group
was known as the Camerata (Italian for fellowship or society) and included the, composer
Vincenzo Galilei, father of the astronomer Galileo.
The Camerata wanted to create a new vocal style modeled on the music of ancient Greek
tragedy. Since no actual dramatic music had come down to them from the Greeks, they based
their theories on literary accounts that had survived. It was believed that the Greek dramas had
been sung throughout in a style that was midway between melody and speech. The Camerata
wanted the vocal line to follow the rhythms and pitch fluctuations of speech. Because it was
modeled after speech, the new vocal style became known as recitative (recited). It was sung by,
a soloist with only a simple chordal accompaniment. The new music was therefore homophonic
in texture. Polyphony was rejected by the Camerata because different words sounding
simultaneously would obscure the all-important text.
Euridice by Jacopo Peri is the earliest opera that has been preserved. It was composed for the
wedding of King Henri IV of France and Marie de' Medici and was performed in Florence in
1600. Seven years later Monteverdi composed Orfeo, the first great opera, for the court of the
Gonzaga family -in Mantua. Both these operas are based on the Greek myth of Orpheus's
descent into hades to bring back his beloved Eurydice.
Much baroque opera was composed for ceremonial occasions at court and was designed as a
display of magnificence and splendor. The subject matter was drawn from Greek mythology
and ancient history. Not only were aristocratic patrons of the baroque fascinated by the classical
civilizations of Greece and Rome, but they identified with their heroes and divinities. Opera
did indeed reflect the creative urge of composer and librettist, but it also was a way to flatter
the aristocracy. The radiant appearance of Apollo (god of poetry, music, and the sun) might
symbolize a prince's enlightened rule.
In Venice in 1637, the first public opera house opened; now anyone with the price of admission
could attend an opera performance. Between 1637 and 1700 there were seventeen opera houses
in Venice alone, as well as many in other Italian cities ample evidence that opera was born in
the right place at the right time. Hamburg, Leipzig, and London had public opera houses by the
early 1700s, but, on the whole, public opera outside Italy took longer to develop.
Venetian opera became a great tourist attraction. An English traveler wrote in 1645 about the
opera and its "variety of scenes painted and contrived with no less art of perspective, and
machines for flying in the air, and other wonderful motions; taken together, it is one of the most
magnificent and expensive diversions the wit of man can invent." The stage machinery of
baroque opera bordered on the colossal; stage effects might include gods descending on clouds
or riding across the sky in chariots, ships tossing, boulders splitting. And set design was an art
in itself. Painters turned backdrops into cities with arches and avenues that stretched into the
distant horizon.
Baroque opera marked the rise of virtuoso singers. Chief among these was the castrato, a male
singer who had been castrated before puberty. A castrato combined the lung power of a man
with the vocal range of a woman. His agility, breath control, and unique sound (which was not
like a woman's) intrigued listeners. Castrati received the highest fees of any musicians. With
their soprano or alto vocal ranges, they played male roles such as Caesar and Nero baroque
audiences evidently were more interested in vocal virtuosity than dramatic realism. Some
baroque operas cannot be done today, because contemporary singers aren't able to manage the
fiendishly difficult castrato parts. (The castration of boy singers was common in Italy from
 15

1600 to 1800; this was usually done with the consent of impoverished parents who hoped their
sons would become highly paid opera stars.)
During the late baroque, operas consisted largely of arias that were linked by recitatives. These
recitatives were usually accompanied only by a basso continuo, in which case they are called
secco recitatives. At emotional high points and moments of tension, however, they might be
supported by the orchestra; they are then called accompanied, recitatives.
All action stopped during the aria, when the singer faced the audience, expressed the feelings
of the character, and displayed vocal virtuosity. The form of a typical late baroque' aria is A B
A. An aria in A B A form is called a da capo aria: after the B section, the term da capo is
written; this means from the beginning and indicates a repetition of the opening A section.
However, the repetition was usually not literal, because the singer was expected to embellish
the returning melody with ornaments.
By combining virtuosity, nobility, and extravagance, baroque opera perfectly expressed the
spirit of a grand age.
Forerunners
Opera, an invention of the early Baroque, is a drama that combines soliloquy, dialogue, scenery,
action, and continuous (or nearly continuous) music. Although the earliest works in this genre
date from the very end of the sixteenth century, the association of music with drama goes back
to ancient times. Choruses and some lyric speeches in plays by Euripides and Sophocles were
sung; medieval liturgical dramas were sung; and music figured incidentally in the religious
mystery and miracle plays of the late Middle Ages. Renaissance theater, where many tragedies
and comedies imitated or were inspired by Greek examples, included sung choruses, especially
at the beginning or end of an act. Moreover, between acts of a comedy or tragedy, musical
interludes known as intermedi or intermezzi occupied the stage. On important state occasions,
such as royal weddings, these intermedi became spectacular and elaborate musical productions,
with choruses, soloists, and large instrumental ensembles.
The pastoral poem, the main type of Italian verse composition in the Pastoral Renaissance,
provided one model for the early musical plays. In loosely dramatic form, pastorals told of
idyllic country love. The genre demanded the poet's skill in conveying the atmosphere of a
remote, fairy-tale world of refined and civilized nature. It was peopled by simple rustic youths
and maidens and the ancient deities of the fields, woods, and fountains. Uncomplicated subject
matter, idealized landscape, and a nostalgic mood of yearning for an unattainable earthly
paradise made pastoral poetry attractive to composers. In this imaginary world, music seemed
not only the natural mode of communication but the missing link to the poets' visions and
longings. Pastoral poetry was at once the last stage of the madrigal and the first stage of the
opera libretto.
Greek tragedy as a model
Greek tragedy served as another, more distant model for the Renaissance theater, although
scholars disagreed on how centrally music figured in the Greek drama. One view held that only
the choruses were sung. Another, that the entire text, including the actors' parts, was sung-an
opinion authoritatively expressed by Girolamo Mei (1519-1594), a learned Florentine scholar
who had edited a number of Greek tragedies.
Florentine Camerata
Mei kept up a lively correspondence with many colleagues, including Count Giovanni Bardi
(1534-161) and Vincenzo Galilei (d. 1591). From the early 1570s, Count Bardi hosted an
informal academy at his palace in Flo- rence, where scholars and artists discussed literature,
science, and the arts, and musicians performed new music. Bardi's protege, the singer-composer
 16

Giulio Caccini (1551-1618), later referred to this gathering as Bardi's “Camerata" (circle or
coterie). Around 1577, Mei's letters about Greek music often appeared on the agenda. Mei
concluded that the ancient Greeks had obtained powerful effects with their music because it
consisted of a single melody, whether sung by a soloist with or without accompaniment, or by
a chorus. By conveying the message of the text through the natural expressiveness of the voice,
the rises and falls in pitch, and the changing rhythms and tempo, this single melody line
succeeded in moving the listener better than a more complex texture did.
Vincenzo Galilei
In his Dialogo della musica antica et della modema (Dialogue Concerning Ancient and Modern
Music, 1581), Vincenzo Galilei, father of the famous astronomer and physicist Galileo, used
Mei's doctrines to attack the theory and practice of vocal counterpoint as exemplified in the
Italian madrigal: he proposed to revive the ancient style of monody (monodia-from the Greek
monos, alone, and aidein, to sing). His argument, in brief, held that only a single line of melody,
with appropriate pitches and rhythms derived from the inflection and meaning of the text, could
truly express the poetry. Then several voices simultaneously sang different melodies and words,
in different rhythms and registers, as in the sixteenth- century madrigal, music could never
deliver the emotional message of the text. If some voices were low and others high, some rising
and others descending, some moving in slow notes and others in fast, then the resulting web of
contradictory impressions confused the listener and served only to show off the cleverness of
the composer and the ability of the performers.
Earliest operas
It was through such theories that the poet Ottavio Rinuccini (1562 -1621) and the composer
Jacopo Peri (1561-1633) became convinced that the ancient tragedies were sung in their
entirety. They first experimented with Rinuccini's poem Dafne but only fragments of the work,
produced in Florence in 1597, survive. Jacopo Peri and Giulio Caccini each set to music a
second, more ambitious poem by Rinuccini in 16oo-Euridice-and both scores were published.
Peri and Caccini had similar approaches to theatrical music. Both were singers by profession,
and Caccini became a famous singing teacher. They both claimed to have created a type of song
halfway between spoken recitation and singing. Caccini wrote in a more lyrical style based on
the madrigal and on the airs that poets and singers used when singing or reciting poetry for a
description of a popular air called the romanesca). Peri also used the air for singing poetry in
his prologue to Euridice (NAWM 71a, Audio 003).
But for dialogue he invented a new, more radical idiom, which was soon known as stile
recitativo, or recitative style. This should not be confused with monody, a term that embraces
all the styles of solo singing practiced during the early years of the seventeenth century,
including arias, madrigals and airs for solo voice and basso continuo, and operatic recitative.
Solo singing was certainly not new: performers often improvised on melodic formulas (airs) to
recite epic and other strophic poems. Many songs were composed for solo voice and lute, and
it was common in the sixteenth century to sing one part of a polyphonic madrigal while
instruments played the other parts. Moreover, many late sixteenth-century madrigals seem
written for soprano solo or soloists with chordal accompaniment. But it was Caccini who
deliberately developed a tuneful style of solo songwriting that did not distort the text. He aimed
at clear and flexible declamation of the words, with melodic embellishments at appropriate
places. Singers of the sixteenth century had commonly improvised ornaments-scalar figures,
turns, runs, passing notes, and the like-when performing polyphonic music, but usually without
regard to the character of the text. By contrast, Caccini chose and placed his ornaments
 17

carefully, to enhance the message of the text. Listen to one of the songs from Caccini's
collection, called 'Amarilli':

Le nuove musiche
Caccini wrote two types of solo song-airs, which were strophic, and madrigals, which were
through -composed-some dating from the 1590s; many were published in his 160 collection Le
nuove musiche (The New Music). Caccini boasted in his foreword that around 1590, Bardi's
Camerata greeted his solo madrigal Vedro 'l mio sol (I'll see my sunshine), with affectionate
applause." At a number of the cadences, Caccini wrote out the ornaments that singers would
normally have added in performance because he did not trust them to invent appropriate ones
on their own. Other refinements and embellishments that Caccini considered essential were
crescendos and decrescendos, trills (called gruppi), rapid repetitions of the same pitch (called
trilli), exclamations"- a sforzando at the point of producing a tone-and departures from strict
observance of the printed note values, or what we call tempo rubato. (Video 005: Vedro 'l mio
sol)
Euridice
In 16oo, Peri set to music the pastoral-mythological verse play, Euridice, by Ottavio Rinuccini,
which was publicly performed in Florence that year at the marriage of Henry IV of France and
Maria de' Medici, niece of the reigning grand duke. But Caccini, who wanted to protect his
status at court, would not allow his singers to perform music composed by others, so a portion
of his own setting was incorporated into the production. Both Peri's and Caccini's versions were
published the following year, and these two scores remain the earliest complete operas that
survive.
Euridice elaborated the wellknown myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, treated in the then-
fashionable manner of the pastoral and given a happy ending to suit the joyous occasion. Of the
two settings, Caccini's sounds more melodious and lyrical, resembling the madrigals and airs
of his Nuove musiche. Peri's is more dramatic; he not only devised a style that lies between
speech and song, but he varied his approach, incorporating his newly designed recitative style
with more or less intensity according to the dramatic situation.
Peri and recitative style
In his preface to Euridice, Peri recalled the distinction made in ancient theory between the
continuous" or sliding changes of pitch in speech and the intervallic, ordiasten1atic," motion in
song. He wanted to find a type of speech-song that was halfway between them, similar to the
style scholars imagined the ancient Greeks used for reciting heroic poems. By sustaining the
notes of the basso continuo while the voice passed through both consonances and dissonances-
thereby imi- tating the continuous, sliding motion of speech-he liberated the voice from the
 18

harmony so that it seemed like free, pitchless declamation. For syllables that were emphasized
in ordinary speech-in his words intoned"- he formed consonances with the bass and its
harmony, in that way reinforcing the importance of these accented syllables.
The speech in which Dafne (the Messenger) tells of Euridice's death (NAWM 71c, Audio 006)
exemplifies the new recitative style, and Example 9·2 shows how Peri followed his own
prescription for composing recitative. The vertical boxes identify the syllables that are sustained
or accented in speech and support a consonant harmony; the horizontal boxes contain the
syllables that are passed over quickly in speech and may be set by either dissonances (marked
by asterisks) or consonances against the bass and its implied chords. The manner in which the
dissonances are introduced and then left often violates the rules of counterpoint, as in measures
3, 4, and 5; the attempt to imitate speech exempts these notes from normal musical conventions.
This combination of speech-like freedom and sustained, harmonized, accented syllables
fulfilled Peri's idea of a style halfway between speech and song.
 19

In his Euridice, Peri devised a musical idiom that met the demands of dramatic poetry-to
represent action and emotion on stage. Although he and his associates knew they had not
brought back Greek music, they claimed to have realized a speech-song that not only resembled
what had been used in the ancient theater but was also compatible with modern musical
practice.

PERl 'S DESCRlPTlON OF HlS REClTATlVE STYLE

Putting aside every other manner of singing heard up to now, I dedicated myself wholly to searching out
the imitation that is owed to these poems. And I reflected that the sort of voice assigned by the ancients
to song, which they called diastematic (as if to say sustained and suspended), could at times be hurried
and take a moderate course between the slow sustained movements of song and the fluent and rapid
ones of speech, and thus suit my purpose (just as the ancients, too, adapted the voice to reading poetry
and heroic verses), approaching that other [voice] of conversation, which they called continuous and
which our moderns (though perhaps for another purpose) also used in their music.
I recognized likewise that in our speech certain sounds are intoned in such a way that a harmony can be
built upon them, and in the course of speaking we pass through many that are not so intoned, until we
reach another that permits a movement to a new consonance. Keeping in mind those manners and
accents that serve us in our grief and joy and similar states, I made the bass move in time with these,
faster or slower according to the affections. I held [the bass] fixed through both dissonances and
consonances until the voice of the speaker, having run through various notes, arrived at a syllable that,
being intoned in ordinary speech, opened the way to a new harmony. I did this not only so that the flow
of the speech would not offend the ear (almost tumbling upon the repeated notes with more frequent
consonant chords), but also so that the voice would not seem to dance to the movement of the bass,
particularly in sad or severe subjects, granted that other more joyful subjects would require more frequent
movements. Moreover, the use of dissonances lessened or masked the advantage gained from the
necessity of intoning every note, which perhaps for this purpose was less needed in ancient music.
-From Peri, Le musiche sopra I'Euridice (Florence, 1600), trans. in Palisca, Humanism in Italian
Renaissance Musical Thought (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985), pp. 428-32.

Monteverdi's Orfeo
Monteverdi patterned his Orfeo (1607), in its subject matter and its mixture of styles, on the
Euridice operas. Rinuccini's little pastoral was expanded by the poet Alessandro Striggio into
a five-act drama, and Monteverdi, already an experienced composer of madrigals and church
music, drew on a rich palette of vocal and instrumental resources. His recitative achieves more
continuity and a longer line than that of his predecessors through careful tonal organization,
and, at significantly dramatic moments, it becomes songfully lyrical. In addition, Monteverdi
introduced many solo airs, duets, madrigalesque ensembles, and dances, which, taken together,
make up a large proportion of the work and furnish a welcome contrast to the recitative. The
ritornellos-recurring instrumental sections-and choruses help organize the scenes into schemes
of almost ceremonial formality.
Three sections from Orfeo - the Prologue, Orfeo's song, and the Messenger's narration of
Euridice 's death (NAWM 72 a, b, c, Video 008) - are more or less analogous to those from
Euridice (NAWM 71 a, b, c), but it becomes clear immediately that the proportions are very
much expanded. The ritornello to the Prologue is carefully scored, and although the Prologue
itself is patterned on the air for singing poetry, Monteverdi wrote out each strophe, varying the
melody while leaving the harmony intact. Orfeo 's strophic canzonet, Viricorda o boschi
 20

ombrosi (Do you recall, o shady woods, NAWM 72b), is a simple dance-song in which the
bridegroom exults with friends over his impending marriage.
Like Peri, Monteverdi reserves the most modern style for dramatic dialogue and impassioned
speeches. The Messenger's narrative, In un fiorito prato (In a flowery meadow, NAWM 72c),
imitates the recitative style developed by Peri, but the harmonic movement and melodic contour
are more broadly conceived. Orfeo's lament, which follows (Example 9.3), displays a new
lyrical force that leaves the first monodic experiments far behind. In the passage that begins Tu
se' morta" (You are dead), each phrase of music, like each phrase of text, builds on the
preceding one and intensifies it through pitch and rhythm. The dissonances against the
sustained chords not only enhance the illusion of speech but also underscore Orfeo's bleak
prospects. The raw passage from an E-major chord to a G-minor chord (measures 3-4)
emphasizes his poignant question: why must I continue to live, when my bride-my life"-is dead?
The progress of the melody parallels Orfeo's changing mood-from his initial despair to his
resolution to follow and rescue Euridice from the realm of death.
 21

Monteverdi: Orfeo (1607), Act 2, excerpt

Dramatic context: Orpheus is celebrating, with his friends the shepherds, his marriage to
Eurydice, whom he has long loved.
The music: A dance is heard on the strings (Monteverdi directs that it be played on violins and
a bass string instrument, with accompaniment on plucked strings). This music occurs four
times, in between, and following the final appearance, Orpheus sings a four-verse song, also in
dance rhythm (ex.i). At the end, the music becomes slower, as a shepherd greets Orpheus on
this happy day. Then suddenly the serene and cheerful tone of the music, it has all been in major
keys, with smooth lines and harmonies-is broken as a foreign note is heard in the orchestra and
the voice of a messenger is heard ringing out (ex. ii) : "Ahi, caso acerbo!" ("Oh, bitter event!")
: the music turns to the key of A minor, with strange and harsh dissonances. "What mournful
sound disturbs our happiness?", asks a shepherd. The messenger tells the news, in a narrative
style, but with expressive dissonances in the supporting harmony; at the actual news of
Eurydice's death there are sharp harmonic twists -the messenger singing in E major, Orpheus
responding in G minor (ex. iii): Monteverdi's intention of violence and disorientation is
unmistakable.
ORPHEUS
Vi ricorda, o boschi ombrosi, Do you remember, 0 shady woods,
De" miei lungh"aspri tormenti my long and bitter torments,
quando i sassi ai miei lamenti when the rocks to my laments
rispondean fatti pietosi? took pity and responded?
Dite all'hor non vi sembrai Tell me, did I not then seem
più d ogn'altro sconsolato? more inconsolable than any other?
Hor fortuna ha stil cangiato Now fortune has changed
et ha volto in festa i guai. and has turned my woes into joys.
Vissi già mesto e dolente, I have lived with sadness and grief;
her gioisco e quegli affanni Now I rejoice, and those sorrows
che sofferti he per tant'anni that I suffered for so many years
fan più caro il ben presente. make my present joy the more dear.
Sol per te bella Euridice, For you alone, fair Eurydice,
benedico il mio tormento, I bless my former torments;
dopo il duol si è più contento after grief one is the more content,
dopo il mal si è più felice. after suffering one is the more happy.
SHEPHERD
Mira, Orfeo, che d'ogni intorno Wonder, Orpheus, that all around you
ride il bosco e ride il prato. the woods and the meadows join in laughter.
Segui pur col plettr'aurato Continue with your golden plectrum
d'addolcir l'aria in si beato giorno. to sweeten the air on so blessed a day.
MESSENGER
 22

Ahi! caso acerbo! Oh, bitter event!

Ahi! fatempio e crudele! Oh, impious and cruel fate!
Ahi! stelle ingiuriose! Oh, unjust stars!
Ahi! ciel'avaro! Oh, avaricious heaven!
SHEPHERD
Qual suon dolente il lieto dì perturba? What mournful sound disturbs our happiness?
MESSENGER
Lassa dunque debbio I am wretched, for now I must,
mentre Orfeo con sue note il ciel consola while Orpheus with his tones consoles the
con le parole mie passargli il core. heavens, pierce his heart with my words.
SHEPHERD
Questa è Silvia gentile, This is the lovely Sylvia,
dolcissima compagna the sweetest companion
della bell'Euridice. 0 quanto e in vista of the beautiful Eurydice. Oh, how her face
dolorosa; hor che sia? Deh, sommi dei is sad; what has befallen? 0 mighty gods,
non torcete da noi benigno il guardo. do not turn your kindly glances away from us.
MESSENGER
Pastor, lasciate il canto, Shepherd, cease your singing,
ch'ogni nostra allegrezza in doglia è volta. all our happiness is turned to grief.
ORPHEUS
D'onde vieni? ove vai? Ninfa, che porti? Where do you come from? where are you going?
Nymph, what do you bear?
MESSENGER
A te ne vengo Orfeo To you I come, Orpheus,
messagera infelice unhappy messenger,
di caso più infelice e più funesto. of a matter most unhappy and most terrible.
ORPHEUS
Ohimè, che odo? Alas! what do I hear?
MESSENGER
La tua diletta sposa è morta. Your beloved wife is dead.
ORPHEUS
Ohimè. Alas!
 23

Francesca Caccini
Despite the interest aroused by the first operas, only a few more were written and performed
during the next thirty years. The Florentine court continued to prefer ballets, masques, and
intermedi for glamorizing state weddings and other events. When a Polish prince visited
Florence in 1625, the court staged a combination of ballet and musical scenes-La liberazione
di Ruggiero dall 'isola d 'Alcina (The Freeing of Ruggiero from the Island of Alcina) written
by Francesca Caccini (1587-ca. 1640), daughter of Giulio. Francesca Caccini (1587-1640)
Known as La Cecchina," Francesca Caccini had performed frequently as a solo singer as well
as with her sister Settimia and her stepmother Margherita (Giulio 's wife). Their trio formed a
concerto delle donne that rivaled the one at Ferrara (see page I3o). Francesca had composed
 24

music for ballets as early as 1607 (La Stiava). La liberazione climaxed her brilliant career and
she became the highest-paid musician in the duke's service.
Rome
For a variety of reasons, opera did not take root in Rome until the1620s, even though the city
was teeming with wealthy prelates who vied with each other in offering lavish entertainment
to their guests. Most of the Roman operas treated mythological subjects or episodes from the
epic poems of Tasso, Ariosto, and Marino, but some based their stories on the lives of saints.
Roman composers also produced a number of pastoral operas; the genre of comic opera began
its independent career in that city as well.
Luigi Rossi's Orfeo
Let us compare a mid-century Orfeo (Paris, 1647) by the Roman composer Luigi Rossi (1597-
1653) with its predecessors. On a libretto by Francesco Buti, the opera is based on the same
subject as the earlier works of Peri, Caccini, and Monteverdi, but it epitomizes the changes in
opera during the first half of the seventeenth century. The simplicity of the ancient myth is
almost buried under a mass of incidents and characters, spectacular scenic effects and comic
episodes. Italian librettists of the seventeenth century commonly allowed the comic, the
grotesque, and the merely sensational to intrude into a serious drama. The practice suggests that
composers no longer put the integrity of the drama first, as Monteverdi and the earlier
Florentines had done. The ancient Greek and Roman myths were now mere conventions to be
elaborated in any way that promised good entertainment and provided ample opportunities to
the composer and singers. The music fell more neatly into two clearly defined styles, recitative
and aria. The recitative was more speechlike than Peri's or Monteverdi's, while the arias were
melodious and mainly strophic. Rossi's Orfeo is a succession of beautiful arias and ensembles
that make the hearer forgive its dramatic faults.
Venetian opera
A troupe from Rome brought opera to Venice. The librettist, composer, and theorbo-player
Benedetto Ferrari (ca. 16o3-1681) and the composer Francesco Manelli (after 1594-1667)
inaugurated opera in Venice with a 1637 production of Andromeda in the Teatro San Cassiano.
This theater ad- mitted the paying public, a decisive step in the history of opera, since until then
musical theater depended on wealthy or aristocratic patrons. Although Andromeda was a low-
budget operation, the producers tried to duplicate on a small scale the mechanical stage marvels
for which the Florentine and Roman extravaganzas were famous.

OPERA IN SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY VEN1CE

Venice was an ideal place for opera to flourish. The city's reputation for religious and social freedoms
made it a mecca for revelers who wanted to indulge themselves during Carnival in masked balls and other
delightful pastimes. The population of Venice swelled with visitors from the day after Christmas, when
Carnival officially began, to Shrove Tuesday, the day before Lent (a penitential period of forty days during
which public entertainments were discouraged). The Venetian Carnival brought together a diverse
audience, and producers sought to lure them to the opera.
Rich merchants built and supported theaters. Less wealthy families could lease boxes, and anyone could
rent a seat in the ground -level stalls for a single performance. Everyone, including box holders, had to
buy admission tickets. With steady financing and a guaranteed audience for at least part of the year,
librettists, composers, producers, designers, and companies of singers and musicians could count on
multiple performances of a work during a season. Between 1637, when San Cassiano opened, and 1678,
when San Giovanni Crisostomo, the last new theater of the century, was completed, more than 150
operas were produced in nine Venetian theaters.
 25

Mythological themes continued to inspire the librettos, populated by figures such as Venus, Adonis,
Apollo, Orpheus, Jason, Andromeda, and Hercules. Around the middle of the century, librettists drew on
episodes concerning the heroes of the Crusades from the epic poems of Tasso and Ariosto. Similarly, the
Trojan wars provided adventurous tales of Ulysses, Paris, Helen, Dido, Aeneas, Aegisthus, and Achilles.
The poets and librettists eventually mined Roman history for its military heroes and rulers-Alexander,
Scipio, Pompey, Hannibal, Caesar, and Nero. The plots were chosen with an eye for stunning stage
effects- clouds bearing flocks of singers, enchanted gardens, magical transformations- and for dramatic
personal relationships and conflicts.

Monteverdi's Poppea
Claudio Monteverdi, in his seventies, but still very much up on the latest musical trends,
composed his last two operas for Venice: Il ritomo d 'Ulisse (The Return of Ulysses, 1641) and
L'incoronazione di Poppea (The Coronation of Poppea, 1642). Poppea, Monteverdi's operatic
masterpiece, lacks the varied orchestral colors and large instrumental and scenic apparatus of
Orfeo but surpasses the earlier work in its musical depiction of human character and passions.
Despite the contemporary preference for separating recitative and aria, Monteverdi continued
to write in a fluid mixture of speechlike recitative and more lyrical and formal monody. For
example, the love scene between Nero and Poppea in Act I, Scene 3 (NAWM 73, Audio 009)
passes through various levels of recitative: unmeasured, speech-like passages with few
cadences; airs for singing poetry, as in the Prologue of Orfeo; and measured arioso (a style that
shares characteristics of both recitative and aria, but falls somewhere between the two). The
aria passages are similarly varied. Even when the poet, Giovanni Francesco Busenello, did not
provide strophic or other formally structured verse, the composer sometimes turned to aria
style. Content rather than poetic form, and heightened emotional expression rather than the
wish to charm and dazzle, determined the shifts from recitative to aria and back, and from one
level of speech-song to another. Monteverdi's music, therefore, expresses every nuance of
emotion in the dialogue and the results are dramatically convincing.
Cavalli and Cesti
Among Monteverdi's pupils and successors in Venice were Pier Francesco Cavalli (1602 -1676)
and Antonio Cesti (1623-1669). Cavalli wrote forty- one operas, the most famous of which was
Giasone (1649), a full- blown score in which arias and recitatives alternate, the two styles
always clearly differentiated. Cesti's opera Orontea, from approximately the sarne year (1649),
became one of the most frequently performed in the seventeenth century, not only in Venice
but also in Rome, Florence, Milan, Naples, Innsbruck, and elsewhere. Orontea's Act II aria,
Intomo all 'idol mio (Around my idol, NAWM 74, Audio 010), shows how developed the aria
was by mid- century. The form is strophic, with some musical adjustments to the new text of
the second stanza. A new vocal idiom reigns, one that became known as bel canto-smooth,
mainly diatonic lines and flowing rhythm gratifying to the singer. The two violins, no longer
restricted to ritornellos before and after the singer's strophes, play throughout the aria.
Cavalli's arias-nearly always in triple time can be seen as the beginning of the bel canto
("beautiful singing") tradition that was to dominate Italian opera for centuries. He responded
particularly well to pathos; most of his operas include laments, which make their effect not by
sharp discords or violent caps, like Monteverdi's, but by the eloquence of their melodies, as in
ex. VI-3, from Egisto (1643), his most popular work. He was also adept at comic scenes for the
servants, like Monteverdi's shown above.
 26

Characteristics of opera
By the middle of the seventeenth century, Italian opera had acquired the main features it would
maintain without essential change for the next two hundred years: (1) concentration on solo
singing to the detriment of ensembles and instrumental music; (2) the stylistic separation of
recitative and aria; and (3) the introduction of distinctive styles and pattern's for the arias. One
additional feature concerned the relation of text and music. The Florentines had considered
music accessory to poetry; in contrast, the Venetians treated the libretto as hardly more than a
scaffolding for the musical structure.
VOCAL CHAMBER MUSIC
Except in Venice, where it became the focus of musical life, opera was an uncommon event.
Chamber music, most of it involving voices, remained the standard fare. The new monodic
idioms and the basso-continuo texture permeated this genre as well. But since dramatic
dialogue and the representation of actions were outside the scope of chamber music, composers
felt free-indeed compelled-to find new ways of organizing their musical thoughts.
Strophic Aria
The strophic aria, neglected in the polyphonic madrigal but kept alive in the canzonet and other
popular forms, now offered the best framework for setting poetry without interfering with the
poem's continuity. Using the strophic method, the composer could repeat the same melody,
perhaps with minor rhythmic modifications, for each stanza of poetry; write new music for each
stanza; or keep the same harmonic and melodic plan for all the stanzas-the favored technique,
known as strophic variation.
BAROQUE OSTINATO PATTERNS
Romanesca
Composing a strophic song on a standard formula, such as the romanesca, became popular
during the Baroque period. The romanesca, an air for singing ottave rime (poems organized in
eight-line stanzas, each having a rhyme scheme of abababcc), consisted of a treble formula with
a standard harmonization and bass. Example 9·4 gives the formula, reduced to its essentials. In
some compositions built on the romanesca formula, only the bass is recognizable, so it is often
referred to as a ground bass, or basso ostinato, a bass that is repeated intact while the melody
above it changes. Monteverdi wrote his setting of the ottava rima Ohime dov'e il mio ben (Alas,
where is my love) as a strophic duet on the romanesca air.
 27

Chaconne and Passacaglia

Some short ground- bass patterns, such as the chaconne (Spanish: chacona; Italian: ciaccona)
and passacaglia (Spanish: passecalle; French: passecaille) were not associated with any
particular poetic form. The chacona, a dance-song with a refrain that followed a simple pattern
of guitar chords, probably came into Spain from Latin America. The Italian ciaccona reduced
the harmonic pattern to a bass line. The passacaglia originated in Spain as a ritornello-that is,
music played before and between the strophes of a song. It too evolved into a variety of bass
formulas, usually in triple meter and minor mode, that were suitable for supporting instrumental
or vocal variations. Characteristic of both the chaconne and passacaglia in the seventeenth
century is the continuous repetition of a four-bar formula in triple meter and slow tempo.
Examples from the eighteenth century, when the two terms became confused, appear in
Example 9·5 where what one composer called a “ciaccona," another called a “passacaglia."

Another four- bar ostinato, a stepwise descent spanning a fourth, or tetrachord, was also popular
(see Example 9.6). In the musical vocabulary of the period, this pattern was often associated
with the affection of lament or grief.
 28

The concertato medium

The practice of writing separate parts for voices and instruments, or different groups of voices
and instruments, gave rise to the concertato medium. (The adjective concertato comes from the
Italian verb concertare, meaning to reach agreement; the English consort and the verb concert
are derived from the same root.) In a musical concerto, diverse and sometimes contrasting
forces come together in a harmonious ensemble. Concertato madrigal describes a work in which
instruments and voices are joined together as equals. Sacred concerto means a sacred vocal
work with instruments. Instrumental concerto defines a piece for various instruments,
sometimes including one or more soloists and an orchestra with several players to a part. Today
we think of a concerto as a piece for soloists and orchestra, but the older sense was more
inclusive. The seventeenth- century concertato medium, then, is not a style but a mingling of
voices with instruments that are playing independent parts.
Monteverdi's concertato madrigals
We can trace the changing patterns of instrumental participation, strophic variation, and other
novel devices in Monteverdi's fifth through eighth books of madrigals (1605, 1614, 1619,
1638). Beginning with the last six madrigals of Book 5, Monteverdi includes a basso continuo,
and sometimes calls for other instruments as well. Solos, duets, and trios are set off against the
full vocal ensemble, and there are instrumental introductions and recurring instrumental
interludes (ritornellos). Monteverdi entitled his seventh book Concerto and described it as
containing madrigals and other kinds of songs. "

MONTEVERDJ'S EIGHTH BOOK OF MADRJGALS

Book 8, Madrigali guerrieri et amorosi (Madrigals of War and Love), contains a variety of concertato forms
and types, including madrigals for five voices; solos, duets, and trios with continuo; and large works for
chorus, soloists, and orches-tra. The eighth book also contains two balli (semi-dramatic ballets) and the
Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda (The Combat of Tancred and Clorinda), a work in the genere
rappresentativo (theatrical medium), first performed in 1624. Here Monteverdi set a portion of the twelfth
canto of Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered de- scribing the combat between the crusader knight Tancred and
the armed pagan heroine Clorinda, ending with her death. The bulk of Tasso's text is straight narrative,
which Monteverdi assigned to a tenor soloist in recitative. The few short speeches of Tancred and
Clorinda are sung by an- other tenor and a soprano, who also mime the actions while the narrative is
sung. The instruments (string quartet with bass gamba and continuo), in addition to accompanying the
voices, play interludes that suggest the action-the galloping of horses, the clash of swords, the excitement
of combat. For such purposes, Monteverdi created what he called the stile concitato Cexcited style").
One of the most striking devices of this style, often meant for warlike affections and actions, is the
prolonged rapid reiteration of a single note or series of them, either with quickly spoken syllables in the
voice, or instrumentally as a measured string tremolo.
 29

Genres of vocal solo music

From the beginning of the century, Italian composers turned out thousands of monodies- solo
madrigals, strophic arias, and canzonets. These pieces were more widely known than any of the
operas, which were performed only a few times for restricted audiences. Monodies and music
for small ensembles were sung everywhere, and they appeared in copious collections of
madrigals, arias, dialogues, duets, and the like. As we have seen, Caccini's Nuove musiche
(1602) was the first important collection of monodies. The solo songs of Sigismondo d'lndia
(ca. 1582 -before 1629), as well as his polyphonic madrigals and motets, mark him as another
out- standing musical personality of the time.
Cantata
The cantata (literally, a piece that was sung) eventually engaged most Italian composers. By
the middle of the century, cantata came to mean a composition with continuo, usually for solo
voice, on a lyrical or quasi- dramatic text consisting of several sections that included both
recitatives and arias. The Roman Luigi Rossi was the first eminent master of this type of cantata.
Other leading Italian cantata composers of the mid-seventeenth century were Giacomo
Carissimi (1605-1674)-who is remembered chiefly for his sacred oratorios-the opera composer
Antonio Cesti, and the singer Barbara Strozzi (1619-after 1664), composer of eight published
collections of motets, madrigals, arias, and cantatas.
Strozzi's Lagrime mie, with its successive sections of recitative, arioso, and aria, exemplifies
the solo cantata. The poet is unknown, but, like many of the verses Barbara Strozzi set, these
may be by Giulio Strozzi with whom she lived from childhood and who was probably her
father. In the opening recitative (Example 9 .7), Barbara Strozzi artfully exploits rhetorical
devices that Roman composers first introduced into the cantata. The hesitations on the dissonant
D#, A, and F# over the opening E-minor harmony, together with the C of the harmonic-minor
scale, make this one of the most moving and vivid projections of the lamenting lover's sobs and
tears.

BARBARA STROZZI, SINGER OF lOVE

Barbara Strozzi (1619-after 1664) was the adopted heir, and probably the illegitimate daughter, of Giulio
Strozzi, a prominent figure in seventeenth -century in- tellectual and musical circles in Venice. Largely
with her father's encouragement and support, she achieved some notoriety as a singer and as the
composer of secular vocal works-just over one hundred pieces-published between 1644 and 1664, in
eight volumes.
 30

As a musician, Strozzi herself became the central figure in the Accademia degli Unisoni, an academy
evidently created by her parent/patron to exhibit her talents. Members met regularly, discoursing and
engaging in debates about sub- jects that invariably dealt with love. Barbara Strozzi acted as mistress of
ceremonies-setting the topics, choosing the winners, and performing her music. We may compare her
role to that of a Renaissance courtesan, whose activities in the Venetian academies of the sixteenth
century are well documented. Certainly, the traditional association in Renaissance life and art between
music making and sexual license strongly suggests that Strozzi's songs were also intended to inspire
love.
An intriguing portrait of a Female Musician, very possibly Barbara Strozzi, confirms this association. The
painting, by Bernardo Strozzi (apparently no relation despite the surname), is traced back to about 1637
in Venice, and was likely It commissioned by Giulio himself to help launch Barbara's musical career. It
shows a handsome young woman, with a somewhat melancholy expression, holding a viola da gamba.
The seductive costume, which allows us to observe her ample bosom, and the flowers in her hair refer
directly to her role as courtesan.

CHURCH MUSIC
The innovations of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries strongly affected the
normally conservative category of sacred music. Monody, the basso continuo, and the
concertato medium were all soon applied to sacred texts. Opposition to the new styles did arise
in the Roman Catholic Church, which never completely abandoned polyphony. Indeed,
Palestrina's style, called stile antico, became the supreme model for church music. Composers
were routinely trained to write in this style of counterpoint, which coexisted with the stile
moderno throughout the seventeenth century. A composer might utilize both styles, sometimes
in a single piece; Monteverdi, for example, wrote with equal mastery in both. In the course of
time, the old style grew more modern: a basso continuo was often added, rhythms became more
regular, a nd the older modes gave way to the major-minor system.
THE VENETIAN SCHOOL
The heart and center of Venetian musical culture was the great eleventh- century Church of
Saint Mark, with its Byzantine domes, bright gold mosaics, and spacious interior suffused with
dim, greenish- golden light. Like Venice itself, Saint Mark's was independent. Its clergy and
musicians responded more directly to the reigning doge than to any outside ecclesiastical
authority. Most of the city's ceremonial occasions took place in this church and in its vast
piazza. Venetian music glorified the majesty of state and church for solemn and festive
celebrations in magnificent displays of sound and pageantry. Life in Venice had little of the
ascetic quality associated with Roman devotions. Venetians took their religion less seriously.
The city's wide commercial interests, especially the centuries-old trade with the East, gave it a
peculiarly cosmopolitan, flamboyant atmosphere. Venetian painters such as Titian, Tintoretto,
and Veronese had pioneered new techniques in oils exploiting color and form in dramatic ways.
Music in Saint Mark's was supervised by officials of the state who spared no pains or expense.
The position of choirmaster, the most coveted musical post in all Italy, had been held by
Willaert, Rore, and Zarlino in the sixteenth century, and by Monteverdi in the early seventeenth.
Many Venetian composers contributed notably to the madrigal, and Venice produced the best
Italian organ music. Venetian music was characteristically full and rich in texture, homophonic
rather than contrapuntal, varied and colorful in sonority. Massive chordal harmonies replaced
the intricate polyphonic lines of the Franco- Flemish composers.
 31

Venetian polychoral motets

From before the time of Willaert, composers in the Venetian region often wrote for two
choruses that sometimes echoed one another in antiphony, a style particularly suited to psalm
settings. The medium of divided choirs (cori spezzati), which encouraged homophonic choral
writing and broad rhythmic organization, did not originate in Venice but found a congenial
home there. In the polychoral music of Giovanni Gabrieli (ca. 1553-1612) (Music: NAWM
83, Audio 013)- who served as organist at St. Mark's-the performance forces grew to unheard
- of proportions. Two, three, four, even five choruses, each with a different combination of high
and low voices, mingled with instruments of diverse timbres, answered one another
antiphonally, alternated with solo voices, and joined together in massive sonorous climaxes.
Gabrieli's motet In ecclesiis explored these new resources. (NAWM 80 bis, Audio 014)
Venitian influence
The Venetian school exercised broad influence during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth
centuries. Gabrieli's students and admirers spread his style throughout northern Italy, Germany,
Austria, and Scandinavia. His most famous pupil was Heinrich Schiltz, the greatest German
composer of the mid-seventeenth century.
GENRES OF SACRED MUSIC: CATHOLIC AND LUTHERAN
Grand Concerto
The grand concerto was inspired by the works of Gabrieli and the Venetian school. Sometimes
these sacred works, for huge groups of singers and players, reached colossal proportions. One
festival Mass, probably written by Andreas Hofer (1629-1684) for Salzburg Cathedral, called
for two eight - part choruses with soloists. Each chorus joined with three different instrumental
combinations and had its own basso continuo; a third basso continuo served to unify the whole
ensemble. A single page of score for this formidable composition requires fifty-three staves.
Concerto for few voices
The more intimate concerto for few voices, in which one, two, or three solo voices sang to the
accompaniment of an organ continuo, was much more familiar to the average parishioner than
the grand concerto. One of the first composers to exploit this medium for church music was
Lodovico Viadana (1560-1627), who in 1602 published a collection, Cento concerti
ecclesiastici (One Hundred Sacred Concertos). (Music: NAWM 84, Audio 015)
Where resources permitted, the grand concerto was combined with the concerto for few voices,
as in Monteverdi's pioneering Vespers of 1610, which include all varieties of solo, choral, and
instrumental groupings. In these settings for the liturgical Office, Monteverdi also incorporated
the traditional psalm tones while exploiting the new musical resources of the time-recitative,
aria, and concerto.
Alessandro Grandi (ca. 1575/80-1630), who greatly impressed the German composer Heinrich
Schütz, received recognition for his sacred compositions in the new style. His solo motet O
quam tu pulchra es (O how beautiful you are, NAWM 85, Audio 016), on a text from the Song
of Songs, illustrates the smooth mingling of elements from theatrical recitative, solo madrigal,
and bel canto aria into a single composition.
Oratorio
In Rome, the dramatic impulse found an outlet in sacred dialogues, which combined elements
of narrative, dialogue, and meditation or exhortation, but were not usually intended for stage
performance. Toward the middle of the century, works of this kind began to be called oratorios,
because they were most often performed in the oratory, the part of a church where groups of
the faithful met to hear sermons and sing devotional songs. The libretto of an oratorio might be
 32

in Latin (oratorio latina) or Italian (oratorio volgare [vernacular]). The principal master of the
Latin oratorio at this time was Giacomo Carissimi (1605-1674).
Carissimi’s Jephte
While Venice was the principal operatic center during much of the seventeenth century, Rome,
as the home of the Catholic church, was naturally the, center of sacred music. At the beginning
of the century sacred musical dramas had been given there. They were akin to operas on
religious topics, for example Rappresentazione di anima, et di corpo ("Representation of the
body, and of the soul") by Emilio de' Cavalieri (16oo), or Sant' Alessio by Stefano Landi
(c1631). Giacomo Carissimi was born in Rome in 1605, was choirboy and organist at the Tivoli
Cathedral and later maestro di cappella at the Jesuit College. He composed numerous motets
and other sacred works, and many cantatas for voice and continuo. But it is chiefly for his
oratorios, composed for performance at the Oratorio of the Most Holy Cross, that he is
remembered. In them he used the same means that Monteverdi did in his operas: vivid
recitative, with dissonances to heighten the expression at crucial points, flowing arias, and
ensembles. His works, called oratorios after the name of the building where they were
performed, related biblical stories (for example those of Jephtha and the Judgment of Solomon),
with a different singer taking the role of each character and a narrator to tell the story;
particularly important was the chorus, which offers moral commentary on the story or takes a
narrative part. Carissimi used Monteverdi's "agitated style" in his choruses, often writing rapid
repeated chords in decisive rhythmic patterns - Monteverdi had always written such passages
for solo voices in his madrigals, but Carissimi had the advantage of a full chorus and a church
acoustic and was able to produce striking dramatic effects. Carissimi's importance lies in his
application of the new methods, the Monteverdian seconda prattica, to religious topics and his
establishment in Rome of an oratorio style as dramatic in its way as the style used in the opera
houses. He died in 1674, but his influence was wide and long - it extended to Germany, to
France (where Charpentier was probably his pupil) and even to England (for Handel later drew
on his effects).
A synopsis of Carissimi's Jephte exemplifies a typical mid-century oratorio. The Latin libretto
comes from the Book of Judges 11:29 - 40, with some paraphrasing and added material. The
narrator, called the storicus or testa, introduces the story. Jephtha, leader of the Israelites, vows
that if the Lord gives him a victory over the Ammonites in the impending battle, he will sacrifice
the first person to greet him on his return home. That person is his own daughter, who, along
with her friends, welcomes Jephtha with songs of rejoicing (solo arias, duets, choruses). After
a section of dialogue, in recitative, between father and daughter, the chorus relates how the
daughter, still a virgin, goes away to the mountains with her companions to bewail her
approaching untimely death. She then sings a lament, to which the chorus responds, as in the
kommos of the Greek tragedy (this final scene is in NAWM 86, Audio 017). The lament is a
long, affecting recitative, sweetened, as was customary in sacred music, with moments of florid
song and with arioso passages built on sequences. Two sopranos, representing the' daughter's
companions, echo some of her cadential phrases. The choral response, a magnificent six- voice
lamentation, employs both polychoral and madrigalistic effects.
Oratorio vs. Opera
Both oratorios and operas used recitative, arias, duets, and instrumental preludes and
ritornellos, but oratorios had numerous differences: their subject matter was always sacred;
narration was included; the chorus was used for dramatic, narrative, and meditative purposes;
and they were seldom if ever meant to be staged. Action was described or suggested, not played
out.
 33

THE ECSTASY OF SAINT TERESA

Baroque art is essentially theatrical. Whether in opera, painting, sculpture, or other media, its principal
concern is the representation of action and reaction, the evocation of motion and emotion. These forces
and tensions underlie the basic premise of the Baroque and help explain its aesthetic goal: to move our
emotions and to stir the passions in our soul.
By the mid -seventeenth century, the dramatic gestures and attitudes of the stage permeated the style of
sacred works too, as we see in the music of Schütz and Carissimi. Nowhere is this more evident than in
the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome, where Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini's marble sculpture, The
Ecstasy of Saint Teresa, dominates the Cornaro chapel. The Cornaro family com- missioned Bernini, a
contemporary of Carissimi working in Rome, to design a side chapel within the church as their final resting
place. The commission gave Bernini the opportunity not only to create a sculptural group for the chapel's
altarpiece, but also to plan and decorate its entire setting. Perhaps at the family's request, he chose as
his subject the popular Saint Teresa of Avila.
Saint Teresa (ISIS-ISS) was a Spanish nun and one of the greatest mystics of the Catholic Church. In
her autobiography she describes how, in one of her many visions, an angel repeatedly pierces her heart
with a golden arrow, her pain made bearable by the sweet sensation of her soul being caressed by God.
With consummate skill Bernini transformed Saint Teresa's words into action and reaction: the angel is
froze n in the act of plunging the arrow into the saint's breast, bringing about her mystical union with
Christ, the heavenly bridegroom. Saint Teresa reacts by swooning in an ecstatic trance, her limbs
dangling, her head tipped back, her eyes half closed, and her mouth forming an almost audible moan.
The pair is bathed in a warm and mysterious glow coming through the chapel's hidden window of yellow
glass, architecturally contrived to throw a spotlight on the scene.
Bernini reinforces the theatricality of it all by his stunning treatment of the chapel's side walls: there, in
pews that resemble theater boxes, he depicts the members of the Cornaro family in almost three-
dimensional relief, as though they are witnessing the enactment of this dramatic mystery. Because Bernini
created the illusion of the Cornaro family sitting in the same space in which we are moving, we feel as if
they are alive. In this way we too are drawn in, both physically and emotionally, to the Baroque world of
Saint Teresa's vision; we become the audience at a command performance of this silent, sacred opera.
Discussion about the chapel and its sculpture is based on Rudolf Wittkower, Gian Lorenzo Bemini. the
Sculptor of the Roman Baroque (London: The Phaidon Press, 1966), pp. 2-6.

Lutheran church music

In the German-speaking regions, both the Catholic and Lutheran churches took up the new
monodic and concertato techniques. Sacred music in Austria and the Catholic southern cities
of Germany remained wholly under Italian influence, with Italian composers particularly active
in Munich, Salzburg, Prague, and Vienna. Composers in the Lutheran central and northern
regions began, early in the seventeenth century, to employ the new media, sometimes using
chorale tunes as melodic material. Along with these compositions in stile modemo, the
Lutheran composers continued to write polyphonic chorale motets as well as biblical motets
that did not use chorale melodies. Many were in the grand concerto medium, testifying to
German musicians' admiration for the Venetian school.
Sacred concerto in Germany
The concerto for few voices also attracted German composers. An important collection of such
pieces was published in 1618 and 1626 at Leipzig by Johann Hermann Schein (1586-163o),
entitled Opella nova (New Little Works), and subtitled Geistliche Konzerte ... auff ietzo
gebrauchliche italianische Invention (Sacred Concertos in the Nowadays Customary Italian
Man- ner). In many respects the pieces are Lutheran counterparts of some of Monteverdi's
 34

concertato madrigals. The collection consists chiefly of duets and a few solos on chorale texts;
they set a precedent for a long series of similar works by Lutheran composers of the seventeenth
century.
Heinrich Schütz
If any composer can be regarded as the north European counterpart to Monteverdi, it is Heinrich
Schütz. Like Monteverdi, he wrote nothing but vocal music, though in Schütz's case the sacred
far predominated over the secular. This to some extent reflects the differences between German
and Italian musical life and circumstances; for during much of Schütz's lifetime Germany, as
we have seen, was riven by the Thirty Years War, her courts were impoverished, and in times
of stress religious observation and consolation were a good deal more important than secular
entertainment.
Schütz was born in Saxony in 1585. When he was 13, the ruler of Hesse-Kassel, the Landgrave
Moritz, stayed at the inn owned by the Schütz family, heard the boy sing, and invited him to
join his choir at the Kassel court; later Schütz studied law at university. Then the Landgrave
offered him the opportunity to go to Italy to study with Giovanni Gabrieli. He went in 1608,
and soon became a favorite pupil - Gabrieli, when he died in 1612, left him a ring. Schütz
returned to Germany the next year and worked initially at the Kassel court. Then he was
"borrowed" by the more powerful ruler of Saxony, the Elector Johann Georg. Eventually Moritz
had to release Schütz to Johann Georg's court at Dresden where he became Kapellmeister in
1618 or 1619. His job involved providing music for major ceremonies, religious or secular, and
supervising the musical establishment, which was the largest in Protestant Germany.

Heinrich Schütz Works

born Saxony, 1585; died Dresden, 1672
Passions St Matthew (1666), St Luke (1666), St John (1666)
Oratorios Christmas Oratorio (1664); Seven Words from Christ on the Cross (1657); Resurrection
oratorios
Collections of motets Cantiones sacrae (1625); Symphoniae sacrae (1629, 1647, 1650); Geistiiche
Concerte (1636, 1639)
Psalm settings Psaimen Davids (1619, 1628) Operas Dafne (1627)
Secular vocal music Italian madrigals (1611)

Schütz remained in the service of the Dresden court for the rest of his working life, though he
had several spells away - he went to Venice in 1628-9, where he met Monteverdi, twice stayed
in Copenhagen to work at the Danish court, and several times visited other German courts. His
life, however, was unhappy. On a personal plane, he lost his wife after six years of marriage,
and his two daughters both died before he did. On a professional plane, he had terrible
difficulties because of the impoverishment of the Dresden court caused by the war and its
aftermath; many of his musicians were dismissed, and those that remained were not paid. In
1635 he tried to move permanently to Denmark; in 1645 he unsuccessfully sought to retire from
routine duties. He tried several times to retire as his working conditions were so wretched; his
repeated requests were ignored, though he was allowed extended periods out of Dresden. Not
until 1657, when he was over 70, was he released from daily responsibilities. But he continued
composing, and some of his most original works date from his very last years. In 1670 he
commissioned from one of his pupils a motet for his own funeral, and two years later he died.
Schütz's first published work was a book of Italian madrigals, a product of his studies with
Gabrieli; they are a little old-fashioned compared with Monteverdi's works of the time, being
 35

unaccompanied, but show a Baroque feeling for the expressive use of dissonance. Later he was
to compose at least two operas - the first German opera, Dafne, in 1627, and a setting of the
story of Orpheus in 1638; both are now lost. Otherwise virtually his entire output is sacred. He
made less use of the chorale repertory than most German Protestant composers. His
contemporaries, like J.H. Schein (1586-163o) and Samuel Scheidt (1587-1654), tended to
weave these familiar hymn-tunes into their compositions. Schütz mostly preferred to compose
freely. He wrote numerous psalm settings, some very simple, some intensely elaborate; he
wrote many motets, some of which he called "sacred symphonies" or "little sacred concertos";
and he wrote works for the major seasons of the church year, like settings of the Christmas
story and the Passion.
In some respects Schütz was quite conservative; many of his motets are in the older polyphonic
manner, though they usually have features that show their composer to be familiar with a more
modern approach, for example in their variety of pace or their striking treatment of crucial
words. Often Schütz used a simple style because, in the straitened circumstances of the chapels
for which he was composing, he had limited performers at his command. It also seems that the
austerity of the times during the later part of the war and after it was reflected in the character
of the music he produced, at least for choir; his solo writing still shows the expressiveness and
drama of the monody composers.
Two works, typical in different ways, and from different times of Schütz's life, might usefully
be compared. The motet Veni, sancte Spiritus ("Come, holy Spirit") was written in his early
Dresden days, when the multi-choir music he had heard in Venice during Gabrieli's time was
still in his memory, and the Italian use of contrast in pace, texture, color and rhythm - was new
and exciting to him. The work is laid out for four "choirs"
I a sopranos; bassoon
II Bass; 2 cornetts
III 2 tenors; 3 trombones
IV Alto and tenor; flute, violin, bass viol (with organ continuo)
It begins with Choir I in three-voice imitative counterpoint (ex. VI-4a), not the smooth
counterpoint of the Renaissance composers but something more vigorous and arresting. Then
Choir II gives out the next verse, using a different working of the same material -but now,
instead of two high voices and one low instrument, it is set for one low voice and two high
instruments. The third verse calls on Choir 111; the counterpoint, though based on the same
material, is fuller and richer, and the music is lower pitched (ex. 4b). The fourth verse, for Choir
IV, is another five-voice working, softer in tone, higher in pitch (ex. 4c). The fifth, "O lux
beatissima" ("O wonderful light"), is a grand, solemn tutti to begin with, a marvelously striking
effect; then there is free writing, with the tonal groups mixed and contrasted; and finally another
tutti, sustained to the end.
The richness and elaboration of this work contrast remarkably with the darkness and severity
of others of his pieces, and with none more strongly than the Passion settings of his old age.
The St Matthew Passion begins and ends with brief four-voice choruses, in a simple manner,
with little counterpoint. The main story is narrated, in the traditional way, by a singer (the
Evangelist), here unaccompanied and with the pitches specified but not the rhythms, to allow
for a natural speech-rhythm (ex. VI-5a); the music for the other characters (Christ, Peter etc) is
written in the same way. There are brief choruses for the people, usually in an imitative style
which represents quite naturally the clamor of a crowd or a smaller group (like priests or
soldiers) (see ex. 5b). Passion music is, of course, somber by nature and purpose, but Schütz's
 36

takes this to a higher degree of gravity. He fittingly represents the dark times in which he lived,
and has fairly been called the first great German composer.

Veni sancta spiritus at Mn. 1:55: Consolator optime……and at mn.

37
 38

Schütz had a reputation as an organist, but as far as we know he wrote no music for his
instrument, or indeed for any other instrument. Yet northern Europe in the seventeenth century
was a productive region as far as instrumental music was concerned, keyboard music in
particular. In the Netherlands there was an elder contemporary of Schütz's, Jan Pieterszoon
Sweelinck (1562-1621), composer of brilliant toccatas and fantasias and of variations that
followed up the traditions of the English virginalists. In middle Germany there was Johann
Jacob Froberger (1616-67), a pupil of Frescobaldi who did much towards the development of
the dance suite for harpsichord, and Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706), whose organ music,
especially his chorale settings, had considerable influence.
Schütz's Symphoniae sacrae
Most important among Schütz's concertato motets are his Symphoniae sacrae (Sacred
Symphonies), published in three series (1629, 1647, and 1650). The first two use various small
combinations of voices and instruments, up to a total of five or six parts with continuo. The
Symphoniae sacrae of 1629 betray the strong influence of fonteverdi and Grandi.
The last installment of the Symphoniae sacrae (1650) was published after the end of the Thirty
Years' War, when the full musical resources of the Dresden chapel were again available. It calls
for as many as six solo voices and two solo instrumental parts with continuo, supplemented by
a full choral and instrumental ensemble. Many of these works are laid out as dramatically
conceived scenes," sometimes with a closing chorus of pious reflection or exhortation,
foreshadowing the design of the later church cantata.
One of the most dramatic scenes, the evocation of the conversion of St. Paul (Acts 6:1 -18;
Saul, was Verfolgst du mich, NAWM 87, Audio 020), brings to life the moment when Saul, a
Jew on the way to Damascus to round up Christian prisoners, is stopped by a blinding flash of
light and the voice of Christ calling to him: “Saul, why do you persecute me?" The experience
led to his conversion and to his new career as the Apostle Paul, spreading the Gospel. The
concerto is set for six solo voices (the ensemble Schütz called favoriti), two violins, two four-
voice choirs, and, we may assume, an orchestra that doubles the choral parts. Paired solo voices
rising from the depths of the basses through the tenors to the sopranos and violins represent the
flash of light and the voice leaping from the desert. Christ's question, “Why do you persecute
me?" is a mesh of dissonant anticipations and suspensions. Then the grand concerto takes over
as the choruses and soloists together reverberate with echoes, suggesting the effect of Christ's
voice bouncing off rocky peaks in the desert. This large-scale sacred concerto shows how well
Schütz assimilated the bold dissonance practices and coloristic techniques of Venetian
composers.
INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC
Instrumental music did not escape the spell of the recitative and aria styles (although these had
less impact than the basso continuo). The sonata for solo instruments, especially, surrendered
to vocal influences. The violin, which rose to prominence in the seventeenth century, tended
naturally to emulate solo singing, and it absorbed many vocal techniques.
Instrumental music in the first half of the seventeenth century gradually became the equal, both
in quantity and content, of vocal music. Certain basic compositional procedures resulted in five
broad categories of instrumental music-dance music, improvisatory compositions, contrapuntal
genres, canzona or sonata, and variations-which correspond to the emerging categories. While
these classifications are useful as an introduction to a complex field they are neither exhaustive
nor mutually exclusive. Various types overlap and intertwine.
 39

DANCE MUSIC
Dance music was important not only for its own sake but also because its rhythms permeated
vocal and instrumental music, both sacred and secular. The characteristic rhythm of the
sarabande and the lively movement of the gigue, for example, appear in many compositions
that are not called dances at all, and even in some vocal pieces.
Suites (videos 21 a, b, c, d, e)
The suite, as a composition in several movements rather than a mere succession of short pieces
each in a certain mood and rhythm, was a German phenomenon. The technique of thematic
variation-already established in the pavane-galliard, Tanz- Nachtanz, and passamezzo-
saltarello combinations of the sixteenth century-was now extended to all the dances of a suite.
This organic musical connection exists among dances in all the suites in Johann Hermann
Schein's Banchetto musicale (Musical Banquet, 1617). The movements finely correspond both
in key and invention,"Schein claimed in his foreword. Some of the suites build on one melodic
idea that recurs in varied form in every dance. In other suites, subtle melodic reminiscence
rather than outright variation provides the connection. The Banchetto contains twenty suites in
five parts, each suite having the sequence paduana (pavane), gagliarda, courante, and
allemande with a tripla (a variation in triple meter of the allemande). The music is dignified,
aristocratic, vigorously rhythmic, and melodically inventive, with that union of richness and
decorum, of Italianate charm and Teutonic gravity, so characteristic of this moment in
Germany.
French lute and keyboard music
Composers in France established a particular idiom for each of the individual dances through
their arrangements of actual ballet music. These arrangements were written not for an ensemble
but for a solo instrument- first the lute and later the clavecin (the French term for harpsichord)
or the viole (the French term for viola da gamba). Such a version for lute is La Poste (NAWM
105a, Audio 022a) by Ennemond Gaultier (1575-1651). Lute arrangements were sometimes
transcribed for the harpsichord, as in the gigue drawn from this piece (NAWM 105b, Audio
022b), in the process transferring ornan1ents and textures that are peculiar to the lute.
Influence of Lute technique
Since lutenists normally struck only one note at a time, it was necessary to sketch in the melody,
bass, and harmony by sounding the appropriate tones in succession-now in one register, now
in another-creating the illusion of a contrapuntal texture while relying on the hearer's
imagination to supply the continuity of the various lines. This technique, the style brisé (broken
style), was adapted by other French composers to the harpsichord. Lutenists also developed
systematically the use of little ornaments (agréments), either indicated on the page or left to the
discretion of the player. The French lute style was the basis for important developments in
keyboard music and, indeed, for the entire French style of composition in the late1600s and
early 1700s.
Denis Gaultier
Lute music flourished in France du ring the early seventeenth century, culminating in the work
of Denis Gaultier (1603-1672). A manuscript collection of Gaultier's compositions titled La
Rhétorique des dieux (The Rhetoric of the Gods) contains twelve sets (one in each mode) of
highly stylized dances. Each set includes an allemande, a courante, and a sarabande, with other
dances added apparently at random. Each suite is thus a little anthology of short character
pieces, many of which were given fanciful titles.
 40

The earliest important composer in the new keyboard idiom was Jacques Champion de
Chambonnieres (1601 or 1602 -1672), the first of a long and brilliant line of French clavecinists
that included Louis Couperin (1626-1661), Jean Henri d'Anglebert (1635-1691), Elisabeth-
Claude Jacquet de laGuerre, and François Couperin (concerning the last two composers).
Froberger
Johann Jakob Froberger (1616-1667), who established the allemande, courante, sarabande,
and gigue as standard components of dance suites, carried the French style to Germany. He
was also one of the first to imitate lute music on the harpsichord. The fusion of genre pieces
and dance rhythms in the mid-seventeenth- century keyboard suite is well illustrated in one of
Froberger's most famous compositions, a lament on the death of the Emperor Ferdinand III
in 1657 (Video 023), written in the meter and rhythm of a slow allemande. The style brisé
dominates the texture. Not only the rare key of F minor but also the prominent threefold F at
the end allude to the emperor's name. Another programmatic touch is the use of an arpeggio,
which stretches from deep in the bass to the high treble, representing the ascent of the emperor's
soul.
lMPROVlSATORY COMPOSlTlONS
Frescobaldi
The greatest keyboard composer of the day, and as near as there was to a keyboard counterpart
to Monteverdi, was Girolamo Frescobaldi. He was born in Ferrara in 1583 and spent his
working life in Rome apart from six years in Florence. From 1608 until his death in 1643 he
was organist of St Peter's. He had an unrivaled reputation: he was called a "giant among
organists", lauded for his skill and agility, and regarded as a model for performers and
composers alike.
Frescobaldi composed in all the main forms of his time: there are complex, elaborately worked
contrapuntal ricercares, canzonas (often in the form of increasingly brilliant variations), dances,
fantasies and capriccios, and toccatas. These last particularly represent the Baroque element of
rhetorical intensity, with their bold virtuoso ornamentation over a series of harmonies. Here we
see the Baroque love of dramatic effect, of the grandiose and the overwhelming. Unlike the
keyboard music of the previous generation, with its regular patterns, Frescobaldi's makes its
 41

effects with the unexpected, in harmony or in figuration, or in the complexity of his

counterpoint, which can dazzle and confuse the ear.
Much of Frescobaldi's music was published, and it exerted a long and deep influence. Bach, in
north Germany, was studying it almost a century later; and an English eighteenth-century
historian, Charles Burney, called Frescobaldi the father of modern organ style.
Frescobaldi's toccatas
The toccata had been established in the sixteenth century as a kind of warm-up" piece, full of
scalar and other florid passages that burst forth from the player's fingers at irregular intervals.
The toccatas of Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643), organist at St. Peter's in Rome from 1608
until his death, are unusual because they rest rain virtuosity in favor of quiet contemplation. In
contrast to the imposing grandeur and virtuosity of Merulo and other Venetians, Frescobaldi's
toccatas are often reserved, subjective, and mystical, with sustained harmonies and
extraordinary, original chord progressions.
Others of his keyboard toccatas are related to the Venetian type. Long series of loosely
connected sections with a great luxuriance of musical ideas allow for virtuosity, as in the third
toccata of Book One (1637; NAWM 104, Audio 024).
This toccata, like so many others by Frescobaldi, has a restless character. As the music
approaches a cadence on either the dominant or tonic, the goal is always evaded or weakened-
harmonically, rhythmically, or through continued voice-movement-until the very end.
According to the composer 's preface, the performer may play the various sections of these
toccatas separately and may end the piece at any appropriate cadence. Frescobaldi also
indicated that the tempo is not subject to a regular beat but may be modified according to the
sense of the music, especially by retarding at cadences.
Froberger’s toccatas
Froberger wrote more solidly constructed though less exuberant toccatas. His free
improvisatory passages provide a framework for systematically developed sections in the
contrapuntal style of the fantasia. Froberger's pieces were the model for the later merging of
toccata and fugue, as in the works of Buxtehude or their coupling, as in the paired toccatas and
fugues of Bach.

CONTRAPUNTAL OR FUGAI GENRES (IN CONTINUOUS OR

NONSECTIONAL IMITATIVE COUNTERPOINT)
The typical seventeenth - century ricercare, a brief, serious, contrapuntal Ricercare composition
for organ or keyboard, continuously develops one theme through imitation, as in Frescobaldi's
Ricercar dopo il Credo (after the Credo). This particular rice rcare is from his Fiori musicali
(Musical Flowers, 1635), a collection of organ pieces intended for use in the church service.
Frescobaldi's remarkably skillful handling of chromatic lines and subtly shifting harmonies and
dissonances characterizes much of his organ music, which conveys a quiet intensity (see
Example 9.8) Video 025.
 42

Fantasia
The keyboard fantasia is usually constructed on a larger scale than the simple ricercare and has
a more complex formal organization. The leading fantasia composers in this period were the
Amsterdam organist Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck and his German pupils Samuel Scheidt (1587-
1654) of Halle and Heinrich Scheidemann (ca. 1596-1663) of Hamburg. In Sweelinck's
fantasias (NAWM 103, Audio 026), a fugal exposition usually leads to successive sections
with different countersubjects and toccata -like figurations. Such pieces must have been
intended to set and explore a mode or key in preparation for some other music.
In general, the ricercare and fantasia were built on a theme or themes of sustained legato
character. The fantasia used borrowed themes and learned devices more frequently to develop
a continuously imitative counterpoint, thereby creating a series of fugues. Indeed, fuga was the
name used in Germany for pieces of this sort from the earliest years of the seventeenth century.
English consort music
Consort (ensemble) music for viols flourished in England beginning in the early decades of the
seventeenth century, when the works of Alfonso Ferrabosco the Younger (before 1578-1628)
and John Coprario (Cooper; d. 1626) were popular. The fancies of John Jenkins (1592-1678),
the leading composer of viol consort music in the mid -seventeenth century, exhibit a variety
of procedures, with and without continuo, some strictly contrapuntal and some less so.
The contrapuntal fantasia for strings without basso continuo, the leading form of early
seventeenth- century English chamber music, was cultivated even after the Restoration (166o).
The principal later composers were Matthew Locke (1621-1677) and Henry Purcell (1659-
1695), whose fantasias for viols, written about 1680, are the last important examples of the
species.
 43

CANZONA OR SONATA (SECTIONAL GENRES)

Canzona
In contrast to the contrapuntal genres, the canzona had livelier, more markedly rhythmic
melodic material, with emphasis on the division of the piece into sections, betraying its origins
in the French chanson. Composers approached the canzona in a variety of ways. One was to
build several contrasting sections, each on a different theme in fugal imitation (much like a
vocal chanson), rounding off the whole with a cadenza -like flourish. In an- other type, called
the variation canzona, the composer used transformations of a single theme in successive
sections, as in the keyboard canzona of Giovanni Maria Trabaci video 027 (ca. 1575-1647)
illustrated in Example 9·9· Some keyboard canzonas, however, and most ensemble canzonas
are a patchwork of short, thematically unrelated sections that might be repeated literally or in
varied form later in the work.
 44

Sonata
A later composer would probably have called Trabaci's canzona a sonata. This term, the vaguest
of all designations for instrumental pieces in the early 1600s, gradually came to mean a
composition that resembled a canzona in form but that also had special features. Early
seventeenth- century sonatas were often scored for one or two melody instruments, usually
violins, with a basso continuo, while the ensemble canzona was traditionally written in four
parts that could be played just as well without a continuo. Moreover, sonatas often took
advantage of the idiomatic possibilities offered by a particular instrument. They had a
somewhat free and expressive character, while the typical canzona displayed more of the
formal, abstract quality of instrumental polyphony in the Renaissance tradition.
In the seventeenth century, sonata came to refer to works for one or two instruments with basso
continuo. The solo writing was often idiomatic and expressive, as in solo vocal works.
Instrumental music gained importance dramatically and rapidly during the baroque period. One
of the main developments in instrumental music was the sonata, a composition in several
movements for one to eight instruments. (In later periods, the term sonata took on a more
restricted meaning.)
Composers often wrote trio sonatas, so called because they had three melodic lines: two high
ones and a basso continuo. Yet the word trio is misleading, because the "trio" sonata actually
involves four instrumentalists. There are two high instruments (commonly, violins, flutes, or
oboes) and two instruments for the basso continuo -a keyboard instrument (organ or
harpsichord) and a low instrument (cello or bassoon).
The sonata originated in Italy but spread to Germany, England, and France during the
seventeenth century. Sonatas were played in palaces, in homes, and even in churches before,
during, or after the service. Sometimes composers differentiated between the sonata da chiesa
(church sonata), which had a dignified character and was suitable for sacred performance, and
the sonata da camera (chamber sonata), which was more dancelike and was intended for court
performance.
Biagio Marini
The differences, as well as the similarities, will be most evident if we compare one of the earliest
sonatas for solo violin and continuo, by Biagio Marini (ca. 1587-1663), with the canzonas
described above. Marini's Sonata peril violino per sonar con due corde, Op. 8, published in
1629, is an early example of what may be called “instrumental monody." Like the canzona, it
has contrasting sections, the last of which is particularly canzona -like in spirit. The sonata
opens with a sentimental melody reminiscent of a Caccini solo madrigal, but it turns almost
immediately to violinistic sequential figures (see Example 9.10) Video 028. There are no literal
repetitions, although there- curring cadences on A and the alternation of rhapsodic with
regularly metrical sections give coherence to the piece. Most notable is the idiomatic violin
style, which makes use of sustained tones, runs, trills, double stops, and improvised
embellishments called affetti.
By the middle of the seventeenth century the canzona and the sonata had thoroughly merged,
and the term sonata came to stand for both. Sometimes the name was qualified, as sonata da
chiesa, since many such pieces were intended for use "in church." Sonatas used many different
combinations of instruments, a common medium being two violins with continuo. The texture
of two treble melodic parts, vocal or instrumental, above a basso continuo attracted composers
throughout the seventeenth century: instrumental combinations of this sort were usually called
trio sonatas.
45
 46

VARlATlONS
The variation principle permeated many of the instrumental ge nres of the seventeenth century,
and the theme-and -variations f orm itself, a favorite type of late- Renaissance keyboard
composition, unde rwent further devel- opment. Pieces using this method were called “Aria con
va riazioni," “Variationes super [or ‘on'] ... ," and “Diferencias" (Spanish f or “variations"). But
just as often, the term variation did not appear in the title. Composers of the early seventeenth
century often used the term partite (divisions or parts) for sets of variations; only later was it
applied to sets, or suites, of dances. Composers favored a number of techniques in such pieces,
and the most common we re the following:
• The melody could be rep eat ed with little or no change, although it might wander from one
voice to another amid different contrapuntal material in each variation. This type is also called
the cantus firrnus variation.
• The melody itself could receive different embellishment in each variation. Most often,
melodic variations occurred in the topmost voice, with the underlying harmonies remaining
essentially unchanged, as in the strophic arias of monody and early opera.
• The bass or the harmonic structure, rather than the melody, could supply the constant factor.
Often, as in the case of the romanesca, a treble tune or melodic outline is associated with the
bass, but it is usually obscured by figuration.
Frescobaldi’s Partite
The set of partite by Frescobaldi on the Aria di Ruggiero (Example 9.11a) represents an early
example of the third type. Like the romanesca, Ruggiero was an air or tune for singing ottave
rime, a verse scheme employed in epic poems. The bass and harmony of the air are clearly the
fixed elements in Frescobaldi's twelve partite, and only in the sixth parte, or variation, is the
melody at all prominent. Perhaps recalling the Ruggiero's original function as a poetic recitation
formula, Frescobaldi made the first variation very rhapsodic and free, like a recitative. The tenth
parte falls into a syncopated mode similar to that used later by Buxtehude and Bach in their
passacaglias (Example 9.11b). video 029 at mn. 8:26
 47

Chorale variations
An important class of organ compositions from middle and northern Germany comprised works
based on chorale melodies. These pieces were produced in large numbers and in a great variety
of forms after the middle of the seventeenth century, but examples already appear in the works
of Sweelinck and Scheidt. In 1624, Scheidt published a large collection of compositions for
the organ under the title Tabulatura nova. He called it new, because instead of the old -fashioned
German organ tablature, Scheidt adopted the modern Italian practice of writing out each voice
on a separate staff. Notable among the collection's chorale pieces are several sets of variations
on chorale tunes. There are also shorter organ settings of plainsong melodies, many variations
on secular songs, and several monumental fantasias. The works of Scheidt, and 'his influence
as a teacher, became the foundation of a remarkable development of North German organ music
in the Baroque era.
Scheidt Choral prelude
 48

POSTLUDE
During the period 1600-1750, called by music historians the Baroque era and dominated Largely by Italian
tastes and fashions, composers shared a pen- chant for dramatic expression; collectively, they devised
a music vocabulary that aimed at representing human passions and moving the affections, whether their
music was intended for theater, church, or private quarters. In the early Baroque (until approximately the
mid-seventeenth century} the musical style of Monteverdi and his contemporaries comprised diverse ele-
ments, some dating back to the sixteenth century, others new. Monody and madrigal were combined;
form was achieved via the organization of the bass and the harmonies it supported and through the
systematic introduction of ritornellos; and the typical basso-continuo texture-a florid treble supported by
a firm bass-was varied by the use of the concertato medium. By these means, composers enlarged and
enriched the representational and emotional resources of music.
 49

New types of composition-solo song, opera, oratorio, sacred vocal concerto, cantata-incorporated novel
styles of writing such as recitative and aria. Choral and instrumental textures also assimilated the new
dramatic aesthetic. Staying within the same basic categories that had emerged in the sixteenth century,
instrumental music not only expanded but also achieved independence from vocal music through the
exploitation of styles idiomatic to instruments such as the Lute, violin, and keyboard. By about midcentury,
the bel canto style of vocal writing, a creation of Italian composers, was imitated all over Europe and
influenced both vocal and instrumental music throughout the Baroque period and beyond.
 50

CHAPTER 2 OPERA AND VOCAL MUSIC IN THE LATE

SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
CHAPTER OBJECTIVES
After you complete the reading, study of the music, and study questions for this chapter, you
should be able to
1. describe developments in Italian opera in the second half of the seventeenth century and the
beginning of the eighteenth century;
2. trace the origins and development of musical theater in France, England, and Germany during
the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries and explain what makes each national tradition
distinctive;
3. describe the cantata and other secular vocal genres in the late seventeenth century;
4. describe the varieties of sacred music being composed in the late seventeenth and early
eighteenth centuries; and
5. define and use 1he most important terms and identify some of the composers and works
associated with opera and vocal music in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries.
PRELUDE
OPERA spread throughout Italy as well as to other countries during the second half of the
seventeenth century. The principal Italian center remained Venice, whose opera houses were
famous all over Europe. But Naples also became important, particularly in the transition to the
new, simpler style that emerged at the end of the century. Germany imported Venetian opera,
which then fused with native styles into a national German opera. France resisted Italian
influence and eventually developed its own operatic idiom- one that was Largely determined
by the court's penchant for ballet and the tastes of Louis XIV, who acquired his nickname /e
Roi Solei/ (the Sun-King) after dancing in a court ballet costumed as Apollo (see illustration.
The reception of opera in England, however, was different: there King Charles I was beheaded
in 1649 and during the ensuing Commonwealth period the puritanical climate was hardly
friendly to the cultivation of such an extravagant art form. Even after the restoration of the
English king in1660, the monarchy was too weak and its treasury too depleted to support opera
on the grand scale of the French or the Italians.
VOCAL MUSIC FOR CHAMBER AND CHURCH also flourished during this period. The
Italian chamber cantata, the Lutheran church cantata, the or- atorio, and Passion settings were
all influenced by the Language of opera- especially recitative and aria-and by its musical
vocabulary of the affections. Older types of church music, however, such as Mass and motet,
persisted in the more conservative i dioms of stile antico counterpoint and the concerted,
sometimes polychoral styles of the early Baroque.
OPERA
VEN1CE
Singers
Venetian theaters continued to vie with one another in luring audiences to their opera
productions. More than the drama or spectacle, it was the singers and arias attracting the public.
Impresarios competed for the most popular singers, who sometimes earned more than twice as
much as com- posers, by paying high fees. The famous Anna Renzi inaugurated the vogue of
the operatic diva when she created the role of the spurned empress Ottavia in Monteverdi's
Poppea, and composers wrote parts expressly for her special talents.
 51

Aria types
The singers' vehicle was the aria. While it was common in midcentury for an opera to include
twenty-four arias, sixty became the norm by the 1670s. The favorite form was the strophic song,
in which several stanzas were performed to the same music. Other favorites were short two-
part arias in AB form and three-part arias in ABB' and ABA or ABA' forms.
Many had refrains. Typical arias used characteristic rhythms from the march, gigue, sarabande,
or minuet. Others relied on ostinato basses, perhaps in combination with dance rhythms.
Musical motives in both the vocal part and the accompaniment reflected the content of the text.
For example, a composer might imitate trumpet figures to portray martial or aggressive moods.
Germany as well as other Italian cities imported Venetian opera. Among the many Italian
composers who brought Italian opera to the eagerly receptive German courts were Carlo
Pallavicino (1630-1688) and Agostino Steffani (1654-1728). Steffani, one of the best Italian
opera composers of his time, created works that are important both in themselves and for their
decisive influence on eighteenth- century composers, especially Handel. Listen to Enrico detto
il Leone opera.
Steffani's aria Un balen d 'incerta speme (A flash of uncertain hope) from the opera Enrico
detto il Leone (Henry the Lion; Hanover, 1689) illustrates his early style. The dimensions of
the aria, in ABA form, are modest. The coloratura passages, which are prominent though not
excessive, occur on the pictorial words balen (flash) and raggio (ray), while the passage on
dolor (pain) expresses the word in typical fashion with chromatic melody and harmonic cross-
relations. Two features of this aria occur often in other examples from the period: (1) a motto
beginning, in which the voice announces a short musical subject developed later in the aria, but
which continues only after an instrumental interruption; and (2) a walking- bass
accompaniment.
NAPLES
Italian opera in the late seventeenth century tended toward stylized musi- cal language and
simple textures concentrating on the melodic line of the solo voice supported by ingratiating
harmonies. This led to greater concern with musical elegance and effect than with dramatic
force and truth. Devel- oped principally in Naples, this new style dominated the eighteenth
century.
Alessandro Scarlatti
One of the most prolific composers of the era was Alessandro Scarlatti. Born in Palermo in
166o, he went to Rome as a boy and may have studied briefly with Carissimi; he was not yet
20 when his first opera was given there. He held a post as director of music to the exiled
Swedish Queen Christina and had connections with several of the leading musical patrons in
the city. In 1684 he moved (possibly because of a family scandal) to Naples, where he became
maestro di cappella to the viceroy; he remained there for 18 years, composing operas at a
phenomenal pace - he claimed that an opera of 1705 was his 88th stage work (only about half
that number are known) - and was busy too writing cantatas, oratorios and other pieces.
Dissatisfied with Naples, where the demands of his position were heavy, he left in 1702,
spending some time at Rome and Venice; but he returned in 1708, and apart from a further spell
in Rome stayed in Naples until his death in 1725.
His operas often began with an overture in three sections: quick - slow - quick. This plan
became known as the Italian overture and is important in that it was the seed from which the
Classical symphony was to grow later on.
Scarlatti wrote some 6oo cantatas, mostly for solo voice and continuo. The totally free,
monody-style setting of the time of Caccini and his followers had now passed; Scarlatti and his
 52

contemporaries used a more organized design, usually alternating recitative and aria, on some
such pattern as R-A-R-A, A-R-A-R-A or R-A-R-A-R-A, and often there would also be a section
in arioso style - that is, something between recitative and lyrical aria, suitable to accommodate
the expression of strong emotion. Most cantatas dealt with the unrequited love of a shepherd
for a shepherdess (or vice-versa), so that the music would express such feelings as love and
yearning, jealousy and forgiveness.
The move towards more regular patterns is even more marked in operas of the time. In an early
Scarlatti opera there may be as many as 6o arias, all quite brief, with recitative in between and
occasional ensemble items (usually at the ends of acts). Some of the arias are in a simple A-B
form, or sometimes A-B-B' (B' being B slightly modified); but these increasingly gave way to
the A-B-A design which by the 16gos was standard. Scarlatti designed the arias in his operas
in da capo form - that is, in ternary form (ABA) but with only the first two sections written out.
At the end of section B, the composer wrote da capo (or simply D.C.) meaning `from the
beginning'. In repeating the first section (A) the singer was expected to add his or her own vocal
decorations to the printed melody.
This pattern allowed for longer arias, better developed and so better able to convey serious
emotion; it also permitted the virtuoso singer, who was becoming increasingly important as
opera was heard more often and in more cities, to show his abilities in the repeat of the A section
by adding expressive embellishment. As the individual arias increased in length, so the number
of them in an opera decreased.

Alessandro Scarlatti Works

born Palermo, 1660; died Naples, 1725
Operas (c50 surviving) La Teodora augusta (1692), LI Mitridate Eupatore (1707)
Sacred choral music c35 oratorios, c85 motets, Masses
Secular vocal music c600 cantatas for voice and continuo, madrigals
Instrumental music Keyboard music

The trends that we find in Scarlatti's operas can be seen in the works of other composers.
Scarlatti, however, was the most gifted of his time, with a particularly graceful vein of melody
and sensitivity to words; and pathetic emotion always drew from him an expressively shaded
line. He was important in the development of the opera overture, which in Monteverdi's day
had been little more than a short, arresting piece but which now grew into something more
substantial. By the 16gos it normally consisted of three short movements, fast-slow-fast; this
was eventually to lead to the symphony of the Classical period.
Scarlatti is often counted as founder of the "Neapolitan School", the group of opera composers
in Naples who dominated the development of opera in the early part of the eighteenth century.
Almost all his operas are serious; the best-known writer of comic opera was Giovanni Battista
Pergolesi (1710-36), famous above all for La serva padrona (1733), a spirited piece with a
charm and sentiment typical of the Neapolitans and looking ahead to the next, early Classical
generation.
Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725) made the transition from the older A. Scarlatti seventeenth-
century opera to this newer, Neapolitan style just described. In many of his later works, notably
Griselda (Rome, 1721), Scarlatti's shrewdly dramatic conception of the arias and his detailed
attention to the orchestral parts demonstrated his commitment to the genre.
 53

Kinds of recitative
Scarlatti and other composers carefully fashioned their recitatives so that the harmonic
progressions reflected the quick changes of feeling and ideas in the text. Two distinct kinds of
recitative emerged. One type, accompanied by a basso continuo, presented stretches of dialogue
or monologue in as speechlike a manner as possible. It would later be called recitativo semplice
(simple recitative) and eventually recitativo secco (dry recitative). The other type, accompanied
by an orchestra, was used for tense dramatic situations. The orchestra reinforced the rapidly
changing emotions in the dialogue and punctuated the singer's phrases with brief instrumental
outbursts. This was called recitativo obbligato (because the instruments were obliged" to play)
and later recitativo accompagnato or stromentato. Meanwhile, a further category of sung
monody evolved: the recitativo arioso (aria- like recitative) or arioso, which occupied a place
somewhere between the free recitative and the rhythmically regular aria.
Da capo aria
The form that eventually reigned supreme in the early eighteenth century was the da capo aria.
Its name comes from Da capo" (from the head), words inserted at the close of the second section
of a two- section form; these words instruct the performers to return to the beginning (the head")
of the aria and repeat the first section. The da capo aria was the perfect vehicle for sustaining a
lyrical mood through a musical design that expressed a single sentiment, sometimes joined with
an opposing or related one. Scarlatti's Mi rivedi, O selva ombrosa (You see me again, O shady
forest, NAWM 79, Audio 031), the aria that opens Act II of Griselda, exemplifies the use of
the da capo, aria to bring out conflicting reactions. A queen for fifteen years, Griselda has been
repudiated by her husband the king and must return to her humble origins. The melody of the
first line, out of which the rest of the main A section develops through extension, sequence, and
combinatorial methods, captures Griselda's feelings of subjection (Example I0. a). The
subordinate B section, linked to the A section rhythmically, presents the bright side for a
moment- her pleasure at being home (Example I0. b). Having completed the B section, the
singer follows the direction Dal segno," to return to the segno or sign placed above her first
entrance, skipping the opening ritor- nello. This results in an abbreviated da capo form, as
follows:

The A section, inC minor, occupies eighteen measures; the B section, eight measures in length,
modulates from the C-minor cadence at the end of A to E. Then the A section follows
immediately, in C minor, closing the aria on the fermata at the end (fine) of the transitional
ritornello.
 54

France
By around 1700, Italian opera was flourishing in every corner of western Europe except France.
Although the French long resisted Italian opera, they finally established a national French opera
in the 1670s, under the august patronage of Louis XIV, with special features that per- sisted for
a century. Two powerful traditions influenced French opera: the sumptuous and colorful ballet,
whi.ch had flourished at the royal court ever since the late sixteenth century; and the classical
French tragedy, represented best by the works of Pierre Corneille (1606-1684) and Jean Racine
(1639-1699). France's literary and theatrical culture insisted that poetry and drama be given
priority on the stage. The king's love of, and participa- tion in, the art of dancing ensured that
the ballet also continued to have a prominent place in French opera. The composer who
succeeded in reconciling the demands of drama, music, and ballet was Jean- Baptiste Lully. His
new amalgam, tragedie en musique, was later renamed tragédie lyrique.
Lully
Giovanni Battista Lulli was the son of a Florentine miller; he went to Paris in 1646, when he
was not yet 14, as Jean-Baptiste Lully, working as a boy attendant to a noblewoman at court.
He became a skilled violinist, guitarist, harpsichordist and dancer, and it was in that last
 55

capacity that he met the young king, Louis XIV. His fame grew rapidly and he advanced from
one post to another - royal composer of instrumental music (1653), director of the small royal
orchestra (by 1656: he made them into a high-precision group), ballet composer (by 1657), joint
superintendent of music and chamber composer (1661), music master to the royal family
(1662). Ten years later he had consolidated his position by obtaining the sole rights over all
dramatic performances with singing. His musical absolutism was on a par with the king's
political absolutism.
Lully attained this position more by clever manipulation than by musical skills. But he did
create a new French dramatic musical style. He wrote mainly ballets at first, including songs
that embody an adaptation of Italian affective recitative to the French language - which lacks
the accentuation system of Italian (and most other languages) and thus falls less naturally into
regular metric patterns. Lully's recitative is constantly changing in meter. In the late 1660s and
early 167os he wrote mainly ballet comedies, working with the well-known dramatist Molière;
from then on, up to his death in 1687 (he died from blood poisoning after striking a toe with
the stick he used for directing performances), he concentrated on classical tragedies, working
with such distinguished dramatists as Quinault and Corneille. In all these works the music
seems, compared with its Italian counterpart, constrained by the rhythms of the language and
its vowel sounds (which give little scope for florid singing). But there are also dance scenes
and choruses, and the acts generally end with a divertissement, a decorative scene often only
marginally relevant to the main action. Possibly Lully tailored the new French operatic form as
much to his own abilities, or their limitations, as to the French taste; but it worked, and the
traditions he laid down lasted long after his death and continued to influence the patterns of
French opera for two hundred years or more.

Jean-Baptiste Lully Works

born Florence, 1632; died Paris, 1687
Operas (16) Cadmus et Hermione (1673), Alcesté (1674),'Armide (1686) Comedy ballets (14)
L'amour médecin (1665), Le bourgeois gentilhomme (1670)
Sacred choral music Te Deum; motets

Ballets and dance music

Lully held no official appointment in the royal chapel, but he wrote a certain amount of sacred
music, especially motets of a ceremonial kind which seem to praise the magnificence of Louis
XIV (whose supposed virtues were hinted at in the heroes of his operas) just as much as that of
God. The chief church composers of Lully's time and the years following were Marc-Antoine
Charpentier (c1648-1704), who studied in Italy, brought the dramatic oratorio style to France,
and composed numerous Masses, motets and other church works that show his rich command
of harmony; and Michel Richard de Lalande (1657-1726), who held various appointments in
the royal chapel and as court chamber composer and wrote more than 70 large-scale motets, for
performance at Versailles, which were long admired for their grace and their "nobility of
expression".
Quinault
Lully's librettist, the esteemed playwright Jean-Philippe Quinault, provided the composer with
mythological plots adorned by frequent long interludes (called divertissements) of dancing and
choral singing. Quinault's texts cleverly combined adulation of the king, glorification of the
French nation, and moral lessons with episodes of romance and adventure. For these librettos
Lully composed music that was appropriately pompous or gracious and that projected the
 56

highly formal splendor of the French royal court, still given to admiring the conventions of
courtly love and knightly conduct. The public found Lully's spectacular choruses and lively
ballet scenes especially appealing. Dances from Lully's stage works became so popular that
they were arranged as independent instrumental suites; many new suites also appeared in
imitation of Lully's divertissements.
Lully’s recitative
Lully adopted the style of Italian recitative to the French language and French poetry-no simple
task, since neither the rapid recitativo secco nor the quasi -melodic arioso of Italian opera suited
the rhythms and accents of the French language. It is said that Lully arrived at his solution by
listening to celebrated French actors and actresses and closely imitating their decla- mation.
Certainly the timing, pauses, and inflections of his recitatives re- semble stage speech, but the
rhythmic bass and the often tuneful melody hampered Lully's ability to create the same illusion
of speech that Italian recitative achieved.
Récitatif simple et mesuré
In what would later be called recitatif simple, Lully shifted the meter between duple and triple
to accommodate the accented syllables of the characters' dialogue. This recitative was
frequently interrupted by a more songlike, uniformly measured style, recitatif mesure, whose
accompaniment has more deliberate motion. Discrete sections of recitatif mesure are some-
times marked “Air" in the scores, but they lack the closed form or the rhyme schemes of a true
air, which usually has the meter and form of a dance. Armide's monologue in Armide (1686;
Music: NAWM 75b, Audio 032) illustrates this mixture of styles. The scene begins in recitatif
simple, with its shifting meter, and culminates with an air in minuet meter. At first, Armide,
dagger in hand, stands over her captive warrior, the sleeping Renaud, but because of her deep
love for him, she cannot bring herself to kill him (Example 10.3). She sings in an unmetrical
rhythm, punctuated by rests that not only com- plete each line but are also used dramatically,
as in the passage where Armide hesitates between uncertainty and resolve (measures 36-42).
 57

Ouverture
Even before he composed operas, Lully had established a two – part ouverture-the “French
overture"-for the ballets. Typically, the first section is homophonic, slow, and majestic, marked
by persistent dotted rhythms and anacrustic (upbeat) figures rushing toward the downbeats. The
second section begins with a flurry of fugal imitation and is comparatively fast- moving without
sacrificing its grave and serious character. The slow section, or one like it, sometimes returns
at the end. Throughout the remainder of the Baroque era, composers used ouvertures to
introduce ballets, operas, oratorios, and instrumental works such as suites, sonatas, and
concertos. Originally intended to create a festive atmosphere for the ballet or opera that
followed, and to welcome the king to a dance or performance, ouvertures also appeared as
independent pieces. The overture to Armide (Music: NAWM 75a, Audio 033) typifies the
genre.
Orchestra
Lully's influence extended beyond the arena of opera and ballet. Else – Orchestra where in
France and in Germany, composers and musicians admired and imitated the discipline with
which he directed his orchestra and his meth- ods of scoring. Lully himself conducted by
beating time on the floor with a long cane. The core of Lully's twenty-four-piece string
orchestra, the vingt - quatre violons du roy, contained six soprano violins, tuned like the modern
violin; nvelve alto and tenor violins of various sizes, tuned like the modern viola but playing
three separate parts; and six bass violins, tuned like the modern cello but a tone lower. This
rich, five-part texture was augmented by woodwinds, which both supported the strings and
played contrasting passages, often for a trio of solo wind instruments (usually nvo oboes and
bassoon).
ENGLAND
Masque
Opera in England-or what was known there as opera-had a short career during the second half
of the seventeenth century. The masque, an aristocratic entertainment similar to the French
court ballet, had flourished in England for years. Best known is Milton's Comus, produced in
1634 with music by Henry Lawes (1596-1662), consisting of dances and other instru- mental
pieces, songs of various types, recitatives, and choruses.
Meanwhile, English opera had a modest beginning under the Common-wealth (1649-60),
although the English composers and public did notes- pecially like the genre. Stage plays were
prohibited, but a play set to music could be called a “concert," thereby avoiding the ban.
Although this pretext was no longer necessary during the Restoration (1660-85), the trend
continued: nearly all the English ff semi- operas" of the seventeenth century were actually plays
with a large number of vocal solos and ensembles, cho- ruses, and instrumental music. The only
 58

important exceptions were John Blow’s Venus and Adonis (1684 or 1685) and Henry Purcell's
Dido and Aeneas (1689), both of which were sung throughout.
Purcell
Henry Purcell (about 1659-1695), called the greatest of English composers, was born in London
to a musician in the king's service. At about the age of ten, Purcell became a choirboy in the
Chapel Royal, and by his late teens his extraordinary talents were winning him important
musical positions. In 1677, at about eighteen, he became composer to the king's string orchestra;
two years later he was appointed organist of Westminster Abbey; and in 1682, he became an
organist of the Chapel Royal. During the last few years of his short life, Purcell was also active
composing music for plays.
Acclaimed as the English composer of his day, Purcell, who died at 36, was buried beneath the
organ in Westminster Abbey. He was the last native English composer of international rank
until the twentieth century. Purcell mastered all the musical forms of late seventeenth-century
England. He wrote church music, secular choral music, music for small groups of instruments,
songs, and music for the stage. His only true opera is Dido and Aeneas (1689), which many
consider the finest ever written to an English text. His other dramatic works are spoken plays
with musical numbers in the form of overtures, songs, choruses, and dances.
Few composers have equaled Purcell's handling of the English language. His vocal music is
faithful to English inflection and brings out the meaning of the text. Purcell developed a
melodious recitative that seems to grow out of the English language. His music is filled with
lively rhythms and a fresh melodic style that captures the spirit of English folk songs. He treated
the chorus with great variety and was able to obtain striking effects through both simple
homophonic textures and complex polyphony. His music is spiced with dissonances that
seemed harsh to the generation of musicians that followed him. Some of Purcell's finest songs
use a variation form found in many baroque works -a ground bass
Dido and Aeneas
Purcell composed his opera Dido and Aeneas for a girls' boarding school at Chelsea. The
libretto by Nahum Tate, although crude as poetry, drama- tized the familiar story from Vergil's
Aeneid in a way that proved effective for musical setting. Purcell's score remains a masterpiece
of opera in miniature: there are only four principal roles; the orchestra consists of strings and
continuo; and the three acts, including dances and choruses, take only about an hour to perform.
Purcell's style incorporated both the achievements of earlier English theater music and its
Continental influ- ences. The French overture and the homophonic choruses in dance rhythms
resemble Lully's choruses, as in Fear no danger to ensue, with its minuet rhythms alternating
iambs (∪ -) and trochees (- ∪).
Thoroughly English, however, is Purcell's inimitable tune Pursue thy conquest. Love from Dido
as well as the melody from the chorus Come away fellow sailors, with its fascinating phrasing
of 3 + 5, 4 + 4 + 4, and 4 + 5 measures. The choruses, which freely alternate with the solos, are
an im - portant part of the work. The recitatives approach neither the rapid chatter of the Italian
recitativo secco nor the stylized rhythms of French operatic recitative, but display supple
melodies cleverly molded to the accents, pace, and emotions of the English text.
The most Italianate parts of the work are the arias, three of which proceed over a different basso
ostinat, or ground bass; the last of these - and one of the most moving in all opera-is Dido's
lament When I am laid in earth (NAWM 77, Audio 034). It is preceded by a recitative that
does more than serve as a vehicle for the text: by its slow, stepwise descent of a seventh, the
recitative portrays the deathly mood that overcomes Dido as she contemplates suicide. The
lament itself follows the Italian tradition of setting such songs over a ground bass, which creates
 59

a sense of utter despair through its relentless repetition. The bass grows out of the descending
tetrachord, or fourth, common in such pieces, but it is extended by a two-measure cadence
formula, adding up to a five-measure pattern repeated nine times. Purcell creates great tension
and forward thrust by reattacking suspended notes on the strong beat, intensifying the
dissonance.
The closing chorus, with drooping wings (NAWM 77, Audio 034), was certainly suggested to
Purcell by the final chorus of Blow's Venus and Adonis. Equally perfect in workmanship, it
projects a larger scale and conveys a more profound depth of sorrow. Descending minor-scale
figures portray the cupids “drooping wings," and arresting pauses mark the words never part."
Unfortunately for English music, no composer in the next two centuries would develop and
maintain a national tradition in the face of Italian opera's popularity. Instead, English audiences
lavished their enthusiasm on productions of Italian, French, or German composers.
The libretto of Dido and Aeneas, by Nahum Tate, was inspired by the Aeneid, the epic poem
by the Roman poet Virgil (70-19 B. c.). The opera's main characters are Dido, queen of
Carthage; and Aeneas, king of the defeated Trojans. After the destruction of his native Troy,
Aeneas has been ordered by the gods to seek a site for the building of a new city. He sets out
on the search with twenty-one ships. After landing at Carthage, a north African seaport, Aeneas
falls in love with Dido. A sorceress and two witches see this as an opportunity to plot Dido's
downfall. (In Purcell's time, people really believed in witches: nineteen "witches" were hanged
in Massachusetts in 1692, three years after Dido's first performance.) A false messenger tells
Aeneas that the gods command him to leave Carthage immediately and renew his search.
Aeneas agrees but is desolate at the thought of deserting Dido. In the last act, which takes place
at the harbor, Aeneas's sailors sing and dance before leaving, and the witches look on in glee.
An emotional scene follows between Aeneas and Dido, who enters with her friend Belinda.
Dido calls Aeneas a hypocrite and refuses his offer to stay. After he sails, Dido sings a noble,
deeply tragic lament and kills herself. The opera concludes with the mourning of the chorus.
Act III: Dido's Lament
A melodic recitative accompanied only by the basso continuo sets the sorrowful mood for
Dido's Lament, the climax of the opera. This aria is built upon a chromatically descending
ground bass that is stated eleven times. (Such chromatic ground basses were commonly used
to show grief in the baroque period.) Dido’s melody moves freely above this repeated bass line,
creating touching dissonances with it.
 60

Dido's repeated
Remember me reaches
the highest note of the
aria and haunts the
listener. The
emotional tension is
sustained in the
orchestral conclusion,
where a chromatically
descending violin
melody movingly
expresses the tragedy
of Dido's fate.

Thy hand, Belinda, darkness shades me, Recitative, descending melody, basso continuo
accompanies.
On thy bosom let me rest;
More I would but Death invades me;
Death is now à welcome guest.
Dido's Lament (aria), love strings introduce
chromatically descending ground bass.
When I am laid, am laid in earth, Upper strings join accompaniment.
may my wrongs create
No trouble, no trouble in thy breast.
Remember me! But ah! forget my fate.
Orchestral conclusion, violin melody descends
chromatically.
Purcell was a highly original composer too. His command of melody was exceptional for its
freedom, its readiness to take its rhythm and shape from the sound and sense of the words he
was setting; harmonically, he was unusually enterprising, with free treatment of dissonance
especially to underline a crucial word.
Among, his earliest works are a group of pieces that he called "fantasias" - music for string
instruments, probably viols, and belonging to a particularly English tradition. Composed
around 1680, they are probably the last such works; the generation of Byrd and Gibbons had
worked in this form, and John Jenkins (1592-1678) and especially the eccentric Matthew Locke
(c1622-1677) had brought it up to Purcell's time. The style of Purcell's fantasias is essentially
that of the Renaissance polyphonists, but made much more instrumental and with bolder
rhythms and harmonies, as ex. VI-7a shows. The changes of key, and the melodic intervals,
would have been impossible to a composer of even half a century earlier; and the expressive
manner, with contrasts of speed allowing for vivacious music to be set against music that is
clearly grave in mood (sometimes with chromatic inflections of a kind associated with mournful
feeling), is clearly of a later age. Purcell's other important ensemble works are his trio sonatas.
He published 12 of these in 1683, for the more modern combination of two violins, bass viol
and harpsichord or organ; a further set was issued by his widow after his death. Purcell said
that he composed them "in imitation of the most famed Italian masters", and although some
 61

passages are very like those in the fantasias many others use a more brilliant and up-to-date
violin style and the general feeling of the music is more harmonic or "vertical".

Henry Purcell Works

Opera Dido and Aeneas (1689)
Other music for the stage 5 semi-operas- King Arthur (1691), The Fairy Queen (1692), The
Indian Queen (1695); incidental music and songs for plays
Secular choral music court odes- Come, ye sons of art, away (for Mary 11's birthday, 1694);
odes for St Cecilia's Day- Hail, bright Cecilia (1692); welcome songs - Sound the trumpet (for
James 11, 1687)
Sacred choral music c55 verse anthems, cl 6 full anthems; Te Deum and Jubilate (1694);
services
Instrumental music fantasias for strings - Fantasia upon One Note (cl 680), 9 fantasias (1680);
Sonatas in 3 Parts (1683); Sonates in 4 Parts (1697); March and Canzona for 4 slide trumpets
(for Mary 11's funeral, 1695); overture, In Nomines
Keyboard music suites, marches, grounds, hornpipes, dances for harpsichord
Songs Vocal duets
 62

In the field of sacred music, Purcell was working in a long and conservative tradition. His
anthems (he wrote about 65) are mostly in the verse anthem form, and the most characteristic
are those that also call for orchestra (the Chapel Royal had a string group from 1662 to 1688).
Here Purcell tends towards the Italian concertante style. The individuality of his contribution
lies mainly in the rhythmic life and harmonic boldness of his finest examples, and in the way
in which he widened the expressive resources of English church music by using the same kinds
of device as in theatrical works. The opening of the anthem Plung'd in the confines of despair,
for example, shows chromatic lines and harmonies expressing the despair of the lost soul (ex.
VI.8).
 63

GERMANY
Despite the taste for Italian opera at seventeenth -century German courts, a few cities supported
companies that performed operas by native Germans. The German version of opera was the
Singspiel C sing-play") , a play that in- terspersed songs with spoken dialogue. When German
composers replaced the spoken dialogue with recitative, they adopted the Italian recitative style
almost without alteration. The most important center of German opera was the northern free
city of Hamburg, where the first public opera house outside Venice opened in 1678, and closed
its doors in 1738.
Reinhard Keiser
During those sixty years, a national opera emerged whose leading and most prolific
representative was Reinhard Keiser (1674-1739). At their best, Keiser's operas bring R. Keiser
together Italian and German qualities. The subject matter and general pla n of the librettos
follow those of Venetian opera, and the virtuoso arias even surpass their Italian counterparts in
vigor and brilliance. The slower melodies, though lacking the suave flow of the Italian bel
canto, can be pro- f oundly expressive, and the harmonies are well organized in broad, clear
structures. Keiser wrote more than a hundred works for the Hamburg stage between 1696 and
1734.
VOCAL MUSIC FOR CHAMBER AND CHURCH
Italian Cantata
The Italian cantata evolved from the early seventeenth-century monodic strophic variations and
developed into a genre with many short, contrasting sections. By the second half of the century,
it had settled into a clearly defined pattern of alternating recitatives and arias-normally two or
three of each-for solo voice with continuo accompaniment. The text, usually about love, took
the form of a dramatic narrative or soliloquy. The work might be ten to fifteen minutes long.
So, in both its literary and musical aspects, the cantata resembled a scene detached from an
opera, although its poetry and music were on a more intimate scale. In addition, because
composers designed the cantata for performance before a small, discriminating audience in a
room without a stage, scenery, or costumes, it attained an elegance and refinement that would
have been lost in an opera house. Finally, the cantata offered a better opportunity to experiment
than opera did, and many Italian composers produced quantities of cantatas, notably Carissimi,
Luigi Rossi, Cesti, Alessandro Stradella (1644-1682), and Alessandro Scarlatti.
 64

A. Scarlatti
The more than six hundred cantatas of Alessandro Scarlatti mark a high
point in this repertory; his Lascia, deh lascia (Cease, O cease) is typical of the genre. It begins
with a short arioso section (Example 10.4a). The recitative that follows (Example 10.4b)
exemplifies Scarlatti's mature style in its wide harmonic range-there is a noteworthy modulation
to the remote key of Eminor at the words rr inganni mortali" (mortal deceptions). The next
movement, a full da capo aria (Example 10.4c) with long, supple melodic phrases over a bass
in stately eighth- note rhythm, displays unusual harmonic progressions and chromatics
underscoring the word rrtormentar." In many of Scarlatti's modulations, the unprepared
diminished- seventh chord-rare for the time-serves as a pivot chord. Scarlatti sometimes
exploited the enharmonic ambiguity of the diminished -seventh chord, but more often he used
it to add bite to a cadence. Numerous instances of this chord, in both melodic and harmonic
form, occur in the brief passage re- produced in Example 10.4c.
 65

England
In England, the songs of Henry Purcell and John Blow owed little to foreign models. In addition
to many theater songs, Purcell wrote a large number of vocal solos, duets, and trios, many of
which appeared in Orpheus Britannicus (Vol. 1, 1698). John Blow issued a similar collection
of songs under the title Amphion Anglicus (1700). A specialty of English composers in this
period was the catch, a round or canon with often humorous, ribald texts that were sung
unaccompanied by a convivial group.
The restoration of the English monarchy in 1660 encouraged the creation of large works for
chorus, soloists, and orchestra for ceremonial or state occasions such as royal birthdays, the
king's return to London, or holidays. Purcell's magnificent Ode for St. Cecilia' s Day (169) was
a direct ancestor of Handel's English oratorios.
Church Music
A mixture of old and new styles characterized Catholic church music throughout the Baroque
era. Bologna and its basilica of San Petronio con- tinued as a thriving center of church music
in both the old and concerted forms. In the Catholic centers of southern Germany-Munich,
Salzburg, and especially Vienna, the seat of the imperial chapel-modern church music united
Italian and German characteristics. The style of Masses and motets by composers such as
Maurizio Cazzati (ca. 1620-1677) and Antonio Caldara (1670-1736) varied from one extreme
to another-from the sober, a cappella, stile antico, emulating Palestrina-style counterpoint, to
the most modern succession of operatic-style arias, duets, and choruses, all with orchestral
ritornellos.
Oratorio
Although oratorios were still performed in churches, they were also presented in the palaces of
princes and cardinals, in the academies, and in other insti utions as a substitute for opera during
Lent or other special sea- sons when the theaters were closed. Most oratorios came in two parts,
usually divided by a sermon or, in private entertainments, by an intermission with refreshments.
 66

Whether or not on a biblical subject, the oratorio had a verse libretto and so followed the
conventions of opera rather than of liturgical music.
French church music
Like French opera, church music in France deviated from the patterns
of Italian and southern German music. Carissimi's disciple Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1634-
1704) introduced the Latin oratorio into France, com- bining Italian and French recitative and
air styles. He usually assigned a pro1ninent role to the chorus, often a double chorus, in his
thirty-four works in this genre. Charpentier loved dramatic contrasts, and his music brought
details of the text to life.
Motet
Motets on biblical texts were principally cultivated in the royal chapel of Louis XIV, where
composers produced a large number of motets for solo voices with continuo, much in the style
of the currently fashionable secular cantata. They also created more elaborate motets and
similar works for soloists, double choruses, and full orchestra. These larger pieces were called
grands motets because the forces assembled to perform them were tn1ly grand. Louis XIV's
favorite composer of sacred music was Michel- Richard de Lalande (1657-1726), whose more
than seventy motets reveal a masterful command of the grand motet style: syllabic recits,
sweeping homophonic choruses, double fugues, and florid opera-like airs and duets. Their rich
harmony-spiced, when expression demanded, with dissonances-had surprising contrasts of
texture and mood.

ANDRE MAUGARS ON THE ITALIAN ORATORIO 1639

There is another kind of music that i s n ot used at all i n France and for that reason merits separate
treatment. It is called recitative style. The best that I have heard was in the Oratory of San Marcello, where
there is a Congregation of the Brothers of the Holy Crucifix, made up of the grandest Lords of Rome, who
consequently have the power to assemble all the rarest resources that Italy produces. In fact, the most
excellent musicians compete to appear, and the most consummate composers covet the honor of having
their compositions heard there and strive to exhibit all the Learning that they possess.
They do this admirable and ravishing music only on Fridays of Lent, from three to six. The church is not
as big as the Sainte-Chapelle of Paris. At its end there is a spacious jube [a gallery between the nave
and the choir] with a modest organ that is very sweet and suits voices very well. On the sides of the
church there are two other little galleries, in which some of the most excellent instrumentalists were
placed. The voices would begin with a psalm in the form of a motet, and then all the instruments would
play a very good symphony. The voices would then sing a story from the Old Testament in the form of a
spiritual play, for example that of Susanna, of Judith and Holofernes, or of David and Goliath. Each singer
represented one person in the story and expressed the force of the words perfectly. Then one of the most
famous preachers made the exhortation. When this was done, the choir recited the Gospel of the day,
such as the history of the good Samaritan, of Canaan, of Lazarus, or of Magdalen, and the Passion of
our Lord, the singers imitating perfectly well the different characters that the evangelist spoke about. I
cannot praise this recitative music enough; you have to hear it on the spot to judge its merits.
-Maugars, Response faite a un curieux sur le sentiment de Ia musique d'italie, escrite a Rome le premier
octobre /639, ed. Ernest Thoinan (pseud. for Antoine Ernest Roquet) in Maugars, sa biographie (Paris:
A. Claudin, 1865; facs. London: H. Baro n, 1965), p. 29.

F. Couperin
The most important and most gifted French composer during the first three decades of the
eighteenth century was François Couperin. He was born in Paris in 1668, into a family of
 67

organists and harpsichordists; his uncle Louis (c1626-1661) had been particularly eminent as a
harpsichord composer. When he was as, François was appointed a royal organist, and soon was
in demand in court circles as a teacher; later he was also harpsichordist in the royal chamber
music. He died in 1733.
Couperin composed organ music and other pieces for the church, but his greatness lies in his
perfection of the French chamber and harpsichord music idioms. His chamber works consist of
several sonatas, among the earliest works written in France under that title, for two violins (or
wind instruments) and continuo, in which he tried to bridge the gulf between the French and
Italian traditions. The Italian sonata composers tended to write in a more brilliant and forceful
manner, more rhythmic in impetus, more contrapuntal, than the French, who were chiefly
concerned with dance-like rhythms and delicately ornamented lines. Couperin's sonatas,
especially his later ones, include French-style dance movements but also Italianate fugal ones,
in most of which there is however a French fineness of detail. He even wrote a pair of sonatas
in honor of Lully and Corelli, twin masters of the French and Italian styles, and in some of the
movements portrayed in picturesque terms the reception of the composers into Parnassus (or
heaven). The Corelli work was published in a volume entitled Les gouts-réunis ("The styles
reunited"). Couperin's other chamber works include a set of Concerts royaux, music written for
the Sunday afternoon concerts that he directed before Louis XIV, and pieces for the bass viol,
for the French had cultivated a special, sophisticated tradition of solo viol playing long after
that instrument had given way to the cello elsewhere.

François Couperin Works

born Paris, 1668; died Paris, 1733
Keyboard music (c225 pieces) Pièces de clavecin, book 1, ordres 1--5 (1713), book 2, ordres
6-12(1717), book 3, ordres 13--l 9 (1722), book 4, ordres 20--27 (1730); L'art de toucher le
clavecin (The art of playing the harpsichord; 1716)
Chamber music Concerts royaux (1722); Les goûts réünis (1724),; Les nations (1726); pieces
for bass viol
Sacred vocal music Leçons de ténèbres (cl 715) ; motets, versets
Organ music - Songs

As a harpsichord composer Couperin was unrivaled. He wrote some 225 pieces, grouped in
suites or "ordres" according to key and, to some extent, mood. Each has a title: it might be a
name of some particular person, or a state of mind, or a familiar institution, or a natural
phenomenon like a plant or animal, or indeed anything else. A few simply have dance titles.
The pieces are in a sense little portraits, though it would be wrong to take their "meanings" too
seriously. A few depict Couperin's fellow musicians or his pupils. Mainly intended for
amateurs, these pieces are not generally difficult to play, although they do demand a sure
command of harpsichord ornamentation - ex. V1.9 shows how Couperin notated the music and
how the player was expected to perform it. This ornamentation may be seen as analogous to the
florid Rococo decoration of French art and furniture of the Louis XIV period and the Regency
that followed; and Couperin himself may best be compared to Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684-
1721) for the refinement of his art and the expression of serious emotion behind a highly
polished surface. Many of the pieces are charming, even frivolous, and some are gracefully
pictorial; but many, too, are pathetic, grave, mysterious or noble.
 68

Lutheran church music

Lutheran church music reached a golden age between 165o and 1750. After the ravages of the
Thirty Years' War, churches in the Lutheran territo - ries of Germany quickly restored their
musical forces. The common musical heritage of all Lutheran composers at this time was the
chorale, the congre - gational hymn established during the earliest days of the Reformatio n and
continued during the seventeenth century. Composers such as Dietrich Buxtehude (ca. 1637-
1707) and Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706) followed in Schütz's footsteps by writing sacred
concertos for chorus, solo voices, and orchestra, with or without the use of chorale texts and
melodies. The most famous of a long line of composers working in or near Nuremberg, Pachel-
bel frequently wrote for double chorus, like many composers in southern Germany, where
Venetian influence remained powerful.

Buxtehude
The most wide-ranging among the northern keyboard composers is Dietrich Buxtehude (c1637-
1707), who worked in north Germany and regarded himself as Danish. Buxtehude spent eight
years as organist in Helsingor (the Elsinore of Shakespeare's Hamlet) and in 1668 became
organist of St Mary's, Lübeck - an important post in a "free", Hanseatic city, ruled (like
Hamburg) not by a local princeling but by the city fathers. Soon after taking up his post, he
revived an old practice of giving public concerts in the church (Abendmusik, "Evening music");
these were widely admired, and when Bach was a young man at Arnstadt he walked hundreds
of miles to hear some of them and in particular to hear Buxtehude play the organ. Buxtehude
wrote some oratorios for the Abendmusik at Lübeck (these are now lost) as well as many
cantatas and arias. He also wrote chamber music. But it is his organ music for which he is
mainly remembered. About half of it consists of chorale preludes, works in which a familiar
Lutheran hymn is used in some way - it might be as an inner voice around which the other
voices weave counterpoints, or there may be imitative passages based on each line of the
melody, or (and this is the most common) the chorale may be presented in a richly ornamented
form, as a florid melody, yet immediately recognizable to his congregation (see ex. VI.6). The
other half consists of toccatas and fugues, often in a very brilliant, improvisatory style, with
vivid passages contrasting with sustained ones, in the opening sections and well-worked fugues.
Buxtehude was organist at the Marienkirche in Lubeckwhere he composed and played much of
his church music for the Abendmusiken, public concerts following the afternoon church services
 69

in Lubeck during the Advent season. These concerts were long, varied, quasi-dramatic affairs,
on the order of loosely organized oratorios incorporating recitatives strophic ariaschorale
settingsand polyphonic chorusesas well as organ and orchestral music. The Abendmusiken
attracted musicians from all over Germany including the twenty-year old J.S. Bach who made
a kind of pilgrimage during the autumn of 1705 to Lubeck traveling all the way on foot.

Two conflicting tendencies existed within the Lutheran church that inevitably affected musical
composition. On the one handthe Orthodox party, holding to established dogma and public
institutio nal forms of worship, favored using all available resources of choral a nd inst rumental
music in the services. On the other, a widespread movement known as Pietism emphasized the
freedom of the individual believer. Pietists distrusted formality and high art in worship and
preferred music of simpler character that expressed personal feelings of devotion.
Lutheran Church cantata
Not until after 1700 did the opposing currents of Pietism and Orthodoxy come together in a
new type of cantata introduced by Erdmann Neumeist er (1671-1756). Neumeister was an
Orthodox theologian but a poet of decidedly Pietist leanings who, in 1700 in Hamburg,
introduced a new kind of sacred poetry for musical setting, which he called by the Italian
termcantata”. Throughout the seventeenth century, the texts of Lutheran compositions were
chiefly drawn from the Bible or the church liturgy, together with verses taken from or modeled
on chorales. Neumeister, however, added poetry that concentrated on the day's scriptural
reading and brought its meaning home to the individual worshiper through meditation.
Furthermore, he specifically designed these poetic texts to be set as ariosos or arias, the latter
usually in da capo form and often including an introductory recitative. Neumeister-and several
later Lutheran poets-wrote cycles of cantata texts, intended to fit each slot in the church
calendar.
This new type of cantata, merging Orthodox and Pietistic influences, achieved widespread
acceptance by Lutherans. Its poetry blended objective and subjective, formal and emotional
elements. Its musical scheme incorporated all the great traditions of the past-the chorale, the
solo song, the concerted style-while adding the dramatically powerful elements of oper- atic
recitative and aria. J.S. Bach would become the greatest master of the church cantata, but
several composers preceded him in defining its form: Johann Philipp Krieger of Weissenfels
(1649-1725), who also composed operas; Johann Kuhnau (1660-1722), Bach's predecessor at
Leipzig; and Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow (1663-1712) of Halle.
 70

ERDMANN NEUMEISTER ON THE SACRED CANTATA, 1704

If I may express myself succinctly, a cantata appears to be nothing but a piece out of an opera, put
together from recitative style and arias. Whoever understands what these two demand will find this genre
of song not difficult to work with. Just the same, let me say a little about each of them as a service to
beginners in poetry. For a recitative choose an iambic verse. The shorter it is, the more pleasing and
comfortable will it be to compose, although in an affective period now and then one or a pair of trochaic
lines-and no less a dactylic-may be inserted nicely and expressively.
As far as arias are concerned, they may consist mainly of two, seldom three, strophes and always contain
some affection or moral or something special. You should choose a suitable genre according to your
pleasure. In an aria the so-called capo, or beginning, may be repeated at the end in its entirety, which in
music is altogether welcome.
-Erdmann Neumeister, Geistliche Cantaten statt einer Kirchen-Musik, 1704, quoted in Max Seiffert,
ed., J. P. Krieger, 2/ Ausgewi.ihlte Kirchen Kompositionen, DdT 52/53 (Leipzig, 1916}. p. lxxvii.

THE PASS10N
In Lutheran Germany, the historia, a musical setting based on some biblical narrative such as the
Christmas story, was favored over the oratorio, and the most important type of historia was the Passion.
Plainsong settings of the suffer- ing and death of Christ according to the Gospel accounts had existed
since early medieval times. Mter the twelfth century, it was customary to recite the story in a semidramatic
mode, one priest singing the narrative portions, another the words of Christ, and a third the words of the
crowd or turba, all with appropriate contrasts of range and tempo. Mter the late fifteenth century,
composers wrote polyphonic settings of the turba portions in motet style, contrasting with the plainsong
solo parts; this type of setting became known as the dramatic or scenic Passion. Many Lutheran
composers, including Heinrich Schütz, adapted the dramatic Passion with a German text to Lutheran use.
In the late seventeenth century, the rise of the concerted medium led to a new type of Passion derived
from the oratorio. Called the oratorio Passion, this setting employs recitatives, arias, ensembles,
choruses, and instrumental piecesall of which lend themselves to a dramatic, almost operatic
presentation. Poetic meditations on the Gospel story were inserted at appropriate points in the Passion
text and typically set as solo arias, sometimes with preceding recitatives. At other points, the choir or
congregation sang chorales traditionally associated with the Passion story.

POSTLUDE
Recitative and aria became the most characteristic styles of vocal music in the seventeenth
century. While Italian recitative spawned several different varieties, French recitative took
another path, responding to the sonic pat- terns of the French Language. Among the aria types
common in this period - strophic, ostinato, and da capo-perhaps the most important, and
certainly the most ubiquitous, was the da capo aria. Its function in opera was to epitomize and
explore a particular affection, to portray and project a psychological state, in much the same
way a film director is sometimes compelled to dwell on the close-up or slow-motion camera
shot in order to convey the emotional values of a particular scene. Not confined to amorous or
heroic sentiments, the da capo aria was also suited to the expression of religious piety or fervor,
and so was adopted by composers of Lutheran church cantatas, oratorios, or of any work having
dramatic elements.
Whereas Alessandro Scarlatti, among a host' of competing Italian com- posers, represented the
most forward-Looking trends in Italy, Lully exercised a virtual monopoly over the musical
stage in France. His tragedies lyriques were stylistically conservative and continued to be
performed unchanged even after the death of Louis XIV in 1715. Across the Channel, Purcell
 71

synthesized French and Italian elements with native styles into a unique English operatic style
which, however, did not survive into the eighteenth century.
Italy, France, and southern Germany continued to cultivate Catholic church music of the
traditional Venetian and Roman types: vocal concertos for Larger or smaller forces and strict
counterpoint a Ia Palestrina. The most important new vocal genre in northern Germany was the
Lutheran church cantata. It eventually combined operatic styles and genres, such as recitative
and aria, suitable for representing personal sentiments, with other styles and genres that were
capable of expressing collective feelings, such as the congregational hymn (hymn-chorale) and
the concerted motet for chorus and instruments.
Although we did not discuss the basso continuo in this chapter, we should keep in mind that
most types of music described here were sup- ported by that firm bass so characteristic of
Baroque texture. Indeed, in every country, court, and church of Europe the Baroque sound was
in full swing.
 72

CHAPTER 3 INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC IN THE LATE BAROQUE

PERIOD
CHAPTER OBJECTIVES
After you complete the reading, study of the music, and study questions for this chapter, you
should be able to
1. name and describe the genres of instrumental music composed in the second half of the
seventeenth century and the early eighteenth century;
2. trace the development of keyboard music in this period and describe the styles of various
regions and individual composers; and
3. trace the development of ensemble music and orchestral music in this period and describe
the style of Corelli.
PRELUDE
Once instrumental music had come into its own, decisions about what instrument to use rather
than simply what kind of piece to write challenged the creative imaginations of composers.
During the second half of the seventeenth century, the possibilities offered by the modern
organs, by the two-manual harpsichord (an instrument with two keyboards and different
registers), and particularly by the violin family, inspired new idioms, genres, and formal
structures. A sixth instrumental category, the concerto, was added to the five outlined in
Chapters 7 and 9. But, because of the new importance to composers of the sound and idiom of
instruments, it is more appropriate to organize this chapter around the two main types of
instrumentation used: solo keyboard music, which is divided between MUSIC FOR ORGAN
and MUSIC FOR HARPSICHORD AND CLAVICHORD; and ENSEMBLE MUSIC,
which includes chamber and orchestral music for a variety of instrumental combinations, all
employing the ever-present keyboard as a sup- porting. or continuo, instrument.
The principal categories of composition associated with each of the two major instrumental
groups are:
For Keyboard: The principal genres of keyboard music were: toccata (or prelude, fantasia) and
fugue; arrangements of Lutheran chorales or other liturgical material (chorale prelude, chorale
partita, etc.); variations; passacaglia and chaconne; suite; and sonata (after 1700). These types
of pieces, taken together, account for all five categories enu- merated earlier.
For Ensemble: sonata (sonata da chiesa), sinfonia, and related genres; suite (sonata da camera)
and related genres; and concerto. These genres essentially grow out of two of t he earlier ca
tegories (dance and canzona-sonata) although elements of the other three (improvisatory
contrapuntal. and variation) were often incorporated; and the new. sixth category (concerto)
belongs exclusively to this group.
Among the keyboard instruments. the so-called Baroque organ is familiar to us from the many
copies of early eighteenth-century instruments that exist today. modeled especially on
instruments originally built by Arp Schnitger (1648-1718) and Gottfried Silbermann (1683-
1753). Silbermann was trained in France and Alsace and. Like other German organ builders.
was influenced by the French full organ sound and by the musical colors of the different stops
or registers used in France to play solos and contrapuntal Lines. The German builders also
Learned from the highly developed instruments constructed in Antwerp and Amsterdam. Organ
building and organ music reached a golden age in Germany between about 1650 and 1750.
While organs were constructed mainly in churches. the keyboard instru- ment of choice for
princely chambers and household use was the harpsichord. which was easily adapted to solo or
ensemble playing. The clavichord. on the other hand, had a much more delicate sound and
 73

could be appreciated only in the most intimate settings. Although the most prominent
harpsichord makers were Flemish. the most eminent composers for the instrument during the
seventeenth century were French.
By about 1700, the French clavecinists and the North German organists had established distinct
styles. But in the realm of instrumental chamber music. as in the opera and cantata. Italians
reigned as the undisputed masters and teachers. The early eighteenth century was the age of the
great violin makers of Cremona-Niccolo Amati (1596-1684). Antonio Stradivari (1644-1737).
and Giuseppe Bartolomeo Guarneri (1698-1744). It was also the age of great string music in
Italy.
MUSIC FOR ORGAN
Most organ music written for Protestant churches served as a prelude to something else-a hymn,
a scriptural reading, or a larger work. In northern Germany, these preludes were often organ
arrangements of chorales, or toccatas or praeludia that either contained fugues or culminated in
them.
Toccata
The typical German toccata consists of a series of contrapuntal and free sections. One type of
section is fugal in design and content. Another resem- bles improvisation in a number of ways:
by contrasting irregular or free rhythm with a steady stream of sixteenth notes; by using phrases
that are delibe rately irregular or have unclear endings; and by presenting sudden and
unexpected changes in texture. The improvisatory effect is maintained most often through
harmonic ambiguity and sudden, erratic shifts of musical direction. At the opposite extreme a
slow-paced section might consist of long, harmonically static stretches that usually include
extended pedal points. The capricious, exuberant character of toccatas was intensified once
they became vehicles for virtuosic display at the keyboard and on the organ pedals. (Most organ
music was performed simultaneously by both the hands and feet.)
Fugal section

Toccatas began early to incorporate well-defined sections of imitative counterpoint. Out of

these segments emerged the fugue, later conceived as a separate piece to follow the toccata
proper. Buxtehude's toccatas, for example, consist of shorter sections in free style that alternate
with longer ones in imitative counterpoint. His toccatas are filled with movement and elimax;
they display a great variety of figuration and take full advantage of the idiomatic qualities of
the organ. The opening, a free improvisatory section ending with a solid cadence, is followed
by a fugue, on a catchy subject with well- marked rhythm. The fugue eventually merges into a
 74

second toccata section, shorter than the first, again leading to a cadence. At this point the
composition may close, but as a rule Buxtehude continued to a second and sometimes a third
fugue, with brief interludes and a closing climactic section in toccata style. When there is more
than one fugue, the subjects are usually variants of a single musical idea (see Example 11.1).
In the seventeenth century, such keyboard pieces were called toccata,"prelude," praeludium,"
preambulum," or by some similar name, even though they included fugal sections. Buxtehude's
Praeludium in E (Music: NAWM 97, Audio 039a), which is designated in the manuscripts
simply as Praeludium," has all the earmarks of a toccata, as discussed above.
THE FUGUE
Composers wrote fugues both as independent pieces and as sections within preludes or toccatas.
By the end of the seventeenth century, the fugue had almost entirely replaced the old ricercare.
Fugue subjects have a more clearly defined melodic character and a livelier rhythm than
ricercare themes. As in the ricercare, independent voices enter with the theme in turn. In a
fugue, a set of these entries is called the exposition. Normally, the subject is stated by one voice
in the tonic and answered by another in the dominant. The voices continue to alternate subject
and answer throughout the exposition. Short episodes (passages in which the subject does not
appear), characterized by lighter texture or sequences, usually separate the first and later full or
partial expositions. These episodes may modulate to various keys before the final statement of
the subject returns in the tonic. The return is often intensified by devices such as pedal point,
stretto (in which statements of the subject pile up in quick succession), or augmentation (in
which the rhythmic values of the subject are doubled).
One cornerstone of baroque music is the fugue. A fugue can be written for a group of
instruments or voices, or for a single instrument like an organ or harpsichord. The fugue is a
polyphonic composition based on one main theme, called a subject. Throughout a fugue,
different melodic lines, or "voices," imitate the subject. The top melodic line, whether sung or
played is the soprano voice, and the bottom is the bass. A fugue's texture usually includes three,
four, or five voices. Though the fugue's subject remains fairly constant throughout, it takes on
new meanings when shifted to different keys or combined with different melodic and rhythmic
ideas.
The form of a fugue is extremely flexible; in fact, the only constant feature of fugues is how
they begin the subject is almost always presented in a single, unaccompanied voice. By thus
highlighting the subject, the composer tells us what to remember and listen for. In getting to
know a fugue, try to follow its subject through the different levels of texture. After its first
presentation, the subject is imitated in turn by all the remaining voices.
The opening of a fugue in four voices may be represented as follows:
Soprano Subject …………………………………………………………………………… etc.
Alto Subject ……………………………………………………………… etc.
Tenor Subject ……………………………………………… etc.
Bass Subject …………………………… etc.
In this case, the top voice announces the subject and then the lower voices imitate it. However,
the subject may be announced by any voice (top, bottom, or middle) and the order in which the
remaining voices imitate it is also completely flexible.
This may seem reminiscent of a round like Row, Row, Row Your Boat, but in a fugue the game
of follow the leader (exact imitation of the subject) does not continue indefinitely. The dotted
lines in the fugue diagram just given show that after a voice has presented the subject, it is free
to go its own way with different melodic material. A fugue's opening differs from a round's in
another way: in a round, each voice presents the melody on the same tones. If the melody begins
 75

with the tones C-D-E, each voice will begin with these tones, whether at a higher or lower
register. But in the opening of a fugue, the subject is presented in two different scales. The first
time, it is based on the notes of the tonic scale. But when the second voice presents the subject,
it is in the dominant scale (five scale steps higher than the tonic) and it is then called the
answer. A subject beginning with the notes C-D-E, for example, would be imitated by an
answer five steps higher, on G-A-B. This alternation of subject and answer between the two
scales creates variety.
In many fugues, the subject in one voice is constantly accompanied in another voice by a
different melodic idea called a countersubject. A constant companion, the countersubject
always appears with the subject, sometimes below it, sometimes above it.
After the opening of a fugue, when each voice has taken its turn at presenting the subject, a
composer is free to decide how often the subject will be presented, in which voices, and in
which keys. Between presentations of the subject, there are often transitional sections called
episodes, which offer either new material or fragments of the subject or countersubject.
Episodes do not present the subject in its entirety. They lend variety to the fugue and make
reappearances of the subject sound fresh. Bach called one composer of fugues "pedantic"
because he "had not shown enough fire to reanimate the theme by episodes."
Several musical procedures commonly appear in fugues. One is stretto, in which a subject is
imitated before it is completed; one voice tries to catch the other. Another common procedure
is pedal point (or organ point), in which a single tone, usually in the bass, is held while the
other voices produce a series of changing harmonies against it. (The term is taken from organ
music, where a sustained low tone is produced by the organist's foot on a key of the pedal
keyboard.)

A fugue subject can be varied in four principal ways:

1. It can be turned upside down, a procedure known as inversion. If the subject moves upward
by leap, the inversion will move downward the same distance; if the subject moves downward
 76

by step, the inversion will move upward by step. In inversion, each interval in the subject is
reversed in direction.
2. The subject may be presented retrograde, that is, by beginning with the last note of the
subject and proceeding backward to the first.
3. The subject may be presented in augmentation, in which the original time values are
lengthened.
4. The subject may appear in diminution, with shortened time values.

Fugues usually convey a single mood and a sense of continuous flow. They may be written as
independent works or as single movements within larger compositions. Very often an
independent fugue is introduced by a short piece called a prelude.
Bach and Handel each wrote hundreds of fugues; their fugues represent the peak among works
in the form. In the baroque period, as a friend of Bach's observed, "Skill in fugue was so
indispensable in a composer that no one could have attained a musical post who had not worked
out a given subject in all kinds of counterpoint and in a regular fugue." Fugal writing has
continued into the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It is not used as frequently today as in
the baroque period; yet to this day, musicians study how to write fugues as part of their training.

ORGAN FUGUE IN G MINOR (LITTLE FUGUE; ABOUT 1709), BY JOHANN

SEBASTIAN BACH
One of Bach's best-known organ pieces is the Little Fugue in G Minor, so called to differentiate
it from another, longer fugue in G minor. The opening section of this fugue corresponds to the
diagram. Each of the fugue's four voices takes its turn presenting the tuneful subject, which is
announced in the top voice and then appears in progressively lower voices, until it reaches the
bass, where it is played by the organist's feet on the pedal keyboard. Like many baroque
melodies, the subject gathers momentum as it goes along, beginning with relatively long time
values (quarter notes) and then proceeding to shorter ones (eighth and sixteenth notes).
 77

This episode contains downward sequences, which are melodic patterns repeated in the same
voice but at lower pitches.
For harmonic contrast, Bach twice presents the subject in major keys rather than minor. The
final statement of the subject in minor exploits the powerful bass tones of the pedal keyboard.
Though the fugue is in minor, it ends with a major chord. This was a frequent practice in the
baroque period; major chords were thought more conclusive than minor chords.
(Video 040)
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Chorale compositions
While toccatas, preludes, and fugues remained independent of vocal music, chorale-inspired
compositions for organ were linked both by function and subject to the repertory of Lutheran
hymns. Organ composers in the seventeenth century used chorale melodies in four fundamental
ways: as independent presentations of the chorale melody enhanced by harmony or
counterpoint; as themes for variations; as subjects for fantasias; and as melodies requiring
embellishment and accompaniment.
Organ chorales
The simplest organ chorales were essentially harmonizations with contrapuntal activity in the
accompanying parts. The congregation, singing un- accompanied in unison, would alternate
strophes with the organ. More elaborate settings resembled the motet because each melodic
phrase pre- sented a subject for imitation.
Chorale variation
In the chorale variation, also called chorale partita, the chorale tune served as the theme for a
set of variations. This genre emerged early in the seventeenth century in the works of Sweelinck
and Scheidt. Later composers, up to the time of Bach and beyond, modified the technique.
Buxtehude's Danket dem Herm, denn er ist sehr freundlich (Thank the Lord, for He is very
kind, NAWM 98, Audio 039b) is an example of a late seventeenth- century chorale variation.
Here, Buxtehude treats the chorale as a cantus firmus, placing it in a different voice in each
variation.

KEY CYCLES AND EQUAlL TEMPERAMENT

Although preludes and fugues were performed as meditative interludes in church, they also proved useful
for training students in composition and performance. To this end, J. K. F. Fischer (ca. 1665-1746)
compiled a collection of keyboard preludes and fugues, Ariadne musica (1715), written in nineteen dif-
ferent major and minor keys. This was not the first, nor the most complete published tour around the keys.
As early as 1567, the lutenist Giacomo Gorzanis published a cycle of twenty-four passamezzo-saltarello
pairs, one in each of the major and minor keys, and Vincenzo Galilei left a manuscript dated 1584, also
for lute, of a similar cycle of twenty-four sets in major and minor. The lute was a natural instrumept for
such cycles, because its frets marked off twelve equal semitones in the octave. Keyboard octaves were
not so equally divided, and keyboard players were reluctant to give up the sweeter imperfect consonances
and truer perfect consonances possible in such nonequal divisions. But unequal half-steps made it
impossible to play in tune in every key or to modulate through the entire cycle of fifths. Equal temperament,
in which all semitones are equal and all other intervals are not quite correct but acceptable, offered a
solution proposed as early as the sixteenth century and eventually embraced by many keyboard players,
composers, and organ builders of the Baroque era. The title J. S. Bach gave to his first set of preludes
and fugues in all twenty-four keys, Das wohltemperirte Clavier (The Well-Tempered Keyboard, Part I,
1722), suggests that he had equal, or at least adequate, temperament in mind.

Chorale fantasia
In a chorale fantasia, the composer fragments the chorale melody and develops the resultant
motives through virtuoso fingerwork, echoes, imitative counterpoint, and ornamentation. The
severe contrapuntal style of Scheidt's fantasias gradually gave way to the free, loquacious
compositions of Buxtehude and other North German composers.
Chorale prelude
Chorale prelude, a term often applied to any chorale- based organ work, is used here to denote
a short piece where the entire melody is presented just once in readily recognizable form. This
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type of chorale prelude did not appear until the 1650s. The name suggests an earlier liturgical
practice in which the organist played through the tune, improvising the accompaniment and
ornaments, as a prelude to the congregation's or choir's singing of the chorale. Later, when
composers wrote down such a piece, they called it a chorale prelude, even if it did not serve the
original purpose. In effect, the work was a single variation on a chorale, and it used any one of
a number of diff e rent variation techniques.
MUSIC FOR HARPSICHORD AND CLAVICHORD
In the Baroque period, especially in Germany, it is not always clear whether a given piece was
intended for the harpsichord or clavichord, or indeed for the organ. The most important secular
genres were the theme and variations and the suite; many works of either genre were suitable
for any keyboard instrument.
Theme and variations
The statement of a theme (a snog, dance, or the like) followed by a series of variations goes
back to the early history of instrumental music. Com- posers after 1650 preferred to write an
original songlike theme (often called an aria) rather than follow the earlier practice of borrowing
a familiar tune.
Suites
Suites comprised a large proportion of later Baroque keyboard music. Two distinct kinds
emerged: the amorphous collections produced by the French clavecinists, and the German
variety clustered around four standard dances. By 1700, the keyboard suite (or partita) in
Germany assumes a definite order of four dances: allemande, courante, sarabande, and gigue.
To these may be added an introductory movement or one or more optional dances placed either
after the gigue or before or after the sarabande. The suite has a striking international character:
the allemande is probably of German origin, the courante French, the sarabande Spanish
(imported from Mexico), and the gigue Anglo- Irish. The four standard dance movements are
all in different meters but have the same key and the same two- section, or binary, form.
Elisabeth- Claude Jaquet de la guerre
Two representative composers of suites in France were Elisabeth- Claude Jacquet de la Guerre
(1665-1729) and François Couperin (1668-1733). Jacquet de la Guerre earned an enviable
reputation as a singer and harpsichordist and as a composer of cantatas, church music, and
works for harpsichord and chamber ensembles (see examples 11.2, 11.3, and 11.4). A Parisian
critic hailed her as “the marvel of our century." Couperin, who wrote in all of these media and
for the organ as well, published twenty- seven groups of clavecin pieces, which he called ordres
(ironic, given that they were not as “ordered" as their German counterparts).
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The sarabande is a slow movement in or meter, often with the rhythmic pattern or
, with en1phasis on the second beat (Example 11.3). It is generally more homophonic
than the allemande and courante. A double, an ornamented variation of the original dance,
sometimes follows the sarabande.

Gigue
The gigue, usually the final number of the suite, may be in , , or (sometimes, , or even
), with wide melodic skips and continuous lively triplets. Quite often the style is fugal or
quasi-fugal (Example 11.4). The second section rnay invert the subject of the first.
 81

Couperin’s order
The ordres of François Couperin each comprise a loose aggregation of as many as twenty or
more miniature pieces, most in dance rhythms of the courante, sarabande, gigue, and the like,
highly stylized and refined. Their transparent texture, their delicate melodic lines. decorated
with many embellishments, and their conciseness and humor are typical of French music of the
Regency period. Most of the m carry fanciful titles, as in Couperin's Vingt-cinquième ordre
from his fourth book for clavecin, 1730 (Twenty-fifth Ordre, Music: NAWM 106, Audio 044
a, b, c, d, e, f): La Visionaire (The Dreamer), La Misterieuse (The Mysterious One), and La
Monflambert (probably named after Anne Darboulin, who married Monflambert, the king's
wine merchant). La Visionaire, the first movement of this set, is a whimsical French overture.
La Misterieuse is a more proper allemande in ,with mainly steady sixteenth-note motion. It
takes the typical binary dance form, the first half modulating to the dominant. All these pieces
were intended as recreation for amateur keyboard players.
CHARACTERISTIC DANCES OF THE KEYBOARD SUITE
The allemande is usually in a moderately fast duple meter; it begins with a short upbeat and all
the voices participate in a smooth, continuous movement of eighth and/or sixteenth notes (see
Froberger's Lamentation, video 023).
The typical courante is in a moderate compound duple or compound triple meter ( or ) or
shifts between the two (see Example 11.2). The hemiola resulting from such shifting is
particularly effective at cadences. Sometimes the French courante is replaced in suites by the
Italian corrente, a faster dance in time with a more homophonic texture.
Passacaglia and chaconne (Audio 045)
Another element that made its way into the suite is the passacaglia or chaconne, a type of
variation form. The chaconne, a stately movement in triple rhythm, was made popular by
Lully's stage music. As in the ground, it uses a repeating bass line and harmonic pattern. All
sorts of alterations could be made to the basic scheme, as in the Passacaille ou Chaconne from
Couperin's first Suite for Viols (1728), which admits no distinction between chaconne and
passacaglia. It maintains regular phrasing of 4 + 4 measures for 199 measures, but neither the
bass nor the chord patterns are consistent, as we see in the excerpt given in Example 11.5a.
 82

The characteristic ornaments or agrements of both the keyboard and ensemble music from this
period are indicated in the scores by certain signs that the performer must interpret. Example
11.5b and c illust rate some of these signs and how they might be played. In his L'Art de toucher
le clavecin (The Art of Playing the Harpsichord, 1716), one of the most important practical
musical treatises of the eighteenth century, Couperin gave precise and detailed instructions for
fingering and executing the agrements and discussed other aspects of clavecin performance as
well.

BAROQUE ORNAMENTATION
Ornaments usually originated in improvisation. Even though they might be written out later or at least
indicated by special symbols (as in Example 11.5), ornaments still retained a certain spontaneity. For us
the word ornamentation suggests an unessential or superfluous processbut Baroque musicians saw it
differently. In their view, ornaments were not merely decorative; they were an important means for moving
the affections. Also, some of the dissonant ornaments-especially the trill and the appoggiatura-added a
certain spice that the notated music lacked.
Musicians recognized two principal ways of ornamenting a given melodic line: (1) Small melodic formulas,
such as trills, turns, appoggiaturas, and mor- dents, were attached to one or two written notes. Special
signs sometimes, though not always, indicated their placement. (2) More extended embellishments, such
as scales, runs, leaps, arpeggios, and the like, were added to make up a free and elaborate paraphrase
 83

of the written line. This process, sometimes called division, diminution, or figuration, was most appropriate
for melodies in slow tempo.
Embellished versions of
slow movements from
Corelli's solo sonatas
have been preserved in a
1710 edition by Estienne
Roger of Amsterdam.
Roger claimed that his
edition represented the
way the composer
himself played the
sonatas. Whether or not
these ornamented
versions were Corelli's
own, they surely reflected
embellishment practices
of his time.
Performers thus had the
liberty to add to the
composer's written score;
they were equally free to
subtract from it or change
it in various other ways.
Arias were omitted from operas, or different arias substituted, almost at
the whim of the singers. Frescobaldi permitted organists to end his toccatas at any appropriate point they
pleased. Composers of variations, suites, and sonatas took it for granted that movements would be
omitted ad libitum. Title pages of ensemble collections encouraged players to choose which instruments
and even how many to use for a performance. For example, sonatas were issued for violin and basso
continuo with an additional violin or two Hif desired," and string concertos could be played as trio sonatas.

ENSEMBLE MUSIC
Ensemble sonatas
The word sonata appears regularly on Italian title pages throughout the seventeenth century. In
the earlier decades, the term (like the parallel word, sinfonia) chiefly denoted a prelude or
interlude in a predominantly vocal work. After 163o, the two terms were used more and more
often to designate separate instrumental compositions. The early stages of the sonata's
emergence from the canzona see before.
The typical instrumental sonata has several sections or movements in contrasting tempos and
textures scored for two to four solo instruments and basso continuo. Within this general scheme,
we can distinguish two main types after about 1660. The sonata da chiesa, or church sonata,
had a mix- ture of abstract and dancelike movements. The sonata da camera, or cham- her
sonata, was essentially a suite of stylized dances, though the opening movement was not always
a dance.
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Trio sonatas
After 1670, both church and chamber sonatas were typically scored for two treble instruments
(usually violins) and bass; the harmonies were realized by the continuo player reading the bass
part. This type of sonata was called a trio sonata, even though it required four players (since the
basso continuo line was performed on a cello or other bass instrument while the harpsichordist
or organist filled in the implied harmonies). The texture described for the trio sonata-two high
melody lines over a bass-was fundamental to many other types of chamber music, both vocal
and instrumental.
Solo sonatas
Solo sonatas, for solo violin (or flute or viola da gamba) with continuo, were at first less
numerous than trio sonatas but gained in popularity after 1700. Composers also began writing
sonatas for larger groups-up to eight instrumental parts with continuo-as well as a few for
unaccompanied stringed or wind instruments.

EMERGENCE OF THE BAROQUE SONATA

In the seventeenth-century canzona/sonata, movements increased in length and decreased in number.
Traces of the old cyclical variation -canzona survived for many years, and the order of the movements
did not become standardized until the end of the century. Giovanni Battista Vitali (ca. 1644-169) preserved
thematic similarity between the movements of many of his sonatas, as did his son Tommaso Antonio
Vitali (ca. 1665-1747). However, complete thematic in- dependence of the various movements
increasingly became the rule in the late seventeenth century; the principle is illustrated in Giovanni
Legrenzi's sonata La Raspona (NAWM 92, Audio 046). It consists of two movements, Allegro and
Adaggio [sic], each of which has a canzona -like structure and a combination of fugal and nonfugal
textures.

ARCANGELO CORELLI
The violin sonatas of Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713) are perfect examples of the serene,
classical phase of seventeenth- century musical style. Corelli, a well- known performer as well
as composer, studied for four years at Bologna, an important center of instrumental chamber
music. After 1671, he spent most of his life tranquilly in Rome, in the artistic circle of Quee n
Christina of Sweden. His published works consist entirely of ensemble music for the violin:
Opus 1. Twelve trio sonatas (sonate da chiesa), 1681;
Opus 2. Eleve n trio sonate da camera and a chaconne, 1685;
Opus 3. Twelve trio sonate da chiesa, 1689;
Opus 4· Twelve trio sonate da camera, 1695;
Opus 5. Twelve solo sonatas (six da chiesa, five da camera, and one set of variations), 1700;
and
Opus 6. Twelve concerti grossi, 1714 (composed before 1700, some probably as early as 1682).
Trio sonatas
Corelli's trio sonatas were the crowning achievement of Italian cham- her music in the late
seventeenth century. Moreover, his solo sonatas and concertos served as models that composers
followed for the next half century. Unlike his compatriots, he apparently wrote no vocal music
at all but sang through the violin, the instrument that most nearly approaches the lyric quality
of the human voice. As if acknowledging this relationship, Corelli deliberately kept the two
violins in his trio sonatas from virtuosic displays. He never required a player to reach beyond
the third position and seldom called for extremely low notes, fast runs, or difficult double stops.
 85

The two violins, treated exactly alike, constantly cross and exchange ideas, often involving
interlocking suspensions that give his works a decisive forward momentum.
Harmonic sequences
Corelli relied on sequences to achieve clear tonal organization. Whether constructed
diatonically within one key or modulating downward in the circle of fifths, the sequence is a
powerful agent for establishing tonality. Corelli's modulations within a movement-most often
to the dominant and (in minor keys) the relative major-are always logical and straight- forward.
The principles of tonal architecture that he developed were further elaborated and extended by
Handel, Vivaldi, Bach, and other composers of the next generation. Corelli's music is almost
completely diatonic: chromaticism is limited to the rare diminished seventh or the occasional
flatted (Neapolitan) sixth at a cadence.
Church Sonatas
Many of Corelli's church trio sonatas consist of four movements in the sarne slow-fast-slow-
fast order favored by other composers of the late Baroque. But this pattern (illustrated by Op.
3, No.2 (NAWM 93, Audio 046b) discussed below) has many exceptions and should not be
taken as a standard. The first slow movement of a typical church sonata has a contrapuntal
texture and a majestic, solemn character. The Allegro that follows is usually a fugue. This
movement is the musical center of gravity for the church sonata, and it most obviously retains
traits of the canzona-in its imitative style, its rhythmic character of the subject, and its
modification of the subject after the exposi- tion. (In some of Purcell's sonatas, for instance, a
movement like this is ac- tually calledcanzona.") The middle slow movement most often
resembles a triple-time operatic aria or duet. The last movement is usually a carefree dance in
binary form.
Chamber sonata
Corelli's chamber sonatas, both trio and solo, typically begin with a preludio, after which two
or three dances follow in the normal suite order, with a gavotte sometimes replacing the final
gigue. In many of Corelli's chamber sonatas, the first two movements retain the serious
character of the church sonata as well as its outward forms. They also remind us of the French
over - ture: a slow introduction with persistent dotted rhythms, followed by an imitative,
canzona -like Allegro. The combination of slow introduction and fugal Allegro followed by a
series of dances was common in this genre. The dance movements are almost always in binary
form, the first section (played twice) closing on the dominant or relative major and the second
section (also repeated) making its way back to the tonic.
Unity of key
Like his contemporaries, Corelli kept all the movements of a trio sonata in the same key, but in
all his later major- key solo sonatas, he cast one slow movement in the relative minor. Similarly,
every concerto grosso has a slow movement in a contrasting key.
Unity of theme
In general, Corelli's movements are thematically independent; there are no contrasting or
Hsecondary" themes within a movement. He states the subject of the whole musical discourse
at the outset in a complete sentence with a definite-often Phrygian-cadence. The music then
unfolds in a continuous expansion of this subject, with sequential treatment, brief modulations
closing in nearby keys, and fascinating subtleties of phrasing. This steady spinning- out of a
single theme is highly characteristic of the late Baroque. Unlike the procedures used by later
composers for developing motives from a theme, the original idea seems to generate a
spontaneous flow of musical thoughts. Corelli often stated the last phrase of a movement
twice, as though avoiding too abrupt an ending.
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Corelli's Trio Sonata (da chiesa), Op. 3, No. 2 (NAWM 93, Audio 046b), illustrates some of
these points. In the first movement, marked Grave, the two violins imitate each other, meet
repeatedly in suspensions, separate, and cross each other over a walking bass. The following
Allegro has a lively fugue subject that soon dissolves in a continuous stream of counterpoint.
The middle slow movement is like a sarabande in which the two violins hold an intense
dialogue. The final movement, simply labeled Allegro, is a gigue in binary form. Like the first
Allegro, it is fugal in conception, and the subject of the second half is an inversion of the
opening of the first half.
Solo sonatas
The movements of Corelli's solo sonatas correspond to those of the church and chamber trio
sonatas. In the first Allegro, the solo violin employs double and triple stops to simulate the rich
three-part sonority of the trio sonata. In general, the solo violin part demands some virtuosity
to execute fast runs, arpeggios, cadenzas, and extended perpetual-motion passages.
Improvisation in musical performance
Performers in the Baroque era were always expected to add to, or im- provise over, what the
composer had written. For example, keyboard play- ers realized figured basses by improvising
chords, arpeggios, and even counterpoints. Vocal and instrumental solo performers applied
skill, taste, and experience to achieve the full effect of the music by means of orna- ments and
embellishments. Such impromptu additions varied from country to country and from one
generation to another. Modern scholars, conductors, and performers who have tried to
reconstruct these performance prac- tices have found the task complex, delicate, and
controversial.
Influence outside Italy
Composers all over Europe, especially the English composer Henry Purcell, were greatly
influenced by Italian trio sonatas and freely imitated or adapted them. Handel's trio sonatas, for
example, resemble Corelli's in their four-movement form and compositional approach.
The Adagio of Corelli's Sonata Op. 5, No. 3, In the edition printed about 1711 for John Walsh, London,
and based on a 1710 edition by Estlenne Roger, Amsterdam. The violin part is given both as originally
published and in an embellished version said to represent the way Corelli himself performed it. (New
Haven, Yale University Music Library).

COUPERIN ON THE UNION OF THE ITALIAN AND FRENCH STYLES

The Italian and French styles have Long divided up the Republic of Music in France. As for me, I have
always esteemed the things that deserved to be, without regard to the composer or nation. The first Italian
sonatas that appeared in Paris more than thirty years ago and encouraged me to start composing some
myself, to my mind wronged neither the works of Monsieur de Lully nor thosof my ancestors, who will
always be more admirable than imitable. Thus, by a right that my neutrality confers upon me, I sail under
the happy star that has guided me until now.
Since Italian music has the right of seniority over ours, at the end of this volume you will find a grand trio
sonata titled L'Apotheose de Corelli. A feeble spark of self-Love persuaded me to present it in score. If
some day my muse outdoes itself, I shall dare to undertake Likewise something in the style of the
incomparable Lully, although his works alone ought to suffice to immortalize him.
-From Fran ois Couperin, Preface, Les Gouts-reiinis (Paris, 1724). The original French is in Oeuvres
completes, Vol. 8, ed. Andre Schaeffner.
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F. Couperin
Some of the earli- est and the most important trio sonatas in France were by François Couperin,
probably dating from 1692, although not published until many years later. His collection Les
Nations: Sonades et suites de simphonies en trio (1726) contains four ordres, each consisting
of a multi-movement sonata da chiesa (the sonade of the title) followed by a suite of dances
(the suite de simphonies). The style, though obviously influenced by Corelli and other Italians,
is distinguished throughout by the refined melody and exquisite taste in ornaments that mark
Couperin's clavecin pieces.
Couperin admired the works of both Lully and Corelli, and he maintained a neutral position in
the raging controversy over the respective merits of French versus Italian music. Through the
titles, prefaces, and choice of contents for his published collections he demonstrated his belief
that the perfect music would be a union of the two national styles (see vignette above). Two
other trio suites hold to this ideal: Pamassus, or the Apotheosis of Corelli, and The Apotheosis
of Lully. In the second, Lully is represented as joining Corelli on Parnassus, where they play
the first and second violins in a French overture and in the trio sonata that follows. To another
set of suites intended for harpsichord and various combinations of instruments Couperin gave
the collective title Les Gouts-reunis, signifying that these works united the two principal styles
(gouts), the French and Italian.
LARGER ENSEMBLES
From the days of Giovanni Gabrieli through about 1650, Italy produced a steady stream of
canzonas, dance suites, sonatas, and sinfonias for groups of three or more melody instruments
plus basso continuo. Many Venetian sonatas of this period resemble the contemporary Venetian
opera over- tures. The Bolognese composers in the late seventeenth century also wrote works
for larger groups that in form and style resembled either the trio sonata or the concerto.
Ensemble music in Germany
The ensemble sonata and particularly the instrumental suite had a long life in Germany, where
musical traditions frequently became part of every day life (see illustration below). German
composers preferred relatively large ensembles and liked the sound of wind instruments as well
as strings. Collegia musica (associations of performers) in many German towns offered citizens
the opportunity to play and sing together for their own pleasure. Town bands (Stadtpfeifer) and,
in Lutheran regions, church musicians en- riched the ordinary lives of the pepple. In some
places, chorales or sonatas called Turmsonaten (tower sonatas) were played daily on wind
instruments from the tower of a Rathaus (town hall) or church.
Orchestra music
Toward the end of the seventeenth century, a generally recognized dis- tinction arose between
chamber music-ensemble music with only one instrument to a part-and orchestral music. Prior
to that, composers did not express their preferences, and the choice depended on circumstances.
For instance, an orchestral ensemble might play a trio sonata da chiesa scored for two solo
violins if the size of the auditorium made it desirable or if the occasion were festive. But neither
the designation “sinfonia" or “concerto" nor the presence of three, four, or more melodic parts
above the bass necessarily called for an orchestra rather than a chamber group of players.
Beyond the use of basso continuo and the predominance of stringed instruments, no common
standard regulated either the makeup of an ensemble or the number of instruments to a part.
Opera houses, of course, maintained orchestras, so opera overtures in both Italy and France, as
well as the numerous dances that formed an indispensable part of French opera, were always
written specifically for orches- tral performance. Lully brought the Paris orchestra, the most
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famous in Europe, to a height of technical perfection that was previously unknown for so large
a group of instrumental performers.

QUEEN CHRISTINA OF SWEDEN AND HER CIRCLE

In 1681, Arcangelo Corelli dedicated his first opus, twelve trio sonatas (da chiesa), to Queen Christina of
Sweden (1626-1689):
If Your Majesty will have the generosity, as I hope, to both receive with favor and support these first fruits
of my studies, it will renew my strength to continue with my other works, which are already in draft; and
to make known to the world that perhaps I am not wrong to aspire to the glorious position ofYour Majesty's
servant....
Who was this eminence whom Corelli hoped would become his patron?
Nearly thirty years earlier, Christina had abdicated her throne, left Sweden dressed as a man, converted
to Catholicism, and in 1655 established her court- in-exile in Rome where, until her death in 1689, she
presided as an independent thinker, avid book collector, and beneficent patron. In Rome, Christina
founded at least two academies that attracted scholars and poets, theologians and philosophers,
librettists and composers, as well as members of the Roman aristocracy. She encouraged open
discussion of ethical and scientific questions at a time when Galileo's theories were still taboo. She
supported theatrical and operatic performances around the city, right under the nose of the reigning Pope
Innocent XI, who was oppressively hostile to the stage. And she regularly sponsored concerts at her
palace, which became an important center in the city's musical life. Among others, Alessandro Scarlatti,
who had just begun his long career as a composer of operas and cantatas, was employed by Christina.
He described himself in 168o as her maestro di cappella, a position he held until his departure for Naples
in 1684.
One of the foremost violinists in Rome, Arcangelo Corelli also became a protege of Christina, as he had
hoped in the dedication to his Opus 1. After entering her service as a chamber musician, he attracted her
attention by composing and performing sonatas for her academy. When Christina organized a huge
concert at her palace in honor of the new English ambassador to the Holy See, she asked Corelli to
conduct an orchestra of 150 string players and an ensemble of more than 100 singers and soloists lent
by the pope. On this magnificent occasion, there were seats for 150 ladies, and the number of gentlemen
who were left standing was even greater. In 1689, Corelli again directed a large group of performers in
two solemn Masses to celebrate Christina's apparent recovery from illness. Unfortunately, she died one
month later.
Christina was among the most prominent intellectuals of her day, as suggested by the painting in which,
surrounded by scholars and clerics, she engages the philosopher Rene Descartes (1596-1650) in
animated discussion.

THE BAROQUE ORCHESTRA

During the baroque period, the orchestra evolved into a performing group based on instruments
of the violin family. By modern standards, the baroque orchestra was small, consisting of from
ten to thirty or forty players. Its instrumental makeup was flexible and could vary from piece
to piece. At its nucleus were the basso continuo (harpsichord plus cello, double bass, or
bassoon) and upper strings (first and second violins and violas). Use of woodwind, brass, and
percussion instruments was variable. To the strings and continuo could be added recorders,
flutes, oboes, trumpets, horns, trombones, or timpani. One piece might use only a single flute,
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while another would call for two oboes, three trumpets, and timpani. Trumpets and timpani
joined the orchestra mainly when the music was festive. This flexibility contrasts with the
standardized orchestra of later periods, composed of four sections: string, woodwind, brass, and
percussion.
The baroque trumpet (like the early French horn) had no valves but was given rapid, complex
melodic lines to play in a high register. Because the instrument was difficult to play and had a
traditional association with royalty, the trumpeter was the aristocrat of the baroque orchestra.
When prisoners of war were exchanged, trumpeters, if they had been captured, were treated
like military officers.
Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, and others chose their orchestral instruments with care and obtained
beautiful effects from specific tone colors. They loved to experiment with different
combinations of instruments. However, in the baroque period tone color was distinctly
subordinate to other musical elements melody, rhythm, and harmony. Composers frequently
rearranged their own or other composers' works for different instruments. A piece for string
orchestra might become an organ solo, losing little in the process. Often, one instrument was
treated like another. An oboe would play the same melody as the violins, or the flute and
trumpet would imitate each other for extended sections of a piece.
The orchestral suite
Lully's German disciples introduced French standards of playing, along with the French musical
style, into their own country. One result was a new type of orchestral suite that flourished in
Germany from about 1690 to 1740. The dances of these suites, patterned after those from
Lully's ballets and operas, did not appear in any standard number or order. Because they were
always introduced by a pair of movements in the form of a French overture, the word ouverture
soon came to designate the suite itself. Among the early collections of orchestral suites was
Georg Muff at's Florilegium (1695 and 1698), which includes an essay with musical examples
about the French system of bowing, the playing of agrements, and similar matters. A host of
other German composers, including J. S. Bach, wrote overture suites.
The concerto
The concerto, a new kind of orchestral composition that appeared in the 1680s and 1690s, soon
became the most important type of Baroque orchestral music. It afforded composers the chance
to combine in one work several favorite traits: the contrasts of the concertato medium; the
texture of a firm bass and a florid treble; the musical organization based on the major- minor
key system; and the construction of a longer work from several separate movements.
Composers wrote several kinds of orchestral concertos around 1700, the most numerous and
important of which were the concerto grossa and the solo concerto. Both types systematically
exploited the contrast in sonority between mariy instruments and one or only a few. The
concerto grosso set a small ensemble of solo instruments, the concertina, against a large
ensemble, the concerto grosso. In the solo concerto, a single instrument contrasted with the
large ensemble. The large group was almost always a string orchestra, usually divided into first
and second violins, violas, cellos, and bass viols, with basso continuo. The solo instruments
were also usually strings: in the solo concerto, a violin; in the concerto grosso, most often two
violins and continuo, though other solo string or wind instruments might be added or
substituted. In both the solo concerto and the concerto grosso, the full orchestra was designated
tutti (all) or ripieno (full).
Corelli's concertos
The concerti grossi of Corelli, among the earliest examples of the genre, employ soli-tutti
contrasts in a special way: his concertos are in effect church sonatas or chamber sonatas divided
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between soli and tutti, in which the larger group echoes the smaller, fortifies cadential passages,
or otherwise punctuates the structure. The relative prominence of the first-violin part
occasionally suggests the texture of the later solo concerto.
Concerto in Germany
German composers similarly adopted the form and style of the sonata in their earliest concerti
grossi. Georg Muffat wrote in 1701 that he first en- countered this new genre in Rome and
decided to try his hand at it. Well into the eighteenth century, many concertos continued to
exhibit at least one characteristic of the sonata: the fugal or quasi -fugal Allegro. Concerti grossi
tended to be conservative, and many composers shared Corelli's conception of them as sonatas
with the musical substance divided between concertina (soli) and ripieno (tutti). But in the solo
concerto, composers experimented with new rhythmic ideas, textures, and formal schemes.
G. Torelli
Giuseppe Torelli (1658-1709), a leading figure in the Bologna school, contributed most to the
development of the concerto around the turn of the century. The six violin concertos of Torelli's
Opus 8 (1709), which also includes six concerti grossi, represent a significant stage in the
evolution of a new type of concerto that departs from Corelli's model. Most of Torelli's are in
three movements in the order fast -slow-fast, a succession adopted by later concerto composers.
Each of the Allegro movements begins with a ritornello that develops one or more motives in
the full orchestra. This leads to a solo episode that presents entirely new material, after which
the tutti recalls some part of the ritornello in a different key. This alternation may recur several
times before the movement is rounded off and brought to a close with a final tutti in the tonic
almost identical to the opening ritornello.
Ritornello
The term ritomello is derived from vocal music, where it meant refrain. Indeed, Torelli's scheme
is reminiscent of the da capo aria, with the important difference that the solo instrument or
concertina replaces the voice. This ritornello structure provided the master plan for the first and
last movements of the concertos of Torelli, Vivaldi, and some of their contemporaries. A typical
scheme is illustrated by the diagram below, which sketches a movement consisting of an
opening ritornello, two modulating solo sections separated by an abbreviated statement of the
ritornello in the relative major, and a repetition of the opening ritornello to close the movement:

Other composers of concerti

The achievements of Torelli in the realm of the concerto were matched and extended by other
Italian composers, especially the Venetian Tomaso Albinoni (1671-1750) and the Italian-
German Evaristo Felice dall'Abaco (1675-1742). The greatest master of the Italian concerto of
the late Baroque period was Antonio Vivaldi, whose works we will study in the next chapter.
POSTLUDE
Two types of instrumental music became prominent during the second half of the seventeenth
century: (I) solo keyboard music, especially that written for the great Baroque organs built in
Germany; and (2) ensemble music, dominated by the violin, whose famous Italian makers also
flourished during this period. Important genres of keyboard music included toccata and fugue,
a variety of chorale-based compositions cultivated by Lutheran composers, stylized dance
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suites, and all sorts of variations, especially chaconne and passacaglia. Influential composers
were Dietrich Buxtehude in Germany and Fran ois Couperin in France. Ensemble forms-
sonatas for church and chamber, and concertos-emerged in Italian centers such as Bologna and
Rome, and from there spread throughout Europe. Pioneers in these genres were Arcangelo
Corelli and Giuseppe Torelli. Although trio texture predominated, orchestral music began to
have a Life of its own in the opera overture and concerto, while soloists refined the art of
ornamentation for expressive purposes as well as for virtuosic display.
Even though instrumental music explored and exploited the independent idioms of organ,
harpsichord, and violin, composers still aimed to move the affections. How was this possible
in the absence of words? They borrowed and adapted the already rich harmonic, melodic, and
rhythmic vocabulary of vocal music, dance, and theatrical music, with all of its affective
associations. With this essentially international, Baroque Language, Corelli on the violin could
Lament as effectively as any operatic heroine; Couperin on the harpsichord could charm his
Listeners as elegantly as any ballet dancer; and Buxtehude on the organ could inspire awe as
convincingly as a massive church choir.
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CHAPTER 4 MUSIC IN THE EARLY EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

CHAPTER OBJECTIVES
After you complete the reading, study of the music, and study questions for this chapter, you
should be able to
1. summarize the careers, describe the musical styles, and name and describe some of the most
significant works by each of four major composers of the early eighteenth century: Antonio
Vivaldi, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Johann Sebastian Bach, and George Frideric Handel;
2. compare the music of each to that of his predecessors and contemporaries; and
3. explain the historical significance of each of these composers.
PRELUDE
The early eighteenth century, particularly the decades between 1720 and 1750, represents a
period of stylistic turmoil in music. Rivalry between French and Italian music, as suggested in
Chapter II, was rife. At the same time, a new style of music was emerging that competed with
the older, Baroque styles. This newer music-eventually described as ga/ant-sounded more
songful and Less contrapuntal, more natural and Less artificial, more sentimental and Less
intensely emotional than its Baroque counterpart. We will explore the galant style, an early
stage of the Classical era, in the next chapter, but its influence is already apparent in some of
the Later works by Vivaldi, Rameau, Bach, and Handel, the four masterful composers discussed
in this chapter. Together, these four summarize and, to some extent, synthesize all the Baroque
musical qualities and trends we have studied so far in Italy, France, Germany, and England. All
four composers were successful and eminent during their own time. All were aware of new
currents in musical thought, and each found his own solution to the conflicts between
contrapuntal and homophonic, older and more recent styles. All worked within the established
genres of the Late Baroque. ANTONIO VIVALDI excelled as a composer of concertos and
operas. JEAN-PHILIPPE RAMEAU wrote opera and instrumental music in France and
developed new ideas about harmony and tonality in his theoreti- cal writings, some aspects of
which were incorporated into Later theory. JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH, somewhat
isolated in Germany from the main E uropean cultural centers, brought to consummation all
forms of Late Baroque music except opera. And GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL, who also
excelled in composing Italian opera, recognized the social changes in England that created the
perfect climate for a new kind of oratorio-one that Long outlived the audiences for which it was
intended.
ANTONIO VIVALDI
Venice
At the beginning of the eighteenth ·century, Venice, though declining in political power and
headed for economic ruin, still remained the most glam- orous city in Europe. It was full of
tourists, tradespeople, intellectuals, prostitutes, artists, and musicians-all attracted to its
colorful, exuberant life. People sang on the streets and on the lagoons; gondoliers had their own
repertory of songs (among them verses of Tasso declaimed to traditional melodies or airs);
patrician families who owned opera theaters recognized and rewarded fine musicians and
composers, and they themselves played and sang at private gatherings.
Public festivals, more numerous in Venice than elsewhere, remained occasions of musical
splendor, and the musical establishment of St. Mark's was still famous. The city had always
taken pride in its musical greatness-as a center of music printing, of church music, of
instrumental composition, and of opera. Even in the eighteenth century, Venice never had fewer
than six opera companies, which together played a total of thirty-four weeks in the year.
 93

Between 1700 and 1750, the Venetian public heard ten new operas annually (and the count was
even higher in the second half-century). Outside the theaters private individuals, religious
confraternities called scuole, and academies frequently sponsored musical programs. Services
in the churches on festival days resembled great instrumental and vocal concerts more than they
did religious ceremonies.
The Pietà
In addition to these musical establishments, Venice nurtured an unusual group of charitable
institutions that specialized in musical training for orphaned, illegitimate, or abandoned
children. Vivaldi was employed by one of these institutions, the Pio Ospedale della Pieta, a
boarding school and conservatory for girls. Run like a convent, it provided excellent musical
training for its young students and a first-class musical laboratory for the composer. Such
institutions, through their teaching, had a notable impact on the musical life of the entire
country. The concerts at the Pieta and other places of worship in Venice attracted large
audiences. Travelers wrote of these occasions with enthusiasm and even amusement at the
spectacle of a choir and orchestra comprised mainly of teenage girls.

CHARLES DE BROSSES ON THE CONCERTS 1N VEN1CE

A transcending music here is that of the hospitals [orphanages]. There are four, all made up of bastard
or orphaned girls or whose parents are not in a condition to raise them. They are reared at public expense
and trained solely to excel in music. So they sing like angels and play the violin, the flute, the organ, the
violoncello, the bassoon. In short no instrument is large enough to frighten them. They are cloistered in
the manner of nuns. They alone perform, and each concert is given by about forty girls. I swear to you
that there is nothing so charming as to see a young and pretty nun in her white robe, with a bouquet of
pomegranate flowers over her ear, leading the orchestra and beating time with all the grace and precision
imaginable. Their voices are adorable for their quality and lightness, because here they don't know about
roundness or a sound drawn out like a thread in the French manner....
The hospital I go to most often is that of the Pieta, where one is best entertained. It is also first for the
perfection of the symphonies. What an upright performance! It is only there that you hear the first stroke
of the bow (/e premier coup d'archet-the first chord of a piece attacked as one by the strings), of which
the Opera in Paris falsely boasts.
-Charles de Brosses, L'ltalie il y a cent ans ou Lettres ecrites d'ltalie a quelques amis en 1739 et 1740,
ed. M. R. Colomb (Paris: Alphonse Levavasseur, (1836), 1:213-14.

Vivaldi's life
Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741), son of one of the leading violinists of St. Mark's, was educated
both for the priesthood and for music (under Legrenzi), not an unusual combination then. He
was known as il prete rosso (the red [-headed] priest)-the sort of nickname that the Italian public
often bestows on its favorite artists. From 1703 to 1740, Vivaldi was employed on and off as
conductor, composer, teacher, and general superintendent of music at the Pio Ospedale della
Pieta. He also traveled extensively? compos- ing and conducting operas and concerts
throughout Italy and Europe.
Vivaldi’s work
The eighteenth-century public constantly demanded new music; there were no ff classics," and
few works of any kind survived more than two or three seasons. Such relentless pressure
accounts both for the vast output of many eighteenth-century composers and for the
phenomenal speed at which they worked. Vivaldi was expected to furnish new oratorios and
con- certos for every church feast day at the Pieta and prided himself on being able to compose
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a concerto faster than a copyist could write out the parts. Like his contemporaries, Vivaldi
composed every work for a definite occasion and for a particular company of performers. He
fulfilled forty-nine opera commissions, most of them for Venice, and a few for Florence,
Ferrara, Verona, Rome, Vienna, and elsewhere. Vivaldi also composed many concertos-a genre
commonly used at church festival services-for the Pieta, but he dedicated a large number of
them to foreign patrons. In addition to his operas, five hundred concertos and sinfonias survive,
as well as ninety solo and trio sonatas, and many cantatas, motets, and oratorios.
Vocal works
Vivaldi is known today mainly for his orchestral music; the only works printed during his
lifetime (mostly in Amsterdam) were about forty sonatas and a hundred concertos. It would be
a mistake, however, to ignore his achievements in vocal music. Between 1713 and 1719,
Venetian theaters staged more works by him than by any other composer, and his fame was not
limited to his own city and country.
Concertos
Vivaldi's instrumental works, especially the concertos, have a freshness of melody, a rhythmic
drive, a skillful treatment of solo and orchestral color, and a clarity of form that have made
them perennial favorites. Many of the sonatas, as well as some of the early concertos, betray
their debt to Corelli. However, in his first published collection of concertos (Opus 3, ca. 1712)
Vivaldi already showed that he was fully aware of the modern preference for the more distinct
musical form, vigorous rhythm, and idiomatic solo writing that characterized the music of
Torelli.
Solo concertos
About two-thirds of Vivaldi's concertos are scored for one solo instrument with orchestra-most
for violin, but a considerable number also for cello, flute, or bassoon. The concertos for two
violins give the soloists equal prominence, producing the texture of a duet for two high voices.
But many works that call for several solo instruments are in effect solo or duo concertos rather
than genuine concerti grossi: Vivaldi singled out from the concertina one or two instruments
and gave them particularly virtuosic passages.
Vivaldi's orchestra at the Pieta consisted of some twenty to twenty-five stringed instruments,
with harpsichord or organ for the continuo. This was always the basic group, though in many
concertos he also called for flutes, oboes, bassoons, or horns, any of which might be used either
as solo instru- ments or in ensemble combinations. The exact size and makeup of the or- chestra
depended on what players were available for a particular occasion. Vivaldi achieved a
remarkable variety of color with different groupings of solo and orchestral strings. The familiar
Primavera (Spring) concerto-the first of a group of four concertos in Opus 8 (1725) representing
the four seasons-displays his extraordinary instinct for sonorities.
Most of Vivaldi's concertos follow the usual pattern of three movements: an Allegro; a slow
movement in the same key or a closely related one (relative minor, dominant, or subdominant);
and a final Allegro somewhat shorter and sprightlier than the first. Vivaldi abandoned the older
fugal style in favor of a more homophonic rather than contrapuntal texture, emphasizing the
two outer voices. In the fast movements, as in Torelli's, ritornellos for the full orchestra alternate
with episodes for the soloist (or soloists). Vivaldi distinguished himself in the spontaneity of
his musical ideas, his clear formal structures, assertive harmonies, varied textures, and forceful
rhythms. He established a certain dramatic tension between solo and tutti, not only by giving
the soloist contrasting figuration (as Torelli had already done), but also by letting the soloist
prevail as a dominating musical personality. Vivaldi transferred the musical dialogue of the
 95

operatic ritornello, or da capo aria-the exchange between singer and orchestra to the
instrumental concerto.

Form of the Allegro

Vivaldi's approach to the first Allegro is illustrated in the second movement (the first is an
introductory Adagio) of the Concerto grosso in G minor, Op. 3, No. 2 RV 578’ (NAWM 95b,
Audio 047b). The concertina consists of two violins and a cello. The opening ritornello has
three distinct motivic sections (marked a, b, and c in Example 12.1), the last of which is an
inverted counterpoint of the second. The solo sections contain mostly harmonic- melodic
figuration, but the second solo section makes a veiled reference to the opening tutti motive. An
unusual feature is that the closing ritornello reverses the order of the themes, with the concertina
playing the opening one. This movement is also unusual because only one of the four main tutti
is in a foreign key, D minor. Far from following a textbook plan, Vivaldi's Allegro structures
show an almost infinite variety of invention.
Slow Movement
Vivaldi became the first composer to make the slow movement as important as the two
Allegros. His slow movement is typically a long- breathed, expressive, cantabile melody, like
an adagio operatic aria or arioso, to which the performer was expected to add embellishments.
The slow movements of the later concertos are particularly forward looking. The Largo
(NAWM 96, Audio 048) from the Concerto for Violin, Op. 9, No.2 (1728), exhibits many
features of the early Classic style: trills, triplets, balanced phrases, frequent half cadences
clarifying the structure, and cadences softened by appoggiaturas.
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Changing style
Vivaldi's music parallels the stylistic changes of the first half of the eighteenth century. At the
conservative extreme are some of the sonatas and con- certos in the style of Corelli; at the
progressive extreme are the solo concerto finales, the orchestral concertos (those without solo
instruments), and most of the twenty-three sinfonias-works that establish Vivaldi as a founder
of the Classic symphony. The concise form, the markedly homophonic texture, the melodically
simple themes, the minuet finale- as well as some traits thought to have been invented by
German composers of the Mannheim school in the next generation-had already appeared in
Vivaldi's works.
LA PRIMAVERA (SPRING), CONCERTO FOR VIOLIN AND STRING
ORCHESTRA, OP. 8, NO. 1, FROM THE FOUR SEASONS (1725)
Vivaldi's most popular work is the concerto La Primavera (Spring) from The Four Seasons, a
set of four solo concertos for violin, string orchestra, and basso continuo. Each of these
concertos depicts sounds and events associated with one of the seasons, such as the bird songs
heard in spring and the gentle breezes characteristic of summer. The descriptive effects in the
music correspond to images and ideas found in the sonnets that preface each of the four
concertos. To make his intentions absolutely clear, Vivaldi placed lines from the poems at the
appropriate passages in the musical score and even added such descriptive labels as sleeping
goatherd and barking dog. The Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter concertos are examples
of baroque program music, or instrumental music associated with a story, poem, idea, or scene.
They are forerunners of the more elaborate program music that developed during the romantic
period.
The Spring Concerto was as popular in Vivaldi’s time as it is in ours and was a special favorite
of Louis XV, king of France. Once, when the violinist Guignon gave a concert at the court, the
king asked for Spring as an encore. This posed a problem, since the king's orchestra was not
present. Rising to the occasion, a group of nobles at the court volunteered to accompany the
violin soloist. A Paris newspaper reported that "this beautiful piece of music was performed
perfectly."
Like most of Vivaldi's concertos, Spring has three movements: (1) fast, (2) slow, (3) fast. Both
the first and last movements are in ritornello form.
First Movement: Allegro
Spring has come, and joyfully,
The birds greet it with happy song.
And the streams, fanned by gentle breezes,
Flow along with a sweet murmur.
Covering the sky with a black cloak,
Thunder and lightning come to announce the season.
When these have quieted down, the little birds
Return to their enchanting song.
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The allegro, in E major, opens with an energetic orchestral ritornello depicting the arrival of
spring. Each of the ritornello's two phrases is played loudly and then repeated softly, in the
terraced dynamics typical of baroque music. After the ritornello, the movement alternates
between ex-tended solo sections containing musical tone painting and brief tutti sections
presenting part of the ritornello theme. In the first solo section, bird songs are imitated by high
trills and repeated notes played by the violin soloist and two violins from the orchestra. In the
second descriptive episode, murmuring streams are suggested by soft running notes in the
violins. The next solo section contains string tremolos and rapid scales representing thunder
and lightning. Following the storm, the ritornello appears in minor instead of in major. All the
pictorial passages in this movement provide contrasts of texture and dynamics between returns
of the ritornello theme. The allegro's tunefulness, rhythmic vitality, and light, homophonic
texture evoke the feeling of springtime.
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Second Movement:
Largo e pianissimo sempre (very slow and very soft throughout)
And then, on a pleasant meadow covered with flowers,
Lulled by the soft murmuring of leaves and branches,
The goatherd sleeps, his faithful dog at his side.
The peaceful slow movement, in C sharp minor, is much quieter than the energetic opening
movement. It uses only the solo violin and the orchestral violins and violas, omitting the cellos,
basses, and harpsichord. A tender, expansive melody for the solo violin depicts the goatherd's
slumber, while a soft, rocking figure in the violins suggests the rustling of leaves. The violas
imitate the barking of the goatherd's "faithful dog" with a repeated note figure in short-long
rhythm. The tranquility of this pastoral scene is evoked by the movement's unchanging texture,
rhythm, and dynamic level.
Third Movement:
Danza pastorale (Pastoral Dance)
To the festive sounds of country bagpipes,
Dance nymphs and shepherds in their beloved fields,
When spring appears in all its brilliance.
Like the first movement, the concluding Danza pastorale (Pastoral Dance), in E major,
alternates between tutti and solo sections. The playful ritornello theme, with its dotted rhythms,
suggests nymphs and shepherds dancing in the fields. Sustained tones in the lower strings
imitate the drone of country bagpipes. The sections for solo violin contain brilliant passages
with many melodic sequences, which are typical of baroque style.

The following outline will clarify the movement's ritornello form:

1. a. Tutti, ritornello, lilting melody in major.
b. Solo violin accompanied by basso continuo.
2. a. Tutti, varied ritornello in minor.
b. Solo violin joined by violin from orchestra, major.
c. Solo violin, staccato, accompanied by violins, faster rhythms.
3. a. Tutti, ritornello, major, varied in minor.
b. Solo violin accompanied by sustained tone in cellos and basses, minor.
4. Tutti, ritornello in major.

JEAN-PHILIPPE RAMEAU
Lully's greatest successor as a dramatic composer was Jean-Philippe Rameau. Born in Dijon,
in Burgundy, in 1683, Rameau began his career as an organist and theorist. He held posts in
various cities (and briefly in Paris) as a young man, and settled in Paris only in 1722-3 where
he soon published collections of harpsichord music and theoretical books that earned him a
reputation as an original and controversial thinker. As a composer, his ambitions lay in the
theater. Not until he was So did he make his début there, when his opera Hippolyte et Aricie
was given at the Paris Opéra. This work belongs to the Lullian genre of tragédie lyrique;
Rameau went on to write several more, and he also composed in the other French theatrical
forms, in particular the opéra-ballet (which is little more than a series of divertissements loosely
strung together, with dance playing a large part). For the remainder of his life Rameau divided
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his energies between theoretical musical studies and composing for the stage. When he died, at
the age of 81 in 1764, his last opera was in rehearsal. But he is said to have cared more about
his theories than his compositions, for he was eager to interpret music in line with the rationalist,
scientific outlook of his time. His theories were widely criticized. So was his music: initially
his operas were attacked for their departures from the Lullian style, which was regarded as
classical and immutable; later they were compared, often unfavorably, with the comic operas
that visiting Italian troupes were giving in Paris.
Jean-Philippe Rameau Works
born Dijon, 1683; died Paris, 1764
Operas (c30) Hippolyte et Aricie (1733), Les Indes galantes (1735), Castor et Pollux (1737)
Keyboard music 65 pieces for harpsichord
Chamber music 5 pieces for harpsichord and 2 instruments (1741)
Sacred choral music -motets
Cantatas
La Pouplinière
Despite the stultifying influence of Louis XIV's absolute rule, Paris in the early eighteenth
century was a musical crossroads where the public could enjoy the latest from Italy as well as
from native composers. Besides the royal court, the leading patron of the arts, and especially of
music, was Alexandre - Jean-Joseph Le Riche de la Pouplinière (1693-1762), who supported
an orchestra, sponsored concerts for the wealthy, and took pleasure in promoting the careers of
obscure musicians. One of his biggest successes was Jean- Philippe Rameau (1683-1764), who
subsequently became the foremost French musician of the century. Descendant of an ancient
and noble French family, La Pouplinière had inherited an immense fortune that he increased by
speculation. He maintained several residences in Paris as well as houses in the country nearby.
His salon attracted a motley company of aristocrats, writers (Voltaire and J.-J. Rousseau),
painters (Van Loo-see and La Tour), adventurers (Casanova), and above all, musicians.
Rameau's life
Rameau entered this circle fairly late in life. He was practically unknown before the age of
forty, first attracting attention as a theorist and only afterward as a composer. In fact, Rameau
composed most of his famous mu- sical works between the ages of fifty and fifty-six. Attacked
then as a radical, he was assailed twenty years later even more severely as a reactionary. He
enjoyed the favor of the French court and prospered during the later years of his life, always
remaining a solitary, argumentative, and unsociable person but a conscientious and intelligent
artist.
From his father, an organist in Dijon, Rameau received his first and, as far as we know, only
formal musical instruction. After holding provincial posts for two decades, he published his
famous Traité de l'harmonie (Treatise on Harmony) in 1722 and then returned to Paris. Only
there could a composer achieve true success and reputation, and the high road for a composer-
indeed the only road to real fame-was the opera. Rameau's prospects were poor: he had neither
money nor influential friends, nor the disposition of a good courtier. Seeking better
opportunities, he wrote airs and dances for three or four little musical comedies, pieces with
spoken dialogue performed at the popular theaters of Paris. He published some cantatas and
several books of clavecin pieces. Meanwhile, his reputation as a teacher and organist began to
attract students. Finally, Rameau's luck changed when in 1731 he was appointed La
Pouplinière's organist, conductor, and composer-in-residence, a position he held until1753.
 100

RAMEAU'S THEORETICAL WORKS

Theory, or the "science" of music as it was called at the time, engaged Rameau throughout his life as he
tried to derive the basic principles of harmony from the laws of acoustics. In his numerous writings,
Rameau not only clarified the musical practice of his time but also influenced music theory for the next
two hundred years. A synopsis of his most important ideas about tonal harmony follows.
(1) A chord is the primal element in music. The major triad is generated naturally when a string is divided
into two, three, four, and five equal parts, which produces the octave, the fifth above it, the double-octave,
and the major third above that. (Rameau later became aware that the overtone series supports this
theory.)
(2) Chords are built up by thirds within the octave, so that triads can be expanded to seventh chords, and
beyond the octave to ninth and eleventh chords.
(3) The basse fondamentale, or fundamental bass, is the underlying or determining bass line found by
linking together the roots of chords in a progres- sion of harmonies not necessarily in root position.
(Rameau also recognized the identity of a chord through all its inversions.)
(4) The tonic, dominant, and subdominant chords are the pillars of tonality. By identifying these three and
their associated network of chords, Rameau formulated the relationships of functional harmony.
(5) Modulation results from the change in function of a chord (in modern terminology, a pivot chord).

Rameau’s operas
La Pouplinière helped Rameau make his name as an opera composer. He funded a production
of Hippolyte et Aricie, which was performed privately in 1733 before being produced in Paris
later the same year. A more distinct success came in 1735 with Rameau's opera- ballet Les
Indes galantes (The Gallant Indies). Two years later Rameau composed Castor et Pollux, the
opera that is usually regarded as his masterpiece. From the first, his operas stirred up a storm
of critical controversy. The Paris intelligentsia, always eager for a battle of words, divided into
two noisy camps, one supporting Rameau and the other attacking him as a subverter of the good
old French opera tradition of Lully. The Lullists found Rameau's music difficult, forced,
grotesque, thick, mechanical, and unnatural-in a word, baroque. Rameau protested, in a
foreword to Les Indes galantes, that he had sought to imitate Lully, not as a servile copyist but
in taking, like him, nature herself-so beautiful and so simple-as a model."
Polemical writings and further theoretical essays occupied Rameau's closing years. He died in
Paris in 1764; feisty to the end, he found strength even on his deathbed to reproach the priest,
who came to administer the last rites, for poor chanting.
Although he wrote many further operas, Rameau did not surpass his achievement in Hippolyte
et Aricie. Following the usual French pattern, it is a five-act opera with a prologue; it is based
on classical mythology, and further, Rameau's librettist drew on a play by Racine which would
also have been familiar to his audiences. The prologue is allegorical, about a dispute between
Diana (goddess of chastity) and Cupid (god of love), which Jupiter settles in Love's favor: this
bears only indirectly on the rest of the opera. The main plot is concerned with the adulterous
love of Phaedra, second wife of King Theseus, for his son Hippolytus, who in turn loves Aricia.
There are the traditional divertissements: in the third act, for example, Theseus is welcomed
home by singing and dancing from a troupe of sailors, and a troupe of hunters in the fourth
offers entertainment to Hippolytus and Aricia. But in the second act the dance is better
integrated into the action, for it is performed by infernal spirits during an expedition by Theseus
into the underworld.
Unlike Italian opera of the time, in which there is a clear break between recitative (where the
action takes place) and aria (where a -character expresses his or her feelings), French opera has
 101

a relatively continuous texture. The recitative imitates the rise and fall of speech, but in a
formal, declamatory manner, while the arias are usually brief and rarely lyrical in character,
with no vocal roulades or florid writing and little repetition of words.
Rameau is at his most powerful in scenes like the one following Hippolytus's death, which
gives scope for the expression of strong feeling; his style, in which - following his own theories
- a dissonance should sound on every chord, if possible, except the tonic of the home key, lends
itself to the expression of anguish. By contrast, the other most striking feature of any Rameau
opera is the dance music. He applied to the established dance rhythms of French music a
remarkable originality - of line, of harmony, of orchestration; these pieces are sometimes warm
and sensuous, always in some way piquant and emotionally suggestive. The very first dance in
Act 1, for the priestesses of Diana, is typical in its hint of sadness beneath the gentle surface
(ex. VI. 10). (Video 050)
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Listening Note
Rameau: Hippolyte et Aricie (1733), closing scene of Act 4
Dramatic context: While Theseus, King of Athens, is away, his wife Phaedra has fallen in
love with Hippolytus, Theseus's son by a previous marriage. Hippolytus, who anyway loves
Aricia, rejects Phaedra, who asks him to kill her and seizes his sword, as he snatches it back
Theseus returns. Phaedra allows him to think that Hippolytus was forcing his attentions on her
(which Hippolytus is too honorable to deny); accordingly, Theseus asks his father, Neptune,
god of the seas, to punish H ippolytus. H ippolytus is (apparently) killed by a sea-monster sent
by Neptune.
The music: In this scene, where Phaedra enters to learn that through her deception she has
caused the death of the man she loved, her tragedy and guilt are conveyed in declamation of a
kind parallel to that of the French classical theater; Rameau's recitative is flexible in meter,
following the natural rhythm of the words and heightening their emotion by adapting in music
the natural rise and fall of the speaking voice. The scene is in three sections. Mm. 1-26: Phaedra
enters and learns the situation from the hunters, who witnessed Hippolytus's disappearance in
his fight with the monster; she sings in straightforward recitative. Mm. 26-48: Now Phaedra
gives vent to her feelings, the claps of thunder that she hears and the shaking of the earth that
she feels are represented by the orchestra, and her vocal line is freer and more vivid. Mm. 49-
77: here she returns to a more formal declamatory manner of recitative as she addresses the
gods.
PHAEDRA
mm.
1 Quelle plainte en ces lieux m'appelle ? What complaint calls me to this place?
CHORUS
(huntsmen and huntswomen)
3 Hippolyte n'est plus. Hippolytus is no more.
PHAEDRA
5 II n'est plus! ô douleur mortelle! He is no more! oh mortal grief!
CHORUS
7 0 regrets superflus! 0 vain regrets!
PHAEDRA
8 Quel sort l'a fait tomber dans la nuit éternelle? What fate made him fall into eternal
night?

CHORUS
10 Un monstre furieux, sorti du sein des flots, A raging monster, rising from the
depths of the waves,
Vient de nous ravir ce héros. Has just snatched the hero from us.
PHAEDRA
17 Non, sa mort est mon seul ouvrage. No, his death is caused by me alone.
Dans les Enfers c'est par moi qu'il descend. It is because of me that he is descending into
the underworld.
Neptune de Thésée a cru venger l'outrage. Neptune thought he would avenge Theseus's
wrong.
J'ai versé le sang innocent. I have shed innocent blood.
26 Qu'ai-je fait? Quels remords! What have I done? What remorse?
Ciel! J'entends le tonnerre. Heavens! I hearthunder.
Quel bruit! quels terribles éclats! What noise! what terrible thunderclaps!
Fuyons! où me cacher? I must flee! where shall I hide?
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Je sens trembler la terre. I feel the earth shake.

Les Enfers s'ouvrent sous mes pas. Hell gapes beneath me.
Tous les dieux, conjurés All the gods, conspiring
Pour me livrer la guerre, To wage war on me,
Arment leurs redoutables bras. Arm their redoubtable hands.
49 Dieux cruels, vengeurs implacables! Cruel gods, implacable avengers!
Suspendez un courroux qui me glace d'effroi! Hold back your wrath which freezes me with
terror!
58 Ah! si vous êtes équitables, Ah! if you are fair,
Ne tonnez pas encore sur moi! Thunder on me no longer!
La gloire d'un héros que l'injustice opprime, The glory of a hero oppressed by injustice,
Vous demande un juste secours. Demands due relief from you.
68 Laissez-moi révéler à l'auteur de ses jours Let me reveal to his progenitor
Et son innocence et mon crime! Both his innocence and my guilt!
CHORUS
72 0 remords superflus! Hippolyte n'est plus! O vain remorse! Hippolytus is no more!
(words by Simon-Joseph Pellegrin)

Rameau's later musical tragedies, apart perhaps from Castor et Pollux (his second, 1737), suffer
from inferior librettos and rarely achieve the dramatic force of Hippolyte et Aricie. The dances
retain their sparkle, but the characters rarely have much depth. Nevertheless, Rameau's operas
continued the tradition established by Lully and without them the synthesis of Gluck's operas
of the 1760s and 1770s would hardly have been possible.
Characteristics of French opera
French opera after Lully acquired an ever larger proportion of decorative elements: scenic
spectacle, descriptive orchestral music, dances, choruses, and songs. The dramatic element,
even in works called tragedies lyriques, had deteriorated in both importance and quality, and
eventually opera- ballet lost all but the thinnest thread of continuity between dramatic scenes.
For example, Rameau's Les Indes galantes, one of his most frequently performed works in
modern times, had four entrees or acts, each with a self - contained plot located in a different
quarter of the globe. It presented a variety of decorations and dances that gratified the early
eighteenth- century French public's interest in exotic scenes and peoples.
The entree The Generous Turk," set in an island of the Indian Ocean," has a plot outline later
used by Mozart for his Abduction from the Seraglio. The other entrees were The Incas of Peru,"
The Flowers, a Persian Festival," and “The Savages," which takes place ina forest of America"
and introduces Spanish and French characters as well as native people. Rameau's music,
however, is far more dramatic than the libretto would suggest.
Rameau’s musical styles
The musical features of Rameau's theater works resemble Lully's in several ways: both exhibit
realistic declamation and precise rhythmic nota- tion in the recitatives; both mix recitative with
more tuneful, formally organized airs, choruses, and instrumental interludes; and both include
frequent long scenes of divertissement. In addition, the form of the overture in Rameau's early
operas is the same as Lully's. But within this general framework, Rameau introduced many
changes, so that the resemblance between his music and Lully's is largely superficial.
Melodic style and Harmonic style
Perhaps the most notable difference lies in the nature of the melodic lines. Rameau the
composer constantly practiced the doctrine of Rameau the theorist-that all melody is rooted in
harmony. Many of his melodic phrases are plainly triadic and leave no uncertainty as to the
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harmonic progressions that must support them. Also, orderly relationships within the major-
minor tonal system of dominants, subdominants, and secondary chords, and logical
modulations govern the harmony. Rameau drew from a richer palette than Lully of consonant
and dissonant chords: he employed both more direct and more contrived progressions, and used
modulation for expressive purposes. His harmonies are for the most part diatonic, but on
occasion he uses chromatic and enharmonic modulations very effec- tively. For example, in the
trio of the Fates in Act II of Hippolyte etAricie (Example 12.2), a descending chromatic
sequence modulates rapidly through five keys in as many measures, underlining the words “où
cours-tu, malheureux? Tremble, fremis d'effroi!" (Where do you flee, wretch? Tremble,
shudder with terror!).

Airs
Compared to Italian opera composers, Rameau-like Lully and other French composers-
minimized the contrast between recitative and air. Rameau's vocal airs, in all their variety of
dimensions and types, fall into two basic patterns: the relatively short two-part form AB; and
the longer form with repetition after contrast, either ABA or a rondo -like pattern. His airs
preserve a certain coolness and restraint, lacking the intensity and abandon of the Italian opera
arias. Their outstanding traits are elegance, catchy rhythms, fullness of harmony, and melodic
ornamentation through the use of agrements.
Rameau's music achieved dramatic force in the monologues. The opening scenes of Castor et
Pollux, for example, and the monologue, Ah! faut-il, in Act IV of Hippolyte et Aricie (NAWM
78, Audio 053) have a grandeur that is unsurpassed in eighteenth century French opera.
Hippolyte expresses his anguish with highly charged dissonances that propel the harmony
forward, as we see from the number of sevenths, ninths, diminished fifths, and augmented
fourths required by the bass figures, and from the obligatory appoggiaturas and other notated
ornaments. Rameau achieved the most powerful effects by joining solo voices and chorus.
Choruses
Choruses, which remained prominent in French opera long after they had passed out of use in
Italy, are numerous throughout Rameau's works. The chorus that describes and mourns Hip-
polyte's death at the hands of the sea monster in Act IV provides a stunning example of his
highly effective homophonic choral writing.
Instrumental music
Rameau made his most original contribution in the instrumental com- ponents of his operas-the
overtures, the dances, and the descriptive symphonies that accompany the stage action. In all
these his invention was inexhaustible. Themes, rhythms, and harmonies have a marked
individuality and a decisive pictorial quality. The French valued music for its powers of
depiction, and Rameau was their champion tone-painter. His musical illustrations range from
graceful miniatures to broad representations of thunder (Hippolyte, Act I) (Video 054),
tempest (Les Surprises de l’Amour [I757], Act III), or earthquake (Les Indes galantes, Act II)
 105

(Video 055). Novel orchestration often enhances the imagistic quality of his music. Rameau's
use of the bassoons and horns, and the independence of the woodwinds in his later scores,
rivaled the most advanced orchestral practices of his time.
Clavecin pieces
Rameau's clavecin pieces have the fine texture, rhythmic vivacity, elegance of detail, and
humor that we associate with the works of Couperin. In his third and last collection (Nou elles
suites de pieces de cla ecin, ca. 1t 8), Rameau experimented with virtuoso effects in somewhat
the same manner as the contemporary Italian keyboard composer Domenico Scarlatti had.

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH

Compared to the exciting cosmopolitan centers like Venice and Paris, an eighteenth - century
traveler would have found the world of Lutheran Germany-where Johann Sebastian Bach
(1685-1750) spent his entire career - very ordinary indeed. For example, one of its principal
cities, Leipzig, had several prominent churches and one of Europe's oldest universities, but not
one opera house after 172.9, nor any princes or bishops in residence. For the last twenty-five
years of his life, Bach lived and worked in Leipzig, where he was forced to confront apathy and
to engage in petty disputes with town and university officials. Although he enjoyed a reputation
in Protestant Germany as an organ virtuoso and writer of learned contrapuntal works, he
remained unknown in wider circles. Unlike Vivaldi, who traveled and was recognized
throughout Europe, or Rameau, who rubbed shoulders with Parisian high society, Bach saw
himself as a conscientious craftsman doing a job to the best of his ability in order to satisfy his
superiors, to please and edify his fellow citizens, and to glorify God.
Bach’s life and works
Johann Sebastian was one of a large family of Bachs that came from the German region of
Thuringia. In the course of six generations, from around 1560 to the nineteenth century, the
Bach family produced an extraordinary number of good musicians and several outstanding
ones. Our Bach received his earliest training from his father, a town musician of Eisenach, and
from his elder brother Johann Christoph, an organist who was a pupil of Pachelbel. He studied
the music of other composers by copying or arranging their scores, a habit he retained
throughout his life. In this way, he became familiar with the methods of the foremost composers
in France, Germany, Austria, and Italy, assimilating the best traits of each.
In 1702 Bach left Lüneburg. Appointments as organist at this time were normally open to
competition: Bach applied for one at Sangerhausen, won, and was offered the post, but the local
duke intervened and appointed an older man. Bach soon found a position at Weimar, as "lackey-
musician" at the secondary court there (this was a junior post, as a servant with some musical
duties). After a few months he obtained an appointment more fitted to his abilities, as organist
of the New Church in Arnstadt; this was a minor church, the third in importance there. Bach
did not stay long and does not seem to have been particularly content in Arnstadt. Once, in the
company of his second cousin Barbara Catharina, he was involved in a fight after insulting a
bassoonist; he was reprimanded and was also told that his work was unsatisfactory- apparently
he got on badly with the students in the choir and failed to rehearse them properly. Soon after
this he was granted leave to go to Lübeck - some 250 miles away, a journey he made on foot -
to hear Buxtehude play; he overstayed by almost three months, probably so that he could hear
some Abendmusik performances and possibly so that he could inquire about succeeding the
68-year-old Buxtehude. Again he was in trouble on his return, not only for his long absence but
also for his still unsatisfactory work; the authorities now also complained that he introduced
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strange notes and elaborations into the hymns, making them difficult for the congregation to
follow. And he was in trouble for bringing a young woman into the church.
Bach composed in all the genres practiced in his time with the exception of opera. He wrote
primarily to meet the demands of the positions he held, and his works may be grouped
accordingly. Thus at Arnstadt (1703-7), Muhlhausen (1707-8), and the court and chapel of the
duke of Weimar (1708-17), where he was employed as an organist, most of his compositions
were f or that instrument. At Cothen (1717- 23), where he worked as music director for a
princely court, he mostly composed works for keyboard or instrumental ensembles, as well as
music for instruction and for domestic or court entertainment. He produced most of his cantatas
and other church music during his years in Leipzig (1723-50), where his final position as cantor
of St. Thomas's School and music director at St. Thomas's and St. Nicholas's churches carried
considerable prestige in the Lutheran world. Some of his most important mature compositions
for organ and other keyboard instruments also date from the Leipzig period. Consequently, our
survey of Bach's compositions follows the order that corresponds approximately to his places
of employment.
Johann Sebastian Bach Life
1685 born in Eisenach, 21 March
1700 chorister at St Michael, Lüneburg
1703 organist at the New Church, Arnstadt
1705-6 visited Lübeck to hear Buxtehude
1707 organist at St Blasius, Mühlhausen, married Maria Barbara Bach
1708 court organist in Weimar, prolific output of organ works
1713 Konzertmeister at Weimar court, responsible for providing a new cantata every four
weeks
1717 Kapellmeister to Prince Leopold in Cöthen, many instrumental works, including
Brandenburg Concertos, violin concertos, sonatas and keyboard music
1720 Maria Barbara Bach died
1721 married Anna Magdalena Wilcken
1723 Kantorof St Thomas's School, Leipzig, supplying cantata for the main city churches each
Sunday
1727 St Matthew Passion
1729 director of the collegium musicum in Leipzig
1741 Berlin and Dresden, Goldberg Variations
cl 745 The Art of Fugue
1747 visited Frederick the Great's court in Berlin, Musical Offering 1749 B minor Mass
1750 died in Leipzig, 28 July

Johann Sebastian Bach Works

Sacred choral music St John Passion (1724); St Matthew Passion (1'727); Christmas Oratorio
(1734); Mass, b (1749); Magnificat, D (1723); over 200 church cantatas-- no. 80, Ein feste
Burg ist unser Gott (cl744), no. 140, Wachet auf (1731); motets -Singet dem Herrn (1727), Jesu
meine Freude (?1723); chorales, sacred - songs, arias
Secular vocal music over 30 cantatas- no, 211, "Coffee Cantata" (cl 735); no. 212, "'Peasant
Cantata" (1742)
Orchestral music Brandenburg Concertos nos. 1-6 (1721); 4 orchestral suites -C (cl 725), b
(cl73 ), D (cl 731), D (1725); harpsichord concertos; sinfonias
 107

Chamber music 6 sonatas and partitas for solo violin (1720); 6 sonatas for violin and
harpsichord (1723); 6 suites for solo cello (c1720); Musikalisches Opfer (Musical offering,
1747); flute sonatas, trio sonatas
Keyboard music Chromatic fantasia and fugue, d (cl720); Das wohltemperïrte Clavier (The
weli-tempered keyboard), "`48" (1722,1742); 6 English Suites (cl724); 6 French Suites
(c1724);6 Partitas (1731); Italian Concerto (1735);' French Overture (1735); Goldberg
Variations (1741); Die Kunst der Fuge (The art of fugue; cl 745); inventions, suites, dances,
toccatas, fugues, capriccios
Organ music over 600 chorale preludes; concertos, preludes, fugues, toccatas, fantasias,
sonatas

BACH AT ARNSTADT, MÜHLHAUSEN, AND WEIMAR: THE ORGAN WORKS

Bach was trained as a violinist and organist, but it was organ music that first attracted his
interest as a composer. As a youth, he visited Hamburg to hear the organists there, and while
working in Arnstadt he made a journey on foot to Lübeck-a distance of about two hundred
miles-to hear the famous Buxtehude, who was then almost seventy. There the music of the older
composer so fascinated him that he overstayed his leave and got into trouble with his employers.
Bach's earliest organ compositions include chorale preludes, several sets of variations on
chorales, and some toccatas and fantasias that recall the toccatas of Buxtehude in their length
and exuberance. While at the court of Weimar, Bach became interested in the music of Italian
composers and, with his usual diligence, copied their scores and arranged their works. He
reduced several of Vivaldi's string concertos in order to play them on organ or harpsichord-
writing out the ornaments, occasionally reinforcing the counterpoint, and sometimes adding
inner voices. He also composed fugues on subjects by Corelli and Legrenzi. These studies
naturally resulted in important changes in Bach's own style. From the Italians, especially
Vivaldi, he learned to write concise themes and to clarify and tighten the harmonic scheme.
Above all, he learned to develop subjects into grandly proportioned formal structures,
particularly concerto-ritornello movements. He enhanced these qualities with his own prolific
imagination and his profound mastery of contrapuntal technique. In addition, he was able to
merge characteristics of Italian, French, and German music to forge a personalized and highly
distinctive style all his own.
Weimar had an unusual court regime, being jointly ruled by a senior and a junior duke. Bach
had previously been employed by the junior; now he was working for the senior, Duke Wilhelm
Ernst, and in a much more important capacity. Moreover, the duke admired his playing, and
seems to have encouraged him in composition. Many of Bach's organ works were written at
Weimar, including most of those in the prelude-and-fugue (or toccata-and-fugue) category, in
which a fairly free and often brilliant first section is followed by a fugue, along the Buxtehude
model, as well as chorale preludes, where a familiar chorale melody would be woven into the
musical texture.
Preludes and fugues
One of the favorite larger musical structures in this period was the combination of prelude (or
toccata or fantasia) and fugue. Most of Bach's important compositions in this form are idiomatic
for the organ and technically difficult, although they never parade empty virtuosity and their
well-defined fugue subjects show remarkable inventiveness. The Toccata in D minor, BWV
565 (before 1708?), exemplifies the form established by Buxtehude, in which a fugue is
interspersed with sections of free fantasia. (BWV (abbreviation for "Bach Werke-Verzeichnis")
stands for Thematisch-systematisches Verzeichnis der musikalischen Werke von johann Sebastian
 108

Bach (Thematic -Systematic Index of the Musical Works of J. S. Bach), ed. Wolfgang Schmieder
(Leipzig, 1950). The abbreviationS. (for Schmieder) is sometimes used instead of BWV for referring
to Bach's works.)
Some of Bach's preludes are extended compositions in two or three movements: for example,
the Fantasia and Fugue in G minor, BWV 542, is a passionately expressive fantasia/toccata
with contrapuntal interludes.
Elements of the Italian concerto appear in several toccatas and fugues, particularly in the
Prelude and Fugue in A minor, BWV 543 (NAWM 101, Audio 056). In the prelude, violinistic
figuration resembling that of concerto solos alternates with toccata -like sections, including a
pedal solo and chains of suspensions in the manner of Corelli. The fugue's structure resembles
a concerto Allegro: the expositions of the violinistic subject appear, like tutti, in related keys as
well as in the tonic, and the more free-flowing, modulatory episodes have the character of solo
sections.
From the later years of Bach's life comes the gigantic Prelude and Fugue (“St. Anne's") in E
major, BWV 552, published in 1739. They appear as the opening and closing sections of Part
III of the Clavier-Ubung (literally, Keyboard Practice," a catchall title that Bach used for four
different collections of keyboard pieces). Part III comprises a series of chorale preludes on the
hymns of the Lutheran Catechism and Mass (Kyrie and Gloria, the so-called Missa brevis). In
symbolic recognition of the Trinity, the conclusion is a triple fugue in three sections with a key
signature of three flats. Each section of the fugue has its own subject, and the first subject is
combined contra- puntally with each of the other two.
Orgelbüchlein
As an organist and a devout Lutheran, Bach cared deeply about the chorale. In writing some
170 organ chorales, he exhausted all known types in a constant search for artistic perfection.
Bach's Orgelbüchlein (Little Organ Book) contains short chorale preludes, compiled at Weimar
and Cothen with his pupils in mind. So we read on the title page, Little organ book, in which a
beginning organist is given guidance in all sorts of ways of developing a chorale, and also for
improving his pedal technique, since in these chorales the pedal is treated as completely
obbligato [essential, not optional]." He added a rhymed couplet, “To honor the Most High God
alone, and for the instruction of my fellow-men." It seems plausible that Bach, a humble and
diligent student all his life, was also a wise and kindly teacher.
Pedagogic aims
He compiled two Little Notebooks"-collections of short keyboard pieces that taught technique
and musicianship-for his talented son Wilhelm Friedemann and for his second wife Anna
Magdalena. His two-part inventions and three-part Sinfonie are also pedagogical works, as is
the first book of The Well-Tempered Keyboard.
Chorale preludes
In each of the Orgelbuchlein 's chorale preludes, the tune is heard once in a readily recognizable
form. The melody is sometimes treated in canon and sometimes presented with fairly elaborate
ornaments. The accompanying voices are not necessarily derived from the chorale melody and,
in some instances, symbolize the visual images or underlying ideas of the chorale text through
pictorial or graphic motives. One of Bach's most striking organ representations is Durch Adams
Fall ist ganz erderbt (Through Adam's fall, all is spoiled, NAWM 99b, Audio 057). A jagged
series of dissonant leaps in the pedals depicts the idea of “fall," departing from a consonant
chord and falling into a dissonant one, as if from innocence into sin, while the twisting
chromatic lines in the inner voices suggest at once temptation, sorrow, and the sinuous writhing
of the serpent in the Garden of Eden (Example 12.3).
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Weimar had an unusual court regime, being jointly ruled by a senior and a junior duke. Bach
had previously been employed by the junior; now he was working for the senior, Duke Wilhelm
Ernst, and in a much more important capacity. Moreover, the duke admired his playing, and
seems to have encouraged him in composition. Many of Bach's organ works were written at
Weimar, including most ofthose in the prelude-and-fugue (or toccata-and-fugue) category, in
which a fairly free and often brilliant first section is followed by a fugue, along the Buxtehude
model, as well as chorale preludes, where a familiar chorale melody would be woven into the
musical texture. One chorale prelude of the Weimar period is based on Ein feste Burg (ex. VI.
11a). The opening of the prelude (ex. 11b) (Video 058) shows a typically original treatment: it
starts with the chorale melody in the left hand, slightly elaborated and then running offinto
lively sixteenths; the right hand res ponds with a speeded-up version of the second line before
giving out the first at slower speed, while the left takes up the fast version of the second. The
Arnstadt fathers may not have liked Bach's elaborations on hymns, but clearly the Weimar duke
relished the ingenuity of his art, especially as his settings of these chorales so often mirror
faithfull y the sense of the words associated with them;
 110

BACH AT CÖTHEN
Bach was at Weimar until 1717. During his years there six children were born to him and his
wife, including two who were to become composers, Wilhelm Friedemann (born in 1710) and
Carl Philipp Emanuel (born in 1714). Professionally, he was active in teaching and in organ
and harpsichord construction and repairs. In 1713 he applied for a post as organist at Halle, and
was duly offered the position; but the duke, when he was told, gave Bach a salary increase and
promoted him to Konzertmeister, with the task of providing a new cantata every four weeks.
Soon after, however, something seems to have gone wrong. From 1716 there are few cantatas,
and none from 1717. At the end of 1716 the old Kapellmeister died, and perhaps Bach expected
to be promoted again to the senior post; but he heard that the duke was looking elsewhere (the
post was offered to Telemann, who declined). So Bach sought a similar position, and was
offered one by Prince Leopold of Cöthen. He applied in such strong terms for his release that
the duke sent him to prison for four weeks and then dismissed him.
Bach must have been glad to move. At Weimar his employer was a strict disciplinarian who
imposed puritanical standards on his employees; at Cöthen, Prince Leopold, a younger man,
was a keen music-lover, a good amateur player himself, and a kind employer and good friend
to Bach. By faith he was Calvinist; which meant that music played a very small part in worship;
Bach wrote a few cantatas for special occasions but his chief duty was to provide music for his
employer's entertainment and perhaps participation. Bach's life seems to have been active and
varied: he was in demand for testing new organs, he had trips to Berlin to buy a new
harpsichord, and he was one of the small group of musicians (some five out of a payroll of 15)
who accompanied Prince Leopold when he went to take the waters at a fashionable spa in
Bohemia. It was during the second of such visits, in 1720, that tragedy struck the Bach family:
he came back to find his wife, Maria Barbara, dead and buried. She was only 36, and left a
family of four (two had died in infancy), aged eleven, nine, six and five. At the end of rear,
Bach remarried: his new wife, Anna Magdalena, was a singer at the court (or became one on
her marriage), and like his first wife came from local musical stock - her father was a court
trumpeter at nearby Weissenfels. She was only 20; Bach was 36. The marriage seems to have
been happy, to judge by the tales of domestic music-making and the books he compiled for her
 111

of simple and tuneful keyboard pieces - and it was certainly fruitful, for she bore him no fewer
than 113 children, of whom six grew to maturity and two achieved fame as composers Uohann
Christoph Friedrich, born in 1732, and Johann Christian, born in 1735).
In the month of Bach's marriage, his employer was also married. Leopold's new wife,
unhappily, did not share his love for music, and from this time on Bach found his position at
the court decreasing in importance. Bach had earlier considered leaving Cöthen: in 1720 he had
applied for an important post as organist in Hamburg, had played in the city (delighting
Reineken, the 97-year-old organist of St Catherine's Church there, with his command of the
traditional technique of improvising on a chorale melody), and had been offered the position;
but he declined, possibly because a hefty donation to the church funds seems to have been
expected of him. A new opportunity came up in 1722, and closer at hand, in Leipzig, the largest
city near the region where Bach had lived and worked. This was the post of Kantor of St
Thomas's School, which carried with it the city directorship of music. The duties were heavy,
but the prestige was high and the salary good. The Kantor was required to take general
responsibility for music in the city's four principal churches, in two of which (St Thomas's and
St Nicholas's) regular cantata performances with orchestra and choir were the rule; he also had
to supervise other civic musical activities, compose music for special occasions like weddings
or funerals as well as regular Sunday services, select the choirs and train the senior one himself,
and teach music at the school. (The teaching of Latin, a further requirement, was waived.) Other
distinguished musicians applied for this post, and it was first offered to Telemann, who,
however, was persuaded to remain in his Hamburg position). The second choice was J.C.
Graupner, Kapellmeister at Darmstadt and a former pupil at St Thomas's; but he too withdrew
when the Darmstadt authorities pressed him, with a salary increase, to stay there. The third
choice was Bach.Bach's music for these two keyboard inst ruments includes masterpieces in
every contemporary genre: preludes, fantasies, and toccatas; fugues and other pieces in fugal
style; dance suites; and sets of variations. In addition, there are early sonatas and capriccios,
miscellaneous short works (including many teaching pieces), and concertos with orchestra. The
harpsichord compositions, which were not bound to a local German tradition or liturgy as organ
works were, reveal the international features of Bach's style-the intermingling of Italian,
French, and German characteristics.
The well-tempered keyboard
Undoubtedly, Bach's best-known work for keyboard is the double cycle of preludes and fugues
that he titled Das wohltemperirte Clavier (The Well - Tempered Keyboard, I and II, 1722 and
ca. 1740). Each of the two cycles consists of twenty-four preludes and fugues, one pair in each
of the twelve major and minor keys. Part I is more unified in style and purpose than Part II,
which includes compositions from many different periods of Bach's life. In addition to
demonstrating the possibility of using all the keys, with the novel equal- or nearly equal-
tempered tuning, Bach had particular pedagogic intentions in Part I.
Preludes
In the typical prelude, Bach assigned the player a specific technical task, so that the piece
functioned as a kind of etude. But the teaching aims of The Well-Tempered Keyboard go
beyond mere technique because the preludes also illustrate different types of keyboard
composition. For example, Nos.1, (video 059a), 7, and 21 (video 059b) of Part I are toccatas,
No. 8 is a trio-sonata Grave, and No. 17 a concerto Allegro.
Fugues
The fugues are wonderfully varied in subjects, texture, form, and treatment; as a set, they
constitute a compendium of all the possibilities for monothematic fugal writing. Part I, No. 4
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in C# minor represents the archaic ricercare, and others illustrate the techniques of inversion,
canon, and augmentation (No.8, Eb minor), a da capo ending (No.3, C# major), and much more.
In Part II, the Fugue in D major (No.5) offers a superb example of a concentrated abstract
musical structure using the simplest materials, while the Prelude and Fugue in F# minor (No.
14) stands out for the beauty of its themes and its proportions. As in the organ fugues, each
subject has a clearly defined musical personality that unfolds throughout the entire piece.
Suites
Bach's harpsichord suites show the influence of French and Italian as well as German models.
He wrote three sets of six: the “English" suites, BWV 806-11 (1715); the “French" suites,
BWV 812 -17 (BWV 812: Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Menuet I, Menuet II, Gigue;
BWV 816: Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Gavotte, Bourrée, Loure, Gigue; BWV 817:
Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Gavotte, Polonaise, Bourrée, Menuet, Gigue) and the six
Partitas, BWV 825-30, which were first published separately and then collected in 1731 to form
Part I of the Clavier-Ubung (1731). The designations “French" and “English" for the suites are
not Bach's own, and both collections blend French and Italian qualities in a highly personal
style. Each set consists of the standard four dance movements-allemande, courante, sarabande,
and gigue-with additional short movements following the sarabande; each of the English" suites
opens with a prelude. In the preludes we can see very clearly the skill with which Bach
transferred the Italian ensemble idiom to the keyboard. The prelude of the third suite, for
example, simulates a concerto Allegro movement with alternating tutti and solo. The dances in
the “English" suites are based on French models and include several examples of the double
or ornamented repetition of a movement. (BWV 806: Prelude, Allemande, Courante I,
Courante II, Double I, Double II, Sarabande, Bourrée I, Bourrée II, Gigue)
Goldberg Variations
Bach raised the keyboard theme-and-variations genre to a new high point in his Aria mit
verschiedenen Veranderungen (Aria with Sundry Variations), BWV 988, published in 1741 or
1742 as Part IV of the Clavier-Übung and generally known as the Goldberg Variations. All
thirty variations preserve the bass and the harmonic structure of the theme, which is a sarabande
in two balanced sections. Every third variation is a canon, the first at the interval of a unison,
the second at a second, and so on through the ninth. For the thirtieth and last variation, Bach
wrote a quodlibet, a mixture of two popular song melodies combined in counterpoint above the
bass of the theme. To end the work, the original theme is repeated da capo. The noncanonic
variations take many different forms: invention, fugue, French ove1iure, florid slow aria, and,
at regular intervals, a sparkling bravura piece for two manuals.
BACH AT THE PRINCELY COURT OF CÖTHEN: SOLO AND ENSEMBLE MUSIC
At Cothen, Bach wrote sonatas, partitas, and suites for unaccompanied violin, cello, and flute,
in which he created the illusion of a harmonic and contrapuntal texture. By requiring the string
player to stop several strings at once and by writing solo melody lines that leap from one register
to another and back, he suggested an interplay of independent voices. The famous chaconne
from Bach's unaccompanied violin Partita in D minor illustrates this technique. Bach's chief
compositions for chamber ensemble are his sonatas for violin, viola da gamba, or flute and
harpsichord. Most of these works have four movements in slow-fast-slow-fast order, like the
sonata da chiesa. Indeed, most of them are virtual trio sonatas, since often the right- hand
harpsichord part is written as a melodic line in counterpoint with the other instrument.
Harpsychord concertos
Bach was one of the first to write (or arrange) concertos for harpsichord. He composed seven
for solo harpsichord with orchestra, three for two harpsichords, two for three harpsichords, and
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one for four harpsi- chords, this last an arrangement of a Vivaldi concerto for four violins. Most,
and possibly all, of the harpsichord concertos are, in fact, arrangements of violin compositions
by Bach or by other composers.
Orchestral suites
The four Ouvertures, or orchestral suites, BWV 1066-69, contain some of Bach's most
exuberant and attractive 1nusic. The Third and Fourth Suites (ca. 1729-31), which have
trumpets and timpani added to the strings and winds, were intended for performance out-of-
doors. Example:
Suite No. 2 in B minor, BWV 1067 (20mn.)
1. Ouverture (In B minor. Metrical sign of the opening section is ; (2’:20’’) metrical sign
of fugal section is ; 3’:23’’ metrical sign of ending section, marked Lentement, is ), 0:45’
2. Rondeau – written Rondeaux by Bach (In B minor. Metrical sign is ) 2’:00’’
3. Sarabande (In B minor. Metrical sign is ), with a canon at the 12th between the flute (plus
first violins) and the bass 3’:00’’
4. Bourrée I/II (In B minor. Metrical sign is ) 2’:00
5. Polonaise / Double (In B minor. Metrical sign for both is ); the flute part is marked
"Moderato e staccato" (2’:48’’) and the first violin part "lentement" (slowly) 1’:30’’
6. Menuet (In B minor. Metrical sign is ) 2’:15’’
7. Badinerie (In B minor. Metrical sign is ) Bach, in the autograph part, spells this
"Battinerie". 1’:30”
Instrumentation: Solo "Flute traversière", violin I/II, viola, basso continuo.
Other instrumental works
Two of Bach's late instrumental works form a class in themselves. Musikalisches Opfer (A
Musical Offering), BWV 1079, is a collection of various kinds of pieces, all based on a theme
proposed by Frederick the Great of Prussia (Example 12.4). Bach had improvised on the theme
while visiting the monarch at Potsdam in 1747, subsequently writing them out and later revising
his own improvisations. He then added a trio sonata in four movements for flute (King
Frederick's instrument), violin, and continuo, in which the theme also appears, had the set
printed, and dedicated it to the king. Die Kunst der Fuge (The Art of Fugue), BWV 1080,
composed in 1749-50 and apparently left unfinished at Bach's death, systematically
demonstrates all types of fugal writing. It consists of eighteen canons and fugues in the strictest
style, all based on the same subject or one of its transformations, and arranged in a general
order of increasing complexity.

The instrumental music

Before we follow Bach to Leipzig, it will be as well to look at some of the music he wrote at
Cöthen; most of his chamber and orchestral works belong to the Cöthen years, as well as much
of his harpsichord music. Of all these the best known are the Brandenburg Concertos, so called
because Bach presented a manuscript of these six works to the Margrave of Brandenburg, who
heard him play and asked to have some of his music. It is unlikely that Bach composed them
specially; probably they are among the works he had written for the Cöthen players.
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During his Weimar years, Bach had become interested in the current styles of Italian
instrumental music and had made arrangements, for solo harpsichord or organ, of orchestral
concertos, chiefly by Vivaldi and other Venetian composers. His own concertos are to some
extent modeled on these: he used the Vivaldian type of ritornello form, though he liked - in
accordance with the German tradition - textures rather fuller and more contrapuntal than
Vivaldi's. He also followed German tradition in another way; while Vivaldi's published
concertos (the only ones Bach had access to) were for strings, Bach liked to use wind
instruments. He obviously enjoyed experimenting with instrumental combinations, as the
layout of the Brandenburg Concertos shows:
no. solo group (concertino) tutti group (ripieno)
1 violin, 3 oboes, bassoon, a horns strings, continuo
2 trumpet, recorder, oboe, violin strings, continuo
3 3 violins, 3 violas, 3 cellos the same used in unison, continuo
4 violin, 2 recorders strings, continuo
5 violin, flute, harpsichord strings, continuo
6 2 violas, cello the violas used in unison, 2 bass viols, continuo
The schemes for all the concertos are unusual. The first two are the most colorful, with their
wind groups: in no. r some of Bach's musical ideas are so devised that dialogues between the
horns, the woodwinds and the strings help carry the music forward, while in no. 2 he secures
variety by pairing the soloists in all the possible combinations. No. 3 departs in another way,
by treating the groups of three (violins, violas, cellos) as solo players, each with different music
to play, in the solo sections but having them play the same music, in unison, in the tutti ones;
the contrast in texture is thus between emphatic tuttis and gentle, multi-strand music in the solo
episodes. No. 6 works on a similar principle, and draws a special character from the absence of
violins, so that its colors are dusky and veiled. No. 5 represents another important departure.
Usually the role of the keyboard in orchestral or chamber music was to play a filling-in continuo
part, but here the harpsichord is one of the solo team (at least in the solo sections; in the tuttis
it reverts to supplying continuo harmony). It even has a lengthy cadenza before the final tutti
of the first movement. This work is one of the very earliest keyboard concertos. No. 4 is almost
a violin concerto; the two recorders have solo parts though of a Grade B kind compared with
the violin's virtuoso, Grade A one. As in Vivaldi's concertos, there are divisions between solo
and tutti sections; but the textures are much fuller, and the material is used more economically
and more rigorously to provide stronger unity and logic
Brandenburg Concertos
In the six Brandenburg Concertos, BWV 1046-51, composed in 1721 and dedicated to the
Margrave of Brandenburg, Bach fully assimilated the Italian style while investing it with his
own extensions and complications. He adopted the three-movement, fast-slow-fast order of the
Italian concerto, as well as its triadic themes, steadily driving rhythms, and the ritornello form
of the Allegro movements. At the same time, he introduced tutti material into the soli, and he
expanded the form with devices such as the long cadenza of the Fifth Brandenburg Concerto
and elaborately developed fugues, as the one in da capo form in this same concerto. The Third
and Sixth are ripieno concertos-for the full ensemble-without featured solo instruments. The
others are concerti grossi, pitting solo instruments in various combinations against the body of
strings and continuo.
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Listening Note
Bach:
Brandenburg
Concerto no. 4
in G (1721)
solo violin, two
recorders
1st and 2nd
violins, viola,
cello, violone,
harpsichord
1st movement
(Allegro): 7mn.
Ritornello form

The opening ritornello is unusually long (83 mm.), and in it the idea at the beginning (ex. i) is
heard three times. Between the first and second times, there is passage-work on the material on
ex. ii, in the third on ex. iii; its second appearance is the dominant, D.
The first solo section begins with passage-work for the solo violin, with occasional reminders
of ex. i from the recorders: the music moves to D, but then, with references to ex. ii (violin) and
ex. iii (recorders), quickly slips into e, the relative minor, for the ritornello that follows. The
second solo begins with the two recorders (playing ex. iii material) and continuo; then the violin
joins in with very rapid and brilliant scale writing. The music passes through a to C, where
there is a short ritornello.
In the next solo, the violin plays 16ths throughout, sometimes in dialogue with the orchestra
violins, sometimes with reminders from the recorders of ex. i. The short ritornello that follows
is based on the first appearance of ex. ii material at the opening.
The next solo (the fourth) starts with the recorders in dialogue, soon joined by the orchestral
violins (ex. iii material) with a steady stream of 16ths from the violin. The orchestra joins in to
round off the music in b.
But the emphasis on b is at once strongly contradicted, as the music even more emphatically
turns to G: and a complete, final statement of the opening ritornello ends the movement. A
feature of this movement is the lack of clear-cut divisions of the kind that the Vivaldi concerto
movement discussed in Listening Note VI.D shows, the music of the solos often builds up
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gradually into the tuttis. Another feature is the closely worked thematic detail: virtually all the
figuration is derived from the patterns seen in exx. i, ii and iii.
2nd movement (Andante): (3’:32’’) free form, based on echo principle (see ex. iv); the solo
group (violin, recorders) echoes phrases heard on the full orchestra, first two-measure phrases,
then one-measure, and later just the final measure of a longer phrase. Some landmarks: m.18,
cadence in e; m. 28, cadence in a, followed by faster-moving solo recorder phrases; m. 38,
beginning of chromatic passage, with cadence in b, m. 45; m. 55, lower instruments prominent,
taking up main theme; m. 61, passage for soloists; mm. 70-71, final cadence, on the dominant
of e, leading direct to the third movement.

3rd movement (Presto): Ritornello-fugue (5mn.)

Although fundamentally in ritornello form, like the first movement and most other concerto
movements of the period, this one is also fugal. The ritornello sections correspond roughly with
the sections of a fugue in which the subject is heard, the solo sections with the episodes. Mm.
1-41 constitute the opening ritornello: the fugue subject (ex. v) is heard in turn on the viola, the
second violin, the first violin with the soloist, the bass instruments and the two recorders, who
also have an extra statement of it to round the section off.
In the first solo (mm. 41-66), the solo violin plays continuous 8th-notes while the recorders
carry on a dialogue based on the subject. The music moves to D, the dominant, for the next
ritornello, in which the subject is heard on the basses and then on the first violins, it changes
key, ending in e. Again the solo violin leads off the ensuing section (mm. 87-126) with passage-
work of increasing brilliance (ex. v can sometimes be heard in the background, on the orchestral
violins) -there are arpeggios, then scale passages, then rapid bowing across the strings. The
third ritornello begins when the orchestral violins join with the soloist on his reaching the
subject-which is heard in quick succession on the recorders and the basses. It begins in e and
ends in b; then (m.152) the next episode starts, mainly for the recorders with continuo
accompaniment, leading the music through G to C, where there is a brief ritornello with three
entries of the subject. A few measures for the three soloists lead to another short ritornello, this
time back in G; the soloists resume, but soon (m. 207) the basses come in, decisively, with ex.
v-and there is now an air of emphasis that makes it clear that the end of the movement is close.
There is a dramatic, rhetorical passage, then two last entries (basses, then recorders), and the
movement is over.
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Bach used designs similar to the fugal ritornello type of the Brandenburg Concerto no. 4 finale
in another group of works from the Cöthen period, the four "orchestral suites", as they are
usually called. (The word "orchestra" may be misleading; the ensemble Bach used and
expected, as we have seen from the size of the Cöthen establishment, was small-normally just
one string player to a part, or at most two or three, so that none of the Brandenburg Concertos
needs more than 13 players.) These suites are in the French style, with overtures in the abrupt,
arresting, jerky rhythms that the French favored in their theater music; then follows a fugal
movement with ritornello features, and after that a series of dances (minuets, gavottes, bourrées
etc). These are among Bach's most cheerful and tuneful works; one has a solo part for flute, and
two gain a touch of ceremonial splendor from the use of three trumpets and a pair of drums.
For Bach's fugal writing at its most varied, however, we may turn to another important work of
the Cöthen years. Around 1722, he began to compose a series of preludes and fugues for the
harpsichord or clavichord, one in each of the 24 keys, major and minor. He called this The
Well-Tempered Keyboard, for it was partly designed to demonstrate that an instrument could
be tuned to play effectively in every key. (Because of a number of physical and mathematical
factors, it is impossible to tune an instrument with all the main intervals sounding smooth and
sweet. A century before Bach, the favored systems produced excellent results in a very few
keys, and acute discomfort in the rest; in Bach's time new forms of compromise were being
devised to accommodate the wider range of keys that was needed. Nowadays we use "equal
temperament", in which no interval is perfect but each is equally compromised, as the kind of
music we create demands.)
These 24 preludes and fugues eventually, by 1742, became what all musicians call the "48", for
Bach later wrote a second set. The preludes are movements of various kinds - some are brilliant
display pieces, others are lyrical and aria-like, while yet others are contrapuntal or involve the
working out of some pattern of keyboard figuration. The fugues are regarded as embodying the
richest array of fugal techniques ever assembled, and in them Bach shows, again, that fugue is
not - despite all the disciplines it involves - a mechanically applicable process but a live artistic
creation where the treatment is dictated by the nature of the material. Some are highly complex
in their form and development; no. 2 in C minor from Book I is an example of a direct and
logical handling of fugal writing.
Listening Note
Bach: 48 Preludes and Fugues, (1722), Prelude and Fugue in C minor
This prelude and fugue come from Book I of Bach's collection of preludes and fugues in all the
keys. The prelude is of the "toccata" type, a piece designed to demonstrate the abilities of a
player and the capacities of his instrument in music that is often rapid and virtuoso in style.
Here Bach takes a pattern of notes (ex. i) and keeps close to it during most of the piece, using
the pattern within changing harmonies (the harmonic scheme of the first seven measures is
shown in ex. ii). At the end, the pattern gives way (without disappearing altogether) and there
are a few measures of brilliant, dramatic writing to round the piece off. The fugue is in three
''voices" -that is, in three clearly defined contrapuntal lines (which for convenience we may call
soprano, alto and bass, though they do not conform to vocal pitch ranges). They enter in the
order A, S, B, in this particular fugue, when any voice is assigned the subject (ex. iii), the other
two (once they have entered) are assigned material that goes satisfactorily against it. When, for
example, the Bass (B) enters with the subject (S), the soprano (S) has the first countersubject
(C1) and the alto (A) the second (C2). The chart below shows how the material is divided
between the voices on each recurrence of the subject. The subject is two measures long: the
measures not accounted for in the chart are occupied with episodes, all quite closely derived
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from material in the subject or the first countersubject, sometimes with running scales in one
voice (B, mm. 9-11 ; S, mm. 13-14, B, mm. 22-6). (Video 064)

Bach wrote other kinds of keyboard music at this period. There are the notebooks of simple
pieces for his eldest son and his new wife; there are what he called "inventions" and "sinfonias"
(exercises, in composition and performance, in the interchange of material between the hands,
to help the player to gain independence of hand action); and two fine books of dance suites,
known as the English Suites (which have long, concerto-like preludes as well as dances) and
the French Suites. Each suite has the four basic dances (Allemande, Courante, Sarabande,
Gigue) with an extra one between the last pair.
Before we pass on from the Cöthen years, the chamber music that Bach wrote there should be
mentioned, in particular those works in which he attempted something new. His interest in the
role of the harpsichord, which we have noted in Brandenburg Concerto no. 5, extended to its
use in chamber groups. Traditionally, the harpsichord had been used merely to supply the
continuo harmonies; but in the six sonatas for violin that he wrote at Cöthen he assigned it an
obligatory, fully written-out right-hand part, sometimes accompanying but usually playing
music essential to the texture. He thus turned the violin sonata from a two-voice medium with
supporting harmony into a three-voice, or a free multi-voice, one. This is typical of his interest
in enriching musical textures. The other notably original contribution came in the sonatas or
suites for solo violin and cello - he wrote six such works for each instrument, with no
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accompanying part, but managing the distribution of notes in such a way as to imply harmony.
This may seem to be the opposite of textural enrichment, yet paradoxically it is not, for the
listener is invited to hear in his mind many notes that are barely touched or even merely hinted
at, so that there is never an impression of a sparse or thin texture to the music.

BACH AT LEIPZIG: THE VOCAL MUSIC

Bach moved to Leipzig in May 1723. He must have been pleased to do so. In this thriving
commercial city he would be the employee not of a private patron, who could act on whim, but
the civic and church authorities; further, his sons could attend the St Thomas's School and be
sure of obtaining a sound education. And the musical duties offered altogether more of a
challenge than he had faced in his earlier posts.
In 1723, when Bach was appointed cantor of St. Thomas's School and Leipzig's director of
music, he was not the first choice of the city council members, who had hopes of hiring a more
modern" musician. That was Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767), who was then regarded as
the greatest living composer besides Handel. (Telemann turned the job down after using the
offer to wangle a raise from his employer in Hamburg.) St. Thomas's School was a long-
established institution that took in both day and boarding pupils. It provided fiftyfive
scholarships for boys and young men chosen on the basis of their musical and general scholastic
abilities. In return, they sang or played in the services of four Leipzig churches and fulfilled
other musical duties. As cantor of St. Thomas's School, Bach was obliged to teach four hours
each day (Latin as well as music) and also to prepare music for the services at St. Thomas's and
St. Nicholas's churches. In addition, he had to promise to lead an exemplary Christian life and
not to leave town without permission from the mayor. He and his family lived in an apartment
in one wing of the school, where his study was separated by a thin partition from the home
room of the second year schoolboys.
The citizens of Leipzig spent a great deal of time in church-at daily services, special
celebrations on festival days, and regular Sunday programs beginning at seven in the morning
and lasting until about noon. At the Sunday services, the choir (comprised of a minimum of
twelve singers) sang a motet, a Lutheran Mass (Kyrie and Gloria only), hymns, and a multi-
movement cantata. Bach caref ully wrote do-wn the o rde r of eve nts o n the back of one of his
cantata scores.
He set to work in methodical fashion. He had to supply cantatas for performance each Sunday,
and seems to have decided to build up a new repertory. Starting in June 1723, in his first year
Bach composed a complete cycle of cantatas (about 6o, allowing for feast days as well); in his
second year he produced another complete cycle. He embarked on a third, which he took two
years to complete. Then followed a fourth, in 1728-9 - though we cannot be certain about this
as only a handful of the cantatas composed after 1727 have survived. There is evidence that he
wrote a fifth cycle during the 1730s and 1740s.
Bach was, then, astonishingly industrious. Soon after he arrived in Leipzig he applied to the
university for the restitution of a traditional right of the holder of his post to direct the music at
certain services there; a dispute ensued, and a compromise was reached. This was only one of
numerous quarrels in which Bach was involved. He was constantly alert for any infringement
of his rights or privileges - for example in 1728, when a church official claimed the right to
select some service music and Bach protested (in vain) that the choice ought to be his. Later,
he was often at odds with the headmaster of St Thomas's School, for example over his neglect
of teaching or his absence without permission (he still made many journeys to report on organs,
and paid visits to nearby courts on special occasions). The headmaster appointed in the 1730s
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was an educational reformer whose academic ideals created conflicts with Bach who was eager
to use the brightest boys for musical activities. But even before that time Bach, discontent with
the musical resources assigned to him, had drawn up a strongly worded memorandum in which
he set out the requirements for "a well-regulated church music".
In spite of the heavy responsibilities he carried at St Thomas's and the other churches, Bach
found time to pursue other musical activities. Music was his preoccupation at home as well as
at work: there were musical evenings at home (he noted, in 1730, that his family could provide
a vocal and instrumental ensemble) and he must have expended much of his spare time on his
sons' musical education. He did much other private teaching, especially in the 1740s; several
of the best German organists and composers of the next generation were his pupils. He wrote a
number of works with a particular eye to their usefulness for instruction, among them the
second set of 54 preludes and fugues in all the keys and four books entitled Clavier- Obung
("Keyboard Exercise"), including organ chorale preludes and dance suites and variations for
the harpsichord. One especially interesting collection forms the second book: here Bach
contrasts the Italian and the French styles, publishing side by side an "Overture in the French
Manner" and a "Concerto in the Italian Style". The French work consists of an overture in the
dramatic, jerky rhythms of the kind Lully used, followed by a fugue and a series of
characteristic French dances; the Italian one uses concerto form in its first and last movements,
with "solo" and "tutti" passages distinguished as in orchestral concertos but here simply by
contrasting weights of texture and different kinds of thematic materials. Bach's clear aim was
to set down these two national styles in such a way as to make their differences clear to the
student. In all this, his music never merely imitates that of composers from other countries; it
always sounds his own, and sounds German.
Another important side activity of Bach's was his organization of the local musical society (or
collegium musicum, to use the Latin term favored in Germany). He took up the directorship in
1729, when his period of intensive cantata composition was finishing. The society gave
concerts weekly during its seasons-in a coffee-house in the winter, a coffee-garden in the
summer. Bach revived his Cöthen repertory of instrumental music, and supplemented it with
new harpsichord concertos and other music for small orchestra. The concerto for harpsichord
was a novel idea; never before had the solo role in a concerto been given to a keyboard
instrument (remarkably, at just the same time, Handel - far away in London - was beginning to
compose concertos for organ: see p. 213). Most of Bach's harpsichord concertos, perhaps all of
them, are adaptations of works originally written as violin concertos: Bach ingeniously rewrote
passages that were designed to be effective on a string instrument to make them sound well on
the harpsichord, and he added left-hand parts to enrich the texture. He also wrote multiple
concertos - two for two harpsichords, two for three, and one (arranged from a Vivaldi four-
violin concerto) for four. It must have been difficult to get four harpsichords and four
harpsichordists together in a coffee-house music room, with an orchestra, but Bach's delight in
rich textures and unusual instrumental effects justified it. In fact, the four (or three, in the triple
concertos) rarely play together in counterpoint; more often the music falls into patterns of
dialogue, using the kinds of symmetry of which Bach was so fond. He also performed other
composers' music at these concerts-suites by his cousin Johann Ludwig Bach, for example, and
pieces by the many musicians who visited Leipzig or passed through. He remained in charge
of the collegium musicum up to 1741 (with a break in 1737-9), when the owner of the coffee-
house died; it ceased activities soon after.
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ORDER OF THE DIVINE SERVICE IN LEIPZIG ON THE FIRST SUNDAY IN

ADVENT: MORNING
I) Preluding
2) Motet
3) Preluding on the Kyrie, which is performed throughout in concerted manner [musicitet]
4) Intoning before the altar
5) Reading of the Epistle
6) Singing of the Litany
7) Preluding on [and singing of] the Chorale
8) Reading of the Gospel
9) Preluding on [and performance of] the principle composition [cantata]
10) Singing of the Creed [Luther's Credo Hymn]
11) The Sermon
12) After the Sermon, as usual, singing of several verses of a hymn
13) Words of Institution [of the Sacrament]
14) Preluding on [and performance of] the composition [probably the second part of the cantata]. After
the same, alternate preluding and singing of chorales until the end of the Communion, et sic porro [and
so on].
-From The New Bach Reader: A Life of johann Sebastian Bach in Letters and Documents, ed. Hans T.
David and Arthur Mendel, rev. and enl. by Christoph Wolff (New York: Norton, 1998), p. 113.

The sacred cantata figured prominently in the Lutheran liturgy of Leipzig. The subject matter
was often linked to the content of the Gospel reading, which immediately preceded it. This
suggests that Bach's role was like that of a musical preacher whose responsibility was to
interpret and comme nt on the Gospel read ing in the cantata, and to bring its message forcefully
home to the congregation. Singers and instrumentalists, however inadequate they may have
been at times, were always at his disposal. Altogether, the Leipzig churches required fifty- eight
cantatas each year, in addition to Passion music for Good Friday, Magnificats at Vespers for
three festivals, an annual cantata for the installation of the city council, and occasional music
such as funeral motets and wedding cantatas. Between 1723 and 1729 Bach composed four
complete annual cycles, each with about sixty cantatas. He apparently composed a fifth cycle
during the 1730s and early 1740s, but many of these and of the fourth cycle have not survived.
The Leipzig sacred music
Bach's central work, however, for the remainder of his life, was in the church and especially in
the provision of music for St Thomas's. One of the first works he had performed on his arrival
was the St John Passion - that is, a musical setting of the Passion story as related by St John.
He followed this up a few years later, in 1727, with the St Matthew Passion, a longer work (it
takes around three hours to perform) and one of his greatest achievements. By Bach's time, a
full-length Passion setting involved a narrator (or Evangelist), singers to take the roles of Christ,
Pilate, Peter and the other participants, and a chorus to represent the crowd; the Evangelist
would tell the story, in lightly accompanied recitative, and the other characters would play their
own parts. The story was however frequently interrupted, for hymns (chorales) to be sung by
the congregation at appropriate reflective moments, and for arias of meditation on the religious
message of the events described. In his two settings, Bach also framed the entire work with
large-scale, contemplative choruses.
The Passion form offered him great scope. Much of the recitative is plainly set, the line
following the natural rhythm and the rise and fall of the words; but where events of special
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force or poignancy are described, Bach would alter the pace or give an unexpected twist to the
line or the harmony (see ex. VI.12a). In the chorales he supplied harmony that reinforced the
sense of the words, often, for example, adding a dissonance or a chromaticism for a word or
phrase of emotional significance (see ex. 12b). Dramatic power comes particularly in the crowd
choruses, where the clamor of the mob is represented in overlapping counterpoint, for example
where the people proclaim that Christ is worthy of death (ex. 12C); and the ugliness of mob
emotion is conveyed in the chorus where his crucifixion is demanded, with its harsh, misshapen
lines (ex. 12d). Bach's finest music in the St Matthew Passion, however, is found in the arias,
where the powerful emotion aroused by the events portrayed is dissolved and raised to a higher
level in the lyrical lines and expressive harmony; and also in the great choruses at the beginning,
the middle and the end of the work, in which moderately slow music, in large-scale ritornello
forms planned with clear and satisfying symmetries, raises the whole Passion on to a plane of
collective, communal experience through the involvement of the chorus. (Audio 065-068)
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Bach wrote three Passion settings (St Matthew, St John and St Mark, the last of which is mostly
lost) for Good Friday performances. His basic work for St Thomas's was the production of a
weekly cantata, as we have seen, and probably he wrote as many as 300 altogether. They are
composed, usually, for a small choir (Bach liked to have around 12 singers), with solos for two
or three choir members, and an orchestra of strings and organ with up to half a dozen wind
instruments. An average cantata lasts between 20 and 25 minutes; a few, for special occasions,
may be up to 45 minutes long. The congregation would normally join in the singing of the final
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chorale, which would have words appropriate to the day in the church year for which the cantata
was designed. This would, typically, follow an opening chorus and a couple of arias. (Cantata
BWV 80, Video 069)
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The text for the day, and meditations on it by the poet who supplied the words for the composer,
made the cantata unified as a religious entity. Sometimes Bach and his contemporaries
reinforced that unity with a musical one, derived from the chorale melody linked with the text;
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in the cantatas of 1724-5, particularly, Bach wove the chorale melodies into his music-since
these, and the words that belonged with them, were familiar to his congregation, this helped
hold their interest and remind them of the religious message. We may look at this process in
one of the finest of his cantatas, Ein feste Burg (no. 8o), using the famous Reformation chorale
and designed for the Reformation Festival, an important event in the Lutheran church year.
Here the chorale (ex. VI.13a) is used in almost every movement. To begin with, there is a large-
scale chorus, which like many Bach choruses starts fugally (ex. 13 b). The fugue subject,
however, is a variant of the chorale melody (as the upward notes-tems in ex. 13c show); what
is more, at the first climax of the fugue, when all the voices have entered with the subject, it is
heard again, proclaimed with due grandeur in slower-moving notes by a high, ringing trumpet
with a pair of oboes (ex. 13d). Then the fugue resumes, with the second line of the chorale
melody now worked into the texture, and again proclaimed by the trumpet. The same procedure
continues, so that the whole chorale is absorbed within the fugue and sounded on the trumpet.
Next comes a duet for soprano and bass, with a busy violin part and continuo support. While
the bass sings a new, free line, the soprano counterpoints it with a fresh variant of the chorale
(ex. 13e). After a recitative for bass and a brief soprano aria, there is a chorus in which the
chorale is treated in a new way. There is an allusion to it at the beginning (ex. 13f), and then
the chorus enters and sings the chorale in unison, in a different rhythm and against a rich
orchestral fabric (ex. 13.g). The cantata ends with a tenor recitative, a duet for alto and tenor -
and a final statement of the chorale, in which the congregation could join, set in four-part
harmony.
Last years
Bach traveled a certain amount during his Leipzig years, often to inspect organs, sometimes to
perform; he several times went to Dresden, where he held a title as Court Composer. In 1741
he went there to present one of his patrons with a new work, the Goldberg Variations (named
after the young harpsichordist, probably a pupil of Bach's, whom the patron is said to have
employed). This, which Bach later published as the fourth and last book in his Clavier-Úbung,
is his longest and most demanding harpsichord work; it uses traditional variation form but in a
new way, with only the bass pattern of the melody stated at the opening being used and with
30 variations which in turn dazzle by their virtuosity, move by their depth of expression and
fascinate by their contrapuntal elaboration. The set is like a summation of the musical forms
that Bach had used throughout his life in his harpsichord music- French overture, fugue,
invention, dance movements and so on, all linked by what is in effect a ground bass.
There is reason to think that Bach, in several of his late works, was setting down a lifetime's
experience in composition, almost as if he were preparing a musical testament of an era.
Another journey be made in 1741 was to Berlin, probably to his son Carl Philipp Emanuel, now
court harpsichordist there. A visit to Berlin six years later proved particularly important. His
son's employer, Frederick the Great of Prussia, admired his learned art and invited him to
improvise at the piano a fugue on a theme by Frederick himself (he was a skilled flutist and a
composer). Bach did so, and promised to publish the fugue; but when he got home to Leipzig
he decided to go further than that and offer the king a musical collection built around his theme.
This he called Musical Offering. It includes not only a written-out version of the improvised
fugue but also a larger fugue, for six voices (playable on the organ), a series of canons of
different kinds, and a trio sonata for flute, violin and continuo - this sonata, some of it in a
distinctly more modern style than the rest, was clearly intended to please the flute-playing king,
the more so because he worked the royal theme into it (ex. VI 14). The theme is ingeniously
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used, especially in the canons; in some it is in canon with itself, in others it accompanies a
canon on fresh material. Here again we see Bach, in his last years, anxious to enshrine his art.
(J.S. Bach: Musikalisches Opfer BWV 1079, recording 062)

B minor Mass (NAWM 91, Audio 070)

The work we call the B minor Mass may belong to the same category. Bach wrote a "Missa"
(the shorter, Lutheran Mass) in 1733, dedicating it to the Dresden court. This consists of a Kyrie
and Gloria, the first two movements of the traditional Roman Catholic Mass. It was not until
the late 1740s that he enlarged the work into a full Roman Catholic Mass, which he did by
composing two new movements and adapting a number of others from cantatas and similar
works. The B minor Mass was never performed by Bach, nor intended for performance, and it
again seems that in putting it together he was satisfying his desire to create a model example of
this ancient and traditional form. In this work, as in the other late compositions of the same
sort, he used a wide variety of forms and techniques, some of them belonging to earlier eras.
Sometimes he worked old plainsong melodies into the texture, as was done in medieval and
Renaissance music; there are also plain fugal movements without independent orchestral
accompaniment, of a kind long outdated in the 1740s. Of the newly composed sections, the
opening of the Credo and the Confiteor (NAWM 91b, Audio 070) are in stile antico, while the
Et in unum Dominum, the Et in spiritum sanctum (NAWM 91a, Audio 070), and the Benedictus
are in a modern style that contrasts sharply with the more co nse rvative sections. Bach was in
fact regarded in his day as an old-fashioned composer, and properly so. He was not "old-
fashioned" because he was out of touch with new currents of musical thought; on the contrary,
he was familiar with the works of men like Telemann, Hasse (the leading opera composer at
Dresden), Pergolesi and of course Vivaldi. He simply chose a more conservative path. He was
criticized for his methods - for example, writing music too intricate in line and counterpoint to
be "natural" (which to the new theorists of the mid-eighteenth century meant tuneful and lightly
accompanied), and asking voices to sing lines as complicated as those he could play on the
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keyboard (there is some truth in that). When he died in the summer of 1750, after a year of
uncertain health and finally blindness, he could look back on the music he had created and see
in it a comprehensive summary of the musical art of the Baroque period, drawn together with
an unparalleled inventiveness and intellectual concentration.
Church cantata
We have, then, approximately two hundred cantatas by Bach, some newly written for Leipzig,
others refashioned from earlier works. Under tremen- dous time pressure to produce this
repertory, Bach sometimes reworked movements from his chamber and orchestral
compositions and inserted them into his Leipzig cantatas. For example, a movement from one
of the Brandenburg Concertos and no fewer than five movements from the solo harpsichord
concertos found a niche in the cantatas. But given Bach's reli- gious outlook, which offered
even his secular art to the glory of God," there is nothing incongruous or surprising about this
accommodation. In the early cantatas, the composer responded to the changing affections and
images of the text with music of intense dramatic expression and unexpectedly varied forms.
By comparison, the later Leipzig cantatas are less subjective in feeling and more regular in
structure. However, no generalized description can possibly suggest the infinite variety and
wealth of musical invention, technical mastery, and religious devotion in Bach's cantatas. Two
or three examples will serve as an introduction to this vast treasure of music.
Neumeister cantata
Erdmann Neumeister's innovative idea - to introduce opera -like recitatives and arias into the
cantata-deeply affected Bach, even though he set only five of the pastor's texts. In the text for
Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland (Come, Savior of the Gentiles, 1714), BWV 61, (NAWM 90,
Audio 071) Neumeister combined chorale verses, newly invented metrical poetry, and prose
from the Bible. For the opening choral movement, based on the text and melody of the chorale
Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, Bach wrote an elaborate variation in the style and form of a
French overture. The choice of this genre is significant, not only because Bach was preoccupied
at the time with assimilating foreign styles but also because it was written for the opening
(ouverture) of the church year, the first Sunday of Advent. The cantata also includes operatic
movements: a simple recitative, an accompanied recitative, two da capo arias, one of which is
a siciliano (based on a folk dance and associated with pastoral subjects), and a final chorus on
a differ- ent chorale. Thus Bach combined secular genres and Lutheran hymn settings in a
composition full of youthful ingenuity.
Chorale cantatas
Bach treated chorale texts and melodies in a multitude of different ways.
For example, in Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (Wake up," the voice calls to us), BWV 140,
the opening chorus imaginatively combines concerto form with cantus firmus technique. The
sixteen-measure ritornello for orchestra is heard four times (once abbreviated), to frame the
successive phrases of the chorale melody. With its repeated dotted -note chords and halting
syncopations, it sets a mood of anticipation as the wise and foolish virgins wait for the
bridegroom mentioned in the first stanza of the chorale. (The parable is told in Matt. 25:1- 3,
the Gospel reading for the twenty-seventh Sunday after Trinity, also the occasian for which
Bach wrote the cantata in 1731.) A violino piccolo and the first oboe, as if paired in a concertina,
exchange running figures that elaborate upon motives from the chorale melody. The sopranos,
supported by a “corno " perhaps a hunting horn-sing the phrases of the hymn in long notes,
while motives derived from the same phrases are developed imitatively in the three other parts
(Example 12.5). The middle movement (Number 4) is constructed like a chorale prelude. Each
phrase of the chorale, sung plainly by the tenor, is preceded and accompanied by a musical
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commentary in unison strings. Bach wrote “Aria" at the head of two of the other movements
(Numbers 3 and 6), which make no reference to the chorale melody, and introduced each with
a recitative, one secco and one accompagnato. The arias are actually duets modeled on operatic
love duets, but here their texts are dialogues between Jesus and a soul searching for salvation.
The cantus firmus is sung by the soprano. The orchestra plays independent material mainly
based on two motifs: a dotted rhythm and an ascending scale "with syncopated accent shifts".
The lower voices add in unusually free polyphonic music images such as the frequent calls
"wach auf!" (wake up!) and "wo, wo?" (where, where?), and long melismas in a fugato on
"Halleluja".
The closing chorale, "Gloria sei dir gesungen" (Let Gloria be sung to You), is a four-part setting
of the third verse of the hymn. The high pitch of the melody is doubled by a violino piccolo an
octave higher, representing the bliss of the "heavenly Jerusalem".
The Bach scholar Klaus Hofmann sees the cantata as one of the composer's "most beautiful,
most mature and, at the same time, most popular sacred cantatas". Dürr notes that the cantata,
especially the duets in a unity of "earthly happiness in love and heavenly bliss", are an
expression of Christian mysticism in art. William G. Whittaker calls it "a cantata without
weakness, without a dull bar, technically, emotionally and spiritually of the highest order".
The chorale prelude "Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme", BWV 645 is one of the most often
played chorales by Bach. Originally it was a part of the Cantata No. 140 but Bach later
transcribed it to the 3-part organ texture and included in the collection which later became
known as 6 Schubler Chorales.
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Secular cantatas
Bach customarily gave the titledramma per musica" to cantatas that he composed for secular
occasions. Among the best of the musical dramas" are Der Streit zwischen Phoebus und Pan
(The Quarrel between Phoebus and Pan), BWV 201 and Schleicht, spielende Wellen (Glide
gently, playful waves), BWV 206, written to celebrate the birthday of Augustus III in 1733.
The Coffee Cantata (ca. 1734-35), BWV 211, and the burlesque Peasant Cantata (1742),
BWV212 delightful examples of Bach's lighter music. In some of these cantatas from the 1730s,
Bach experimented with the new galant style. He reined in his tendency to write elaborate
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accompaniments and allowed the vocal line to dominate. He also invented melodies that divide
symmetrically into antecedent and consequent phrases, and indulged in other mannerisms of
the new operatic style.
Large-scale design
Bach's ambitions as a composer were often encyclopedic. Not only did he write in every genre,
but he also arranged many of his mature compositions according to some large, unified design-
for example, the Preludes and Fugues in all the major and minor keys in The Well-Tempered
Keyboard, the cycle of chorales in the Clavier-Ubung, the canons at increasing intervals in the
Goldberg Variations, the exhaustive treatment of a single subject inA Musical Offering, and
the comprehensive collection of fugue types in The Art of Fugue.
RECEPTION HISTORY
The history of Bach's music tells a story of burial and resurrection. Compositions published or
prepared by Bach f o r publication during his lifetime include only A Musical Offering, The
Art o f Fugue, and a few more. The rest are preserved in handwritten copies. Bach's work was
quickly forgotten after his death because musical tastes changed radically in the middle of the
eighteenth century. The new style that emerged from the opera houses of Italy to invade
Germany and the rest of Europe made Bach's music sound old -fashioned. The composer- critic
Johann Adolph Scheibe (1708-1776) considered Bach unsurpassable as an organist and
keyboard composer, but he found the rest of his music overly elaborate and confused (see
vignette, page 81), preferring the more tuneful and straightforward style of younger German
composers, such as Johann Adolph Hasse (1699-1783).

JOHANN ADOLPH SCHEIBE'S CRITIQUE OF BACH'S STYLE, 1737

This great man would be the admiration of whole nations if he had more amenity, if he did not take away
the natural element in his pieces by giving them a turgid and confused style, and if he did not darken their
beauty by an excess of art. Since he judges according to his own fingers, his pieces are extremely difficult
to play; for he demands that singers and instrumentalists should be able to do with their throats and
instruments whatever he can play on the clavier. But this is impossible. Every ornament, every Little
grace, and everything that one thinks of as belonging to the method of playing, he expresses completely
in notes; and this not only takes away from his pieces the beauty of harmony but completely covers the
melody throughout. ALL the voices must work with each other and be of equal difficulty, and none of them
can be recognized as the principal voice. In short, he is in music what Mr. von Lohenstein was in poetry.
Turgidity has Led them both from the natural to the artificial, and from the Lofty to the somber; and in both
one admires the onerous Labor and uncommon effort-which, however, are vainly employed, since they
conflict with Nature.
-From an anonymous Letter by "an able traveling musici an" published in Scheibe's periodical review,
Der critische Musikus, May 1737, translated in The Bach Reader, ed. Hans T. David and A rth ur
Mendel (New York: Norton, 1945), p. 238.

Bach's eclipse in the mid-eighteenth century was not total. In the second half of the century,
some of the preludes and fugues from The Well-Tempered Keyboard appeared in print, and the
whole collection circulated in innumerable manuscript copies. Haydn owned a copy of the Mass
in B minor; Mozart knew The Art of Fugue and studied the motets on a visit to Leipzig in 1789.
Citations from Bach's works appeared frequently in the musical literature of the time, and the
important periodical, the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, opened its first issue (1798) with a
Bach portrait. A full rediscovery of Bach finally began in the nineteenth century, with the
publication of the biography by Johann Nikolaus Forkel in 1802 marking an important step.
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The revival of the St. Matthew Passion by composer- conductor Carl Friedrich Zeiter (1758-
1832) and its 189 performance at Berlin under Felix Mendelssohn did much to inspire interest
in Bach's music. Finally, the establishment of the Bach Gesellschaft (Bach Society) in 1850 led
to the first collected edition of Bach's works in sixty-one volumes, completed by 1900. Today,
almost all of the works have been recorded at least once, and a new edition is in progress.

GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL

Compared to Vivaldi, Rameau, and Bach-each absorbed in his own national tradition-George
Frideric Handel (1685-1759) was a completely international composer. After being educated
in Germany and Italy, he matured as a composer in England, the country then most hospitable
to foreign composers.
London
Italian opera was all the rage in London during the early eighteenth century. To take advantage
of this fashion, about sixty wealthy gentlemen organized a joint stock company, the Royal
Academy of Music, in 1718-19, and engaged Handel and two Italian composers to present
operas to the London public. Even when the popularity of Italian opera waned, as it did in the
following decades, London's prosperous middle-class audiences quickly warmed to Handel's
oratorios in English, some of which were based on the military exploits of biblical heroes -
Saul, Judas Maccabaeus, Joshua, and others-and therefore appealed to their British imperial
pride. Moreover, the English taste for choral music fostered the success of these new English
oratorios-dramatic works in which choruses played a large role, representing ordinary solid
citizens with whom Londoners could identify, in contrast to the sometimes effete and affected
characters of the operatic stage. The court also became a factor in Handel's ascendancy: he
enjoyed the patronage of the newly crowned King George I, who also came from Germany,
where he had been Handel's employer as elector of Hanover.
Handel’s life
Handel was born in Halle, where he studied music with Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow, the local
organist and Kapellmeister. Under Zachow's teaching, Handel became an accomplished
organist and harpsichordist, studied violin and oboe, received a thorough grounding in
counterpoint, and learned the music of German and Italian composers by copying their scores.
He matriculated at the University of Halle in 1702 and at eighteen was appointed cathedral
organist. But almost as soon as he landed this first job, Handel decided to give up his career as
a church musician to try his hand at writing opera. In 1703 he moved to Hamburg-then the
principal center of German opera-and at the age of nineteen composed his first opera, Almira,
which was performed there in 1705. The next step for the aspiring opera composer, obviously,
was Italy, where he lived from 1706 until the middle of 1710. Soon recognized as one of the
coming young composers, Handel began associating with the leading patrons and musicians of
Rome, Florence, Naples, and Venice. He made the acquaintance of many Italian com- posers,
including Corelli and Alessandro Scarlatti (whose musical styles exerted an important influence
on him), and returned to Germany at the age of twenty- five to become music director at the
electoral court of Hanover. But almost immediately he took a long leave of absence to visit
London. There, du ring the 1710-11 season, he made a tremendous hit with his opera Rinaldo.
Instead of going back to Germany, Handel then· settled down to a long and prosperous career
in London.
For the Royal Academy of Music, which flourished from 1720 to 1728, Handel composed some
of his best operas, including Radamisto (1720), Ottone (1723), Giulio Cesare (1724), Rodelinda
(1725), and Admeto (1727). The popular success of Gay's The Beggar' s Opera (NAWM 81,
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Audio 086 a, b, c, d, e) in 1728 proved that the English public was growing tired of Italian
opera; in addition, the Academy began experiencing financial difficulties. In 1729, when it
stopped producing operas, Handel and a partner took over the theater. But during the next
decade a competing organization, the Opera of the Nability, so completely divided the London
public that both companies nearly went bankrupt. The Opera of the Nability featured the
Neapolitan composer Nicola Porpora (1686-1768) and the highest-priced singers in Europe,
among them the legendary castrato Farinelli (1705-1728). Despite repeated failures, Handel
clung to the opera tradition. Only when subscriptions to the 1738-39 season were insufficient
did he begin to compose Saul, one of twenty-six oratorios, which were much less expensive to
mount than operas. The work was well received and the following year he was invited to write
another for Dublin, where Messiah was first performed in 1742. After that success, and despite
his failing eyesight, Handel leased a theater to present oratorios every year during Lent. As an
added attraction at these performances, the composer himself improvised at the organ during
intermissions. The public's enthusiastic response to these concerts allowed Handel's music to
become the prevailing influence in British musical life for more than a century. His imperious,
independent nature made him a formidable presence he was satirize as a glutton and a tyrant-
but the rougher aspects of Handel's personality were balanced by a sense of humor and
redeemed by a generous, honorable, and fundamentally pious nature. He was buried in London,
in Westminster Abbey, alongside British royalty and national heroes - a clear indication of the
affection and respect Handel earned during his lifetime.
HANDEL'S MUSIC
Handel shares Bach's stature among composers of the late baroque. Al-though he wrote a great
deal of instrumental music suites, organ concertos, concerti grossi the core of his huge output
consists of English oratorios and Italian operas.
Handel's English oratorios, are usually based on stories from the Old Testament and have titles
like Israel in Egypt, Saul, Joshua, and Judas Mac-cabaeus. They are not church music,
however; they were composed to entertain paying audiences in public theaters. Most have plots
and characters, even though they are performed without acting, scenery, or costumes. As we'll
see, Messiah is an exception, in that it deals with a New Testament subject and is without a
plot.
Oratorios
Handel's English oratorios constituted a new genre that differs from both the Italian oratorio
and his own London operas. Hardly more than an opera on a sacred subject, the eighteenth -
century Italian oratorio was presented in concert instead of on stage. Handel had written such
a work, La resurrezione (1708), during his stay in Rome. In his English oratorios, heretained
some aspects of this tradition by setting dialogue as recitative and lyrical verses as arias. Most
of these arias resemble his opera arias in form, musical style, the nature of musical ideas, and
the technique of expressing the affections. As in the operas, recitative prepares the mood of
each aria. But Handel and his librettists brought elements to their oratorios that were foreign to
Italian opera: from the English masque, the choral anthem, French classical drama, ancient
Greek drama, and the German historia. Everything, of course, was adapted for the London
environment, with the result that Handel's oratorios became a genre in themselves.
Oratorios were intended for the concert hall and were much closer to theatrical performances
than to church services. Although not all of Handel's oratorios deal with sacred subjects, many
of his most popular are based on Old Testament stories; even Messiah has more text from the
Old than from the New Testament. The Hebrew Scriptures were a storehouse of both history
and mythology well known to middle- class Protestant England in the eighteenth century.
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Moreover, for reasons mentioned earlier, many of Handel's oratorio subjects struck a responsive
patriotic note with the British public. Most of the biblical oratorios stayed close to the original
narrative, but the biblical text was rewritten in recitatives (sometimes prose, sometimes rhymed
verse), arias, and choruses-although Israel in Egypt tells the story of Exodus entirely in the
words of Scripture. Messiah also has a purely scriptural text but is the least typical of all
Handel's oratorios. Instead of telling a story, Messiah unfolds as a series of contemplations on
the Christian idea of redemption, beginning with Old Testament prophecies and going through
the life of Christ to His final triumph over death.
Saul (HWV 53) is a dramatic oratorio in three acts written by George Frideric Handel with a
libretto by Charles Jennens. Taken from the First Book of Samuel, the story of Saul focuses on
the first king of Israel's relationship with his eventual successor, David; one which turns from
admiration to envy and hatred, ultimately leading to the downfall of the eponymous monarch.
The work, which Handel composed in 1738, includes the famous "Dead March", a funeral
anthem for Saul and his son Jonathan, and some of the composer's most dramatic choral pieces.
Saul was first performed at the King's Theatre in London on 16 January 1739. The work was a
success at its London premiere.
Jephtha (HWV 70) is an oratorio (1751) by George Frideric Handel with an English language
libretto by the Rev. Thomas Morell, based on the story of Jephtha in Judges and Jephthes sive
votum (Jeptha or the Vow) (1554) by George Buchanan. Whilst writing Jephtha, Handel was
increasingly troubled by his gradual loss of sight, and this proved to be his last oratorio. In the
autograph score, at the end of the chorus "How dark, O Lord, are thy decrees" he wrote
"Reached here on 13 February 1751, unable to go on owing to weakening of the sight of my
left eye." (NAWM 89, Audio 073) Chorus: How dark, oh Lord, are thy decrees
Choruses
Beyond question, Handel's most important innovation in the oratorios was his attention to the
chorus. To be sure, the chorus had its place in the Latin and Italian oratorios of Carissimi, but
later oratorios had at most a few madrigals" and ensembles sometimes marked coro." Handel's
early training made him familiar with Lutheran choral music and with the south- ern German
combination of the chorus with orchestra and soloists. But the English choral tradition
impressed him most profoundly. He fully captured this English musical idiom in the Chandos
anthems, written between 1718 and 1720 for the duke of Chandos. They were masterpieces of
Anglican church music from which the composer frequently borrowed in his later works.
The monumental character of Handel's choral style fits the oratorio's emphasis on communal
rather than individual expression. Where an opera would have an aria Handel often inserted a
chorus to comment on the action, as in Greek drama. The chorus O fatal Consequence of Rage
from Saul (1739), for example, reflects on the morality of the situation in a succession of three
fugues, each ending with a majestic homo rhythmic passage. Handel's oratorio choruses also
participate in the action, as in Judas Maccabaeus, and they figure in incidental scenes, as in
Solomon. The chorus may even narrate, as in Israel in Egypt, where the choral recitative He
sent a thick darkness is remarkable for its unusual form, its strange modulations, and its pictorial
writing.
Musical symbolism is a conspicuous and endearing feature of Handel's choral writing. Word
painting and descriptive figures were universal at the time, but Handel often used these devices
in especially felicitous ways. Many descriptive passages may be found, for example, in Israel
in Egypt: the somewhat literal representation of frogs, flies, lice, hail, and the other plagues in
Egypt is amusing, but the profound and moving portrayal of The people shall hear lifts this
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chorus to a height hardly equaled elsewhe re. Passages such as these also reveal Handel the
dramatist, the unerring master of grandiose effects.
The chorus is the focus of the Handelian oratorio. Sometimes the chorus participates in the
narrative, representing the Israelites or their heathen enemies. But it also comments on the
action, lamenting or exulting. Handel treats the combination of chorus and orchestra with
flexibility and imagination. In his hands, a chorus can project delicacy, drama, or, grandeur.
Even Beethoven marveled at Handel's ability to "achieve great effects with simple means."
Handel never hesitated to reinforce an idea in his text by interrupting a polyphonic flow of
music with a series of chords. Changes in texture are more frequent in his music than in Bach's.
And he liked to present two different melodic ideas and then combine them polyphonically.
Handel achieved sharp changes of mood by shifting between minor keys and major keys.
Handel's thirty-nine Italian operas, almost all written in London, are less well known today than
the oratorios. But after two centuries of neglect, these operas are being revived successfully by
modern opera companies. Handel's operas are nearly all serious. They are based on ancient
Greek and Roman history or mythology. The heroes and heroines are royal figures like Julius
Caesar and Cleopatra. Most noteworthy in Handel's opera are the arias, which are connected by
long passages of recitative in which the plot develops. The arias show Handel's outstanding
ability to evoke a mood or emotion. They were often written to display the virtuosity of singers,
some of whom were castrati.
Toward the end of his operatic career, Handel turned more and more to the fashionable light
melodic manner of the modern Italian composers, especially in Serse (1738) and Deid amia
(1741). It is ironic that one of Handel's best-known pieces, the Largo from Xerxes," with its
clearly articulated phrases and simple accompaniment, is stylistically worlds apart from the
typical Baroque da capo aria.
Serse, English title: Xerxes; (HWV 40) is an opera seria in three acts by George Frideric
Handel. It was first performed in London on 15 April 1738. The Italian libretto was adapted by
an unknown hand from that by Silvio Stampiglia for an earlier opera of the same name by
Giovanni Bononcini in 1694. Stampiglia's libretto was itself based on one by Nicolò Minato
that was set by Francesco Cavalli in 1654. The opera is set in Persia (modern-day Iran) about
470 BC and is very loosely based upon Xerxes I of Persia. Serse, originally sung by a mezzo
soprano castrato, is now usually performed by a mezzo-soprano or counter-tenor. (Music
NAWM 82a, Audio 074)
Operas
The English-speaking public has long thought of Handel almost exclusively as an oratorio
composer. But he devoted thirty-five years to composing and directing operas, which contain
as much memorable music as do his oratorios. In an age when opera was the main concern of
ambitious musicians, Handel excelled among his contemporaries. During his lifetime, his
operas were heard not only in London but in Germany and Italy as well.
Because Handel's London audiences did not understand Italian, they cared more about hearing
their favorite singers than following the story. The plots are the usual ones of the time: tales of
magic and marvelous adventure, such as those by Ariosto and Tasso revolving around the
Crusades (Rinaldo, Orlando, Alcina, for example) or, more often, episodes from the lives of
Roman heroes (Giulio Cesare, Scipione, among others) freely adapted to include the
maximum number of intense dramatic situations. The action develops through dialogue set as
recitativo secco, accompanied by harpsichord. Particularly stirring moments, such as
soliloquies, are enhanced through recitativo obbligato, that is, accompanied by the orchestra.
For these accompanied recitatives - as indeed for many other features of his operas - Handel
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found impressive models in the works of Alessandro Scarlatti and others. Solo da capo arias
allow the characters to respond lyrically to their situations. Each aria represents a single specific
mood or affection, sometimes even two contrasting but related affections. The two types of
recitative are sometimes freely combined with short arias or ariosos to make large scene-
complexes that recall the freedom of early seventeenth - century Venetian opera and at the same
time foreshadow the methods of later composers such as Christoph Gluck. Examples of such
scene - complexes occur in Orlando (end of Act II) and, on a smaller scale, in Giulio Cesare
(Act III, Scene 4) (NAWM 80, Audio 075). Instrumental symphonies mark key moments in
the plot such as battles, Ceremonies, or incantations, and a few operas include ballets.
Ensembles larger than duets are rare, and there are almost no choruses at all.
Arias
The arias, traditionally allocated according to the importance of each member of the cast, had
to display the scope of the singers' vocal and dramatic powers. These constraints still left the
composer plenty of freedom. Like most of his contemporaries, Handel could easily turn out an
opera that enjoyed the usual brief success, but he could also on occasion create a masterpiece
like Ottone or Giulio Cesare, scores that are remarkable for their variety of aria types. These
range from brilliant coloratura displays to sustained, sublimely expressive pathetic songs such
as Cara sposa in Rinaldo or Se pieta in Giulio Cesare. Arias of regal grandeur with rich
contrapuntal and concertato accompaniments alternate with simple, folklike melodies or arias
in which the strings play in unison with the voice throughout. In Cleopatra's adoro, pupille (I
adore you, pupils) from Giulio Cesare, Handel divides the orchestra into soli and tutti in the
manner of a concerto grosso. The exotic-sounding concertina-one oboe, two muted violins,
viola, harp, gamba, theorbo, bassoon, and cello-accompanies the voice, while the tutti orchestra
adds punctuation and contrast. Not all of Handel's arias are in da capo form; particularly, those
composed in the 1730s favor simpler, abb reviated forms. (For a charming depiction of a
chamber performance of one of Handel's arias.) (Music NAWM 82b, Audio 076)
Instrumental music
Although Handel wrote some fine keyboard music, including three sets of concertos for
harpsichord or organ, and some sophisticated solo and trio sonatas, the most significant remain
his instrumental works for full orchestra. These include the overtures to his operas and
oratorios, the two suites known as Water Music (1717) and Music for the Royal Fireworks
(1749), and, above all, his six concertos for woodwinds and strings (usually called the oboe
concertos) and twelve Grand Concertos, Op. 6, composed in 1739.
Concerto
The concerti grossi of Opus 6 combine modern traits with retrospective elements, which
predominate. Handel adopted Corelli's conception of a sonata da chiesa for full orchestra and
the conventional slow-fast-slow-fast scheme of movements, including one fugal Allegro, but
he often added a movement or two. The solo parts are not very different in character from the
tuttis; in fact, the concertina strings often play throughout in unison with the ripieno or else
appear by themselves only for brief trio-like interludes. Rarely does Handel follow Vivaldi in
giving decorative figuration to a solo violin (as he does in Concertos Nos. 3, 6, and 11). The
serious, dignified bearing a nd the prevailing full contrapuntal texture of this music hark back
to the earlier part of the century, when Handel was forming his style in Italy. Yet the variety in
these concertos, the individual quality of the themes, the inexhaustible flow of invention, and
the grand proportions of the works have assured the Opus 6 concertos a permanent place in the
repertory.
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CHARlES BURNEY ON HANDEL'S PERSONALITY

The figure of Handel was large, and he was. somewhat corpulent, and unwieldy in his motions; but his
countenance, which I remember as perfectly as that of any man I saw but yesterday, was full of fire and
dignity; and such as impressed ideas of superiority and genius.
He was impetuous, rough, and peremptory in his manners and conversation, but totally devoid of ill-nature
or malevolence; indeed, there was an original humour and pleasantry in his most lively sallies of anger or
impatience, which, with his broken English, were extremely risible. His natural propensity to wit and
humour, and happy manner of relating common occurrences, in an uncommon way, enabled him to throw
persons and things into very ridiculous attitudes....
He knew the value of time too well to spend it in frivolous pursuits, or with futile companions, however
high in rank. Fond of his art, and diligent in its cultivation, and the exercise of it, as a profession, he spent
so studious and sedentary a life, as seldom allowed him to mix in society, or partake of public
amusements.... Handel's general took was somewhat heavy and sour, but when he did smile, it was his
sire the sun, bursting out of a black cloud. There was a sudden flash of intelligence, wit, and good humour,
beaming in his countenance, which I hardly ever saw in any other.
-From Charles Burney, An Account of the Musical Performances in Westminster Abbey and the
Pantheon ... 1784 in Commemoration of Handel (London, 1785), pp. 31-37.

FARINELLI, THE ADORED CASTRATO

Singing was so prized an art form in the late Renaissance and Baroque eras that many choirboys were
castrated before puberty in order to preserve the soprano or contralto range and the pure quality of their
voices. The musical needs of the church (which did not admit women into the prestigious Sistine Chapel
choir, for example) and the promise of a potentially glorious operatic career as an adult made this practice
tolerable to poor families who wished to provide an education for their talented offspring, and who often
received clandestine payments in exchange for their consent. The operation resulted in androgyny, since
secondary male sex characteristics, such as muscular development and facial hair, were suppressed
along with the change in voice. Castrati often appeared more fleshy, especially around the hips and
thighs, and in the face as well. Nevertheless, infertile though not impotent, they were extremely desir-
able as lovers. As to musical accomplishments, the castrato voice was valued for its greater power and
endurance compared with a woman's voice, and praised for its agility, range, breath control, and ability
to thrill the listener. The most successful castrati were adored by audiences, swarmed by fans, coddled
by composers, paid huge sums by producers-in short, treated very much like modern rock stars.
Carlo Broschi (1705-1782), known as Farinelli, was the most famous soprano castrato of all time. His
career took him from triumph to triumph in all the operatic capitals of Europe: Venice, Naples, Rome,
Vienna, Paris, London, and Madrid. The painting shown here depicts him as he appeared in 1734, the
year he made his debut in London for the Opera of the Nability-the company that rivaled Handel's own -
led by Nicola Porpora, who had been Farinelli's teacher in Naples. The portrait presents the virtuoso,
exquisitely outfitted in bro- cade, fur-trimmed velvet, and lace, standing next to a harpsichord. We can
assume from his authoritative, if not arrogant, pose that he had already reached the height of his powers.
In fact, he retired from the stage only three years later, at age thirty-two, and spent the next two decades
in the service of Philip V and Ferdinand VI of Spain.
London audiences were ecstatic about Farinelli. One letter, written shortly after his London debut, says it
all: I must have you know - for it deserves to be known - that Farinelli was a revelation to me, for I realized
that till I had heard him Ihad heard only a small part of what human song can achieve, whereas I now
conceive that Ihave heard all there is to hear.
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An interesting if somewhat melodramatic film (Farinelli, 1994) tells the obviously embroidered story of
Farinelli's rise to fame and fortune, his relationship with his brother (the composer Riccardo Broschi),
and his dealings with Porpora, Handel, and his adoring public. The film also manages to give a reasonably
authentic idea of the music and staging of Baroque opera. Because it is nowadays impossible to
reproduce naturally the enormous vocal range and unique timbre of the castrato voice, with its peculiar
combination of both power and sweetness, recording the ornate and difficult eighteenth-century arias on
the film's soundtrack involved "reinventing" Farinelli's voice from studio performances of two fine modern
singers-a male countertenor and a female soprano. The resulting tape includes no fewer than 3,ooo edit
points!
Handel’s borrowings
Handel often borrowed extensively from his own earlier works and - following the practice of
his day - from other composers, living or dead. Three duets and eleven of the twenty- eight
choruses of Israel in Egypt, for example, were taken in whole or in part from the music of
others, while four choruses were arrangements from earlier works by Handel himself. Some
scholars conjecture that Handel resorted to borrowing in order to overcome the inertia that
sometimes afflicted him when beginning a new work, especially after he suffered a paralytic
stroke and nervous collapse in 1737. However, that may be, Handel cannot be charged with
plagiarism because borrowing, transcribing, adapting, rearranging, and parodying were
universal and accepted practices. Besides, when Handel borrowed from others, he more often
than not repaid with interest, clothing the borrowed material with new beauty and preserving it
for generations that would otherwise scarcely have known of its existence.
MESSIAH (1741)
Messiah lasts about 2 ½ hours and was composed in just twenty-four days. Handel wrote it
before going to Ireland to attend performances of his own works that were being given to
dedicate a concert hall. About five months after his arrival in Dublin (in 1742), Handel gave
the first performance of Messiah; the occasion was a benefit for those lingering in debtors'
prisons. The rehearsals attracted wide attention: one newspaper commented that Messiah was
thought "by the greatest judges to be the finest Composition of Musick that ever was heard."
Normally, the concert hall held 600 people; but to increase the capacity, women were asked not
to wear hoop-skirts, and men were asked to leave their swords at home.
Although the premiere was a success, the first London performance (1743) was poorly received,
mainly because of religious opposition to using a Christian text in a theater. It took Messiah
almost a decade to find popularity in London. Not until it was performed yearly at a benefit for
a London orphanage did it achieve its unique status. A contemporary wrote that Messiah "fed
the hungry, clothed the naked, fostered the orphan."
Messiah is in three parts. Part I starts with the prophecy of the Messiah's coming and makes
celestial announcements of Christ's birth and the redemption of humanity through his
appearance. Part II has been aptly described by one Handel scholar as "the accomplishment of
redemption by the sacrifice of Jesus, mankind's rejection of God's offer and mankind's utter
defeat when trying to oppose the power of the Almighty." Part III expresses faith in the certainty
of eternal life through Christ as redeemer.
Unlike most of Handel's oratorios, Messiah is meditative rather than dramatic; it lacks plot
action and specific characters. Messiah is Handel's only English oratorio that uses the New
Testament as well as the Old. Charles Jennings, a millionaire and amateur literary man,
compiled the text by taking widely separated passages from the Bible Isaiah, Psalms, and job
from the Old Testament; Luke, I Corinthians, and the Book of Revelations from the New.
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Over the years, Handel rewrote some movements in Messiah for different performers and
performances. In Handel's own time, it was performed with a smaller orchestra and chorus than
we are used to. Handel"s own chorus included twenty singers, all male, and his small orchestra
had only strings and continuo, with trumpets and timpani used in some sections. Today we
sometimes hear arranged versions; Mozart made one, and still later versions are often played
by orchestras of one hundred and choruses of several hundred.
Messiah has over fifty movements, and Handel ensures variety by skill-fully contrasting
movements and grouping them. He achieves profound effects through simple alternations of
major and minor. We will focus on the Sinfonia for Orchestra; Comfort ye, my people; Ev'ry
valley shall be exalted; and For unto us a Child is born (all from Part I) and on the Hallelujah
Chorus, which ends Part II.
Sinfonia for Orchestra (French Overture)
Grave; Allegro moderato (moderate allegro)
Messiah opens with a French overture in minor. As is customary, a slow section featuring dotted
rhythms is followed by a quite rapid section beginning like a fugue. A lively subject is passed
from higher instruments to lower.

After this, the imitation mainly involves fragments of the subject. Near the end of the movement
is a feature typical of Handel: an energetic orchestral motion is suddenly broken off by a brief
pause that ushers in a closing cadence of slow chords. It's as though Handel had applied a brake
to bring the music to a decisive end.
Comfort Ye, My People
Accompanied recitative for tenor and orchestra Larghetto (slow, but less so than largo)
Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem,
and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplish' d, that her iniquity is pardon'd. The
voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight
in the desert a highway for our God. (Isaiah 40:1-3)
Comfort ye, my people opens with an orchestral ritornello in major that seems "comforting"
after the overture's minor key. The material of the ritornello returns repeatedly. The second
movement is an arioso the vocal line is something between a recitative and an aria, more lyrical
than one, less elaborate than the other. At the end, however, a heavenly voice is heard (The
voice of him that crieth in the wilderness), and the vocal line becomes pure recitative.
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The tenor's opening Comfort ye motive (long-short-long) is echoed by the strings, which repeat
it reassuringly throughout.
Ev'ry Valley Shall Be Exalted Aria for tenor
Andante
Ev'ry valley shall be exalted, and ev'ry mountain and hill made low, the crooked straight, and
the rough places plain. (Isaiah 40:4)
Like many baroque arias, Ev'ry valley shall be exalted opens and closes with an orchestral
ritornello. This aria is striking in its vivid word painting, so characteristic of baroque music. On
a single syllable of exalted (raised up), forty-six rapid notes form a rising musical line.

Notice, too, the rising and falling direction of the phrase and every mountain and hill made low:
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The crooked straight is represented as follows:

In the line and the rough places plain, the word plain (smooth or level), is expressed by
sustained tones and a long, legato melodic line.
For unto Us a Child Is Born Chorus
For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon
His shoulder, and His Name shall be called: Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God,
the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace! (Isaiah 9:6)
For unto us a Child is born is some of Handel's most joyful music. The texture is light, often
with only one or two voices singing at a time. After the sopranos announce a motive, it is
imitated by the tenors; then both voices with different rhythms are combined.

The words and the government shall be upon His shoulder bring a new melodic idea in dotted
rhythm:

Handel keeps the dynamics subdued until the striking chordal outburst on Wonderful,
Counsellor. This change of texture and dynamics is a master's stroke.
With such a close fusion of words and music, it may be disconcerting to learn that most of the
melodic ideas in this chorus came from Handel's Italian duet for the words No, I will not trust
you, blind love, cruel Beauty! You are too treacherous, too charming a deity! (The musical idea
for Wonderful is new.) But remember that in Handel's time there was little difference in style
between sacred and secular music. Amorous joy and religious joy could therefore be conveyed
in the same manner.
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POSTlUDE
In this, the last chapter about the Baroque era, we have studied the lives and works of the four
composers who represent, in many respects, both the efflorescence and the afterglow of the
musical Baroque in Italy, France, Germany, and England. Each made lasting contributions.
Although Vivaldi was a consummate master of opera, he is best remembered for his influence
on instrumental music of the middle and later eighteenth century. His impact equaled Corelli's
on an earlier generation. Composers of the Classic concerto adopted and developed Vivaldi's
dramatic conception of the soloist. His successors admired and emulated his concise themes,
clarity of form, rhythmic vitality, and logical flow of musical ideas. These qualities, so
characteristic of Vivaldi’s music, directly influenced J.S. Bach - who made keyboard
arrangements of at least nine of his concertos-and many younger composers as well.
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Rameau's work, dominated by his operas (which are especially note- worthy for their novel
instrumental music), is characterized by the French traits of clarity, grace, moderation, and
elegance, and a constant striving for pictorialism. In these respects, he may be compared to his
contemporary, the painter Jean Watteau. Equally typical of his countrymen, Rameau thought
of himself as a philosophe as well as a composer, an analyst as well as a creator. In short, he
was one of the most complex and productive musical personalities of the eighteenth century.
We realize the central position Bach occupies in the history of music when we consider that he
absorbed into his works all the genres, styles, and forms of his time and developed their
potential to a degree never even imagined by others. In his music, the often conflicting demands
of harmony and counterpoint, of melody and polyphony, reached a tense but satisfying balance.
The continuing vitality of his compositions cannot be explained in a few words, but among the
qualities that stand out are his concentrated and distinctive themes, his ingenious counterpoint,
his copious musical invention, the majestic formal proportions of his works, his imaginative
musical representation of pictorial and symbolic ideas, and the technical perfection of every
detail.
Handel's greatness and historical significance rests Largely on the fact that his compositions,
especially the choral works, still command an eager audience. His music aged well because he
embraced devices that became important in the new style of the mid-eighteenth century.
Handel's emphasis on melody and harmony, as compared to the more strictly contrapuntal
procedures of Bach, allied him with the fashions of his time. As a choral composer in the grand
style he had no peer. He was a consummate master of contrast, not only in choral music but
also in all types of composition. And in the oratorios he deliberately appealed to a middle-class
audience, recognizing social changes that had far-reaching effects on music.
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CHAPTER 5 THE EARLY CLASSIC PERIOD: OPERA AND

INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
CHAPTER OBJECTIVES
After you complete the reading, study of the music, and study questions for this chapter, you
should be able to
1. briefly describe the intellectual, cultural, and aesthetic background to music in the Classic
period;
2. name and describe the principal musical styles, genres, and forms current in the second half
of the eighteenth century; and
3. name some of the composers of the period, describe their individual styles, and identify some
of their works.
PRELUDE
The word classic has been applied to the mature styles of Later eighteenth- century composers
such as Haydn and Mozart. We call this music ''classic," an adjective that refers to the ancient
Greeks and Romans, because it shares many attributes of the art and architecture of antiquity.
At its best, classic music reached a consistently high standard and possessed the qualities of
noble simplicity, balance, perfection of form, diversity within unity, serious- ness of purpose,
and restrained use of ornamentation. We find these characteristics most evident in the music of
Gluck, Haydn, and Mozart, but we should not make the mistake of viewing the mid-eighteenth-
century composers who preceded them as merely Lesser forerunners.
Many different personal and regional styles thrived, and a wealth of stylistic diversity existed
among the various musical genres, such as opera and church music. Nevertheless, it is
convenient and appropriate to call the years from approximately 1730 to 1815 the Classic
period, even though its boundaries overlap the preceding Baroque and subsequent Romantic
periods. Although Baroque musical styles were dying out in Italy during the 1720s (as we have
seen in the works of Vivaldi, for example), they remained very much alive in France, England,
and some parts of Germany. This chapter will focus on developments in the early Classic
period, roughly to 1770.
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Other terms have also been applied to characterize this period, among them rococo, galant, and
empfindsam. Rococo originally described a style of architecture that softened the heavier, more
monumental angular forms of the post-Renaissance period with curved arabesques (rocaille or
"rockwork"), especially in France at the end of the seventeenth century. We might see the pieces
of François Couperin, with their refined ornamentation, as counterparts to the movement in
architecture, but a broader application of the term has Lost favor. The French word galant was
widely used in the eighteenth century to describe the courtly manner in Literature and the
subjects of paintings depicting courtly flirtation. It was a catchword for everything that was
considered modern, smart, chic, smooth, easy, and sophisticated. Contemporary theorists
distinguished between the Learned or strict style of contrapuntal writing and the freer, more
chordal, galant style. The latter was characterized by an emphasis on melody made up of short-
breathed, often repeated motives, organized in two, three, and four-bar phrases, as we have seen
in some of Handel's Late works. These and other GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF
THE NEW STYLE are discussed below.
The German word associated with the music of the mid-eighteenth century, Empfindsamkeit
(noun) or empfindsam (adjective), derives from the verb empfinden, to feel. Empfindsamkeit,
which translates as "sentimentality" or "sensibility," is a quality associated with the restrained
passion and melancholy that typifies some slow movements and obbligato recitatives in
particular. Characterized by surprising turns of harmony, chromaticism, nervous rhythmic
figures, and rhapsodically free, speechlike melody, it is found, for example, in certain Late
concertos of Vivaldi and, allied with the galant idiom, in C.P.E. Bach's keyboard sonatas (see
NAWM 108, Audio 078), discussed below.
Of course, styles change as new systems of thought and behavior challenge old beliefs. The
eighteenth-century movement known as the Enlightenment posed such a challenge. In the
sphere of religion, the movement valued individual faith and practical morality more than the
supernatural and the church. In philosophy and science, the emphasis on reasoning from
experience and from careful observation assigned greater importance to the examination of the
human mind, the emotions, social relations, and established institutions. This attitude affected
the arts as well: Rameau, for example, based his theories of harmony and tuning on observed
natural phenomena rather than on abstract mathematical Laws. In social behavior, naturalness
was preferred to artificiality and formality. Most important, the Enlightenment stood for the
conviction that reason and knowledge could solve social and practical problems as well as
advance scientific discovery.
Musical Life reflected the international culture that spread throughout Europe during the
Enlightenment. German symphony composers were active in Paris; Italian opera composers
and singers worked in what are now Austria and Germany, in Spain, England, Russia, and
France. The flutist Johann Joachim Ouantz (1697-1773), writing from Berlin in 1752, proposed
that the ideal musical style was made up of the best features of music from all nations.

COSMOPOLITAN VIENNA
Eighteenth- century Vienna is a striking example of a cosmopolitan cultural center. Between 1745 and
1765, the emperor was a Frenchman, Francis Stephen of Lorraine. The imperial court poet was the Italian
Pietro Metastasio. A German, Johann Adolph Hasse, composed operas in Italian set to Metastasio 's
librettos, sometimes for state occasions. The manager of the court theaters was Count Giacomo Durazzo,
a diplomat from Italy. An imported French company mounted a regular season of French comic operas.
French style ballets were also popular, though the music tended to be by local composers, among them
Gluck, whose partner in operatic reform was Raniero de Calzabigi, another Italian. The composer
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Giuseppe Bonno, born in Vienna but trained in Naples, became imperial Kapellmeister in 1774. His weekly
concerts conducted at the Palais Rofrano featured soloists such as the soprano Caterina Gabrielli and
the violinist Gaetano Pugnani, both Italians, and the Belgian Pierre van Maldere. The most influential
musician in Vienna during the last quarter of the century was Antonio Salieri (1750-1825), who had been
brought there from Venice at the age of fifteen. He eventually succeeded Florian Gassmann as imperial
court composer and conductor of Italian opera, a post he held for thirty-six years. This mix of cultures
underlay the phenomenon that has been called, not altogether appropriately, the "Viennese" Classical
style.

The age of Enlightenment was humanitarian as well as cosmopolitan. Enlightened despots, such
as Catherine the Great of Russia, not only patronized arts and Letters but also promoted social
reform. Freemasonry, built on humanitarian ideals and a Longing for universal brotherhood,
spread rapidly throughout Europe and numbered among its adherent’s kings (Frederick the
Great and Joseph II), poets (Goethe), and composers (Haydn and Mozart). Mozart's opera Die
Zauberflote (The Magic Flute) and Schiller's Ode to joy (set by Beethoven in his Ninth
Symphony) reflect the eighteenth-century humanitarian movement.
The pursuit of Learning and the Love of art became more widespread, particularly among the
expanding middle class. This growing interest made new demands of writers and artists that
affected both the subject matter and its manner of presentation. Philosophy, science, Literature,
and the fine arts all began to address a general public beyond the select group of experts and
connoisseurs. Popular treatises were written with an eye to bringing culture within the reach of
all, while novelists and playwrights began depicting everyday people with everyday emotions.
This had far-reaching effects in the world of opera, where comic opera or OPERA BUFFA
began to rival and even eclipse the OPERA SERIA; eventually, the stage was set for OPERA
REFORM, both musically and dramatically.
As private patronage declined, a modern audience for music emerged. Public concerts
competed with the older-style private concerts and academies. In Paris, the composer and oboist
Anne Danican Philidor founded the Concert spirituel series in 1725, which Lasted until 1790;
he also started the more secular but short-Lived Concerts français in 1727. J. A. Hiller began a
con- cert series in Leipzig in 1763, which continued after 1781 as the famous Gewandhaus
concerts. Similar organizations were founded in Vienna (1771) and in Berlin (1790). Concert
societies had flourished in London sporadically since 1672.
ALL of this concert activity created a favorable climate for INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC, which
ultimately triumphed over opera in popularity by the end of the century. Chamber or solo
SONATAS, orchestral SYMPHONIES, and solo CONCERTOS for pianoforte and other
instruments became the new vehicles to fame for composers of the Classic period.
What educated people in the middle and Later eighteenth century wanted, according to
Leading critics of the time, might be summarized as follows: the Language of music should be
universal, that is, not limited by national boundaries; music should be noble as well as
entertaining; it should be expressive within the bounds of decorum; and it should be “natural"-
free of needless technical complications and capable of immediately pleasing any sensitive
Listener.

J. J. QUANTZ ON THE SUPERIORITY OF A NATIONALLY MIXED STYLE

In a style that consists, Like the present German one, of a mix of the styles of different peoples, every
nation finds something familiar and unfailingly pleasing. Considering all that has been discussed about
the differences among styles, we must vote for the pure Italian style over the pure French. The first is no
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Longer as solidly grounded as it used to be, having become brash and bizarre, and the second has
remained too simple. Everyone will therefore agree that a style blending the good elements of both will
certainly be more universal and more pleasing. For a music that is accepted and favored by many
peoples, and not just by a single Land, a single province, or a particular nation, must be the very best,
provided it is founded on sound judgment and a healthy attitude.
-Johann Joachim Ouantz, Versuch einer Anweisung, die Flote traversiere zu spielen (Berlin: J. F. Voss,
1752), Ch. 18, § 89.

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE NEW STYLE

Contrast of Mood
Great variety and contrast of mood received new emphasis in classical music. While a late
baroque piece may convey a single emotion, a classical composition will fluctuate in mood.
Dramatic, turbulent music might lead into a carefree dance tune. Not only are there contrasting
themes within a movement, but there also may be striking contrasts within a single theme.
Mood in classical music may change gradually or suddenly expressing conflicting surges of
elation and depression. But such conflict and contrast are under the firm control of the classical
composer. Masters like Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven were able to impart unity and logic to
music of wide emotional range.
Rhythm
Flexibility of rhythm adds variety to classical music. A classical composition has a wealth of
rhythmic patterns, whereas a baroque piece contains a few patterns that are reiterated
throughout. Baroque works convey a sense of continuity and perpetual motion, so that after the
first few bars one can predict pretty well the rhythmic character of an entire movement. But the
classical style also includes unexpected pauses, syncopations, and frequent changes from long
notes to shorter ones. And the change from one pattern of note lengths to another may be either
sudden or gradual.
Texture
In contrast to the polyphonic texture of late baroque music, classical music is basically
homophonic. However, texture is treated as flexibly as rhythm. Pieces shift smoothly or
suddenly from one texture to another. A work may begin homophonically with a melody and
simple accompaniment but then change to a more complex polyphonic texture that features two
simultaneous melodies or melodic fragments imitated among the various instruments.
Melody
Classical melodies are among the most tuneful and easy to remember. The themes of even
highly sophisticated compositions may have a folk or popular flavor. Occasionally, composers
simply borrowed popular tunes. (Mozart did, in his variations on the French song Ah, vous dirai
je, maman, which we know as Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.) More often, they wrote original
themes with a popular character.
Classical melodies often sound balanced and symmetrical because they are frequently made up
of two phrases of the same length. The second phrase, in such melodies, may begin like the
first, but it ends more conclusively. Such a melodic type, which may be diagramed a a', is easy
to sing (it is frequently found in nursery tunes such as Mary Had a Little Lamb). Baroque
melodies, on the contrary, tend to be less symmetrical, more elaborate, and harder to sing.
The new styles of the mid-to-late eighteenth century focused on melody, but in a way very
different from the constant spinning-out of Bach or Vivaldi.
The new styles of melody were periodic, divided into short phrases that combine into periods
and larger sections, like the phrases, sentences, and paragraphs of a speech.
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Dynamics and the Piano

The classical composers' interest in expressing shades of emotion led to the widespread use of
gradual dynamic change crescendo and decrescendo. They did not restrict themselves to the
terraced dynamics (abrupt shifts from loud to soft) characteristic of baroque music. Both
crescendos and decrescendos were an electrifying novelty; audiences sometimes rose excitedly
from their seats.
During the classical period, the desire for gradual dynamic change led to the replacement of the
harpsichord by the piano. By varying the finger pressure on the keys, a pianist can play more
loudly or softly. Although the piano was invented around 1700, it began to replace the
harpsichord only around 1775. Almost all the mature keyboard compositions of Haydn, Mozart,
and Beethoven were written for the piano, rather than for harpsichord, clavichord, and organ,
which were featured in baroque music.
The End of the Basso Continuo
The basso continuo was gradually abandoned during the classical period. In Haydn's or
Mozart's works, a harpsichordist did not need to improvise an accompaniment. One reason why
the basso continuo became obsolete was that more and more music was written for amateurs,
who could not master the difficult art of improvising from a figured bass. Also, classical
composers wanted more control; they preferred to specify an accompaniment rather than trust
the judgment of improvisers.
Melodic periodicity
Melodic periodicity Such periodicity, however, does characterize the newer styles, in which
the melodic flow is disrupted by resting points that divide the line into, for example, antecedent
and consequent phrases. Instead of persistently spinning out musical ideas, the composer
articulates them through distinct phrases, typically two or four measures in length (but also
frequently three, five, or six measures). This technique creates a structure marked by frequent
full and half cadences and integrated through motivic correspondences. By analogy with verbal
composition, a musical unit made up of shorter phrases was considered a period, and a
composition as a succession of such periods. It was natural, then, to compare a melody to a
sentence or paragraph, to think of a musical composition as equivalent to a piece of prose
writing or speech (see the revealing parallels between oratory and music drawn by Johann
Nikolaus Forkel [1749-1818].
Harmonic periodicity
As with melody, the continuously driving harmonic motion typical of the older styles was also
divided into a series of stable or even static moments. Consequently, harmonic change slowed
down and modulations sounded less adventuresome. However, a lot of bustling activity occurs
during these relatively slow - moving and conventional harmonies. For example, the Alberti
bass, one of the most widely used devices of mid - eighteenth - century keyboard music,
frequently animated the simple harmonies that accompany the new, galant-style melody.
Named for the Italian composer Domenico Alberti (ca. 1710-1740), this device broke each of
the underlying chords into a simple pattern of short, repeating notes that pro- duced a discreet
chordal background, thereby setting off the melody to advantage (Example 13.1). Even Haydn,
Mozart, Beethoven, and others favored the handy Alberti bass well into the nineteenth century.
(Audio 079 Sonate no. 3 op. 1 Allegro)
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Emotional contrasts
Composers of the new eighteenth- century style still constructed a movement based on related
keys but abandoned the older idea of expressing just one basic affection. Instead, they began to
introduce contrasts between the various parts of a movement or even within the themes
themselves. At the same time, natural philosophers also changed their perceptions about the
emotional life of an individual. No longer believing that a person once aroused to a certain state
of mind, like anger or fear, remained in that affection until moved by some stimulus to a
different state, they now observed that feelings were in a constant state of flux, jostled by
associations that might take unpredictable turns. Daniel Webb wrote of the pleasure a person
experiences not, as some have imagined, the result of any fixed or permanent condition of the
nerves and spirits, but from a succession of impressions, and greatly augmented by sudden or
gradual transitions from one kind of strain of vibrations to another.''Composers no longer tried
to arouse listeners into a trancelike state of religious fervor or sympathetic identification
with a character on stage. Instead, they now expected listeners to follow a series of musical
thoughts like verbal discourse and understand their logic. Listening to a piece of music could
thus be a daring exploration of different related or even opposed feelings.
MUS1CAL STYLE AND SOCIAL CUSTOM IN BRITISH SOCIETY
Unlike Italy, France, and Germany, Britain did not produce any prominent composers during the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Handel, who was of German birth, dominated the musical scene in
Britain for most of the eighteenth century, but no other composer became similarly associated with that
country until Sir Arthur Sullivan (half of the Gilbert and Sullivan team) composed his operettas in the late
nineteenth century. This is a curious phenomenon, especially considering the impressive works of
literature (novels by Jane Austen, for example) and art (paintings by Thomas Gainsborough, among
others) from this period. We know from these works, however, that amateur music-making was an
important part of English life, but that the serious pursuit of music and its cultivation at a professional level
were shunned by ladies and gentlemen of British society.
The novels of Jane Austen (I 775-1817) herself an accomplished amateur pianist, provide insight into the
proper role of music among the leisure classes in England. Austen's heroines bear the primary
responsibility of providing at - home entertainment and so are able to demonstrate, by their pleasant
singing voices and keyboard skills, that they have used their leisure well. At the same time, they must
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give the impression of not practicing very much, because to attain any degree of virtuosity would imply
neglect of more important pursuits. If Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice played too well - that is, well enough
to perform in public - she would have reached a level of proficiency deemed vulgar for the future wife of
the refined and gallant Mr. Darcy.
In real life, very few young women performed in public or earned a living through music. The Linley sisters
of Bath, depicted in a 1772, portrait by Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788), were rare exceptions.
Elizabeth and Mary Linley were taught music by their father, Thomas Linley, a minor composer who
produced public concerts in Bath and London that helped to showcase his unusually talented daughters
as singers. At thirteen, Elizabeth made her London debut in a masque performed at Covent Garden and
thereafter appeared regularly in oratorios and other works until her marriage (at age nineteen) to the
famous playwright Richard Brin- ley Sheridan. Although he did not permit her to continue a singing career,
she did help him and her father to manage London's Drury Lane Theatre, of which they were co-directors.
Mary, who was four years younger than Elizabeth, eventually appeared in performances with her sister
as well as alone until she too married and withdrew from public life.
Gainsborough, who was also an accomplished amateur musician, befriended and
painted many musicians, among them Johann Christian Bach and Thomas Linley. His images (the most
famous being The 'Blue Boy') are admired for their grace and naturalness of expression, qualities we
associate with the new classic style in music. Although Thomas Linley never achieved an international
reputation as a composer, the following statement by an anonymous contemporary (published in his
obituary in the Gentleman's Magazine in 1795) could describe equally well most of Gainsborough's
paintings: ''His compositions always soothe and charm by delicacy, simplicity, and tenderness."

JOHANN NIKOLAUS FORKEL ON ORATORY AND MUSIC

An orator would behave unnaturally and contrary to the goals of edifying, persuading, and moving [an
audience] by giving a speech without first determining what is to be the main idea [Hauptsatz], the
secondary ideas [Nebensatze], the objections and refutations of the same, and the proofs....
As musical works of any substantial length are nothing other than speeches by which one seeks to move
the listener 'to a certain empathy and to certain emotions, the rules for the ordering and arrangement of
ideas are the same as in an actual oration. And so one has, in both, a main idea, supporting secondary
ideas, dissections of the main idea, refutations, doubts, proofs, and reiterations. Similar means to our end
(in the musical sense) must be used. This order and sequence of the individual sections is called the
aesthetic ordering of the ideas. A musical work in which this ordering is so arranged that all thoughts
mutually support and reinforce one another in the most advantageous way possible, is well ordered.
-From Allgemeine Geschichte der Musik (Leipzig: Schwickert, 1788-1801), I, 50, adapted from the
translation in Mark Evan Bonds, Wordless Rhetoric: Musical Form and the Metaphor ofthe Oration
(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1991), p. 123.

THE CLASSICAL ORCHESTRA

A new orchestra evolved during the classical period. Unlike the baroque orchestra, which could
vary from piece to piece, it was a standard group of four sections: strings, woodwinds, brass,
and percussion. In the late instrumental works of Mozart and Haydn, an orchestra might consist
of the following:
Strings: 1st violins, 2d violins, violas, cellos, double basses
Woodwinds: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons
Brass: 2 French horns, 2 trumpets
Percussion: 2 timpani
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Notice that woodwind and brass instruments are paired and that clarinets have been added.
Trombones were also used by Haydn and Mozart, but only in opera and church music, not in
solely instrumental works.
The number of musicians in a classical orchestra was greater than in a baroque group, but
practice varied considerably from place to place. Haydn directed a private orchestra of only
twenty-five players from 1761 to 1790. But for public concerts in London in 1795, he led a
large orchestra of sixty musicians.
Classical composers exploited the individual tone colors of orchestral instruments. Unlike
baroque composers, they did not treat one instrument like another. Classical composers would
not let an oboe duplicate the violin melody for the entire length of a movement. A classical
piece has greater variety of tone color, and more rapid changes of color. A theme might begin
in the full orchestra, shift to the strings, and then continue in the woodwinds.
Each section of the classical orchestra had a special role. The strings were the most important
section, with the first violins taking the melody most of the time and the lower strings providing
an accompaniment. The woodwinds added contrasting tone colors and were often given
melodic solos. Horns and trumpets brought power to loud passages and filled out the harmony,
but they did not usually play the main melody. Timpani were used for rhythmic bite and
emphasis. As a whole, the classical orchestra had developed into a flexible and colorful
instrument to which composers could entrust their most powerful and dramatic musical
conceptions.
COMPOSER, PATRON, AND PUBLIC IN THE CLASSICAL PERIOD
Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven three of the world's greatest composers worked during a time of
violent political and social upheaval. The seventy-year period from 1750 to 1820 was convulsed
by the American and French revolutions and by the Napoleonic Wars. Political and economic
power shifted from the aristocracy and the church to the middle class. Social mobility increased
to a point where Napoleon could become emperor of France through his own genius rather than
as a birthright. "Subversive" new slogans like Liberty, equality, fraternity! sprang from the
people's lips. All established ideas were being reexamined, including the, existence of God.
SOCIAL TRENDS AND CLASSICAL COMPOSITION
Like everyone else, musicians were strongly affected by such changes, and in the careers of the
three classical masters we can trace the slow emancipation of the composer. First came Joseph
Haydn (1732-1809), content to spend most of his life serving a wealthy aristocratic family. His
contract of employment (1761) shows that he was considered a skilled servant, like a gardener
or gamekeeper. He had to wear a uniform and "compose such music as His Highness shall
order" and was warned to "refrain from vulgarity in eating, drinking, and conversation."
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), born just twenty-four years later; could not bear
being treated as a servant; he broke from his court position and went to Vienna to try his luck
as a free-lance musician. But his personality was unsuited to the struggles of such a career, and
he died tragically in poverty. Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) succeeded where Mozart
failed. Only a few years after Mozart's death, Beethoven was able to work as an independent
musician in Vienna. His success was gained through a wider middle-class market for music and
a commanding personality that prompted the nobility to give him gifts and treat him as an equal.
As the eighteenth century advanced, more people made more money. Merchants, doctors, and
government officials could afford larger homes, finer clothes, and better food. But the
prospering middle class wanted more than material goods; it also sought aristocratic luxuries
like theater, literature, and music. In fact, during the classical period, the middle class had a
great influence on music. Because palace concerts were usually closed to townspeople, they
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organized public concerts where, for the price of admission, they could hear the latest
symphonies and concertos. Following the success of a famous concert series in Paris, the
Concert spirituel (1725), public concerts mushroomed throughout Europe. But merchants and
lawyers were not content to hear music only in concerts. They wanted to be surrounded by
music at home. They felt that their sons and daughters deserved music lessons as much as the
children of aristocrats did. Indeed, if middle-class children played instruments well enough,
they might be invited to palaces and eventually marry into the aristocracy. In any event, the
demand for printed music, instruments, and music lessons had vastly increased.
Composers in the classical period took middle-class tastes into account. They wrote pieces that
were easy for amateur musicians to play and under-stand. They turned from serious to comic
opera, from heroic and mythological plots dear to the nobility to middle-class subjects and
folklike tunes. Their comic operas sometimes even ridiculed the aristocracy, and their dance
movements became less elegant and courtly, more vigorous and rustic.
Serious composition was flavored by folk and popular music. The classical masters sometimes
used familiar tunes as themes for symphonies and variations. Mozart was delighted that people
danced to waltzes arranged from melodies in his operas. Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven all
wrote dance music for public balls in Vienna.
VIENNA
Vienna was one of the music centers of Europe during the classical period, and Haydn, Mozart,
and Beethoven were all active there. As the seat of the Holy Roman Empire (which included
parts of present-day Austria, Germany, Italy, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia), it was a bustling
cultural and commercial center with a cosmopolitan character. Its population of almost 250,000
(in 1800) made Vienna the fourth largest city in Europe. All three classical masters were born
elsewhere, but they were drawn to Vienna to study and to seek recognition. In Vienna, Haydn
and Mozart became close friends and influenced each other's musical style. Beethoven traveled
to Vienna at sixteen to play for Mozart; at twenty-two, he returned to study with Haydn.
Aristocrats from all over the empire spent the winter in Vienna, some-times bringing their
private orchestras. Music was an important part of court life, and a good orchestra was a symbol
of prestige. Many of the nobility were excellent musicians. For instance, Empress Maria
Theresa had sung in palace musicales when she was young, Emperor Joseph II was a competent
cellist, and Archduke Rudolf was Beethoven's long-time student of piano and composition.
Much music was heard in private concerts, where aristocrats and wealthy commoners played
alongside professional musicians. Mozart and Beethoven often earned money by performing in
these intimate concerts. The nobility frequently hired servants who could double as musicians.
An advertisement in the Vienna Gazette of 1789 reads: "wanted, for a house of the gentry, a
manservant who knows how to play the violin well."
In Vienna there was also outdoor music, light and popular in tone. Small street bands of wind
and string players played at garden parties or under the windows of people likely to throw down
money. A Viennese almanac reported that "on fine summer nights you may come upon
serenades in the streets at all hours." Haydn and Mozart wrote many outdoor entertainment
pieces, which they called divertimentos or serenades. Vienna's great love of music and its
enthusiastic demand for new works made it the chosen city of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven.
CLASSICAL FORMS
Instrumental compositions of the classical period usually consist of several movements that
contrast in tempo and character. There are often four movements, arranged as follows:
1. Fast movement
2. Slow movement
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3. Dance-related movement
4. Fast movement
Classical symphonies and string quartets usually follow this four-movement pattern, while
classical sonatas may consist of two, three, or four movements. A symphony is written for
orchestra; a string quartet for two violins, viola, and cello; and a sonata for one or two
instruments. (The classical symphony, string quartet, and sonata are more fully described in
Sections 3 to 7 and 9.)
In writing an individual movement of a symphony, string quartet, or sonata, a classical
composer could choose from several different forms. One movement of a composition might
be in A B A form, while another might be a theme and variations. The sections that follow will
describe some forms used in classical movements, but now let's look at a few general
characteristics of classical form.
Classical movements often contrast themes vividly. A movement may contain two, three, or
even four or more themes of different character. This use of contrasting themes distinguishes
classical music from baroque music, which often uses only one main theme. The classical
composer sometimes signals the arrival of a new theme with a brief pause.
The larger sections of a classical movement balance each other in a satisfying and symmetrical
way. Unstable sections that wander from the tonic key are balanced by stable sections that
confirm it. By the end of a classical movement, musical tensions have been resolved.
Though we speak of the classical style, we must remember that Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven
were three individuals with dissimilar personalities. While Haydn's and Mozart's works at first
may sound similar, deeper involvement reveals striking personal styles. Beethoven's music
seems more powerful, violent, and emotional when compared with the apparently more
restrained and elegant works of the earlier masters. But Haydn and Mozart also composed
music that is passionate and dramatic. We'll see that all three composers employed similar
musical procedures and forms, yet their emotional statements bear the particular stamp of each.
SONATA FORM
An astonishing amount of important music from the classical period to the twentieth century is
composed in sonata form (sometimes called sonata-allegro form). The term sonata form refers
to the form of a single movement. It should not be confused with the term sonata, which is used
for a whole composition made up of several movements. The opening fast movement of a
classical symphony, sonata, or string quartet is usually in sonata form. This form is also used
in slow movements and in fast concluding movements.
A sonata-form movement consists of three main sections: the exposition, where the themes are
presented; the development, where themes are treated in new ways; and the recapitulation,
where the themes return. These three main sections are often followed by a concluding section,
the coda (Italian for tail). Remember that these sections are all within one movement. A single
sonata-form movement may be outlined as follows:
Exposition
First theme in tonic (home) key
Bridge containing modulation from home key to new key Second theme in new key
Closing section in key of second theme
Development
New treatment of themes; modulations to different keys
Recapitulation
First theme in tonic key Bridge
Second theme in tonic key
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Closing section in tonic key

(Coda)
In tonic key
A fast movement in sonata form is sometimes preceded by a slow introduction that creates a
strong feeling of expectancy.
EXPOSITION
The exposition sets up a strong conflict between the tonic key and the new key, between the
first theme (or group of themes) and the second theme (or group of themes). It begins with the
first theme in the tonic, or home, key. There follows a bridge, or transition, leading to the second
theme, which is in a new key. The modulation from the home key to a new key creates a feeling
of harmonic tension and forward motion. The second theme often contrasts in mood with the
first theme. A closing section ends the exposition in the key of the second theme. At the end of
a classical exposition there is usually a repeat sign (1) to indicate that the whole exposition is
to be repeated.
DEVELOPMENT
The development is often the most dramatic section of the movement. The listener may be kept
off balance as the music moves restlessly through several different keys. Through these rapid
modulations, the harmonic tension is heightened.
In this section, themes are developed, or treated in new ways. They are broken into fragments,
or motives, which are short musical ideas developed within a composition. A motive may take
on different and unexpected emotional meanings. One fragment of a comic theme, for example,
may be made to sound aggressive and menacing through changes of melody, rhythm, or
dynamics. Themes can be combined with new ideas or changed in texture. A complex
polyphonic texture can be woven by shifting a motive rapidly among different instruments. The
harmonic and thematic searching of the development builds a tension that demands resolution.
RECAPITULATION
The beginning of the recapitulation brings resolution, as we again hear the first theme in the
tonic key. In the recapitulation, the first theme, bridge, second theme, and concluding section
are presented more or less as they were in the exposition, with one crucial difference: all the
principal material is now in the tonic key. Earlier, in the exposition, there was strong contrast
between the first theme in the home key and the second theme and closing section in a new
key; that basis for tension is resolved in the recapitulation by presenting the first theme, second
theme, and closing section all in the tonic key.
CODA
An even more powerful feeling of conclusion is attained by following the recapitulation with
yet another section. The coda rounds off a movement by repeating themes or developing them
further. It always ends in the tonic key.
The amazing durability and vitality of sonata form result from its capacity for drama. The form
moves from a stable situation toward conflict (in the exposition), to heightened tension (in the
development), and then back to stability and resolution of conflict.
Sonata form is exceptionally flexible and subject to endless variation. It is not a rigid mold into
which musical ideas are poured. Rather, it may be viewed as a set of principles that serve to
4shape and unify contrasts of theme and key. Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven repeatedly used
sonata form, yet each maintained individuality. Movements in sonata form may differ radically
in character, in length, and in the number and treatment of themes. Sonata form is so versatile
that it is no surprise to find its use spanning more than two centuries.
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A movement in sonata form proceeds from a stable situation toward conflict, to heightened
tension, and then back to stability. (Video 080, Symphony 40 fourth mvnt)
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The rapid sonata-form last movement from Mozart's Symphony No. 40 in G Minor, K. 550,
conveys a feeling of controlled tension. The opening theme, in the tonic key of G minor, offers
brusque contrasts of dynamics and rhythm. A soft upward arpeggio (broken chord) alternates
repeatedly with a loud rushing phrase.

Excitement is maintained throughout the long bridge, which is based on the loud rushing phrase
of the first theme. The bridge ends clearly with a brief pause, as do other sections in this
movement.
The tender second theme, in the new key of B flat major, is a lyrical contrast to the brusque
opening theme. It is softer, flows more smoothly, and uses longer notes.
Mozart weaves almost the entire development section from the upward arpeggio of the first
theme. During the opening few seconds, there is an eruption of violence as the orchestra in
unison plays a variation of the arpeggio and a series of jagged downward leaps. As the
development continues, the texture becomes polyphonic and contrasts with the homophony of
the exposition. Arpeggios press upon each other in quick imitation. Rapid shifts of key create
restless intensity.
In the recapitulation, both the first and second themes are in the tonic key, G minor. This minor
key now adds a touch of melancholy to the tender second theme, which was heard in major
before. The passion and violence of this movement foreshadow the romantic expression to
come during the nineteenth century.
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2. THEME AND VARIATIONS

The form called theme and variations is widely used in the classical period, either as an
independent piece or as one movement of a symphony, sonata, or string quartet. In a theme and
variations, a basic musical idea the theme is repeated over and over and is changed each time.
This form may be outlined as theme (A) variation 1 (A') variation 2 (A") variation 3 (A"'), and
so on; each prime mark indicates a variation of the basic idea.
Each variation is usually about the same length as the theme. Changes of melody, rhythm,
harmony, accompaniment, dynamics, or tone color may be used to give a variation its own
identity. The core melody may appear in the bass, or it may be repeated in a minor key instead
of a major key. It may be heard together with a new melody. Each variation is unique and may
differ in mood from the theme. The variations may be connected to each other or separated by
pauses. For the theme itself, a composer may invent an original melody or borrow someone
else's: Beethoven once borrowed a little waltz tune and put it through thirty-three brilliant
variations. More modest examples of theme and variations have as few as three variations.
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The second movement (andante) of Haydn's Symphony No. 94 in G major (the Surprise
Symphony) is a theme and variations. The folklike, staccato theme begins softly but is
punctuated by a sudden loud chord. This is the "surprise" of the symphony. There are four
variations, in which the theme is changed in tone color, dynamics, rhythm, and melody.
Sometimes the original melody is accompanied by a new one called a countermelody. Such
combinations of two distinctive melodies result in a polyphonic texture. In one variation the
theme is presented in minor instead of major: The last variation is followed by a closing section
in which a gently dissonant accompaniment momentarily darkens the mood of the carefree
theme.
The theme is composed of two parts, sections a and b, each of which is repeated. This pattern
is usually retained in the variations.
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3. MINUET AND TRIO

The form known as minuet and trio, or minuet, is employed as the third movement of classical
symphonies, string quartets, and other works. Like the movements of the baroque suite, the
minuet originated as a dance. It first appeared at the court of Louis XIV of France around 1650
and was danced by aristocrats throughout the eighteenth century. The minuet was a stately,
dignified dance in which the dancing couple exchanged curtsies and bows.
The minuet movement of a symphony or string quartet is written for listening, not dancing. It
is in triple meter (4) and usually in a moderate tempo. The movement is in A B A form: minuet
(A), trio (B), minuet (A).
The trio (B) is usually quieter than the minuet (A) section and requires fewer instruments. It
often contains woodwind solos. The trio section got its name during the baroque period, when
a set of two dances would be followed by a repetition of the first dance. The second dance was
known as a "trio" because it was usually played by three instruments. Classical composers did
not restrict themselves to three instruments in the B sections of their minuets, but the name trio
remained. (Video 082, Eine Kleine Nachtmusic, third movement)
EINE KLEINE NACHTMUSIK (A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC), K. 525, BY
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART

The A (minuet) section includes smaller parts a, b, and a' (variation of a). In the opening A
(minuet) section, all the smaller parts are repeated, as follows: a (repeated) ba' (repeated). (In
the musical score, the repeat sign indicates each repetition.) The B (trio) section is quite
similar in form: c (repeated) dc' (repeated). At the close of the B (trio) section, the repetition of
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the entire A (minuet) section is indicated by the words da capo (from. the beginning). This
time, however, the minuet is played straight through without the repetitions: a ba'. The whole
movement can be outlined like
this:
Minuet Trio Minuet
A B A
a (repeated) ba' (repeated) c (repeated) dc' (repeated) a ba'
With its A B A form and its many repeated parts, the minuet is structurally the simplest
movement of a symphony or string quartet.
In many of Beethoven's compositions, the third movement is not a minuet but a related form
called a scherzo. Like a minuet, a scherzo is usually in A B A form and triple meter, but it
moves more quickly, generating energy, rhythmic drive, and rough humor. (Scherzo is Italian
for joke.)
Third Movement: Minuet (Allegretto) Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik is a serenade, a work
that's usually light in mood, meant for evening entertainment. It is written for a small string
orchestra or for a string quartet plus a double bass. (The double bass plays the cello part an
octave lower.) The third movement is a courtly minuet in A B A form. The A (minuet) section
is stately, mostly loud and staccato, with a clearly marked beat. In contrast, the B (trio) section
is intimate, soft, and legato. Its murmuring accompaniment contributes to the smooth flow of
the music.
4. RONDO
Many classical movements are in rondo form. A rondo features a tuneful main theme (A) which
returns several times in alternation with other themes. Common rondo patterns are A B A C A
and A B A C A B A. The main theme is usually lively, pleasing, and simple to remember, and
the listener can easily recognize its return. Because the main theme is usually stated in the tonic
key, its return is all the more welcome. The rondo can be used either as an independent piece
or as one movement of a symphony, string quartet, or sonata. It often serves as a finale, because
its liveliness, regularity, and buoyancy bring a happy sense of conclusion.
Rondo form is often combined with elements of sonata form to produce the sonata-rondo. The
sonata-rondo contains a development section like that in sonata form and is outlined A B A-
development section-A B A.
The popularity of the rondo did not end with the classical period. It has been used by twentieth-
century composers such as Igor Stravinsky and Arnold Schoenberg.
STRING QUARTET IN C MINOR, OP. 18, NO. 4, BY LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Fourth Movement: (Video 083)
Rondo (Allegro)
The exciting rondo movement from Beethoven's String Quartet in C minor, Op. 18, No. 4, may
be outlined A B A C A B A. Its main theme, A, is a lively gypsy dance made up of two repeated
parts: a a b b. An unexpected held tone in part b suggests the improvisatory playing of a gypsy
fiddler. The main theme, in minor, contrasts with the other themes, which are in major. Theme
B is a lyrical legato melody, while theme C is playful, with quick upward rushes. At its final
return, the main theme (A) has a faster tempo, prestissimo, and leads into a frenzied concluding
section.
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THE CLASSICAL SYMPHONY

The great contribution of the classical period to orchestral music is the symphony. Haydn wrote
at least 104 symphonies, Mozart over forty, and Beethoven nine. Most of Haydn's symphonies
were composed for his employers, who required a steady flow of works for their palace
concerts. Beethoven, on the other hand, wrote a symphony only when inspired. His symphonies
are longer than Haydn's or Mozart's and were conceived for performance in large concert halls.
A symphony is an extended, ambitious composition typically lasting between '20 and 45
minutes, exploiting the expanded range. Of tone color and dynamics of the classical orchestra.
A classical symphony usually consists of four movements which evoke a wide range of
emotions through contrasts of tempo and mood. A typical sequence is (1) a vigorous, dramatic
fast movement; (2) a lyrical slow movement; (3) a dancelike movement (minuet or scherzo);
and (4) a brilliant or heroic fast movement.
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The opening movement is almost always fast and in sonata form. It is usually the most dramatic
movement and stresses an exciting development of short motives. Sometimes a slow
introduction leads to the opening fast movement and creates a feeling of anticipation.
It is in the slow second movement that we are most likely to find broad, songlike melodies.
This movement, by and large, is either in sonata form, A B A form, or theme-and-variations
form. Unlike the other movements in the symphony, the slow movement is generally not in the
tonic key. For example, if the first, third, and fourth movements are in the tonic key of C major,
the second movement may be in F major. The new key. points up the expressive contrast of the
slow movement.
In the symphonies of Haydn and Mozart, the third movement is generally a minuet and trio,
which may be in a moderate or fairly quick tempo. This movement varies in character from a
courtly dance to a peasant romp or a vigorous piece that is hardly dancelike. Beethoven liked
fast, energetic scherzos for his third movements.
The fourth, concluding movement of a Haydn or Mozart symphony is fast, lively, and brilliant,
but somewhat lighter in mood than the opening movement. (The agitated final movement of
Mozart's Symphony No. 40 in G minor is not typical.) Beethoven's concluding movement tends
to be more triumphant and heroic in character and sometimes is meant as the climax of the
whole symphony. The final movement of a classical symphony is most often in sonata or
sonata-rondo form.
In most classical symphonies, each movement is a self-contained composition with its own set
of themes. A theme in one movement will only rarely reappear in a later movement.
(Beethoven's Fifth and Ninth Symphonies are exceptions.) But a symphony is unified partly by
the use of the same key in three of its movements. More important, the movements balance and
complement each other both musically and emotionally.
The importance of the symphony has lasted into the middle of the twentieth century. Its great
significance is reflected in such familiar terms as symphonic music, symphony hall, and
symphony orchestra.
THE CLASSICAL CONCERTO
A classical concerto is a three-movement work for an instrumental soloist and orchestra. It
combines the soloist's virtuosity and interpretive abilities with the orchestra's wide range of
tone color and dynamics. Emerging from this encounter is a contrast of ideas and sound that is
dramatic and satisfying. The soloist is very much the star, and all of his or her musical talents
are needed in this challenging dialogue.
The classical love of balance can be seen in the concerto, for soloist and orchestra are equally
important. Between them, there's an interplay of melodic lines and a spirit of give-and-take.
One moment the soloist plays the melody while the orchestra accompanies. Then the
woodwinds may unfold the main theme against rippling arpeggios (broken chords) played by
the soloist. Mozart and Beethoven the greatest masters of the classical concerto often wrote
concertos for themselves to play as piano soloists; the piano is their favored solo instrument.
But other solo instruments used in classical concertos include violin, cello, horn, trumpet,
clarinet, and bassoon.
Like symphonies, concertos can last anywhere from 20 minutes to 45 minutes. But instead -of
the symphony's-- four movements, a classical concerto has three: (1) fast, (2) slow, and (3) fast.
A concerto has no minuet or scherzo.
In the first movement and sometimes in the last movement, there is a special unaccompanied
showpiece for the soloist, the cadenza (Italian for cadence). Near the end of the movement, the
orchestra suspends forward motion by briefly sustaining a dissonant chord. This is indicated in
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the score by a fermata a sign meaning pause, which is placed over the chord. The suspense
announces the entry of the soloist's cadenza. For several minutes, the soloist, without orchestra,
displays virtuosity by playing dazzling scale passages and broken chords. Themes of the
movement are varied and presented in new keys. At the end of a cadenza, the soloist plays a
long trill followed by a chord that meshes with the reentrance of the orchestra.
In the classical era, the soloist, who was often the composer, generally improvised the cadenzas.
In this case, the score contained only the fermata, indicating where the cadenza should be
inserted. But after the eighteenth century, the art of improvisation declined, and composers
began to write cadenzas directly into the score. This gave them more control over their
compositions.
Today, performers of eighteenth-century concertos may have a choice of cadenzas. For some
concertos, composers wrote cadenzas for their own performance or for that of a student. Also,
many nineteenth- and twentieth-century musicians later provided cadenzas for classical
concertos. These are best when their style matches that of the concerto. For example, the
cadenzas Beethoven composed for Mozart's D Minor Piano Concerto are so strong and so much
in the spirit of the work that pianists today still use them.
A classical concerto begins with a movement in sonata form of a special kind, containing two
expositions. The first is played by the orchestra, which presents several themes in the home
key. This opening section sets the mood for the movement and leads us to expect the soloist's
entrance. The second exposition begins with the soloist's first notes. Music for the solo entry
may be powerful or quiet, but its effect is dramatic because suspense has been built. Together
with the orchestra, the soloist explores themes from the first exposition and introduces new
ones. After a modulation from the home key to a new key, the second exposition then moves
to a development section, followed by the recapitulation, cadenza, and coda. The slow middle
movement " may take any, one of several forms, but the finale is usually a quick rondo or
sonata-rondo.
CLASSICAL CHAMBER MUSIC
Classical chamber music is designed for the intimate setting of a room (chamber) in a home or
palace, rather than f or a public concert hall. It is performed by a small group of two to nine
musicians, with one player to a part. Chamber music is lighter in sound than classical orchestral
music. During the classical period, it was fashionable for an aristocrat or a member of the well-
to-do middle class to play chamber music with friends and to hire professional musicians to
entertain guests after dinner.
Chamber music is subtle and intimate, intended to please the performer as much as the listener.
A chamber music group is a team. Each member is essential, and each may have an important
share of the thematic material: Therefore much give-and-take is called for among the
instruments. Classical chamber music does not need a conductor; instead, each musician must
be sensitive to what goes on and coordinate dynamics and phrasing with the other musicians.
In this respect, a chamber ensemble is like a small jazz group.
The most important form in classical chamber music is the string quartet, written for two
violins, a viola, and a cello. Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven wrote some of their most important
music in this form. The string quartet can be compared to a conversation among four lively,
sensitive, and intelligent people. And its not surprising that the string quartet evolved when
conversation was cultivated as a fine art.
Like the symphony, the string quartet usually consists of four movements: (1) fast, (2) slow,
(3) minuet or scherzo, (4) fast. (Sometimes the second movement is a minuet or a scherzo and
the slow movement is third.)
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Other popular forms of classical chamber music are the sonata for violin and piano, the piano
trio (violin, cello, and piano), and the string quintet (two violins, two violas, and cello).
Today, as in the eighteenth century, much chamber music is performed by amateurs. By
consulting the directory Amateur Chamber Music Players, one can find partners for chamber
music almost anywhere in the United States.
OPERA BUFFA
Many of the stylistic traits associated with the Classic period had their origins in the first
decades of eighteenth-century Italian musical theater. Because tradition weighed less heavily
on comic opera, it was more hospitable to innovations than serious opera. An Italian opera
buffa was a full-length work with six or more singing characters and, unlike comic opera in
other countries, was sung throughout. It served a moral purpose by caricaturing the foibles of
both aristocrats and commoners, vain ladies, miserly old men, awkward and clever servants,
deceitful husbands and wives, pedantic lawyers and notaries, bungling physicians, and
pompous military commanders. These generally resemble the stock characters of the commedia
dell'arte, the improvised comedy popular in Italy since the sixteenth century. The comic
characters often spoke or sang in a dialect, as they did in some of the Venetian comedies, or the
entire play might be in the local dialect, as in Naples. The comic cast was usually complemented
by a number of serious characters who interacted with the comic characters, particularly in
amorous intrigues, and were central to the main plot. The dialogue was set in rapidly delivered
recitative and accompanied by keyboard only. The arias presented short tuneful phrases, often
repeated, accompanied by simple harmonies, and organized into tidy periods.
Intermezzo
Another important type of Italian comic opera, the intermezzo, originated in the custom of
presenting short comic musical interludes between the acts of a serious opera or play. These
intermezzi contrasted sharply with the grand and heroic manners of the principal drama,
sometimes even parodying its excesses. The plots were mostly situation comedies involving a
few ordinary people, who sang, as in serious opera, recitatives and arias.
Pergolesi la serva pardona
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710-1736) was an early master of the intermezzo. One of the
most original composers in the early Classic style, he also wrote important opere serie.
Pergolesi's La serva pad rona (The Maid as Mistress), for soprano, bass, a third character who
is mute, strings, and continuo, was written as an interlude to one of his own serious operas in
1733 in Naples. Its performance in Paris twenty years later set off the querelle des bouffons.
A scene in which Serpina, the maid, warns her grumpy boss and would be lover, Uberto, that
she is about to marry the mute character, Vespone, displays the extraordinary aptness and
nimbleness of Pergolesi's music (NAWM 121 La serva padrona Video 084). Serpina delivers
the news in simple recitative, to which Uberto reacts first in an agitated obbligato recitative,
then in a da capo aria. Neither the main nor the middle section develops a single musical motive;
rather, there are as many melodic ideas as there are thoughts and moods in the text. The first
line, in which Uberto exclaims in a patter style how confused he is, repeats the same music
three times, reinforcing it for the listener but also suggesting Uberto's mental paralysis
(Example I3. a). Then Uberto, realizing that something mysterious is stirring his heart (measure
15), waxes lyrical as he asks himself whether he is in love. But a sober voice within checks his
ardor-he should think of himself, guard his interests and independence - and now the melody
shifts to deliberate, brooding, drawn-out notes (Example I3. b). The middle section, instead of
presenting contrasting music, develops earlier material, converting some of the musical motives
of the first section into the minor mode.
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Unlike opera seria, which maintained its character across national boundaries, comic opera took
different forms in different countries. It usually represented everyday people in familiar
situations and required relatively modest performing resources. Comic opera librettos were
always written in the national tongue, and the music itself tended to accentuate the national
musical idiom. From humble beginnings the comic opera grew steadily in importance after
1760, and before the end of the century many of its characteristic features were absorbed into
the mainstream of operatic composition. The historical significance of comic opera was
twofold: it re- sponded to the widespread demand for naturalness during the latter half of the
eighteenth century, and it represented the earliest conduit toward musical nationalism, which
became prominent during the nineteenth century. (Video 084)

French opéra comique

The French version of opera buffa, known as opera comique, began around 1710 as a lowly
form of popular entertainment performed at parish fairs. Until the middle of the century, the
music consisted almost entirely of popular tunes (vaudevilles) or simple melodies imitating
such tunes. The visit of an Italian comic opera troupe to Paris in 1752 stimulated the production
of comic operas in which original airs (called ariettes) in a mixed Italian- French style were
introduced along with the old vaudevilles. Ariettes gradually replaced the vaudevilles until, by
the end of the 1760s, they, too, were completely discarded and all the music was freshly
composed. Christoph Willibald Gluck one of the composers exposed to the French opera
comique during this transitional decade, arranged and com- posed a number of such works for
the entertainment of the Vienna court. Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) wrote a charming
little comic opera in 1752 with airs and recitatives, Le Devin du village (The Village
Soothsayer).
The French opera comique, like all the national variants of light opera except the Italian, used
spoken dialogue instead of recitative. Following the European trend in the second half of the
century, opera comique dealt boldly with the social issues that were agitating France during the
pre-Revolutionary years. François Andre Danican Philidor (1726-1795); also a famous chess
master), Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny (1729-1817), and above all the Belgian-born Andre Ernest
Modeste Gretry (1741-1813) were the principal composers of the time.
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English ballad opera

Ballad opera rose to popularity after the extraordinary success of The Beggar's Opera in London
in 1728. This piece broadly satirizes the fashionable Italian opera; its music, like that of the
early opera comique, consists for the most part of popular tunes-ballads-with a few numbers
that parody familiar operatic airs (see excerpts in NAWM 81, Audio 086 a, b, c, d, e). The
immense popularity of ballad operas in the 1730s signaled a general reaction in England against
foreign opera-that “exotic and irrational entertainment," as Dr. Samuel Johnson called it.
Handel turned his energies from opera to oratorio in the latter part of his life, partly in re- action
to the success of ballad opera.
German singspiel
Although Singspiel had existed in Germany since the sixteenth century, the success of the
ballad opera in the eighteenth century inspired its revival. At first, librettists adapted English
ballad operas, but they soon turned to translating or arranging French comic operas, for which
the German composers provided new music in a familiar and appealing melodic vein. Many of
the eighteenth - century Singspiel tunes found their way into German song collections and in
the course of time have virtually become folksongs. The principal composer of Singspiel music
during this period was Johann Adam Hiller (1728-1804) of Leipzig. In northern Germany, the
Singspiel eventually merged with early nineteenth- century native opera. In the south,
particularly in Vienna, farcical subjects and treatment became fashionable, with lively music
in a popular vein influenced by Italian comic opera.
OPERA SERIA
Metastasio The light and charming style of opera buffa soon invaded serious opera. Opera seria
was based on Italian librettos treating serious subjects and purged of comic scenes and
characters. Its standard form came from the Italian poet Pietro Metastasio (1698-1782), whose
dramas many eighteenth- century composers (including Mozart) set to music hundreds of times.
Metastasio's success with librettos for Naples, Rome, and Venice-most notably Didone
abbandonata (Dido Abandoned) in 1724 - led to his appointment in 1792 as court poet in
Vienna. He remained in Vienna for the rest of his life, turning out a profusion of Italian librettos
and many works for special occasions at the imperial court. His heroic operas present a conflict
of human passions, often pitting love against duty, in stories based on ancient Greek or Latin
tales. They were intended to promote morality through entertainment and to present models of
merciful and enlightened rulers. The magnanimous tyrant - for example, Alexander the Great
in Alessandro nell 'Indie, or Titus in La clemenza di Tito-is a favorite character. The librettos
conventionally present two pairs of lovers and several subor- dinate personages. The action
provides opportunities for introducing var- ied scenes-pastoral or martial episodes, solemn
ceremonies, and the like. The resolution of the drama, which rarely has a tragic ending, often
turns on a heroic deed or a sublime gesture of renunciation by one of the principal characters.
Musical structure
The three acts of an opera seria consist almost invariably of alternating recitatives and arias;
recitatives promote the action through dialogue, while each aria is a virtual dramatic soliloquy
in which a principal actor expresses feelings or reacts to the preceding scene. Occasional duets
or larger ensem- bles do occur, and rarely choruses in a simple style, but the main musical
interest of the Italian opera seria is centered in the arias, which eighteenth- century composers
created in astounding profusion and variety.
The aria
The most frequently used form in the first half of the century was the da capo aria, a basic
scheme that permitted enormous variation in detail. Metastasio's two - stanza aria texts set the
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standard for the full- blown da capo aria from the 1720s through the 1740s. The form, originally
presented before, is now somewhat expanded and may be represented by the following outline
(in which the keys, indicated by Roman numerals, are hypothetical):

Abreviated da capo
After about the middle of the century, composers explored ways to shorten the repetitious and
long-winded A sections with their full da capo repetition. They invented various schemes that
abbreviated the return of the ritornello and the primary section, often by altering the
instructionda capo" (from the beginning) todal segno" (from the sign), indicating that only a
portion of the A section is repeated, or writing out an abridged return (see the aria by Pergolesi,
(NAWM 121, Audio 085) for an example see p 167).
Reign of the singers
Turning the aria into virtually the only significant musical ingredient in opera opened the way
to abuses. Singers, including the famed Italian castrati (male sopranos and altos who were
surgically castrated before their voices changed), made arbitrary demands on the poets and
composers, compelling them to alter, add, and substitute arias without respect for dramatic or
musical appropriateness. Moreover, the melodic embellishments and cadenzas that singers
added at will were often mere displays of vocal acrobatics. Some of the excesses were enumer-
ated in Il teatro alla moda (The Fashionable Theater), a famous satire on the opera and
everything connected with it, published anonymously in 1720 by the composer Benedetto
Marcello.
New features of da capo arias
Despite these criticisms, the da capo aria continued to grow and evolve. Arias written in the
first decades of the century had usually projected only one affection through the development
of a single motive. Now composers started to express a succession of moods, using a variety of
musical material that ranged from lighthearted to tragic. Often two keys are contrasted in the
first main period (the A1 section); then the material in the second key is brought back in the
tonic at the close of the second main period (the A2, section). The aria's ritornello may introduce
both the material sung later in the primary key and that in the secondary key, thus resembling
the orchestral exposition of a concerto. In this way, vocal music began incorporating structural
methods of instrumental music-the sonata and concerto-something that remained true
throughout the eighteenth century. But the vocal melody still dominated the music and carried
it forward, and the orchestra provided harmonic support to the singer rather than adding
independent contrapuntal lines. The melodies were usually presented in four-measure units,
consisting of two-measure antecedent and consequent phrases. When a composer deviated from
this formula, it was usually for a deliberately unbalancing effect.
Handel employed this new idiom in his late operas, such as Alcina (1735) and Serse (1738), as
did Pergolesi; Handel's rivals in London, Giovanni Bononcini and Nicola Porpora; and a
German, Johann Adolph Hasse (1699-1783).
Hasse
Hasse was acknowledged by most of his contemporaries as the great master of the opera seria.
For most of his life he directed music and opera at the court of the elector of Saxony in Dresden,
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but he spent many years in Italy, married the celebrated Italian soprano Faustina Bordoni, and
became so thoroughly Italian in his musical style that the Italians nicknamed himil caro
Sassone" (the dear Saxon). His n1usic is the perfect complement to Metastasio 's poetry; the
great majority of his eighty operas use Metastasio librettos, some of which he set two and even
three times. Hasse was the most popular and successful opera composer in Europe around the
middle of the century, and the contemporary English music historian Charles Burney reveals
the qualities that endeared him to the connoisseurs:
Burney on Hasse
... the most natural, elegant, and judicious composer of vocal music ... now alive; equally a
friend to poetry and the voice, he discovers as much judgment as genius, in expressing words,
as well as in accompanying those sweet and tender melodies, which he gives to the singer.
The famous da capo aria Digli ch'io son fedele" (Tell him that I am faithful) from Hasse's
Cleofide (1731), his first opera for Dresden, illustrates the qualities that Burney admired.
Faustina Bordoni
The title role of Cleofide in 1731 was created by Hasse's bride, Faustina Bordoni (1700-1781).
Bordoni, who established her reputation in Venice while still in her teens, made her German
debut in Munich at the age of twenty-three.
Vocal embellishment
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Like other opera singers, she embellished the written melody when she performed an aria. An
elaborated version of this aria survives in the hand of Frederick II, king of Prussja (reigned
1740-86), an amateur flutist and composer, as sung by the castrato Antonio Uberti, known as
Porporino. This version, written out above Hasse's melody in Example 13.3, is ablaze with
trills, mordents, rapid turns, appoggiaturas, scales, triplets, and arpeggios. Scholars believe that
such embellishments were added especially in the da capo repetition.
OPERA REFORM
Certain Italian composers wanted to bring opera into harmony with the changing ideals of music
and drama. They sought to make the entire design more “natural”, that is, more flexible in
structure, more deeply expressive, less laden with coloratura, and more varied in other musical
resources. They did not abandon the da capo aria but modified it and introduced other forms as
well; they alternated arias and recitatives less predictably so as to move the action forward more
rapidly and realistically; they made greater use of obbligato recitative and ensembles, such as
trios; they made the orchestra more important, both for its own sake and for adding harmonic
depth to accompaniments; they reinstated choruses, long absent in Italian opera; and they
stiffened their resistance to the arbitrary demands of the solo singers.
Two of the most important figures in the movement of reform were Nicolo Jommelli (1714-
1774) and Tommaso Traetta (1727-1779). That both these Italian composers worked at courts
where French taste predominated, Jommelli at Stuttgart and Traetta in Parma, naturally
influenced them toward a cosmopolitan type of opera. As the composer of some one hundred
stage works, Jommelli enjoyed great popularity; his arias permeate the many collections of
Italian vocal music that circulated in manuscripts copied during the second half of the
eighteenth century. Traetta aimed to combine the best of French tragedie lyrique and Italian
opera seria in his Ippolito ed Aricia (1759), adapted from the same libretto that Rameau had
set. He even utilized some of Rameau's dance music and descriptive symphonies, and, unusual
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for this time in Italy, included a number of choruses. For the solo roles, Traetta relied on the
conventional genres of recitative and aria. In his own way, Traetta reconciled the two types of
music drama - Italian and French - years before Gluck set out to do so.
Gluck
Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714-1787) achieved a synthesis of French and Italian opera that
made him the man of the hour. Born in what is now Bavaria of Bohemian parents, Gluck studied
with Sammartini in Italy, visited London, toured in Germany as conductor of an opera troupe,
became court composer to the Emperor Charles VI at Vienna, and triumphed in Paris under the
patronage of Marie Antoinette. Initially, he composed operas in the conventional Italianstyle
but was strongly affected by the reform movement in the 1750s. Spurred on by the forward -
looking impresario Giacomo Durazzo, he collaborated with the poet Raniero de Calzabigi
(1714-1795) to produce at Vienna Orfeo ed Euridice (1762) and Alceste (1767). In a dedicatory
preface to Alceste, Gluck expressed his resolve to remove the abuses that had deformed Italian
opera and to confine music to its proper function, to serve the poetry and advance the plot. This
he wanted to accomplish without regard either to the outworn conventions of the da capo aria
or the desire of singers to show off their skill in ornamental variation. He further aimed to make
the overture an integral part of the opera, to adapt the orchestra to dramatic requirements, and
to lessen the contrast between aria and recitative.

GLUCK ON THE REFORM OF OPERA

I sought to confine music to its true function of serving the poetry by expressing feelings and the situations
of the story without interrupting and cooling off the action through useless and superfluous ornaments. I
believed that music should join to poetry what the vividness of colors and well disposed lights and
shadows contribute to a correct and well composed design, animating the figures without altering their
contours.
I further believed that the greater part of my task was to seek a beautiful simplicity, and I have avoided a
display of difficulty at the expense of clarity. I assigned no value to the discovery of some novelty, unless
it were naturally suggested by the situation and the expression. And there is no rule that I did not willingly
consider sacrificing for the sake of an effect.
-From Gluck's dedication, In Italian, to A/ceste (Vienna, 1769). For a facsimile, see New Grove
Dictionary 7:466.

Aims of reform
Gluck aspired to Ha beautiful simplicity," which he realized in the celebrated aria Che faro
senza Euridice? (What shall I do without Euridice?) from Orfeo, and in other airs, choruses,
and dances from the same work. Alceste is more dramatic and monumental, in contrast to the
prevailingly pastoral and elegiac tone of Orfeo. In both, Gluck molded the music to the drama,
intermingling recitatives, arias, and choruses in large unified scenes. He also assigned an
important role to the chorus. Compared to the final choruses Jommelli had employed in his
Viennese operas in the early 1750s, Gluck's chorus of Furies in Act II (NAWM 123, Audio
088) is more integral to the action. In this scene Orfeo, accompanied by harp and strings to
imitate the sound of his lyre, pleads for the liberation of Euridice, which the Furies resist,
provoking and challenging Orfeo.
Gluck achieved his mature style in Orfeo and Alceste, amalgamating Italian melodic grace,
German seriousness, and the stately magnificence of the French tragedie lyrique. After the
success of those two works, he was ready for the climax of his career, which was ushered in
with the Paris production of Iphigenie en Aulide (Iphigenia in Aulis) in 1774.
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With a libretto adapted from Racine's tragedy, this work too was a tremendous success. Revised
versions of Orfeo and Alceste (both with French texts) swiftly followed, along with a new
setting of Quinault's Armide (1777) to the same libretto that Lully had used in 1686. Gluck's
next masterpiece, Iphigenie en Tauride (I phigenia in Tauris, 1779), is a work of large
proportions that displays an excellent balance of dramatic and musical interest and utilizes all
the resources of opera-orchestra, ballet, solo and choral singing to produce a total effect of
classical tragic grandeur.
Influence
Gluck's operas became models for the works of his immediate followers in Paris. His influence
on the form and spirit of opera was transmitted to the nineteenth century through composers
such as Niccolo Piccinni (1728-1800), Luigi Cherubini (1760-1842), Gasparo Spontini (1774-
1851), and Hector Berlioz (1803-1869).

THE QUERELLE DES BOUFFONS

The musical atmosphere of the French capital was so charged that Gluck's Iphigenie en Aulide awakened
extraordinary interest. Long-simmering critical opposition to the old-fashioned, state-subsidized French
opera erupted in 175 in a pamphlet war known as the querelle des bouffons ("quarrel of the comic actors").
The immediate occasion for the dispute was the presence in Paris of an Italian opera company that for
two seasons had enjoyed sensational success with its performances of Italian comic operas and
intermezzi, particularly Pergolesi's La serva padrona. Practically every intellectual and would- be
intellectual in France took part in the quarrel-partisans of Italian opera on one side and friends of French
opera on the other. Rousseau, one of the leaders of the Italian" faction, published an article in which he
argued that the French language was inherently unsuitable for singing. Rousseau and his friends, despite
the foolish extremes to which they occasionally strayed in the heat of argument, represented enlightened
opinion in Paris. As a result of their campaign, the traditional French opera of Lully and Rameau soon lost
favor; but nothing appeared to take its place until Gluck arrived on the scene. Gluck cleverly repre sented
himself - or was represented by his supporters - as wanting to prove that a good opera could be written
to French words; he professed a desire for Rousseau's aid in creatinga noble, sensitive, and natural
melody ... music suited to all nations, so as to abolish these ridiculous distinctions of national styles." He
thus appealed at the same time to the patriotism and to the curiosity of the French public.

INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC: SONATA, SYMPHONY, AND CONCERTO

SONATA
In the Baroque era, sonata generally meant a multi - movement work for a small group of
instruments, most oftn in trio texture. In the Classic period, the word had different meanings
for different composers, two of whom we will study here Domenico Scarlatti and C. P. E. Bach;
it also connoted a compositional procedure or form, first articulated by the German theorist
Heinrich Christoph Koch (1749-1816).
Domenico Scarlatti
Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757), born to Alessandro Scarlatti in the same year as Bach and
Handel, would become the chief Italian keyboard composer of the eighteenth century and a
remarkably original creative artist. He left Italy in 1720 or 1721 to work as a musician for the
king of Portugal. When his pupil, the infanta of Portugal, was married to Prince Ferdinand of
Spain in 1729, Scarlatti followed her to Madrid, where he remained for the rest of his life in the
service of the Spanish court. He published his f irst collection of harpsichord sonatas (called on
the title page essercizi-exercises) in 1738, but most of his 555 sonatas are known to us through
scribal copies from his time.
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In Italy, under the watchful eye of a domineering father, Scarlatti composed in the standard
vocal forms, in which he produced little music nowadays considered worth a place in the
repertory. We do not know what he composed in Lisbon because virtually all the music in the
libraries there was destroyed in the earthquake of 1755. In Madrid he seems to have devoted
himself to sonatas for the harpsichord, of which he composed about 550, each a one-movement
piece in binary form.

Domenico Scarlatti Works

born Naples, 1685; died Madrid, 1757
Keyboard music c550 harpsichord sonatas
Sacred choral music Stabat mater; oratorios; cantatas, Mass movements
Instrumental music sinfonias, sonatas
Operas Secular vocal music

These sonatas are unlike any music that any other composer was writing at the time. They
demand great brilliance on the performer's part: the music ranges across the whole keyboard,
often moving very rapidly, with spectacular arpeggio figuration; other devices like hand-
crossing, quick repeated notes, fast scale passages and so on abound and add to the dazzling
effect. Scarlatti was clearly influenced by the sounds of Spanish music: sometimes guitar-like
strumming is heard, and Spanish dance rhythms creep into some of the sonatas. Another feature,
perhaps to be linked with guitar music, is the repetition, many times over, of a brief phrase,
producing an almost nagging effect, like a cat worrying a mouse by teasing it in a variety of
ways before making a decisive move. Scarlatti's tendency to shift between major and minor is
another Spanish feature. His love of dissonance on the harpsichord, of the jangling sound that
the instrument can make in full chords including dissonant notes, gives his music a special
color; sometimes this is obtained by the use of "crushed notes", or acciaccaturas, struck with
the chord but instantly released and thus adding bite.
Much about Scarlatti remains mysterious. Did he really write all his best music in his last 20
years? - if so, why did he mature so late? Are his sonatas intended to be played singly or in
pairs, as their arrangement in the surviving manuscripts hints? Were some of the pieces
intended not for the harpsichord but for the new piano (his princess employer owned several)?
These are intriguing questions; most curious of all is the existence of a composer who, isolated
from the mainstream of European musical life, created a form and a style all his own in Spain
or Portugal.
Harpsichord sonatas
Scarlatti's sonatas are organized by means of fonal relationships into the standard late- Baroque
and early - Classic binary pattern used for dance pieces and other types of composition. They
have two sections, each re- peated, the first closing in the dominant or relative major (rarely
some other key), the second modulating further afield and then returning to the tonic. This basic
scheme underlies much instrumental and solo vocal music in the eighteenth century. In
Scarlatti's sonatas, the closing part of the first section invariably returns at the end of the second
section, but in the tonic key.
The one-movement sonata written around 1749 identified as K. 119 or Longo 415 - The sonatas
are identified by K. numbers in Ralph Kirkpatrick's index of the sonatas o r by a different set of numbers
in A. Longo's complete eition of the sonatas. - (NAWM 107 Sonata in D Major K.119) exhibits
many of the genre's traits. It has two sections, each repeated. After a brilliant opening, several
ideas are announced, each immediately restated. The ideas are not all of the same importance
 175

or function. The first, a broken-chord motive spanning two octaves, is intro- ductory. The next
bold theme (Example 13.4a), immediately repeated, never returns. The third (Example 13.4b)
is purely cadential; the fourth (Example 13.4c), imitating the rhythm and effect of castanets,
has a modu- latory function here but comes back again to close each half of the sonata. Then
the central idea arrives, in the dominant minor (Example 13.4d). It is inspired by Spanish guitar
music, with an almost constant a' sounding like an open string being strummed alongside those
being fingered. This the- matic element is most developed throughout the piece; in the second
section it riseto a vigorous climax in which all the notes of the key, but one, are sounded
together (Example 13.4e).

The majority of Scarlatti's sonatas after 1745 appear as pairs in the manuscripts, each pair
comprising, in effect, a sonata of two movements, always in the same key (though one may be
major and the other minor), sometimes similar in mood, sometimes contrasted. Many
eighteenth- century composers, from Alberti to Mozart, wrote sonatas in two move- ments,
possibly under Italian influence, although there is no evidence that they took the idea from
Scarlatti. In fact, just as Scarlatti seems to have created his own keyboard idiom virtually
without models, so too he had no successors, with the exception of a few Iberian composers,
notably the Catalan Antonio Soler (1729-1783).
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Italian composers of the middle and late eighteenth century produced a large a mount of music
for harpsichord that remains less familiar than the works of C.P.E. Bach and other German
composers. Yet Italians a nd Germans we re equally active in experime nting with formal
organization in the keyboard sonatas of the eighteenth century.
Early symphonies
The Italian ope ra ove rture (sinfonia) influenced keyboard sonatas and orchestral compositions
of similar form during the early part of the eighteenth century. About 1700, the overture
assumed a three-movement struc- ture in the order fast-slow-fast: an Allegro, a short lyrical
Andante, and a finale in the rhythm of some dance, such as a minuet or a gigue. Such overtures,
as a rule, have no musical connection with the operas they introduce and could be played as
independent pieces in concerts. It was a natural step, then, for Italian composers to begin writing
concert symphonies using the general plan of opera overtures. The earliest of these, dating from
around 1730, are equally indebted to the tradition of the late Baroque concerto and of the trio
sonata in details of structure, texture, and thematic style. One of the early works in this genre,
the Symphony in F major (ca. 1744) by Giovanni Battista Sammartini (1701-1775) of Milan,
is scored for two violins, viola, and bass. The opening Presto (NAWM 113, Audio 090)
presents a variety of ideas in rapid succession, much like a Scarlatti keyboard sonata. The binary
form, with full recapitulation of the opening tonic and closing dominant sections, fits the
scheme of a sonata -form movement as described below.
Most instrumental music by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and their contemporaries, whether
called sonata, trio, string quartet, or symphony, is written in three or four movements of
contrasting mood and tempo.
Sonata form (see p 156)

The first movement is usually in sonata form, which expands and divides the original binary
form into three large periods or sections:
(1) An exposition (usually repeated), incorporating a first theme or group of themes in the tonic
(P); a transitional or bridge passage (T) leading to a second, often more lyrical, theme or group
(S) in the dominant or the relative major (if the movement is in a minor key); and a closing,
frequently cadential, theme (K) also in the dominant or relative major. An introduction often
precedes the exposition.
(2) A development section, which modulates to new keys, possibly even remote ones, in which
motives or themes from the exposition are presented in new aspects or combinations.
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(3) A recapitulation, where the material of the exposition is restated in the original order but
with all themes in the tonic; following there- capitulation there may be a coda.
This description of sonata form is obviously an abstraction, dwelling particularly on the key
scheme and the melodic-thematic ideas. So understood, it fits a good many sonata movements
of the late Classic period and the nineteenth century, but many depart from it in creative ways.
THE EMPFINDSAM STYLE
German composers, though not the originators of the sentimental style (empfindsamer Stil),
began introducing it into their instrumental music toward the middle of the century.
W.F. Bach and C.P.E. Bach
Two of J. S. Bach's sons are important in this connection. The eldest, Wilhelm Friedemann
(1710-1784), was a gifted organist and composer whose life ended in disappointment and
poverty because he could not adjust to the requirements for a successful musical career. Carl
Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788) was one of the most influential composers of his
generation. Trained in music by his father, he served at the court of Frederick the Great in Berlin
from 1740 to 1768 and then became music director of the five principal churches in Hamburg.
His compositions include oratorios, songs, symphonies, concertos, and chamber music, but
most numerous and important are his works for keyboard. In 1742, he published a set of six
sonatas (the Prussian sonatas) and in 1744, another set of six (the Tflurttemberg sonatas). These
sonatas were new in style and exerted a strong influence on later composers. His favorite
keyboard instrument was not the harpsichord but the softer, more intimate, clavichord, which
had a capacity for delicate dynamic shadings. The clavichord enjoyed a spell of renewed
popularity in Germany around the middle of the eighteenth century before both it and the
harpsichord were gradually supplanted by the pianoforte. The last five sets of C.P.E. Bach's
sonatas (1780-87) were vidently written with the pianoforte chiefly in mind, as were many of
the later keyboard pieces of W. F. Bach. This instrument, ancestor of the modern piano and
now commonly called the “fortepiano," permitted the player to vary the loudness from piano
to forte by striking the keys with lesser or greater force.
C. P. E. Bach was also a great theorist. His Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard
Instruments (1753) not only deals with technical questions, like fingering, ornamentation and
accompaniment, but treats at length esthetic matters, and especially his main concern:
expressiveness. He was the central figure in the creation of the North German empfindsamer
Stil, best translated as "highly sensitive style", in which the transmission of strong, definable
emotion is all-important. His most characteristic music is found in the keyboard sonatas, best
played not on the harpsichord, with its even dynamics, but on the more sensitive clavichord,
which allowed fine gradations of tone, or the early piano. His style is often rhetorical, with
sudden pauses, sudden flurries, sudden changes of key, and in general much original and
arresting writing. One of his fantasias - a typical form for him, with the freedom it implies - is
said to represent Hamlet's famous soliloquy. If some of his music seems disjointed by
comparison with the more orderly output of his contemporaries, that is because he emphasized
strength of expression above all else. The opening of his Rondo in Eb (ex. VII.2 (Recording)
shows some of his characteristics: the emotional "leaning" appoggiaturas (like the first note in
m.2), the expressive chromatic notes (mm. 6 and 22, for example) and the abrupt changes in
dynamics.
Outside keyboard music, C. P. E. Bach was less influential. His keyboard works were quickly
published and widely circulated, which most of his others were not. ex. VII.2
Much of his church music was hastily put together, in response to the heavy demands of his
Hamburg post, from earlier works. But his many concertos and his symphonies include music
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of power and intensity, often unconventional (for example, he disliked breaks in a piece, so
sometimes ran movements together in dramatic ways) and full of unexpected effects; there is a
fiery quality about them, often with rapid scales or arpeggios and instruments dashing from one
end of their compass to the other that typifies the earnestness of North German music of this
generation. People of a deeply serious temperament, partly molded by their staunch
Lutheranism, they could not fall in readily with the galant frivolities favored further south; with
the learned counterpoint of J. S. Bach's era a thing of the past, it is in this fire and intensity, and
above all in the empfindsamer Stil, that we find the North Germans' interpretation of the early
Classical style.

J. C. Bach
J. S. Bach's youngest son was something of a renegade. Born in 1735, he was not yet 15 when
his father died; he went to Berlin and continued his music studies with his half-brother Carl
Philipp Emanuel. Then his life took a sharply different course. Around 1754, he went to Italy
to pursue his studies; by 1757 he was a Roman Catholic, and after another three years he was
appointed an organist of Milan Cathedral. Then he departed still further from the Bach family
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traditions by entering the world of opera. His first opera was given in Turin in 176o; others
followed in Naples. Then he was invited to London to take charge of opera performances; he
accepted, and went in the summer of 1762. His operatic career there was patchy, but he settled
in London where, apart from journeys to Mannheim and Paris to give new operas, he spent the
rest of his short life. He was music master to Queen Charlotte and for a time a fashionable
teacher; he was an early exponent of the new pianoforte; and with another German immigrant
(C. F. Abel, whom he may have known from his childhood) he ran an important concert series.
Later his fortunes declined, and he died in 1782.
Johann Christian Bach born Leipzig 1735; died London 1782 Works
Orchestral music symphonies, overtures, symphonies for double orchestra, piano concertos
Chamber music Six quintets op 11 (1974) for flute, oboe, violin viola and continuo; quartets, trios
Keyboard music sonatas
Operas (10 Italian, 1 French), Sacred choral music Cantata

J. C. Bach combined a solid German technique with a command of the graceful melodic style
and the formal clarity of Italian music. His operas follow the older Italian traditions, with florid,
tuneful arias, often richly scored for the orchestra, but little drama of the Gluckian kind; in fact,
when he was involved in putting on Gluck's Orfeo in London., he diluted its "reform" quality
by adding traditional numbers of his own, as the local taste required. His keyboard music is less
adventurous than that of his brother, but is more neatly composed and better suited to the
amateur players for whom it was mainly intended. Where C. P. E. Bach is passionate, J. C. is
polished and urbane, with clear, "singing" melodies, deft accompaniments and shapely musical
forms. His chamber music too is gracefully written; outstanding is a set of six quintets for flute,
oboe, violin, viola and continuo, where the melodies are artfully devised for dialogue between
groups of instruments; this kind of civilized conversation between instruments is characteristic
of galant music at its finest. (Listen to J.C. Bach: Dies irae – Video 092)
J. C. Bach's orchestral music too represents a highpoint, notably in the warm, graceful
expressive manner of his slow movements. He favored the three movement Italian symphony
form, but with a stronger content than his Italian contemporaries provided in their symphonies,
which were often little more than collections of musical clichés. Bach made a point of well-
defined contrasts, perhaps between a strong opening motif and a lively continuation, or between
a martial first theme and a lyrical, "feminine" second. Three of his finest symphonies are
designed for a double orchestra, with a smaller group (strings and flutes) contrasting - ideally
in space as well as color - with the main body (strings, oboes, bassoons, horns). His music
brings together the best features of the German .and Italian traditions and achieves real vitality
and refinement while unashamedly serving the needs of the society for which it was intended.
It is not surprising that J. C. Bach's music was especially attractive to Mozart.
Main characteristics of empfindsam style
The main technical characteristics of the empfindsam style, of which C. P.E. Bach was a leading
exponent, are apparent in the second movement, Poco Adagio (NAWM 108, audio 093), of
the fourth sonata from his Sonaten fur Kenner und Liebhaber (Sonatas for Connoisseurs and
Amateurs; composed in 1765, but not published until 1779). It begins with a kind of melodic
sigh, a singing motive ending in an appoggiatura that resolves on a weak beat, followed by a
rest (Example I3.5). This opening is decorated with a turn, Scotch snaps, and a trill. The
multiplicity of rhythmic patterns, nervously and constantly changing-short dotted figures,
triplets, asymmetrical flour- ishes of five and thirteen notes-gives the music a restless,
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effervescent quality. While ornaments are abundant, they serve expressive rather than merely
decorative ends.

Sturm und Drang

The empfindsam style of C. P. E. Bach and his contemporaries often ex- ploited the element of
surprise, with abrupt shifts of harmony, strange modulations, unusual turns of melody,
suspenseful pauses, changes of texture, sudden sforzando accents, and the like. The subjective,
emotional qualities of this Empfindsamkeit reached a climax during the 1760s and 1770s; the
trend is sometimes described by the expression Sturm und Drang - storm and stress - a
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movement in German literature that relished tormented, gloomy, terrified, irrational feelings.
Later, composers brought this emotionalism under control, but its characteristics will be
discussed further in the next chapter.
GERMAN SYMPHONIC COMPOSERS
Mannheim and Stamitz
Mannheim, Vienna, and Berlin were the principal German centers of symphonic composition
after 1740. Under the leadership of Johann Stamitz (1717-1757), the Mannhein1orchestra
became renowned all over Europe for its virtuosity (Burney called it “an army of generals"),
for its astonishing and novel dynamic range -from the softest pianissimo to the loudest
fortissimo - and for the thrilling sound of its crescendo, though many of the striking dynamic
effects and the dramatic contrasts were adapted from the Italian opera overture. The first
movement (NAWM 114, Audio 094) of Johann Stamitz 's Sinfonia in Eb from the mid -1750s
provides a good example of the Mannheim symphony.
Vienna
Another center of symphonic writing in the 1740s was Vienna, home to Georg Matthias Monn
(1717-1750) and Christoph Wagenseil (1715-1777). In Wagenseil's music we find the pleasant,
typically Viennese lyricism and good humor that is such an important feature of Mozart's work.
The Viennese composers for the most part favored contrasting theme groups in their sonata-
form movements.

THE EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY ORCHESTRA

The eighteenth-century concert orchestra was much smaller than today's. Haydn's orchestra from 1760
to 1785 rarely had more than twenty-five players, comprising strings, flute, two oboes, two bassoons, two
horns, and a harpsi- chord, with trumpets and kettledrums occasionally added. Even in the 1790s, the
Viennese orchestras did not usually number more than thirty-five players. After 1775, the basso continuo
was gradually abandoned in the symphony, and in other forms of ensemble music, because all the
essential voices were taken over by the melody instruments. Responsibility for conducting the group fell
to the leader of the violins. Typical orchestration at midcentury gave all the essential musical material to
the strings and used the winds only for doubling, reinforcing, and filling in the harmonies. Sometimes in
performance, woodwinds and brasses might be added to the orchestra even though the composer had
not written any parts specifically for them. Later in the century, the wind instruments were entrusted with
more important and more independent material.

Berlin
Berlin The principal symphonists of the Berlin, or North German, school clustered around
Frederick the Great, who was himself a composer; Johann Gottlieb Graun (1702 or 1703-1771)
and C.P.E. Bach became two of its chief members. The North Germans were conservative in
holding to the three-movement structure for the symphony and in their reluctance to introduce
sharp thematic contrasts within a movement. But they were also forward-looking, often
utilizing thematic development within a dynamic, organically unified, serious, and quasi-
dramatic style, as well as enriching the symphonic texture with contrapuntal elements.
J.C. BACH 'S CONCERTOS
Johann Christian Bach (1735-178), J.S. Bach's youngest son, created a great stir in London with
some of the ea rliest concertos for the pianoforte. He was also an important composer of
symphonies, as well as of chamber music, keyboard music, and operas. Trained in music by his
father and his elder brother C. P. E. Bach, Johann Christian made his way to Milan at the age
of twenty. He studied with the celebrated theorist, teacher, and composer Padre Giovanni
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Battista Martini (1706-1784) of Bologna. Bach was appointed o rga nist of the cathedral at
Milan in 1760, by which time he had converted to the Roman Catholic faith. Two years later,
after two of his operas had been successfully produced in Naples, he moved to London, where
he enjoyed a long career as composer, performer, teacher, and impresario. He had great success
there with some forty keyboard concertos, written betwee n 1763 and 1777. The title of his
Opus 7 (ca. 1770), Sei concerti peril cembalo o piano e forte (Six Concertos for Harpsichord
or Pianoforte), bears witness to his early adoption of the pianoforte for public performance. The
eight-year-old Mozart spent a year in London (1764-65), during which He met Bach and was
very much impressed with his music. Mozart converted three of Bach's keyboard sonatas into
concertos (K. 107/1b) and must have had Bach's models in mind when he wrote his first
complete piano concerto, K. 175, in 1773.
The first movement of J.C. Bach's Concerto for Harpsichord or Piano and Strings concerto
in Eb, Op. 7, No. 5 (NAWM 119, Audio 095), illustrates many features typical of the concerto
at this time. By 1770, the main outlines of the solo concerto's first-movement form were well
established. It retains elements of the ritornello structure of the Baroque period but is imbued
with the contrasts of key and thematic material characteristic of the sonata. The first movement
usually exhibits the following succession of events:

The parallels between this movement and Mozart 's K. 488 are striking though not surprising,
since by 1770 the main outlines of the first-movement form for the solo concerto were well
established.
POSTLUDE
The early Classic period explored a wealth of new genres, forms, and expressive means. Much
of the innovation originated in opera, particularly comic opera. There, the urge to entertain and
reach a wider audience Led to a simplification of means and a striving for naturalness of
expression. From the Italian theaters the new styles spread through the cosmopolitan network
of musicians, composers, and directors to centers such as Paris, Mannheim, and Vienna. Many
practices spilled out of the theaters into the concert halls and private chambers. The new interest
in naturalism purged the excesses of Italian opera and resulted in a spare, transparent, Logical
- almost proselike - flow of musical ideas that could be grasped on first hearing. Instrumental
music in particular - sonata, symphony, and concerto - profited from these developments,
because it was now intelligible even without a text or a title. These changes Laid the foundations
for the eventual complete domination of instrumental music in the Classic period.
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CHAPTER 6 THE LATE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: HAYDN AND

MOZART
CHAPTER OBJECTIVES
After you complete the reading, study of the music, and study questions for this chapter, you
should be able to
1. trace the careers of Haydn and Mozart and the development of their musical idioms;
2. describe the principal genres and forms practiced by Haydn, Mozart, and their
contemporaries; and
3. name several important works by each of these composers and describe some works by each
in their mature styles.
PRELUDE
Haydn and Mozart, the two outstanding composers of the Late eighteenth century, had a great
deal in common: even though Haydn was the elder by twenty-four years, they were personal
friends; each admired and was influenced by the music of the other; they were both practicing
musicians- Mozart a virtuoso pianist, Haydn a fine violinist who also conducted from the
harpsichord-and they both composed prolifically and with careful attention to detail.
Their Lives and careers also differed in many ways. Haydn, born during J. S. Bach's Lifetime,
Lived to the ripe old age of seventy-seven. Mozart, born in 1756, died in the prime of his Life,
at the age of thirty-five. Haydn's growth to artistic maturity was much slower than that of
Mozart, a child prodigy whose star rose quickly and burned brightly for only a few decades.
Haydn worked contentedly during most of his career in the service of a noble Hungarian family.
Mozart gave up a steady job in his hometown of Salzburg to become a free agent in Vienna.
Most important, Mozart traveled a great deal in his early years-to England, Italy, Germany, and
France-and absorbed the many styles and practices current in these countries, whereas Haydn
found his models within Local traditions around Vienna.
Because FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDN remained in the same job for so Long, his career does not
easily divide into distinct periods. We will therefore discuss his works chronologically
according to genre: first HAYDN'S INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC, where he made his most
original contribution, and then HAYDN'S VOCAL WORKS, which include operas, oratorios,
and Masses. By contrast, WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART moved around a Lot, and each
new Location brought new opportunities for composition. Therefore, we will discuss his works
chronologically according to place, grouping them generally into MOZART'S YEARS IN
SALZBURG and MOZART'S VIENNA YEARS, even though he did not confine his activities
solely to these cities.
FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDN (1732-1809)
The first of the three classical masters, Joseph Haydn (1732-1809), was born in a tiny Austrian
village called Rohrau. His father made wagon wheels, and until he was six, Haydn's musical
background consisted of folk songs his father loved to sing and the peasant dances that whirled
about him on festive occasions. (This early contact with folk music later had an influence on
his style.) Haydn's eager response to music was recognized, and he was sent to live with a
relative who gave him basic music lessons for two years. At the age of eight, he went to Vienna
to serve as a choirboy in the Cathedral of St. Stephen. There, though his good voice was
appreciated, he had no chance for composition lessons or for perfecting an instrumental
technique. And when his voice changed, Haydn was dis-missed from St. Stephen's and turned
out on the street without a penny. "I barely managed to stay alive by giving music lessons to
children for about eight years," he wrote. Throughout those years he struggled to teach him-
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self composition and also took odd jobs, including playing violin in the popular Viennese street
bands that offered evening entertainment:
Gradually, aristocratic patrons of music began to notice Haydn's talent. For a brief time he was
music director at the court of a Bohemian count, but the orchestra was dissolved because of his
patron's financial problems. When he was twenty-nine, Haydn's life changed for the better,
permanently.
In 1761, Haydn entered the service of the Esterhazys, the richest and most powerful of the
Hungarian noble families. For almost thirty years, from 1761 to 1790, most of his music was
composed for performance in the palaces of the family. Haydn spent much of his time at
Eszterháza, a magnificent but isolated palace in Hungary that contained an opera house, a
theater, two concert halls, and 126 guest rooms.
As a highly skilled servant, Haydn was to compose all the music re-quested by his patron,
conduct the orchestra of about twenty-five players, coach singers, and oversee the condition of
instruments and the operation of the music library. He was also required to "appear daily in the
ante-chamber before and after midday and inquire whether His Highness is pleased to order a
performance of the orchestra." The amount of work demanded of Haydn as assistant music
director and later as music director was staggering; there were usually two concerts and two
opera performances weekly, as well as daily chamber music in the prince's apartment. Since
Nicholas Esterhazy played the baryton (a complicated string instrument now obsolete), Haydn
wrote over 150 pieces with a baryton part.
Though today it seems degrading for a genius to be dependent on the will of a prince, in the
eighteenth century patronage was taken for granted. Composers found definite advantages in
it: they received a steady income and their works were performed. And though Haydn felt
restricted by his job from time to time, he later wisely said, "Not only did I have the
encouragement of constant approval, but as conductor of an orchestra I could make
experiments, observe what produced an effect and what weakened it, and was thus in a position
to improve, alter, make additions or omissions, and be as bold as I pleased. I was cut off from
the world; there was no one to confuse or torment me, and I was forced to become original."
Despite an unhappy marriage, Haydn was good-humored and unselfish. He was conscientious
about professional duties, and he cared about the personal interests of his musicians. Prince
Nicholas loved Esterházy and once stayed at, the palace longer than usual. The orchestra
members came to Haydn and asked to return to Vienna; they were tired of being isolated in the
country, away so long from their wives and children. Haydn obliged by composing his
Symphony in F Sharp Minor, now known as the Farewell. At its first performance for the
prince, the musicians followed the indications in the score: during the last movement, one after
another stopped playing, put out his candle, and quietly left the hall. By the time that only
Haydn and the first violinist remained, Nicholas took the hint; the next day he ordered the
household to return to Vienna.
Haydn met the younger Mozart in the early 1780s and they became close friends. To someone
finding fault with one of Mozart's operas, Haydn replied, "I cannot settle this dispute, but this
I know: Mozart is the greatest composer the world possesses now.'
Over a period of twenty years, word spread about the Esterházys' composer, and Haydn's music
became immensely popular all over Europe. Publishers and concert organizations sent
commissions for new works. After the death of Prince Nicholas Esterhazy in 1790, Haydn was
free to go to London, where a concert series was planned around his compositions. He'd been
asked by the concert manager Johann Peter Salomon to write and conduct new symphonies for
performance at public concerts. Six were composed for a first visit in 1791-1792 and six more
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for a second visit in 1794-1795. The twelve became known as the Salomon or London
symphonies.
Reports of the time say that Haydn's appearances were triumphs. By the end of the eighteenth
century, London was the largest and richest city in the world. Its concert life was unusually
active and attracted many foreign musicians. The acclaim at Haydn's concerts was so
overwhelming that some movements of his symphonies had to be repeated. One listener noted
that there was "an electrical effect on all present and such a degree of enthusiasm as almost
amounted to a frenzy."
And so a servant became a celebrity. Haydn was wined and dined by the aristocracy, given an
honorary doctorate at Oxford, and received by members of the royal family. And, as though to
balance out earlier personal unhappiness, he had a love affair with a rich English widow. After
his thirty years of service to the Esterházys, Haydn's reception by the English moved him to
write, "How sweet is some degree of liberty. The consciousness of no longer being a bond
servant sweetens all my toil."
Haydn returned to Vienna in 1795, rich and honored, and maintained good relations with
Eszterháza. The new prince, Nicholas II, did not have his father's wide musical interests and
liked only religious music. Haydn's agreement specified that he would compose a mass a year.
He wrote six, and all reflect the mature, brilliant writing of the London symphonies. In this
period, when he was in his late sixties, Haydn composed two oratorios, The Creation (1798)
and The Seasons (1801). They were so popular that choruses and orchestras were formed at the
beginning of the nineteenth century for the sole purpose of performing them.
Haydn died in 1809, at the age of seventy-seven, while Napoleon's army was occupying Vienna.
The wide recognition he had attained could be seen in a memorial service held for him: joining
the Viennese were French generals and an honor guard of French soldiers.
HAYDN'S MUSIC
Haydn was a pathfinder for the classical style, a pioneer in the development of the symphony
and string quartet. Both Mozart and Beethoven were influenced by his style. Haydn's music,
like his personality, is robust and direct; it radiates a healthy optimism.
Haydn never forgot the peasant dances and songs of his childhood in a small village, and many
of his works have a folk flavor. He quoted actual-peasant tunes and composed original melodies
in a folklike style. The minuets often romp and stomp rather than bow and curtsy. The Creation
(1798) and The Seasons (1801), his late oratorios, reflect Haydn's love of nature. There are
vivid, and humorous musical descriptions of storms, hail, animals, birds; and fish.
Haydn was a master at developing themes. He would split them into small fragments -to be
repeated quickly by different instruments. His skill at development made it possible for him to
build a whole movement out of a single main theme. In such movements, contrast of mood
results from changes in texture, key, rhythm, dynamics, and orchestration. The contagious joy
that springs from his lively rhythms and vivid contrasts makes it clear why London went wild.
"I prefer to see the humorous side of life," Haydn once said. He produced comic effects from
unexpected pauses and tempo changes and from sudden shifts in dynamics and pitch. We've
heard one of his musical jokes in the second movement of the Surprise Symphony, where a soft
theme is suddenly punctuated by a loud chord.
Haydn’s enormous output revolves around his 104 symphonies, which span a period of over
forty-five years, from about 1758 to 1795. For a long time, the last twelve symphonies (Nos..,
93 to 104), composed for public concerts in London during the 1790s, were the only ones
regularly performed: Now, thanks to venturesome scholars and performers, the earlier
symphonies composed for Eszterháza and other castles are heard more often. Many of Haydn's
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popular symphonies have nicknames, such as Surprise (No. 94), Military (No. 100), Clock (No.
101), and Drum Roll (No. 103).
Haydn's symphonies and his. sixty-eight string quartets are considered his most important
works. Some scholars believe Haydn invented the string quartet form. He began writing string
quartets for good reason only three other musicians were on hand during the summer of 1757,
when he was invited to take part, as violist, in chamber music performances at a castle. The
steward of the aristocratic host and the parish priest each played a violin, and there was a cellist
named Albrechtsberger. Spurred by necessity, the twenty-five-year-old Haydn wrote the first
of his lifelong series of string quartets.
Haydn's output also includes piano sonatas, piano trios, divertimentos, operas, and masses. The
variety in his works is astounding. He was a great innovator and experimenter who hated
arbitrary "rules" of composition. "What is the good of such rules? Art is free, and should be
fettered by no such mechanical regulations. -The educated ear is the sole authority in all these
questions, and I think that I have as much right to lay down the law as anyone."
HAYDN'S INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC
Although Haydn's long career as a composer reflected the changing tastes of the times, and his
works explored a variety of genres, certain enduring traits stand out in his music, especially in
the symphonies.
SYMPHONIC FORM
Many of Haydn's earliest symphonies are in the early Classic three - movement form derived
from the Italian opera overture (sinfonia). They typically consist of an Allegro, an Andante in
the parallel minor or sub-dominant key, and a minuet or a rapid gigue-like movement in or
(for example, Symphonies Nos. 9 and 19). Other symphonies from the early period (for
example, Nos. 21 and 22) are in four movements, all in the same key, usually Andante-Allegro-
Minuet- Presto, recalling the slow-fast-slow-fast sequence of the sonata da chiesa. Soon after
composing these early symphonies, Haydn established the four-movement pattern as the
standard for the Classic era: I. Allegro; II. Andante moderato; III. Minuet and Trio; IV. Allegro.
First movement form
A typical first-movement Allegro alternates stable and unstable periods. The stable periods are
not tension-free, but their tonality as well as their rhythmic and melodic profiles remain
consistent. These passages-the statements of the primary, secondary, and closing material-are
usually presented symmetrically, most often in balanced four-measure phrases, and are clearly
delimited by cadences, at least in the early symphonies. A combination of string and wind
ensembles, with some tutti punctuations, presents the ideas. The unstable passages, mainly
transitions and developments, are often tutti or culminate in tutti. They are characterized by
nervous rhythmic energy, sequences, modulatory thrusts, asymmetrical phrasing, powerful
harmonic drive, and avoidance of cadences. Slow intro- ductions, when they occur, are usually
unstable from the very outset.
Exposition
In a typical Allegro movement, Haydn reiterates the opening statement immediately, but with
some destabilizing turns of harmony or rhythm that steer the music in a new direction. A
transition or bridge passage to the dominant or relative major or minor follows. The transition
is usually a loud tutti with dramatic, rushing figures, a perfect foil for the second thematic
section, which is more lightly scored, melodically distinctive, and harmonically stable. In most
of the symphonies of the 1770s and 178os, Haydn clearly contrasted the secondary material
with the opening idea. But in some, as in the later London symphonies, Haydn built the second
thematic section on the opening material. The exposition usually ends with a closing tutti based
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on a cadential, repetitive, vigorous figure, sometimes harking back to the opening but usually
distinct from the primary and secondary subjects. In some of the movement, the section in the
secondary key is de- voted entirely to the closing subject.
Development
Haydn rarely introduced new thematic ideas after the exposition's closing double bar. The
development often begins with a restatement of the opening subject, or sometimes with
transition material or with one of the other subjects. Motives from the exposition are combined,
superimposed, and extended; manipulated through sequences, fugue-like counterpoints, and
strettos; or turned into rushing figurations for busy passages. Abrupt changes of subject,
digressions, and sudden silences are Haydn's particular signatures. In the course of his career,
Haydn endowed the development section with increasing length and weight until it equaled
each of the other sections.
Recapitulation
We are usually well prepared for the arrival of the recapitulation, but its actual onset is
sometimes disguised or played down and not even recognized until after the fact. The section
recapitulates all of the material in the tonic, though sometimes a theme originally in the major
mode may return in the minor, or vice versa. Only in some early symphonies did Haydn cling
to the older procedure of bringing back just the secondary or closing section in the tonic. He
almost always began the reprise with the opening subject, sometimes rescoring and extending
it in new ways. Rather than curtailing the transitions because he did not need to modulate, he
often intensified and animated them with simulated modulations. He also occasionally altered
the comparative weight given to the secondary and closing subjects. Haydn did not usually
write a coda but instead amplified the closing section.
Minuet and Trio
A Minuet-and-Trio movement appears in most Classic symphonies. The Minuet itself is always
in a two-part (binary or rounded binary) form: (II: a :II: b (a') :II). The Trio is built along similar
lines; it is usually in the same key as the Minuet (possibly with a change of mode), but it is
shorter with lighter orchestration. After the Trio, the Minuet returns da capo, resulting in a
three-part ABA form for the movement as a whole. Haydn's Minuets and Trios contain some
of his most charming music, remarkable in such a modest medium for its wealth of ideas and
happy traits of harmonic invention and instrumental color. He said once he wished someone
would write “a really new minuet," but Haydn himself succeeded admirably in doing so nearly
every time he wrote one.
Finale
The Classic symphony generally demanded the most attention from its audience in its first
movement. The second movement offered an oasis of calm and gentle melody after the
complexity and contrasts of the first movement. The Minuet provided relaxation, since it was
shorter than either of the two preceding movements; it was written in a more popular style, and
its f orm was easy for the listener to follow. But the Minuet does not make a satisfactory closing
movement. It is too short to balance the preceding two, and the spirit of relaxation it induces
must be dispelled by a further build- up of tension, climax, and release. Haydn soon came to
realize that the or Presto finales of his earliest symphonies were inadequate to accomplish
this: they were too light in form and content to produce a satisfying effect in the symphony as
a whole. He therefore developed a new type of closing movement, which first appeared in the
late 176os: an Allegro or Presto in or ¢, usually shorter than the first movement, co1npact,
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swiftly moving, overflowing with high spirits and nimble gaiety, and abounding in whimsical
tricks, including silence and all sorts of impish surprises.
Of Haydn's more than 104 symphonies, at least ninety-two were completed by 1789, most of
them for Prince Esterhazy's orchestra. He composed Nos. 82-87, now known as the Paris
symphonies, on commission in 1785-86 for a concert series in the French capital. Nos. 88-
9were pri- vately commissioned. No. 92, now called the Oxford symphony, was played when
Haydn received an honorary Doctor of Music degree from Oxford University in 1791. His last
twelve, the London symphonies (Nos. 93-104), were composed for a concert series organized
by Salomon in that city. Many of the other symphonies (as well as many of the quartets) have
acquired nicknames for one reason or another, few of them from the composer himself.

MUSIC AT ESZTERHAZA AND HAYDN'S CAREER

Atthe court of Prince Paul Anton and his brother Nicholas, called the "Magnificent," who succeeded to the
title in 1762, Haydn spent nearly thirty years under circumstances that were ideal for his development as
a composer. Beginning in 1766, Prince Nicholas lived for most of the year at his remote country estate of
Eszterhaza. Designed to rival the splendor of the French court at Versailles, the palace and grounds
boasted two theaters, one for opera and one for puppet plays, as well as two large and sumptuously
appointed music rooms in the palace itself. Haydn was required to compose whatever music the prince
demanded, to conduct the performances, to train and supervise all the musical personnel, and to keep
the instruments in repair. He built up the orchestra to about twenty-five players. Operas and concerts
became weekly events; almost every day in the prince's private apartments chamber music was also
heard. The prince himself usually played the baryton, an instrument resembling a large viola da gamba
with an extra set of resonating metal strings that could be plucked like a harp. Haydn wrote some 165
pieces for the baryton, mostly trios with viola and cello.
Although Eszterhaza was isolated, Haydn kept abreast of current developments in the world of music
through the constant stream of distinguished guests and artists and through occasional trips to Vienna.
He had the double advantage of a devoted, highly skilled troupe of singers and players and an intelligent
patron, whose requirements may have been burdensome but whose understanding and enthusiasm were
inspiring. As Haydn once wrote, My prince was pleased with all my work, I received applause, and as
conductor of an orchestra I could make experiments, observe what strengthened and what weakened an
effect and thus improve, substitute, make cuts, and take risks; I was isolated from the world; no one in
my vicinity could make me lose confi- dence in myself or bother me, and so I had to become original."
As Haydn's fame spread in the 1770s and 1780s, he filled many commissions from publishers and
individuals all over Europe, but he remained at Eszterhaza until Prince Nicholas's death in 1790.
Nicholas's son Anton became the next Prince Esterhazy and immediately disbanded his father's
orchestra. Haydn was given a pension and went to live in his own house in Vienna, but not for long.
London visits
Two strenuous but highly productive and profitable seasons in London followed (January 1791 to July
1792, and February 1794 to August 1795), mostly under the management of the impresario and
violinist Johann Peter Salomon. Here, Haydn conducted concerts and wrote a multitude of new works,
including the London symphonies, his last twelve works in this genre.
Last years in Vienna
Anton Esterhazy died while Haydn was in London and was succeeded by Nicholas II, who cared less
about Haydn's music than about the glory he could claim for having such a famous person in his employ.
He persuaded Haydn to resume directing music for the court, which now resided almost all year in Vienna.
Haydn's duties were light, the principal obligation being to compose a Mass every year between 1796
and 1802 for the princess's name day. He could devote himself to composing quartets, trios, and his last
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two oratorios, Die Schopfung (The Creation, completed 1798), and Die Jahreszeiten (The Seasons,
completed 1801), both performed in Vienna with resounding success.
THE SYMPHONIES OF 1768-74
Sturm und Drang
The symphonies of 1768-74 (Nos. 38-60) show Haydn as a composer with a mature technique
and fertile imagination. No longer viewing it as light entertainment or as a delightful overture
to an opera, Haydn now regarded the symphony as a serious work that demanded close
listening. The deeply emotional and agitated character of these symphonies, particularly those
in minor keys, has been associated with the movement in literature known as Sturm und Drang
(Storm and Stress). But some of Haydn's symphonies in this group antedate the literary
movement, which received its name from a 1776 play by Friedrich Maximilian Klinger.
Many are on a larger scale than the symphonies of the previous decade. Themes are more
broadly laid out, those of the fast movements often beginning with a bold unison proclamation
followed immediately by a contrast- ing idea, with the whole theme then restated. Development
sections, limited to motives from the exposition, have become more propulsive and dramatic.
The changes from forte to piano and the crescendos and sforzati that entered Haydn's writing
at this time are also startling. The harmonic palette is richer than in the early symphonies;
modulations range more widely, the harmonic arches are broader, and counterpoint is integral
to the musical ideas.
Slow movements
The slow movements have a romantically expressive warmth. Most of the slow movements are
in sonata form, but with such a leisurely flow of musical ideas that a listener is hardly conscious
of the structure. In Symphony No. 44 in E minor, knowri as the Trauersinfonie (Symphony of
Mourning), we find one of the most beautiful Adagios in all of Haydn's works. The slow
movement of No. 47 is a theme with variations, a favorite form for slow movements in Haydn's
later works.
Farewell symphony
According to a well- known story, Haydn wrote the Farewell Symphony (No. 45) as a hint to
Prince Esterhazy that it was time to move back into town from his summer palace and give the
musicians a chance to see their families again. The final Presto unexpectedly leads to an
Adagio, in the course of which one section of the orchestra after another concludes its part and
the players get up and leave; only two first violins remain to play the closing measures.
THE SYMPHONIES OF 1774-88
The symphonies of 1774-88 exhibit a striking change, most evident in Nos. 54 and 57, both
composed in 1774. The minor keys of the preceding period, the passionate accents, and the
experiments in form and expression now give way to a smooth and assured deployment of
orchestral resources in works that are cheerful and robust. Indeed, once the composer had
resolved to write not so much for learned ears," he allowed his comic-opera style to affect his
symphonic writing.
Symphony No. 7
Symphony No. 7 is one of twenty in C major. Like other symphonies of the 1770s, it is
impressive yet clear and appealing. (Music: NAWM 115, Audio 096)
Symphony No. 56
Symphony No. 56 (1774) is one of twenty symphonies set in C major. These constitute a special
group, many of them composed for particular celebrations at Eszterhaza. Like his five previous
C-major symphonies, No. 56 is festive and brilliant, with high trumpets (labeled clarini in the
score), high French horns, two oboes, a bassoon, and timpani (but no flutes, which Haydn used
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then only rarely). The work reflects the esteem with which the genre was regarded in the 1770s.
Audiences expected symphonies that were serious, ambitious, stirring, and impressive, yet
immediately intelligible and appealing.
Paris symphonies
The six Paris symphonies of 1785-86 (Nos. 8 -87) were commissioned for the large orchestra
of the Concerts de la Loge Olympique. Queen Marie Antoinette, who frequently attended these
concerts, is said to have especially loved No. 85, called La Reine. After the six symphonies
were performed again in 1787, this time at the Concert spirituel, a reviewer of the A1ercure de
France noted how “this great genius could draw such rich and varied developments from a
single subject, so different from the sterile composers who pass continually from one idea to
another."
Symphonies Nos. 88 to 92
Symphonies Nos. 88 to 92 (NAWM 117, Audio 097b) of 1787-88 foreshadow the London
symphonies. Four of these symphonies begin with a slow introduction, whose themes are
sometimes related to the following Allegro. Contrasting subjects in sonata-form movements
now appear less often. Rather, a set of ideas announced at the beginning pervades even the
secondary key area and then is developed continuously throughout the movement. Many of the
slow· movements close with a quiet, introspective coda that features woodwind instruments
and employs colorful chromatic harmonies. The wind instruments are prominent also in the
Trios of the Minuets. In the finales, Haydn made considerable use of contrapuntal devices and
textures-for example he included a canon in the last rnovement of No. 88. By such means he
endowed closing movements with both popular appeal and sufficient weight to balance the rest
of the symphony.
LONDON SYMPHONIES
Like other composers of his time, Haydn mostly wrote music for specific occasions and for
players and singers he knew. When he accepted a com- mission from outside Eszterhaza, he
found out as much as he could about the performers, the concert hall, and related matters so
that he could adapt the music to the particular circumstances of the performance. The invita-
tion from Salomon in 1790 to compose and conduct six, and later six more, symphonies for
the cosmopolitan and exacting audiences of London spurred him to supreme efforts. Hailed by
the British as the greatest composer in the world," he was determined to live up to what was
expected of him, and the London symphonies are indeed his crowning achievements.
Everything Haydn had learned in forty years of experience went into them. While he did not
depart radically from his previous works, he brought all the elements together on a grander
scale, with more brilliant orchestration, more daring harmonic conceptions, more intense
rhythmic drive, and, es- pecially, more memorable thematic inventions.

HAYDN ON HIS RIVALRY WITH HIS PUPIL PLEYEL

There isn't a day, not a single day, in which I am free from work, and I shall thank the dear Lord when I
can Leave London-the sooner the better. My Labours have been augmented by the arrival of my pupil
Pleyel, whom the Professional Concert have brought here. He arrived here with a Lot of new
compositions, but they had been composed Long ago; he therefore promised to present a new work every
evening. As soon as I saw this, I realized at once that a Lot of people were dead set against me, and so
I announced publicly that I would Likewise produce 12 different new pieces. In order to keep my word,
and to support poor Salomon, I must be the victim and work the whole time. But I really do feel it. My eyes
suffer the most, and I have many sleepless nights, though with God's help I shall overcome it all. The
people of the Professional Concert wanted to put a spoke in my wheel, because I would not go over to
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them; but the public is just. I enjoyed a great deal of success Last year, but still more this year. Pleyel's
presumption is sharply criticized, but I Love him just the same. I always go to his concerts and am the
first to applaud him.
-Haydn in London, writing to Marianne von Genzinger in Vienna, March 2, 1792. Translated from the
German in H. C. Robbins Landon, The Collected Correspondence and London Notebooks ofjoseph
Haydn (London: Barrie & Rockliff, 1959), p. 132.

Special effects
Haydn's shrewd appraisal of London's musical tastes is evident in little things as well as great
ones. The sudden fortissimo crash on a weak beat in the slow movement of Symphony No. 94
that has given this work its nickname Surprise was put there because, as he later acknowledged,
he wanted something novel and startling to take people's minds off the concerts of his pupil and
rival Ignaz Pleyel (1757-1831; see p.160). The greater tunefulness may also have been
prompted by this competition, since Pleyel's strong suit was melody. In response, Haydn turned
to Slovenian, Croatian, and other peasant tunes he remembered from his youth. The first,
second, and fourth movements of Symphony No. 103 display characteristic instances of
folklike melodies. The finale of No. 104, (NAWM 116, video 097a) with its initation of the
bagpipe, is particularly suggestive of a peasant dance (Example 14.1 – Video 097a). Similar
allusions are the Turkish" band effect (triangle, cymbals, bass drum) and the trumpet fanfare in
the Allegretto of the Military Symphony (No. 100), and the ticking accompaniment in the
Andante of No. 101 (the Clock). Haydn always aimed to please both the casual music lover and
the expert, and it is a measure of his greatness that he succeeded.

Orchestration
The orchestra of the London symphonies includes trumpets and timpani, which (contrary to
Haydn's earlier practice) are used in most of the slow movements as well as in the others.
Clarinets appear in all of the second set of London symphonies except No. 10. Trumpets
sometimes maintain independent parts instead of doubling the horns as they had previously,
and the cellos are now more often independent of the basses. In several of the symphonies,
Haydn featured solo strings against full orchestra. He treated woodwinds even more
independently than before, and the whole sound of the orchestra achieves a new spaciousness
and brilliance.
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Harmony
Harmonic imagination plays an important part in the slow introductions of the London
symphonies. These opening sections have a portentous quality, a deliberate dramatic suspense
that grips the listener awaiting the Allegro. They are either set in the tonic minor of the Allegro
(as in Symphonies Nos. 101 and 104) or they gravitate toward the minor mode as a foil for the
major mode of the ensuing fast movement (as in No. 94).
Movement forms
The movements in sonata form tend to revolve around the primary subject. This subject often
pervades the section in the dominant, which in Haydn's earlier work usually presented a light,
graceful contrast to the dy- namic opening. The slow movements take either the form of a theme
with variations (Nos. 94, 95, 97, 1o3) or a free adaptation of sonata form; one feature common
to both is a contrasting minor section. The minuets, no longer courtly dances, are allegro
movements in Minuet-and-Trio pattern. Like the corresponding movements of the late quartets,
they are already scherzos in everything but name and tempo.
Finales
Some of the finales are in sonata form, but Haydn's favored pattern is the rondo or sonata-
rondo, a form in which an opening A section returns following each of several contrasting
sections-ABACABA is typical for Haydn. Some of his rondos, however, are infused with
sonata -form ele- ments. A brilliant sonata -rondo is the finale of the Drumroll Symphony, No.
103 in E in which the A and B sections serve as the first and second themes in the exposition
and recapitulation. The first return of A is a tonic interlude in the development section, C is a
modulatory passage in the development, and the final return of A acts as a closing section before
the coda. The entire movement grows out of two opening ideas, a fanfare for two horns and a
sprightly theme that is heard against it (Example 14.2 video 098).

SYMPHONY NO. 94 IN G MAJOR (SURPRISE; 1791)

Haydn composed his most famous symphony, the Symphony No. 94 in G Major (Surprise), in
1791, during his first visit to London. It was performed at a public concert on March 23, 1792,
by an orchestra of forty players, a large group for the time. The London Diary reported that the
new symphony was "of extraordinary merit. It was simple, profound and sublime. The andante
movement was particularly admired."
The nickname Surprise, coined by Haydn's contemporaries, comes from the sudden loud chord
that punctuates the soft theme of the andante. "It was my wish to surprise the public with
something new," Haydn once explained, "and to make -a debut in a brilliant manner." Typical
of Haydn are the musical surprises, folklike tunes, and vivid contrasts of tone color and
dynamics in Symphony No. 94.

First Movement:
Adagio (slow introduction); Vivace assai (very lively) (video 099)
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The slow introduction to the first movement begins with a peaceful melody that is divided
between woodwinds and strings:

The mood soon becomes serious, as a pulsating rhythm, a crescendo, and chromatic harmonies
create a momentary feeling of uncertainty.
The uncertainty of the introduction is resolved in the vivace assai, a very rapid, joyful
movement in sonata form.
The first theme is a brief dance tune that is played softly by the violins:

It is followed by a section for full orchestra that's loud and energetic. After a restatement of the
soft opening theme, the exposition continues with a long and powerful bridge section for full
orchestra. During the bridge, the soft opening theme is heard once again, this time slightly
varied and in a new key:

A carefree waltz melody serves as the second theme of the exposition:

It begins with a syncopated repetition of a single tone and is played softly by the violins with
an "oom-pah-pah" accompaniment in the other strings. Haydn rounds off the exposition with a
gracious closing theme that is introduced by the strings and continued by the woodwinds:

Soon the remaining instruments join in and bring the exposition to a rousing finish. The
exposition is repeated.
The development begins softly as Haydn reveals the potential of his lilting first theme. In the
agitated continuation of the development, tension is built through motives from the bridge
section which move restlessly through minor keys. After a sudden p, the development
concludes with repeated notes that lead into the recapitulation.
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For a while, all is "normal" in the recapitulation; we hear the first theme, a shortened form of
the bridge, and the second theme. But before letting us hear the closing theme, Haydn expands
the recapitulation through a rich polyphonic development of the first theme. The return of the
closing theme brings a feeling of relaxation, and the movement ends jubilantly.
Second Movement:
Andante
The second movement of the symphony is the well-known theme and variations already
discussed in Theme and variation section.
Third Movement:
Minuet (Allegro molto) (video 100)
With its heavily marked "oom-pah-pah" beat and unusually fast tempo, the minuet of
Symphony No. 94 sounds more like a boisterous peasant romp than an elegant court dance.
This movement is written in the customary A B A minuet form:
Minuet Trio Minuet
A B A
a (repeated) ba' (repeated) c (repeated) dc' (repeated) a ba'
The high-spirited A (minuet) section is mostly loud and played by the full orchestra, but there
are softer interludes played by strings and woodwinds.

The minuet section concludes with a soft flute phrase that is repeated loudly by the whole
orchestra.
In contrast to the A section, the trio (B) section is intimate, with softer dynamics, fewer
instruments (only strings and bassoon), and a less strongly emphasized beat.

Fourth Movement:
Finale (Allegro di molto) (video 101)
The symphony's very rapid and brilliant finale is a sonata-rondo. It imaginatively combines the
thematic development typical of sonata form with the recurring main theme found in rondo
form. The movement may be outlined as A B A' (shortened) -development section-A'
(shortened) development section-A B coda. Its playful main theme, A, is soft but lively:
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At its first two returns the main theme is shortened and leads immediately into a bustling
development section. With great wit, Haydn prepares for the second return of the main theme
by repeating its upbeat beginning over and over.

The Surprise Symphony is an example of Haydn's genius at making rich, complex music from
the simplest phrases and themes.
TRUMPET CONCERTO IN E FLAT MAJOR (1796)
Haydn's Trumpet Concerto in E Flat Major has a remarkable history. After its premiere in 1800,
it was forgotten for almost 130 years. It was first published only in 1929, and in the 1930s a
phonograph recording brought the work to a wide audience.
Now, it may well be Haydn's most popular work.
Haydn wrote the concerto in 1796 for a friend, a trumpeter at the Viennese court who had
recently invented a keyed trumpet that could produce a complete chromatic scale. The keyed
trumpet was intended to replace the natural trumpet, which could produce only a restricted
number of tones.
But the keyed trumpet had a dull sound and was supplanted by the valve trumpet around 1840.
Today, the concerto is performed on a valve trumpet. Like most concertos, it has three
movements:
1. fast
2. slow
3. fast
We'll examine the third movement.
Allegro (video 102)
The third movement is a dazzling sonata-rondo in- which Haydn gives the trumpeter's virtuosity
free rein. The movement combines the recurring main theme characteristic of rondo form with
the development section found in sonata form. It may be outlined as A B A B' A--development
section-A B"-coda. Themes A and B are introduced by the orchestra and are then presented
mainly by the trumpet, with orchestral support. The main theme, A, is a high-spirited melody
that is well suited to the trumpet. Theme B is playful; it contains a short, downward-moving
phrase that is repeated several times. Haydn's fondness for musical surprises is reflected in the
coda, which contains sudden changes of dynamics, unexpected harmonic twists, and a
suspenseful long pause.
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Third Movement:
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THE STR1NG QUARTETS

Quartets through 1781
By the time Haydn was forty, his reputation as the first great master of the string quartet was
confirmed by the publication of Opp. 17 (1771) and 20 (1772). In these works, all four
movement-types-sonata-allegro, minuet, slow movement, and fast finale-are treated with
assurance and finesse, although the positions of the second and third movements are often
reversed from their usual place in the symphonies. The four instruments make their individual
contributions: the first violin plays the most virtuosic part, but the cello shares increasingly in
carrying the melodic line; the texture is free of any dependence on a basso continuo.
Fugues
At the same time, counterpoint contributes tension and excitement. Three of the finales in Opus
20 are labeled “fuga," which was not unusual for the time, and suggests that Haydn and his
contemporaries were attempting to raise this medium from the lighter, more galant chamber
works for strings that had been fashionable in Paris during the 1760s.
Sonata-form movements
In the sonata -form movements, Haydn adopted strategies peculiar to his quartets. After the
exposition of a primary subject, almost always dominated by the first violin, he usually chose
a looser texture in which the primary motives pass from one instrument to another. In place of
the orchestral tuttis that typically announce the bridge and other transitions in the symphonies,
Haydn favored loud unisons or stark modulatory gestures. The arrival of landmark moments,
such as the secondary thematic section in the recapitulation, may be marked not by a cadence
but by subtler means.
The development sections of the Opuso quartets are nearly equal in length to the exposition and
recapitulation. Moreover, motives first presented in the exposition are developed over the entire
movement, a procedure that Haydn followed throughout his career.
Opus 33
Ten years went by before Haydn composed the six quartets of Opus 33 (1781) and proclaimed
to two admirers that they were written in a quite new and special way." Opus 33 is lighthearted,
witty, and tuneful, perhaps influenced by Mozart's six quartets K. 168-173, which were
published a few years earlier. Haydn's quartets are very much addressed to the players, who are
all invited to share in the fun. Only the first movements are in sonata form; the finales (except
that of No. 1) are either rondos or variations. The Minuets, here titled Scherzo" (Italian for jest)
or Scherzando" (playful), do literally play tricks on the courtly dance by occasionally breaking
the normal metrical pattern of the minuet.
Even apart from the Scherzos, Opus 33 contains some of Haydn's happiest strokes of wit and
humor. Near the opening of Op. 33, No.4 (Video 103b) (Example 14.3), in the midst of a
serious exposition, the rhythmic displacements and unexpected rests mock the normal logic of
melodic succession. Not only are Haydn's themes playful in themselves but the sparkling
dialogue between players must have added merriment to the amateur quartet evenings that were
held in cities such as London, Paris, and Vienna, in country estates of the nobility, and even in
monasteries. One of three rondo finales in Opus 33 is the Presto of No.2 nicknamed “The
Joke" (Video 103a) because of enigmatic rests in the coda. But humor pervades the whole
movement, as Haydn mischievously plays with the listener's expectations throughout.
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Humor in opus 33

The Quartets of 1785-90

The quartets written between 1785 and 1790 include Opp. 42, 50 (the six Prussian quartets,
1787), 54 and 55 (1788), and Opus 64 (six quartets, 1790). Opus 50 stands out because of
Haydn 's increasingly frequent use of monothematic first movements. This unifying technique
affects some of the finales also.
Last quartets
The quartets of Haydn's last period include Opp. 71 and 74 (three works each, 1793), 76 (a set
of six, 1797), 77 (two quartets, of which the second is probably Haydn 's greatest work in this
genre), and the two-movement Op.103 (I803). In these quartets, Haydn frequently based his
second thematic section on the first, and used the closing section to inject contrast. He also
expanded the harmonic frontiers, foreshadowing Romantic harmony in his chromatic
progressions, in his novel uses of the augmented sixth chord, in his enharmonic changes, and
in his fanciful tonal shifts. The powerfully emotional outpouring in the Largo assai of Op. 74,
No. 3, reaches a climax with double stops in three of the instruments at a German" sixth
(Example 14.4, measure 8) en route to the dominant.
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Another characteristic of Haydn's late quartets, as in his symphonies of this period, is the
juxtaposition of the serious and jocular, the artful and the folksy, the enigmatic and the
simpleminded. Opus 76, No. 1, opens with three majestic chords before the cello solemnly
unfolds its beautiful main theme. By contrast, the second theme simulates a peasant bagpipe
tune with a double drone (D and A; see Example 14.5).

Opus 76, No. 3

Haydn's use of the slow-movement variations form decreased in the late quartets, but one
outstanding example occurs in Op. 76, No.3 (Video 106). Haydn composed the melody as a
 200

birthday hymn for Kaiser Franz Joseph I (Example 14.6). (It later became the national anthem
of the Austro- Hungarian Empire and serves to this day as the German national anthem.) The
variations, which pass the hymn tune from instrument to instrument, are a study in nonharmonic
tones: appoggiaturas, suspensions, and changing notes.

Opus 76, Minuets

The Minuets, though less playful than those of Opus 33, are full of off-beat accents, interpolated
H extra" measures, exaggerated leaps, and other spoofs of artificial formality. One of the
cleverest of Haydn's Minuets appears in Op. 76, No.2 in the form of a canon (Example 14.7),
the only complete one in the quartets. Far from being pedantic, it is satirical, as if it represented
two drunken courtiers trying vainly to perform this dignified dance gracefully-to a strain made
up of five- and six-bar phrases. The octave doubling of the two voices exaggerates the harshness
of the dissonances and open fifths. The Trio, as an antidote, is entirely homophonic and is set
in the parallel major mode. (video 107)
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KEYBOARD SONATAS
Haydn's early keyboard sonatas can be performed on a harpsichord, which allows for only
certain changes in dynamics. His later sonatas, however, call for the performer to realize
dynamic markings such as sforzando and crescendo, sudden accents, and other variations of
touch that require a pianoforte. Haydn used a clavichord in his early years, but by 1780 he had
a piano available. The authorized contemporary printed editions of the sonatas after 1780 give
“fortepiano" or “pianoforte" as the first option, along with "clavicembalo" (usually meaning
harpsichord).
Sonatas of 1760s and 1770s
Haydn's piano sonatas follow the same lines of development observed in the symphonies and
quartets. Notable among the sonatas of the late 1760s and early 1770s is No. 44 in G minor. In
the first movement, Haydn skillfully exploited the opening ideas in the transitions and in the
secondary and closing sections of the exposition. At the same time, the great rhythmic and
textural variety and the delicate chromaticism in the movement betray empfindsam tendencies.
Sonata No.20 in C minor, begun in 1771 but not published until 1780, is a tempestuous work
that characterizes this expressionistic period in the composer's career.
The Piano Sonatas Nos. 21-26, written in 1773 and dedicated to Prince Esterhazy, show a
general relation and lightening of style comparable to what we have noted in the symphonies
and quartets of the same period. All are written in major keys, but the first movements often
turn to the minor mode during the dominant section.
Last sonatas
Haydn's last sonatas demonstrate how much in touch he was with the latest musical fashions
and developments. Among the late Haydn sonatas, Piano Sonata in E-flat, No.59, Hob.XVI/49
merits special attention. Haydn composed it in 1789-90 for his friend Marianne von Genzinger,
telling her that it "may be given out to no one else." To his great surprise the sonata found its
way into print. He later wrote to her, "What a pity that Your Grace does not own a Fortepiano
by Schanz since everything is expressed better on it."' The music is indeed more suited to that
instrument: it demands quick changes of dynamics and marked accents.
The Adagio cantabile, in Bb major, has a stormy middle section in Bb minor, in which the right
hand continues its arabesques while the left hand must cross from deep in the bass to the upper
reaches of the keyboard, a feature that Frau von Genzinger asked Haydn to change because it
exceeded her technical ability. Video 108, Sonata nº 59 in E flat
Another Eb sonata, No. 52, long a favorite of recitalists, was written in 1794 for the virtuoso
Therese Jansen Bartolozzi, one of Clementi's outstanding pupils. This work was published in
England around 1800 as a "Grand Sonata for the Piano Forte," and grand it is in every way. It
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begins in the manner of the French overture, with full chords in dotted rhythm, and thoroughly
exploits the power and scope of the new pianos. In the development section of the first
movement Haydn lingered for a while in the Neapolitan-related key of E major, which is also
the key of the Adagio that follows.
Haydn's last sonatas demonstrate how much in touch he was with the latest musical fashions
and developments. Equally important as a contribution to piano writing is the series of brilliant
trios Haydn wrote during his second London visit and immediately after.
HAYDN'S VOCAL WORKS
In a modest autobiographical sketch of 1776 written for an Austrian encyclopedia, Haydn
named his most successful works: three operas; an Italian oratorio Il ritorno di Tobia (The
Return of Tobias, 1774-75); and his setting of the Stabat Mater (1767) - a work that was famous
in Europe in the 1780s. He made no mention of the sixty - odd symphonies he had written by
then and referred to his chamber music only to complain that the Berlin critics dealt with it too
harshly. Haydn may have been reticent about the symphonies because they were little known
outside Eszterhaza. Also, he may not have realized their significance and that of the string
quartets until their enthusiastic reception in Paris and London showed him how highly regarded
they were. Posterity has concurred with this endorsement.
Operas
In contrast, Haydn's operas were very successful in their day, but they were soon dropped from
the repertory and are rarely heard even now. Opera occupied a large part of Haydn's time and
energy at Eszterhaza where, be- tween 1769 and 1790, he arranged, prepared, and conducted
some seventy- five operas by other composers; Eszterhaza was, despite its remote situation, an
international center for opera. Besides six little German operas for the puppet theater, Haydn
wrote at least fifteen Italian operas. Most of these were of the opera buffa type, with music
abounding in the humor and high spirits that came naturally to the composer. Haydn also
composed three serious operas; the most famous was the “heroic drama" Armida (1784),
remarkable for its dramatic accompanied recitatives and grand- scale arias.
Church music and Masses
Haydn was occasionally criticized for writing sacred music that was too cheerful. He replied
that at the thought of God his heart “leaped for joy" and he did not think God would reproach
him for praising the Lord "with a cheerful heart." Among Haydn's most important Masses were
the six he composed for Prince Nicholas II Esterhazy between 1796 and 1802. All are large-
scale festive Masses, using orchestra, chorus, and four solo vocalists. Like those of Mozart and
his other South German contempo raries, Haydn's Masses have a flamboyance that also
characterizes the architecture of the Austrian Baroque churches in which they were performed.
These works, which employ a full orchestra, including timpani and trumpets, are written in a
musical idiom similar to that of the opera and the sympho ny. The best known are the Missa in
angustiis (Mass for Troubled Times) in D minor, known as the Lord Nelson or Imperial Mass;
and the Missa in tempore belli (Mass in Time ofWar), also known as the Pauk enmesse, or
Kettledrum Mass. " Missa in angustiis Nelson listen to Kyrie Eleison" (Video 109)
Oratorios, Creation and Seasons
During his stay in London, Haydn became acquainted with Handel's oratorios. At Westminster
Abbey in 1791, he was so deeply moved by the Hallelujah Chorus in a performance of Messiah
that he burst into tears and exclaimed, “He is the master of us all." Haydn's appreciation for
Handel is apparent in all the choral parts of his late Masses, and above all in his oratorios Die
Schopfung (The Creation, completed 1798) and Die Jahreszeiten Creation and Seasons (The
Seasons, completed 1801). The text of Die Schopfung, by Baron Gottfried van Swieten, is based
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on the Book of Genesis and Milton's Paradise Lost. That of Die Jahreszeiten, also by van
Swieten, is distantly related to James Thomson's poem “The Seasons," which had been
published some seventy years earlier.

The charm of both works rests largely in their naive and loving depiction of nature and of
innocent joy in the simple life. Haydn's instrumental introductions and interludes are among
the finest examples of late eighteenth- century program music. His “Depiction of Chaos" at the
beginning of Die Schopfung introduces confusing and disturbingly dissonant harmonies. The
transition in the following recitative and chorus, with its awesome choral outburst on the C-
major chord at the words “Es werde Licht, und es ward Licht" (Let there be Light, and there
was Light) was justifiably extolled by contemporary writers as the supreme example of the
sublime in music (Example 14.8).

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791)

Life
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), one of the most amazing child prodigies in history,
was born in Salzburg, Austria. By the time he was six, he could play the harpsichord and violin,
improvise fugues, write minuets, and read music perfectly at first sight. At the age of eight, he
wrote a symphony; at eleven, an oratorio; and at twelve, an opera. By his early teens, Mozart
had behind him many works that would have brought credit to a composer three times his age.
Mozart's father, Leopold, who was a court musician, was understandably eager to show him off
and went to great lengths to do so. Mozart spent almost half the time between the ages of six
and fifteen on tour in Europe and England. He played for Empress Maria Theresa in Vienna,
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for Louis XV at Versailles, for George III in London, and for innumerable aristocrats along the
way. On his trips to Italy he was able to study and master the current operatic style, which he
later put to superb use. Mozart was in Rome during Holy Week when he was fourteen, and he
went to hear the famous choir of the Sistine Chapel performing a work that was its treasured
property. Anyone caught copying this choral piece was to be punished by excommunication.
Mozart heard it once, wrote it out afterward almost completely, returned with his manuscript
to make a few additions and was discovered. For anyone to copy the music was a crime; for
anyone to hear it and remember it so accurately seemed incredible. Mozart not only escaped
punishment but was knighted by the pope for his musical accomplishments.
When he was fifteen, Mozart returned to Salzburg, which was ruled by a new prince-
archbishop, Hieronymus Colloredo. The archbishop was a tyrant who did not appreciate
Mozart's genius, and he refused to grant him more than a subordinate seat in the court orchestra.
With his father's help, Mozart tried repeatedly over the next decade to find a suitable position
elsewhere, but with no success.
The tragic irony of Mozart's life was that he won more acclaim as a boy wonder than as an adult
musician. His upbringing and personality were partly to blame. In his childhood, his complete
dependence on his father gave him little opportunity to develop initiative. Even when Mozart
was twenty-two, his mother tagged along when he went to Paris to seek recognition and
establish himself. A Parisian observed that Mozart was "too good-natured, not active enough,
too easily taken in, too little concerned with the means that may lead him to good fortune."
Unlike Haydn, Mozart began his professional life as an international celebrity, pampered by
kings. He could not tolerate being treated like a servant and eating with valets and cooks, and
his relations with his patron went from bad to worse. Mozart became totally insubordinate when
the prince-archbishop forbade him to give concerts or perform at the houses of the aristocracy.
After an ugly confrontation, Mozart wrote: "He lied to my face that my salary was five hundred
gulden, called me a scoundrel, a
rascal, a vagabond. At last my blood began to boil, I could no longer contain myself, and I said,
'So Your Grace is not satisfied with me?' " He was answered with, "What, you dare to threaten
me you scoundrel? There is the door!" On his third attempt to request dismissal, Mozart was
thrown out of the room by a court official and given a kick.
By 1781, when he was twenty-five, Mozart could stand it no longer. He broke free of provincial
Salzburg and traveled to Vienna, intending to be a free-lance musician. To reassure his father,
he wrote: "I have the best and most useful acquaintances in the world. I am liked and respected
in the best houses, and all possible honors are given me, and moreover I get paid for it. I
guarantee you I'll be successful."
Indeed, Mozart's first few years in Vienna were successful. His German opera Die Entführung
aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio, 1782) was acclaimed. Concerts of his own
music were attended by the emperor and nobility. Pupils paid him high fees, his compositions
were published, and his playing was heard in palace drawing rooms. He even went against his
father's wishes by marrying Constanze Weber, who had no money and was as impractical as
he. Contributing to the brightness of these years was Mozart's friendship with Haydn, who told
Leopold, "Your son is the greatest composer that I know, either personally or by reputation; he
has taste and, what is more, the most profound knowledge of composition."
Then, in 1786, came Mozart's opera Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro). Vienna loved
it, and Prague was even more enthusiastic. "They talk about nothing but Figaro: Nothing is
played, sung, or whistled but Figaro," Mozart joyfully wrote. This success led an opera
company in Prague to commission Don Giovanni the following year. Don Giovanni was a
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triumph in Prague, but it pushed the Viennese too far. Emperor Joseph II acknowledged that it
was a masterwork, - but not appropriate for his pleasure-loving subjects. Dark qualities and
dissonance did. not appeal to them.
Mozart's popularity in Vienna began to decline. It was a fickle city; one was society's darling
for a few seasons and then was suddenly ignored. And Mozart's music was considered
complicated and hard to follow, too "highly spiced" with dissonance. A publisher warned him:
"Write in a more popular style, or else I can neither print nor pay-for any more of your music!"
His pupils dwindled, and the elite snubbed his concerts. In desperate financial straits, he wrote
to friends, "Great God, I would not wish my worst enemy to be in this position.... I am coming
to you not with thanks but with fresh entreaties."
Many of Mozart's letters have been published. These span his life, and it is sad to move from
the colorful, witty, and keenly observant notes of a prodigy on tour through his initial optimism
about Vienna to the despair of "I cannot describe what I have been feeling: A kind of longing
that is never satisfied."
During his last year, Mozart was happier and more successful. He was delighted to receive a
commission from a Viennese theater for a German comic opera, Die Zauberfl6te (The Magic
Flute). While hard at work, Mozart was visited by a stranger who carried an anonymous letter
commissioning a requiem, a mass for the dead. Mozart could not begin the Requiem because
he had to finish The Magic Flute and compose another opera, La Clemenza di Tito, which was
performed in Prague on September 6, 1791. On, September 30, two months before his death,
The Magic Flute was premiered to resounding praise in Vienna. Its success probably would
have brought large financial rewards, but it came too late. Mozart died of rheumatic fever on
December 5, 1791, shortly before his thirty-sixth birthday, leaving the Requiem unfinished. On
the day of his burial, a Vienna newspaper reported that "his works, which are loved and admired
everywhere, are proof of his greatness and they reveal the irreplaceable loss which the noble
art of music has suffered through his death."
MOZART'S MUSIC
Mozart was among the most versatile of all composers; he wrote master-pieces in all the
musical forms of his time. His symphonies are as profound as his string quartets, his piano
concertos as dramatic and lyrical as his operas. All his music sings: even his instrumental
melodies seem to grow out of the human voice. His works convey a feeling of ease, grace, and
spontaneity, as well as balance, restraint, and perfect proportion. Yet mysterious harmonies
bring dark moods that contrast with the lyricism. Mozart fuses power and elegance in a unique
way. However passionate and intense, his works are always sensuous and beautiful. He
believed that music "must never offend the ear, but must please the hearer, or in other words,
must never cease to be music."
Not only do Mozart's compositions sound effortless; they were created with miraculous ease
and rapidity. For example, he completed his last three symphonies in only six weeks! And he
composed extended works completely in his mind. He could even converse while notating a
score.
Mozart's more than 600 compositions were catalogued during the nineteenth century by Ludwig
von Köchel. Hence, it is customary to refer to 'a Mozart work by the "K." number that indicates
its chronological place in his output. For, example, his Piano Concerto in D Minor (1785) is K.
466, and his Symphony No. 40 in G Minor (1788) composed three years later is K. 550.
In Mozart's hands, the classical concerto was raised to its highest level. Many of his concertos
are among his greatest works. Particularly important are the more than twenty piano concertos
that Mozart -a brilliant virtuoso-composed mainly for his own performances. He also wrote
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several violin concertos and horn concertos, two flute concertos, and one concerto each for
bassoon, oboe, and clarinet. The concertos, as well as his other works, show a sensitivity to
woodwind tone colors that is unmatched by earlier composers. The clarinet, especially, came
into its own through
Mozart. The Concerto for Clarinet, K. 622 (1791), written in the last year of his life, remains
the finest ever composed for that instrument. Mozart was a master of opera; few composers
have matched his ability to coordinate music and stage action. His dramatic works reveal a keen
sense of theater, an inexhaustible gift of melody, and a genius for creating characters through
tone. Most of his operas are comedies, composed to librettos in German or in Italian, which
was the international language of music in Mozart's time. While the Italian operas are entirely
sung, the German operas include spoken dialogue, as was customary in German opera at the
time. Mozart's three masterpieces of Italian comic opera are The Marriage of Figaro (1786),
Don Giovanni, (1787), and Cosi fan tutte (1790); they were all composed to librettos by
Lorenzo da Ponte. Mozart's finest opera in German is The Magic Flute (1791); its wide range
of style embraces folk song and fugue, farcical comedy, and solemn hymns about the
brotherhood of man.
The comic operas contain both humorous and serious characters. The major characters are not
mere stereotypes but are human beings who think and feel. Even when six characters sing
together, in a complex ensemble, the individuality of each shines through. Mozart once tried to
explain how he depicted emotion in an aria: "Would you like to -know how I have expressed it
and even indicated his throbbing heart? By two violins playing octaves. You feel the trembling
the faltering, you see how his throbbing breast begins to swell; this I have expressed by a
crescendo. You hear the whispering and sighing which I have indicated by the first violins with
mutes and a flute playing in unison." Emotions in Mozart's arias and ensembles are not static;
they continuously evolve and change. A character may feel one way at the beginning of an
ensemble and a different way at its end. In a duet from Don Giovanni, for example, the feelings
of a peasant girl change as she gradually gives in to the charm of the aristocrat Don Giovanni..
Throughout his life, Mozart learned from other composers. As a boy, he was influenced by
Italian operas and the graceful style of one of Bach's sons, Johann Christian Bach. The strongest
influence on his later works came from J. S. Bach, dead and nearly forgotten, and from Haydn,
the most famous composer at the time. From Bach, Mozart learned to write intricate polyphonic
textures that flow smoothly. He arranged Bach's and Handel's works for performances at private
concerts sponsored by- Baron Gottfried van Swieten, a Viennese who was a passionate music
lover. From Haydn's works, he learned ways to develop themes. But his musical relationship
with Haydn was, not one-sided. Some compositions by Haydn show traces of Mozart's melodic
and orchestral style.
"I am never happier," Mozart once wrote his father, "than when I have something to compose,
for that, after all, is my sole delight and passion." Mozart's "delight and passion" are
communicated in his works, which represent late eighteenth-century musical style at its highest
level of perfection.
MOZART'S YEARS IN SALZBURG
From 1774 to 1781, Mozart lived chiefly in Salzburg, complaining frequently about the narrow
provincial life and the lack of opportunities. In a fruitless attempt to improve his situation, he
undertook another journey in September 1777, this time with his mother, to Munich, Augsburg,
Mannheim, and Paris. All his hopes for a good position in Germany or France came to nothing.
His stay in Paris was further saddened by his mother's death in July
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1778. He returned to Salzburg early the following year, more disconsolate than ever.
Nevertheless, he was steadily growing in stature as a composer, and he received a commission
to compose an opera for Munich. Idomeneo, performed there in January 1781, is the best of
Mozart 's opere serie, despite its rather clumsy libretto. The music is dramatic and pictorial; in
its numerous accompanied recitatives, its conspicuous use of the chorus, and its inclusion of
the spectacular, Idomeneo reveals the influence of Traetta, Gluck, and the French tragedie
lyrique.

MOZART'S TEACHERS
During his apprentice years until around 1773, Mozart was completely under the tutelage of his father in
practical affairs and in most musical matters as well. Thanks to his father's excellent teaching and to the
many trips he took during his formative years; young Mozart was exposed to every kind of music written
or heard in contemporary western Europe. In Paris, he became interested in the keyboard works of
Johann Gottfried Eckard (1735-1809) and Johann Schobert (d. 1767), arranging two movements from
their piano sonatas as the second movements of his own piano concertos K. 39-40. In his harpsichord
writing, Schobert simulated the effect of an orchestra through rapid figuration and thick chordal textures,
particularly in the low register, a technique Mozart imitated in some of his sonatas.
In London, he met J.C. Bach, whose music had a lasting influence on him. In Italy, he assimilated the
traditions of opera seria, the influence of Sammartini and other Italian symphonists, and studied
counterpoint with Padre Giovanni Battista Martini. And in Vienna, he came into contact with Haydn's
music, which then became increasingly important in the young composer's creative life. He absorbed it
all with uncanny aptitude, imitating others' works while improving on them. The ideas that influenced him
not only echoed in his youthful compositions but also continued to grow in his mind, sometimes bearing
fruit many years later. In this way, his work became a synthesis of national styles, a mirror that reflected
the music of a whole age, illuminated by his own genius.

Piano Sonatas
Among the important works of this period are thirteen piano sonatas and several sets of
variations for piano, including those on the French air “Ah, vous dirais-je maman”, K. 265
(=300e), known as Twinkle, twinkle, little star. The variations were probably intended for
pupils, but the sonatas were part of Mozart 's concert repertory. Before that time, he had
improvised such pieces as needed, so that few solo piano compositions from the early years
have survived.
The sonatas K. 79- 84 were undoubtedly meant to be published together: there is one in each
of the major tonalities in the circle of fifths from D down to Eb and the six works show a wide
variety of form and content. Kochel 310 (=300d), Mozart's first minor-keys sonata, betrays the
influence of Schobert in its full chordal accompaniments and string- like tremolos (Example
14.9). (video 111, Schobert and Mozart sonata mn 4:14 and up)

Similar to Schobert sonata op 2 no1

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Johann Christian Bach, whom Mozart met in London, had an important and lasting influence
on the boy. Like Bach, Mozart composed for a wide range of genres, from keyboard to
symphonic and operatic works. Bach enriched these genres with features derived from Italian
opera: songful themes, tasteful appoggiaturas and triplets, and harmonic ambiguities. These
traits, together with Bach's consistent thematic contrasts, appealed to Mozart and became
permanent marks of his writing. In 1772 Mozart arranged three of Bach's sonatas as Piano
Concertos K. 107, 1-3.
Sonata K. 331 (=300i) is notable among the sonatas from the early 1780s for its first movement,
in variation form, and its finale. The latter, marked Rondo alla turca, imitates the Janissary
music of the Turkish military bands (Audio 112) - then popular in Vienna-with their cymbals
and triangles and exaggerated first beats. (Mozart also included “Turkish music" in his comic
Singspiel, TheAbductionfrom the Harem.
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Themes
Mozart's themes, more than Haydn's, have a distinct melodic profile. Although seeming to
unfold naturally and spontaneously, often in the fluent manner of the Italian Allegro
movements, they give evidence of careful shaping and grooming. The phrases of a statement
are usually balanced between antecedent and consequent, but the second phrase is often
extended, as in the Sonata in B, K. 333 (=315c), shown in Example 14.10. The entire theme
develops from the opening gesture of a stepwise descent to an appoggiatura, which marks the
end of every phrase, subphrase, and smaller unit in measures 1 to 5.

Other instrumental music

Violin sonatas
Mozart's piano sonatas are closely related to his sonatas for piano and violin. In his early
years these duos were really piano pieces with optional violin accompaniment, like the
Schobert sonata. The first of Mozart's works in which the two instruments are treated more
equally are K. 296, 301-305 (=293a-d), and 306 (=3001), which were written in Mannheim
and Paris in 1777 and 1778. Kochel 304 in E minor (300c) is notable for the exceptional
emotional intensity of its first movement, and K. 306 (300l) in D major for its brilliant
concerto-like style.
Serenades and Divertimentos
Mozart composed serenades-ever popular in Salzburg-and what are now classed as
divertimentos in the 1770s and early 1780s for garden parties or actual outdoor
performances, for weddings and birthdays, or for concerts at the homes of friends and
patrons. Although usually intended for background music and entertainment, they received
serious treatment from Mozart. Some are like chamber music for strings with two or more
added wind instruments. Others, written for six or eight wind instruments in pairs, are meant
for the out-of-doors, and still others approach the style of the symphony or concerto.
All have in common a certain unaffected simplicity of both-material and treatment, a formal
charm appropriate to their purpose. The most familiar of Mozart's serenades is Eine kleine
Nachtmusik (A Little Night-Music, K. 525; 1787), in four movements for string quintet but
now usually played by a small string ensemble.
Solo Concertos
Among the notable compositions of Mozart's Salzburg period are the Violin Concertos K.
216, 218, and 219, in G, D, and A, respectively (all 1775), the Piano Concerto in Eb, K. 271
(1777), with its romantic slow movement in C minor, and the hauntingly expressive
Symphonie Concertante, K. 364 (=320d) in Eb for solo violin and viola with orchestra
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(video 115). The three violin concertos are the last of Mozart's compositions in this genre.
The Piano Concerto K. 271, on the other hand, is but the first of a long series of great works
that reached a climax in the Vienna period.
MOZARTS VIENNA YEARS
Against his father's advice, Mozart decided to quit the service of the archbishop of Salzburg in
1781 and settle in Vienna. He was optimistic about his prospects there. Indeed, his first years
in the imperial capital went well. His Singspiel, Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail (The Abduction
from the Harem, 1782), was performed repeatedly. He had all the distinguished pupils he was
willing to take, he was idolized by the Viennese public both as pianist and composer, and he
led the bustling life of a successful freelance musician. But after four or five seasons, the fickle
public deserted him, pupils fell off, commissions were few, family expenses mounted, and his
health declined. Worst of all, no permanent position with a steady income came his way, except
for an appointment in 1787 as chamber music composer to the emperor at less than half the
salary that Gluck, his predecessor, had received. The most pathetic pages in Mozart's
correspondence are the begging letters written between 1788 and 1791 to his friend and brother
Freemason, the merchant Michael Puchberg of Vienna. To Puchberg's credit, he always re-
sponded generously to Mozart's appeals.
Van Swieten
Most of the works that immortalized Mozart's name he composed in Vienna between the ages
of twenty-five and thirty-five, when the promise of his childhood and early youth came to
fulfillment. In every kind of composition, he achieved a perfect synthesis of form and content,
of the gal ant and the learned styles, of polish and charm on the one hand and textural and
emotional depth on the other. The principal influences on Mozart during these last ten years of
his life came from his continuing study of Haydn and his discovery of J. S. Bach. He was
introduced to Bach's music by Baron Gott-fried van Swieten, who during his years as Austrian
ambassador to Berlin (1771-78) had become an enthusiast for the music of North German
composers. Van Swieten was the imperial court librarian and a busy musical and literary
amateur; he later wrote the librettos of Haydn's last two oratorios.
In weekly reading sessions during 1782 at van Swieten's home, Mozart be- came acquainted
with Bach's Art of Fugue, Well-Tempered Keyboard, and other works. Bach's influence was
deep and lasting and may be seen in the increased contra puntal texture of Mozart's later works
(for example, his last piano sonata, K. 576). It was probably also through van Swieten that
Mozart beca me inte rested in Handel, whose Messiah Mozart reorchestrated.
Solo Piano works
Among the solo piano compositions of the Vienna period, the most important are the Fantasia
and Sonata in C minor (K. 475 and 457). The Fantasia foreshadows Schubert's piano sonatas
in its melodies and modulations, while the Sonata would serve as the model for Beethoven's
Sonate pathetique. Other keyboard works of this period are the Sonata in D major for two pianos
(K. 448=375a, 1781) and the Sonata in F major (K. 497, 1786) for piano fourhands, the finest
of all Mozart's works in this genre.
The Haydn quartets
In 1785, Mozart published six string quartets dedicated to Joseph Haydn as a token of his
gratitude for all that he had learned from the older composer. These quartets (K. 387, 421=
417b, 428 = 421b, 458, 464, 465) were, as Mozart said in his dedicatory letter, the fruit of a
long and laborious effort"; indeed, the manuscript shows an unusually large number of
corrections and revisions for a Mozart autograph. As we have seen, Haydn's Opus 33 quartets
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(1781) had fully established the technique of pervasive thematic development with complete
equality of the four instruments.
Quartet K. 421 (= 417b) in D minor stands out because of its tragic mood. The old descending
tetrachord of the Baroque lament appears in the bass, accompanying a restatement of the
opening theme; and although the piece has barely begun, the first violin reaches for the highest
note heard in the entire movement (Example 14.11). When, following contrasting yet stern
secondary and closing groups, the theme returns in E major after the double bar, the same
descending bass line immediately darkens the optimistic reawakening.

Quintets
For all the excellence of his quartets, Mozart's genius reveals itself most fully in his quintets
for two violins, two violas, and cello. The String Quintets inC major (K. 515) and G minor (K.
516), composed in the spring of 1787, are comparable to the last two symphonies in the same
keys. Another masterpiece, the Clarinet Quintet in A (K. 581), was composed at about the same
time as the opera buffa, Cosi fan tutte, and captured some of the same comic spirit.
SYMPHON1ES
Like Haydn, Mozart approached the symphony in his mature years with great seriousness. He
wrote only six in the last ten years of his life-having earlier produced nearly sixty-and devoted
much time and thought to their composition.3 (In the nineteenth century, the publisher Breitkopf &
Hartel numbered forty - one Mozart symphonies. This count, which is still in occasional use, omits
some two dozen early symphonic works while including three that are not by Mozart: "No. 2 " by
Leopold Mozart; "No . 3, " by Carl Friedrich Abel; and "No. 37," a symphony by Michael Haydn for
which Mozart supplied an introduction.) The symphonies written before 1782 served most often
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as concert or theatrical “curtain raisers"; those composed after he settled in Vienna constituted
the main feature on concert programs or at least shared billing with concertos and arias. The
Haffner Symphony, K. 385, (Audio 117) written in 1782 for the elevation to nobility of
Mozart's childhood friend Sigmund Haffner, and the Linz Symphony, K. 425, (Video 119)
written in 1783 for a performance in that city, typify the late symphonies in their ambitious
dimensions, greater demands on performers (particularly wind players), harmonic and
contrapuntal complexity and chromaticism, and final movements that are climactic rather than
light. These symphonies are in every way as artful as the London symphonies of Haydn, and
some may indeed have served as models for the older composer. The others of this group-
recognized as his
greatest-are the Prague Symphony in D major (K. 504) and the Symphonies in Eb (K. 543), G
minor (K. 550), and C major (K. 551, named the Jupiter (video 118) by an English publisher).
The last three were composed within six weeks in the summer of 1788.
Each of the six symphonies is a masterpiece with its own special character, in some cases
influenced by other music that Mozart was working on at the time. Their opening gestures leave
an indelible impression. Both the Haffner and the Jupiter begin with loud, forceful, unison
statements followed by delicate ensemble responses (Example 14.12 a, c). In both works, the
disparate elements of the theme are immediately wedded through counterpoint (Example 14.12
b, d).
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There is also a touch of humorousness in the finale of the Jupiter Symphony, which takes its
first theme from a fugue example in Fux's Grad us ad Pamassum and combines it in simple and
double counterpoint with five other motives: a countersubject, two bridge figures, and both of
the two motives that make up the second subject of the sonata scheme. The coda weaves all
these together in an unsurpassed triumph of ars combinatoria, the art of combination and
permutation derived from mathematics that was taught by eighteenth-century music theorists
as a means of achieving melodic variety in composition (see Example 14.15, in which P, S, and
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T stand, respectively, for primary theme, secondary theme, and transitional motives).

Some of Mozart's symphonies are imbued with the spirit of his operas, for example, the comical
element in the otherwise heroic Jupiter Symphony. For the closing section of the first
movement, Mozart borrowed the melody of a comic aria he had written (Example 14.13). The
repeated cadences in the symphony that follow this quotation are also from the world of comic
opera.
Introductions
The three introductions to Symphonies K. 425, (video 119) 504, and 543 are animated by the
energy of the French overture, its majestic double-dotted rhythms, intense chordal harmony,
and anacrusis figures. Rather than intimating subtly what is to come, as Haydn sometimes did,
Mozart created suspense, provocatively wandering away from the key and making its return an
important event.
Finales
As in Haydn's late symphonies, the finales do more than send an audience away in a cheerful
frame of mind. They balance the serious and important opening movement with a highly crafted
counterweight fashioned with wit and humor. In the Allegro assai of the G-minor Symphony,
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the acrobatic transformation of the main theme at once startles and pokes fun, with its wild
leaps and pregnant silences (Example 14.14).

SYMPHONY NO. 40 IN G MINOR, K. 550 (1788)

The Symphony No. 40 in G minor is the most passionate and dramatic of Mozart's symphonies.
Although the work is classical in form and technique, it is almost romantic in emotional
intensity. It staggers the imagination that Mozart could compose the G minor and two other
great symphonies No. 39 in E Flat and No. 41 in C (Jupiter) during the short period 'of six
weeks. They are his last three symphonies.
Like most classical symphonies, the Symphony No. 40 in G minor has four movements: (1)
fast, (2) slow, (3) minuet, (4) fast.
First Movement: (Video 120)
Molto allegro
A quiet but agitated opening theme in the violins sets the mood for the entire first movement,
which is in sonata form. A throbbing accompaniment in the violas contributes to the feeling of
unrest. Dominating the violin melody is the rhythmic pattern short-short-long, first heard in the
opening three-note motive.

The persistence of this rhythmic pattern gives the music a sense of urgency. Yet the melody is
balanced and symmetrical. Questioning upward leaps are answered by downward scales, and
the second phrase of the melody is a sequential repetition of the first, one step lower. The
exposition continues with a bridge section that presents a new staccato motive played loudly
by the violins.
The lyrical second theme, in B flat major, contrasts completely with the agitated G minor
opening. Mozart exploits the expressive resources of tone color by dividing the theme between
strings and woodwinds. In the closing section of the exposition, Mozart uses a fragment from
the opening theme to achieve a different emotional effect. The three-note motive now sounds
gentle and plaintive as it is passed between clarinet and bassoon against a sighing string
background.
In the development, the movement becomes feverish. The opening theme is led into different
keys and is cut into smaller and smaller pieces. The development begins mysteriously as the
opening phrase ends in an unexpected way and sinks lower and lower. Then a sudden explosion
of polyphonic texture increases the excitement and complexity. Mozart brusquely shifts the
opening phrase between low and high strings while combining it with a furious staccato
countermelody. Soon after, he demolishes the opening phrase: we hear the beginning of the
theme without its upward leap.
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Then the final note is lopped off

Finally, we are left with the irreducible minimum of the original theme, the three-note motive.
First violins

The tension resolves only with the entrance of the entire opening theme in the tonic key.
In the recapitulation, exposition material is given new expressive meaning. The bridge is
expanded and made more dramatic. The lyrical second theme, now in G minor, is touching and
sad.
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Second movement:
Andante
The mood of the andante hovers between gentleness and longing. The andante is written in
sonata form and is the only movement of this symphony in major (it is in E flat). This movement
develops from a series of gently pulsating notes in the opening theme.

As the theme continues, the violins introduce an airy two-note rhythmic figure that will appear
with changes of dynamics and orchestration in almost every section of the andante. The
rhythmic figure will be, at different times, graceful, insistent, and forceful.
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Later, Mozart uses the airy figures as a delicate countermelody to the repeated-note idea.
Floating woodwinds interwoven with strings reveal Mozart's sensitivity to tone color as an
expressive resource.
Third Movement:
Menuetto (Allegretto)
The minuet, in G minor, is serious and intense; it does not sound like an aristocratic dance. The
form of the minuet is A B A:
Minuet Trio Minuet
A B A
A (repeated) ba' (repeated) c (repeated) dc' (repeated) a ba'

Powerful syncopations give a fierce character to the A section (the minuet),

which is predominantly loud and in minor.

Later, Mozart increases the tension through polyphonic texture and striking dissonances. At the
end of the A section, there is a sudden drop in dynamics; the flute, supported by oboes and a
bassoon, softly recalls the opening melody of the minuet.
The trio section (B) brings a shift from minor to major, from fierce energy section B
to graceful relaxation.

This change of mood is underscored by a soft dynamic level and pastoral woodwind interludes.
After the trio, a sudden forte announces the return of the fierce A section.
Fourth Movement:
Allegro assai
Mozart ends the symphony with the tense movement already described.
PlANO CONCERTOS
Seventeen concertos for piano occupy a central place in Mozart's output during the Vienna
years. He wrote many of them as vehicles for his own concerts, and we can gauge the rise and
fall of his popularity in Vienna by the number he composed each year: three in 1782-83, four
in each of the next two seasons, three again in 1785-86, and only one for each of the next two
seasons; after that no more until the last year of his life, when he wrote K. 595 to play at a local
concert. The first three Vienna concertos, K. 414 (=385p), 413 (=387a), and 415 (=387b), as
Mozart wrote to his father,
strike a happy medium between what is too easy and too difficult . .. very brilliant, pleasing to the ear, and
natural, without being vapid. There a re passages here and t here from which connoisseurs alone can
derive satisfaction; but these passages are written in such a way that the less learned cannot fail to be
pleased, though without knowing why.
Letter dated December3, 1782, trans. in Emily Anderson, ed., The Letters of Moza rt and His Family
(New York: Norton, 1989).
The next concerto, K. 449 in Eb originally written for a pupil, was later played by Mozart with
"unusual success," as he reported. Three magnificent works were all completed within a month
of one another in the spring of 1784: K. 450 in Bb, K. 451 in D - both, in Mozart's words,
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"concertos to make the player sweat"- and the more intimate K. 453 in G. Three of the four
concertos of 1784-85 are likewise works of first rank: K. 459 m F, K. 466 m D minor - the
most dramatic and most frequently played - and the spacious and symphonic K. 467 in C.
During the winter of 1785-86, when he was at work on Le nozze di Figaro, Mozart· turned out
three more concertos, of which the first two, K. 482 in Eb and K. 488 in A, are in a
comparatively light mood, while the third, K. 491, in C minor, is one of his great tragic
creations. The big C-major concerto of December 1786, K 503, may be regarded as the
triumphal counterpart of K. 491 in C minor, one of Mozart 's great tragic creations. Of the two
remaining concertos, one is the popular Coronation Concerto in D, K. 537 (1788), which
Mozart played in Frankfurt during the coronation festivities in 1790 for Emperor Leopold II.
Mozart's last concerto, K. 595 in Bb, was completed in January of 1791. Listen to No. 20 K.
466 in D minor (video 121)
Form
The Classic piano concerto by Mozart and his contemporaries preserves certain formal features
of the Baroque concerto. It follows the three- movement sequence fast- slow- fast. The first
movement is in a modified concerto-ritornello form-indeed, the contemporary theorist Heinrich
Christoph Koch described the form of the first Allegro as containing three main periods
performed by the soloist, which are enclosed by four subsidiary periods performed by the
orchestra as ritornellos." The second movement is a kind of aria, and the finale is generally
dancelike or popular in character. A close look at a typical first movement, such as the Allegro
from Concerto 23 K. 488 in A major (video 122a), will show how the ritornello of the
Baroque concerto permeates the sonata form.
Baroque elements
The opening orchestral section displays both the thematic variety of a sonata-form exposition
and several elements of the Baroque concerto ritornello: it is in a single key and it contains a
transitional tutti that reappears in various keys throughout the movement. Maintaining the
ritornello results in a version of sonata form that actually has two expositions, one orchestral
and one solo with orchestra. (J.C. Bach had employed a similar procedure in his Concerto for
Harpsichord or Piano and Strings, Op. 7, No. 5 – video 095). The exposition is schematized as
follows:

Typical second movement

The second movement of a Mozart concerto is like a lyrical aria, with a tempo of andante,
larghetto, or allegretto. It is in the subdominant of the principal key or, less often, in the
dominant or the relative minor. Its form, although greatly variable in details, is most often a
kind of modified sonata scheme without development or, like the Romance of K. 466, an
ABACA rondo.
Typical finale
The finale is typically a rondo or sonata -rondo on themes with a popular character; these are
treated in scintillating virtuoso style with opportunities for one or more cadenzas. Although the
concertos were show pieces intended to dazzle an audience, Mozart never allowed display to
gain the upper hand. He always maintained a healthy balance of musical interest between the
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orchestral and solo portions, and his infallible ear regulated the myriad combinations of colors
and textures he drew from the interplay between the piano and orchestral instruments,
especially the winds. Moreover, the goal of composing for an immediate public response did
not keep him from expressing the most profound musical ideas.
Cadenzas
That Mozart put substance before fireworks may be seen in the cadenzas he sketched or fully
notated for his own concertos. The cadenza had developed from the trills and runs that singers
inserted, particularly before the return of the opening section in the da capo aria. Mozart's early
cadenzas were similarly flourishes without thematic links to the movement, but after the 1780s
they served to balance the longer modulatory or development sections. These cadenzas,
virtually renewed development sections, cast new light on familiar material in daring flights of
technical wizardry. In K. 488, Mozart wrote the cadenza into the score, perhaps to make up for
the lack of true development earlier in the work.
PIANO CONCERTO NO. 23 IN A MAJOR, K. 488 (NAWM 120, Audio 122)
The Piano Concerto in A Major, completed on March 2, 1786, dates from a very productive
and successful period in Mozart's life. Between October 1785 and May 1786, he taught piano
and composition, conducted operas, performed in concerts, and composed The Marriage of
Figaro, the comic one-act opera The Impressario, two other great piano concertos (K. 482 in E
Flat and K. 491 in C Minor), a Quartet for Piano and Strings (K. 478), and the Masonic Funeral
Music (K. 477).
Mozart thought highly of the A Major concerto. In a letter to the court chamberlain of a
prospective patron, he included it among "the compositions which I keep for myself or for a
small circle of music-lovers and connoisseurs. . . . " Today, it is one of the best known of his
piano concertos. Like all classical concertos, this one has three movements. The grace of the
opening movement and the high spirits of the finale contrast with the melancholy of the middle
movement. This concerto stresses poetry and delicacy rather than pianistic virtuosity or
orchestral power. It is scored for an orchestra without trumpets or timpani and highlights the
clarinets, flute, and bassoon. Mozart associated its key -A major with tenderness, lyricism, and
elegance. (He also used this key for the Clarinet Concerto and the duet between Don Giovanni
and Zerlina in Don Giovanni.)
In our recording the soloist Malcolm Bilson plays a modern replica of Mozart's concert
fortepiano. The late-eighteenth-century fortepiano-an early piano, weighed much less than
the modern piano and had thinner strings held by a frame made of wood, rather than metal. Its
pitch range was smaller, and its tone was softer and lasted a shorter time.
First Movement: Allegro
The gentle opening movement blends lyricism with a touch of sadness owing to many shifts
between major and minor. Two main lyrical themes introduced by the orchestra in the first
exposition are restated by the piano and orchestra in the second exposition. The development
section is based on a new legato theme that is unexpectedly introduced by the orchestra after a
dramatic pause. (In the listening outline, this is called the development theme.) Mozart creates
a dramatic confrontation by juxtaposing fragments of this new theme, played by the
woodwinds, with restless ideas in the piano and orchestra.
Toward the end of the allegro is a cadenza an unaccompanied show-piece for the soloist.
Exceptionally, Mozart notated the cadenza directly into the score, instead of leaving it to be
improvised by the soloist. With its rapid sweeps up and down the keyboard, its alternation
between brilliant and tender passages, and its concluding trill, this cadenza gives us some idea
of how Mozart himself must have improvised.
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OPERAS
After Idomeneo, Mozart wrote only one more opera seria, La clemenza di Tito (The Clemency
of Titus), composed in haste during the summer of 1791 for the coronation of Leopold II as
king of Bohemia in Prague. The chief dramatic works of the Vienna period were the Singspiel,
Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Harem, 1782); three Italian operas,
Le nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro, 1786), Don Giovanni (Prague, 1787), and Cosi
fan tutte (Women Are Like That, 1790) - all three on librettos by Lorenzo DaPonte (1749-
1838); and the German opera Die Zauberfiote (The Magic Flute, 1791). Mozart early expressed
his preference for librettos that were not ambitiously poetic. Unlike Gluck, he believed poetry
should serve the music rather than the contrary.
Figaro
Figaro followed the conventions of Italian eighteenth- century comic opera. But DaPonte lifted
the opera buffa to a higher level of literature by giving greater depth to the characters,
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intensifying the social tensions between classes, and introducing moral issues. Mozart's
psychological penetration and his genius for musical characterization similarly elevated the
genre. Delineation of character occurs not only in solo arias but especially in duets, trios, and
larger ensembles. The ensemble finales allow these characters to clash, combining realism with
ongoing dramatic action and superbly unified musical form. Mozart's orchestration, and
particularly his use of winds, played an important role in defining the characters and situations.

MOZART ON OPERA LIBRETTOS

In an opera the poetry must be altogether the obedient daughter of the music. Why do Italian comic operas please
everywhere-in spite of their miserable libretti even in Paris, where I myself witnessed their success?
Just because there the music reigns supreme and when one listens to it all else is forgotten. Why, an opera is sure
of success when the plot is well worked out, the words written solely for the music and not shoved in here a nd
there to suit some miserable rhyme (which God knows never enhances the value of any theatrical performance,
be it what it may, but rather detracts from it) –I mean, words or even entire verses which ruin the composer's
whole idea. Verses are indeed the most indispensable element
for music-but rhymes-solely for the sake of rhyming-the most detrimental. Those high and mighty people who set
to work in this pedantic fashion will always come to grief, both they and their music. The best thing of all is when
a good composer, who understands the stage and is talented enough to make sound suggestions, meets an able
poet, that true phoenix;
In that case no fears need be entertained as to the applause even of the ignorant. Poets almost remind me of
trumpeters with their professional tricks! If we composers were always to stick so faithfully to our rules (which
were very good at a time when no one knew better), we should be concocting music as unpalatable as their libretti.
-W. A. Mozart in Vi enna in the midst of composing Die Entfiihrung, writing to his father, Leopold, in Salzburg,
October 13, 1781. Em i ly Anderson, ed., The Letters of Mozart and His Family (New York: Norton, 1989), p.
773.
Don Giovanni
Figaro enjoyed only moderate success in Vienna, but its enthusiastic reception in Prague led to
the commission for Don Giovanni, which was performed there the following year. Don
Giovanni is a dramma giocoso of a very special sort. The medieval legend on which the plot is
based had been treated often in literature and music since the early seventeenth century. But
Mozart, for the first time in opera, took the character of Don Juan seriously- not as an
incongruous mixture of farcical figure and horrible blasphemer, but as a romantic hero, a rebel
against authority, a scorner of common morality, and a supreme individualist, bold and
unrepentant to the last. It was Mozart's music rather than DaPonte's libretto that raised the Don
to this stature and at the same time paraded his gluttony and selfishness. The Romantic musical
imagination of the nineteenth century relished the demonic quality of the opening measures of
the overture, a quality intensified by the sound of the trombones in the cemetery scene and
again at the apparition of the statue in the finale. Some of the other characters, though they are
subtly ridiculed, must also be taken seriously: the tragic Donna Elvira, jilted by the Don but
still attempting to reform him, and Leporello, more than a commedia dell ' arte servant- buffoon,
revealing deep sensitivity and intuition.
The fifth scene of Act I (NAWM 124a, Audio 123) musically sketches three personalities.
Donna Elvira's melody is in the style of a Baroquerage aria, " with its angry wide leaps and
sudden pauses, abetted by the syncopations, agi - tated runs, and tremolos in the strings. This
contrasts sharply with the casual, lighthearted, mocking tone of Don Giovanni and the
seemingly idle patter of Leporello, playing down his role as healer of the bruised souls of
abandoned women. The famous catalogue" aria that follows (NAWM 124b, Audio 124), in
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which Leporello enumerates his master's conquests by country and describes the kinds of
women he likes, shows another serious side of Mozart's comic art. Awed as we are by the details
of his characterization, by his text animation, harmonic shadings, and orchestration, we are
com- pelled to take seriously this most entertaining portion of the opera.
DON GIOVANNI (1787)
Don Giovanni (Don Juan) is a unique blend of comic and serious opera, combining seduction
and slapstick. With violence and the supernatural. The old tale of Don Juan, the legendary
Spanish lover, had attracted many playwrights and composers before Mozart. Mozart's Don
Giovanni is an extremely charming but ruthless nobleman who will stop at nothing to satisfy
his sexual appetite. Don Giovanni's comic servant, Leporello, is a grumbling accomplice who
dreams of being in his master's place.
The Don attempts to rape a young noblewoman, Donna Anna; her father, the Commendatore
(Commandant), challenges him to a duel. Don Giovanni kills the old man, causing Donna Anna
and her fiancé, Don Ottavio, to swear revenge. Pursued by his enemies, the Don deftly engages
in new amorous adventures. During one of them, he hides in a cemetery, where he sees a marble
statue of the dead Commandant. The unearthly statue utters threatening words, but Don
Giovanni brazenly invites it to dinner. When the statue appears at the banquet hall, it orders the
Don to repent. Don Giovanni defiantly refuses and is dragged down to hell.
Overture
Mozart plunges us into a dark atmosphere at the beginning of the overture with awesome D
minor chords, anxious syncopations, and sinister scale passages; there is a hair-raising effect
when this slow, ominous music returns at the end of the opera for the statue's confrontation
with Don Giovanni in the banquet hall. The overture continues with a fast sonata-form
movement in D major, which has the energy and swagger of the opera's leading character. This
contrast of minor and major, mystery and brilliance, foretells the tremendous range of emotions
to come.
Act I:
Introduction
The overture leads directly into the action-packed opening scene. In breathless succession we
witness Leporello keeping guard, Don Giovanni struggling with Donna Anna, the Commandant
dueling with the Don, and the Commandant's agonized last gasps. Mozart's music vividly
depicts the characters and pushes the action forward. (In the excerpt from the libretto that
follows, braces indicate that characters sing at the same time. Etc. indicates that previous lines
of text are repeated.)
Orchestral introduction, molto allegro; sudden fortes suggest pacing and abrupt turns.
(Late evening outside the Commandant's palace in Seville. Don Giovanni, concealing his
identity, has stolen into Donna Anna's room for an amorous adventure.
Leporello paces back and forth.)
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Act I:
Leporello's catalog aria (Madamina)
Not long after the opening scene, Leporello sings his famous "catalog" aria (Madamina) to
Donna Elvira, a woman whom Don Giovanni had earlier seduced and deserted and who has
now appeared on the scene. In mocking "consolation," Leporello tells her that she is but one of
many and displays a fat catalog of his master's conquests. The music bubbles with Leporello's
delight as he reels off the amazing totals: 640 in Italy, 231 in Germany, 100 in France, 91 in
Turkey, and in Spain, 1,003! Mozart, makes the most of comic description as Leporello
proceeds to list the
Don's seduction techniques for different types of women: (NAWM 124b, Audio 124)
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Act I:
Duet: La ci darem la mano (There you will give me your hand) The Don's seduction technique
is put to use in the lovely duet La ci darem la mano. Don Giovanni persuades the pretty peasant
girl Zerlina to come to his palace, promising to marry her and change her life. The music
magically conveys his persuasiveness and her gradual surrender, as the voices become more
and more intertwined. Forgetting her fiancé, Masetto, Zerlina throws herself into the Don's
arms and they sing together, "'Let us go, my beloved."
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Act II:
Finale
The finale of Act II, the concluding section of the opera, opens as Don Giovanni enjoys good
food and good music; it closes with a sextet celebrating his horrible punishment. Mozart's
genius fuses these dissimilar events into a coherent whole. Don Giovanni dines in his banquet
hall while watching Leporello's comic antics and listening to his private band play three hit
tunes. The third tune is from Mozart's Marriage of Figaro, and Leporello comments, "This I
know only too well." The frivolous mood evaporates when Donna Elvira bursts in and begs the
Don to mend his ways. Terror strikes as the Commandant's marble statue enters, accompanied
by the awesome opening of the overture, in D minor. Mozart uses this return to weld a powerful
sense of unity within the opera. As the orchestra plays the dueling music from Act I, the statue
commands, "Repent, change your life, it is your last moment!" Defiant to the end, Don
Giovanni shouts, "No, no I do not repent!" Flames and smoke surround the Don. He cries out
in agony as a chorus of demons sing of his eternal damnation. With a hideous shriek, Don
Giovanni is engulfed by the flames of hell.
An epilogue in a lighter mood follows this scene of terror. The other characters, learning of
Don Giovanni's fate, form a sextet and jubilantly sing a moral to the audience: "This is how
evildoers end up!" This moral ending fools no one: Mozart's music has made a sinner seem
very attractive.
Cosi fan tutte
Cosi fan tutte is an opera buffa in the best Italian tradition, with a brilliant libretto glorified by
some of Mozart's most melodious music. It is also a very moving drama about human frailty,
exploring the themes of tempta- tion, betrayal, and reconciliation.
Die Entjuhrung
Die Entjuhrung is a romantic-comic story of adventure and rescue, set against the popular
eighteenth-century “oriental" background, a subject that had been treated earlier by Rameau,
Gluck, Haydn, and others. But here, in one stroke, Mozart raised the German Singspiel to the
realm of great art without altering any of its established features.

MOZART AND H1S FATHER

The relationship between Leopold Mozart and his son was interesting and complex. Leopold recognized
and respected the boy's genius; he worked very hard to further young Wolfgang's career, trying-vainly,
as it turned out-to secure him a worthy permanent position. Leopold was his son's evoted mentor and
friend, who saved Wolfgang's every jotting for posterity and remained by most accounts free from selfish
motives. Yet, as happens in most father-son relationships at some point, a strain developed between
them-in this case, one that worsened over the years and (according to one of Mozart's recent biographers)
profoundly influenced the composer's emotional life and creativity.
As a child prodigy, Mozart seemed happy to please his parents. But difficulties began to appear when he
reached adolescence and felt that his father was attempting to undermine his independence. After Mozart
left Salzburg for Vienna, and married Constanze Weber in 1782 at the age of twenty-six) - a union that
Leopold opposed - the rupture between them became permanent. Leopold rejecfed Wolfgang's and
Constanze's children, and the bitterness between father and son contributed to Mozart's estrangement
from his only sibling, the sister with whom he had been so close as a child. When Leopold died in 1787,
he was proud of Wolfgang's achievements as a composer but apparently still resentful and unforgiving
about what he considered to be his son's irresponsible career choices and dissolute lifestyle. Mozart in
turn, after his father's death, fell into increasing financial and emotional difficulty and gradually succumbed
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to the de- pression and anxiety that plagued him during the years before his own untimely death at the
age of thirty-five.
The year 1787 also saw the completion of Mozart's Don Giovanni, which. received its premiere five
months after Leopold's funeral and may bear the marks of Mozart's tortured relationship with his father.
There is no doubt that his music reinforces some troubling aspects of DaPonte's libretto: on the one hand,
we admire Don Giovanni for his grace, charm, and bravery; on the other hand, we deplore his depraved
behavior toward women and his thoughtless murder of Donna Anna's father, the Commendatore, at the
beginning of the opera. When the Commendatore's ghostly statue reappears in the finale to claim his
revenge, we are torn between hoping that Don Giovanni repents his ways and saves himself, and wanting
him to accept his fate and be punished. In the most powerful, terror-inspiring moments of the opera,
Mozart's music makes us understand that through the Don's refusal to repent, he seals his own doom
while at the same time freely choosing his fate. Could it be that in those moments Mozart was playing out
his own family drama by accepting his father's poor appraisal of his character, blaming himself for not
living up to his father's expectations, and therefore identifying with Don Giovanni's simultaneous
resistance to authority and surrender to punishment?

Die Zauberflote
Die Zauberflote is a different matter. Though outwardly a Singspiel-with spoken dialogue
instead of recitative, and with some characters and scenes appropriate to popular comedy-its
action is filled with symbolic meaning and its music is so rich and profound that it ranks as the
first great German opera. The largely sole1nn mood of the score reflects the relationship
between the opera and the teachings and ceremonies of Freemasonry. We know that Mozart
valued his Masonic affiliation, both from allusions in his letters and especially from the serious
quality of the music he wrote for Masonic ceremonies in 1785 and for a Masonic cantata in
1791 (K. 623), his last completed work. In Die Zauberflote, Mozart wove the threads of many
eighteenth - century musical ideas into new designs: the vocal opulence of Italian opera seria;
the folk humor of the German Singspiel; the solo aria; the buffo ensemble, which is given new
musical meaning; a novel kind of accornpanied recitative applicable to German words; solemn
choral scenes; and even (in the duet of the two armed men in Act II) a revival of the Baroque
chorale-prelude technique, with contrapuntal accompaniment.

CHURCH MUSJC
Masses and Requiem
Given that Mozart 's father worked as a musician for the archbishop of Salzburg and Wolfgang
himself held similar appointments-first as concertmaster and later as organist-it was natural for
Mozart to compose music for the church from an early age. However, with notable exceptions,
his Masses, motets, and other settings of sacred texts are not counted among his major works.
The Masses, like those of Haydn, were for the most part written in the typical symphonic-
operatic idiom of the time, intermingled with fugues at certain customary places, and scored
for chorus and soloists in free alternation, with orchestral accompaniment. The Requiem, K.
626, was Mozart's last work. It was commissioned by a wealthy nobleman, Count Walsegg, in
July 1791, but Mozart was busy with La clemenza di Tito and Die Zaubeiflote and made little
progress until the fall. Left unfinished at Mozart's death, it was completed by his pupil and
collaborator Franz Xaver Sussmayr (1766-1803), who added some instrumental parts to
Mozart's draft and set the Sanctus, Benedictus, and Agnus Dei, in part repeating music that
Mozart had composed for an earlier section.
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REQUIEM IN D MINOR, K. 626 (1791)

Although Mozart did not live to complete his monumental Requiem -a requiem is a mass for
the dead it is one of the finest sacred choral works of the classical period. It was commissioned
anonymously by an unscrupulous nobleman who meant to claim the work as his own
composition. In the last two months of his life, Mozart composed nine movements of the
Requiem and part of a tenth. Reportedly, as his health grew worse, Mozart came to believe that
the Requiem was for himself and tried to finish it on his deathbed. After Mozart died, his friend
and pupil Franz Xaver Süssmayr filled out the often sketchy orchestration, completed the
fragmentary section, and added four other movements. We do not know to what extent these
additions represent the intentions of the dying Mozart. Süssmayr may have used sketches by
Mozart which have not survived.
Mozart associated the Requiem's key of D minor with moods of foreboding, conflict, and
tragedy. (He had used it in Don Giovanni for the somber opening of the overture and for the
appearance of the statue of the Commandant at the end of the opera.) The solemnity is deepened
by the dark colors in the orchestra, which is restricted to basset horns (low clarinets), bassoons,
trumpets, trombones (traditional in sacred music), timpani, strings, and organ with no lighter-
sounding woodwinds such as flutes or clarinets. Mozart's Requiem includes movements for
chorus, for soloists, and for a combination of both. It draws on a wide range of styles, from
baroque fugues to almost operatic solos and ensembles.
We'll focus on the third movement, the Dies irae in D minor for chorus and orchestra.
Dies irae (video 125)
The dramatic Dies irae (Day of wrath) is based on a thirteenth-century text which vividly
describes the last judgment. Enormous tension is created by the key of D minor, by stormy
rushing notes in the violins, and by the distinctive rhythmic pattern (long-long-short-short) of
the opening phrase, which intensifies the word irae (wrath).

Most of the Dies irae is homophonic in texture, with all the voices singing in the same rhythm
simultaneously. As the movement progresses, however, Mozart uses a change of texture to
heighten the tension. A trill-like idea in the basses of the chorus in unison with the orchestra,
representing the fearful trembling of Quantus tremor est futurus (How great the trembling shall
be) is answered by the three higher voices in chords on Dies irae (Day of wrath).

Though it could have been written by no one but Mozart, the Dies irae has a baroque flavor and
reflects his great admiration for Handel, whose Messiah he conducted and re-orchestrated.
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Requiem [Confutatis/Lacrimosa – video 126]

Apart from Mozart's Requiem, the best-known requiem masses were written in the nineteenth
century by the French composers Hector Berlioz and Gabriel Faure, and the Italian composer
Giuseppe Verdi. The term requiem has also been applied to choral works which honor the dead
but are not masses, such as Johannes Brahms's A German Requiem (1868), and Benjamin
Britten's War Requiem (1962).
POSTLUDE
This chapter about Haydn and Mozart does not presume to cover the music of the Late
eighteenth century, for these two composers shared the Lime- Light with a host of others. Some
of their names may be familiar from the pages of this book-for example, the opera composers
Gluck and Salieri. To these may be added Georg Benda (1722-1795), Pasquale Anfossi (1727-
1797), Niccolo Piccinni (1728-1800), Antonio Sacchini (1730-1786), Giovanni Paisiello
(1740-1816), and Domenico Cimarosa (1749-1801). Among the instrumental composers, lgnaz
Holzbauer (1711-1783), Luigi Boccherini (1743-1805), Carl Dittersdorf (1739-1799), and
Leopold Anton Kozeluch (1747-1818) deserve mention. Some of these composers were also
active in opera or Singspiel. Each of them contributed uniquely to the period and merits further
attention. But Haydn and Mozart together ranged over all the genres current in the Late
eighteenth century, and their music represents the best that the period produced.
 238

CHAPTER 7 LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)

CHAPTER OBJECTIVES
After you complete the reading, study of the music, and study questions for this chapter, you
should be able to
1. briefly recount Beethoven's career and the circumstances of his life;
2. list the main characteristics of the music of each of his three periods; and
3. name several important works and describe at least one complete movement for each period.
PRELUDE
In 1792, George Washington was president of the United States; Louis XVI and Marie
Antoinette were imprisoned by the Leaders of the new French Republic; Viennese Life, not yet
under Napoleonic rule, presented an atmosphere of frivolous gaiety, at Least on the surface;
Haydn was at the height of his fame, and Mozart had been dead since the previous December.
Early in November of 1792, the ambitious young composer and pianist Ludwig van Beethoven,
then just under twenty-two years of age, traveled from the city of Bonn on the Rhine to Vienna,
a five-hundred-mile journey that took a week by stagecoach. He ran short of money and for a
while kept a detailed account of his finances. One of the entries in his notebook records an ex-
penditure of twenty-five groschen [pennies] for (lcoffee for Haidn and me."
Haydn had stopped off at Bonn on his way to London in December 1790. He must have heard
some of Beethoven's compositions because he encour- aged the young man to come to Vienna
for further study. Beethoven's Lessons with Haydn began in Late 1792 and continued
untilHaydn Left in 1794 on his second visit to London. Beethoven then studied counterpoint
for a year with Johann Georg Albrechtsberger (1736-1809), the author of a famous treatise on
composition and one of the Leading teachers of his day. He also took informal Lessons in vocal
composition from Antonio Salieri, who had been living in Vienna since 1766. His earliest music
teacher had been his fa- ther, a singer in the chapel at Bonn, who pushed the boy's progress in
the hope of making a second Mozart of him. When he was seventeen, Beethoven actually
played for Mozart, who prophesied a bright future for him. Also, before going to Vienna, he
had studied with the court organist in Bonn.
Christian Gottlob Neefe (1748-1798), who was known for his Singspiel and songs. Although
some additional, mostly early works are not included in the traditional count of Beethoven's
compositions, they number 9 symphonies, II overtures, incidental music to plays, a violin
concerto, 5 piano concertos, 16 string quartets, 9 piano trios, 10 violin sonatas. 5 cello sonatas,
32 Large piano sonatas, many sets of piano variations, an oratorio, an opera, and two Masses,
as well as arias, songs, and numerous Lesser compositions. There is an obvious disparity when
we compare these figures with the output of Haydn and Mozart: 9 symphonies, for example, to
Haydn's 100-plus or Mozart's 60-plus. A partial explanation, of course, is that Beethoven's
symphonies are Longer and grander; but another reason is that Beethoven had nothing Like the
facility of Haydn and Mozart: he apparently wrote music with great deliberation, and
sometimes only after periods of intense struggle. We can see this in his sketchbooks, which
document the progress of a musical idea through various stages until it reached its final for,
(NAWM 112, Video 138). The sketches for the Quartet Op. 131, for example, are three times
as Long as the finished work (cf page 270).
Another glimpse into Beethoven's working habits reveals the extent to which he was guided by
what the Romantics called "inspiration." A young composer he befriended recalled Beethoven
saying:
You will ask me whence I take my ideas? That I cannot say with any degree of certainty: they come to
me uninvited, directly or indirectly. I could almost grasp them in my hands, out in Nature's open, in the
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woods, during my promenades, in the silence of the night, at the earliest dawn. They are roused by
moods which in the poet's case are transmuted into words, and in mine i nto tones, that sound, roar and
storm until at Last they take shape for me as notes.
Scholars have customarily divided Beethoven's works into three periods on the basis of style
and chronology. During the FIRST PERIOD, to about 1802, Beethoven was assimilating the
musical language of his time and finding his own voice as a composer. He wrote the six String
Quartets Opus 18, the first ten piano sonatas (through Opus 14), the first three piano concer-
tos, and the first two symphonies: The SECOND PERIOD, in which his rugged individualism
asserted itself, runs to about 1816 and includes the Symphonies Nos. 3 to 8, the incidental music
to Goethe's drama Egmont, the Coriolan overture, the opera Fidelio, the Last two piano
concertos, the Violin Concerto, the Quartets Opp. 59 (the Rasumovsky Quartets), 74, and 95,
and the Piano Sonatas through Opus 90. The THIRD PERIOD, in which Beethoven's music
generally became more reflective and introspective, includes the Last five piano sonatas, the
Diabelli Variations, the Missa solemnis, the Ninth Symphony, and the Last great quartets.

SIR JULIUS BENEDICT DESCRIBES HIS FIRST SIGHT OF BEETHOVEN

(1823)
If I am not mistaken, on the morning that I saw Beethoven for the first time, Blahetka, the father of the
pianist, directed my attention to a stout, short man with a very red face, small piercing eyes, and bushy
eyebrows, dressed in a very long overcoat which reached nearly to his ankles, who entered the shop [the
music store of Steiner and Haslinger] about 12 o'clock. Blahetka asked me: "Who do you think that is?"
and I at once exclaimed: "It must be Beethoven!" because, notwithstanding the high color of his cheeks
and his general untidiness, there was in those small piercing eyes an expression which no painter could
render. It was a feeling of sublimity and melancholy combined.
-Quoted in Thayer's Life of Beethoven, rev. and ed. Elliot Forbes (Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1967), p. 873.

Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) was born in Bonn in northwest Germany and was taught
music by his father and a local organist. In 1792, he went to Vienna and studied with Haydn
and other composers. He was -neither as prolific nor as speedy a composer as Haydn or Mozart,
but took each piece through many drafts and revisions, as we can see in his surviving
sketchbooks. His career is divided into three periods. In the first, to about 1802, he assimilated
the musical language, genres, and styles of his time. In the second, from about 1803 to around
1816, his works were more individual, longer, and grander than before. In the third period, his
music became more introspective (and often more difficult to play and understand).
For many people, Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) represents the highest level of musical
genius. His unique stature is comparable to Shakespeare's in literature and Michelangelo's in
painting and sculpture. He opened new realms of musical expression and profoundly influenced
composers throughout the nineteenth century.
Beethoven was born on December 16, 1770, in Bonn, Germany. Like Bach and Mozart before
him, he came from a family of musicians. His grandfather, also named Ludwig, was music
director at the court at Bonn. His father, Johann, was a tenor who held a low position in the
court and who saw his talented son as a profitable prodigy like Mozart. It's told that Johann
Beethoven and a musician friend would come home from the local tavern late at night, rouse
young Ludwig from sleep; and make him practice at the keyboard until morning. At the age of
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eleven, Beethoven served as assistant to the court organist, and at twelve he had several piano
compositions published.
Beethoven went to Vienna when he was sixteen to improvise for Mozart. Mozart reportedly
said, "Keep your eyes on him; some day he will give the world something to talk about."
Beethoven then returned to Bonn, because his mother was critically ill. She died shortly after.
His father, who had become an alcoholic, was soon dismissed from the court choir. Beethoven,
at eighteen, became the legal guardian of his two younger brothers. By now, Beethoven had
become a court organist and violist and was responsible for composing and performing;
suddenly, he was also head of a family.
Shortly before his twenty-second birthday, Beethoven left Bonn to study with Haydn in Vienna,
where he spent the rest of his life. In 1792, Haydn was at the height of his fame, too busy
composing to devote much time or energy to teaching. As a result, he overlooked errors in
Beethoven's counterpoint exercises, and Beethoven felt forced to go secretly to another teacher.
(Haydn never learned of this.) Beethoven's drive for thoroughness and mastery evident
throughout his life-is shown by his willingness to subject himself to a strict course in
counterpoint and fugue even after he had composed fine works.
Beethoven's first seven years in Vienna brought hard work, growing confidence, a strong sense
of identity, and public praise. His letters of introduction from members of the aristocracy in
Bonn opened the doors of the social and cultural elite in this music-loving city. People were
dazzled by his piano virtuosity and moved by his improvisations. "He knew how to produce
such an impression on every listener," reports a contemporary, "that frequently there was not a
single dry eye, while many broke out into loud sobs, for there was a certain magic in his
expression." Beethoven rebelled against social convention, asserting that an artist deserved as
much respect as the nobility. Once, while playing in an aristocratic drawing room, he was
disturbed by the loud conversation of a young count. Beethoven jumped up from the piano,
exclaiming, "I will not play for such swine!" For a long time he was a guest of Prince Karl von
Lichnowsky, who told his personal servant that if ever he and Beethoven rang at the same time,
Beethoven should be served first. Aristocrats showered Beethoven with gifts, and he earned
good fees from piano lessons and private concerts. Publishers were quick to buy his
compositions, even though some critics complained that they were "bizarre" and "excessively
complicated."
Disaster struck during his twenty-ninth year: Beethoven felt the first symptoms of deafness.
Doctors could do nothing to halt its progress or to relieve Beethoven's physical and emotional
torment. In 1801 he wrote despairingly, "For two years I have avoided almost all social
gatherings because it is impossible for me to say to people 'I am deaf.' If I belonged to any other
profession it would be easier, but in my profession it is a terrible handicap." On October 6,
1802, Beethoven was in Heiligenstadt, a village outside Vienna where he sought solitude during
the summer. That day he expressed his feelings in what is now known as the Heiligenstadt
testament, a long, agonized letter addressed to his brothers. Beethoven wrote, "I would have
ended my life it was only my art that held me back. Ah, it seemed to me impossible to leave
the world until I had brought forth all that I felt was within me."
Beethoven's victory over despair coincided with an important change in his musical style.
Works that he created after his emotional crisis have a new power and heroism. From 1803 to
1804, he composed the gigantic Third Symphony, the Eroica, a landmark in music history. At
first, he planned to name it Bonaparte, after Napoleon, the first consul of the French Republic.
Beethoven saw Napoleon as the embodiment of heroism and the champion of the principles
underlying the French Revolution. Liberty, equality, fraternity were stirring words that
 241

expressed Beethoven's democratic ideals. But when he learned that Napoleon had proclaimed
himself emperor of the French, Beethoven "flew into a rage and cried out, 'He too is nothing
but an ordinary man! Now he will trample under foot all the rights of man and only indulge his
ambition. He will exalt himself above all others and become a tyrant!" Seizing his score,
Beethoven tore out the title page bearing Napoleon's name and threw it on the floor. On a new
title page, later, Beethoven wrote, "Heroic Symphony composed to celebrate the memory of a
great man."
In 1812, Beethoven met Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the great German poet he had long
worshiped. He played for Goethe, and the two artists walked and talked together. Shortly after
this meeting, Goethe described Beethoven to a friend as "an utterly untamed personality." To
his wife, the poet wrote, "Never before have I seen an artist with more power of concentration,
more energy, more inwardness."
Despite such descriptions by people who knew him, Beethoven remains a mystery. He was self-
educated and had read widely in Shakespeare and the ancient classics, but he was weak in
elementary arithmetic. He claimed. the highest moral principles, but he was often unscrupulous
in dealing with publishers. Although orderly and methodical when composing, Beethoven
dressed sloppily and lived in incredibly messy apartments. During his thirty-five years in
Vienna, he changed dwellings about forty times.
Beethoven fell in and out of love with several women, mostly of noble birth, but was never able
to form a lasting relationship. He wrote a passion-ate letter to a woman referred to as the
"immortal beloved"; it was found in a drawer after his death. Only recently has a Beethoven
scholar established her identity as the Viennese aristocrat Antonie Brentano. Beethoven took
consolation from nature for disappointments in his personal life. Ideas came to him while he
walked through the Viennese countryside. His Sixth Symphony, the Pastoral, beautifully
expresses his recollections of life in the country.
Beethoven was never in the service of the Viennese aristocracy. A growing musical public
made it possible for him to earn a fairly good income by selling compositions to publishers. His
stature was so great that when he
threatened to accept a position outside Austria in 1809, three nobles made a special arrangement
to keep him in Vienna. Prince Kinsky, Prince Lobkowitz, and Archduke Rudolf the emperor's
brother and Beethoven's pupil committed themselves to give Beethoven an annual income.
Their only condition was that Beethoven continue to live in the Austrian capital an
unprecedented arrangement in music history.
As Beethoven's hearing weakened, so did his piano playing and con-ducting. By the time he
was forty-four, this once brilliant pianist was forced to stop playing in public. But he insisted
on conducting his orchestral works long after he could do it efficiently. The players would
become confused by his wild gestures on the podium, and performances were often chaotic.
His sense of isolation grew with his deafness. Friends had to communicate with him through
an ear trumpet, and during his last eight years he carried notebooks in which people would write
questions and comments.
In 1815, his brother Caspar died, leaving a nine-year-old son, Karl, to whom Beethoven and
Caspar's widow became coguardians. Young Karl was the object of a savage tug-of-war. For
five years, Beethoven fought legal battles for exclusive custody of his nephew; he finally won.
This "victory" was a disaster for everyone. Growing up in the household of a deaf, eccentric
bachelor uncle is not easy at best, and for Karl it was complicated by Beethoven's craving for
love and companionship. The young man attempted suicide, and Beethoven, whose health was
already poor, was shattered.
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During the first three years of legal battles over Karl, Beethoven composed less, and the
Viennese began to whisper that he was finished. Beethoven heard the rumor and said, "Wait a
while; they'll soon learn differently!" And they did. After 1818, Beethoven's domestic problems
did not prevent a creative outburst that produced some of his greatest works: the late piano
sonatas and string quartets, the Missa solemnis, and the Ninth Symphony out of total deafness,
new realms of sound.
BEETHOVEN'S MUSIC
"I must despise the world which does not know that music is a higher revelation than all wisdom
and philosophy." For Beethoven, music was not mere entertainment, but a moral force capable
of creating a vision of higher ideals. His music directly reflects his powerful, tortured
personality. In both art and life, his heroic struggle resulted in victory over, despair.
Beethoven's demand for perfection meant long and hard work. Unlike Mozart, he couldn't dash
off three great symphonies in six weeks. Sometimes he worked for years on a single symphony,
writing other works during the same period of time. He carried music sketchbooks everywhere,
jotting down new ideas, revising and refining old ones. These early notes often seem crude and
uninspired when compared with the final versions of his works, which were often hammered
out through great labor.
Beethoven mostly used classical forms and techniques, but he gave them new power and
intensity. The musical heir of Haydn and Mozart, he bridged the classical and romantic eras.
Many of his innovations were used by composers who came after him.
In his works, great tension and excitement are built up through syncopations and dissonances.
The range of pitch and dynamics is greater than ever before, so that contrasts of mood become
more pronounced. Accents and climaxes seem titanic. Tiny rhythmic ideas are often repeated
over and over to create momentum. Greater tension called for a larger musical framework, and
so Beethoven expanded his forms. For example, the Third Symphony (Eroica) is far longer than
any symphony by Haydn or Mozart; it takes almost 50 minutes to perform. Beethoven was a
musical architect who was unsurpassed in his ability to create large-scale structures in which
every note seems inevitable. In describing Beethoven's music, it is perhaps too easy to give the
impression that all of it is stormy and powerful. A lot is; but much is gentle, humorous, noble,
or lyrical. His range of expression is enormous. Tempo, dynamic, and expressive indications
are marked far more extensively in his scores than in those of earlier composers. For example,
one direction reads, "Somewhat lively and with deepest feeling." Characteristic of his explicit
dynamic markings is p a gradual increase in loudness followed by a sudden softness.
More than his predecessors, Beethoven tried to unify the contrasting movements of a
symphony, sonata, or string quartet. Musical continuity is heightened in his works in several
ways. Sometimes one movement leads directly into the next, instead of ending with a pause, as
was traditional. In the Fifth Symphony, for example, the last two movements are linked by a
suspenseful bridge section. A musical bond between different movements of the same work is
also created when their themes resemble each other. In a few compositions (the Fifth and Ninth
Symphonies, for example), a theme from one movement is quoted in a later movement.
Like Haydn and Mozart, Beethoven wrote many movements in sonata form. In his works,
however, the development section is greatly expanded and becomes even more dramatic. It
often contains a powerful crescendo that leads to a climactic return of the first theme at the start
of the recapitulation. The coda is also expanded and serves to develop themes still further. Its
length balances what has come before and affirms the victory of the tonic key over the many
new keys in the development section.
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As the third movement of a symphony or string quartet, Beethoven most often used a scherzo
rather than the traditional minuet. Where earlier composers had used a courtly dance,
Beethoven composed a rapid movement with rhythmic drive. The character of the scherzo in
Beethoven is flexible. In the Fifth Symphony, it's an ominous force, but in the Sixth Symphony
(Pastoral), it depicts peasants' merrymaking. Beethoven's works often have climactic,
triumphant finales, toward which the previous movements seem to build. These mark an
important departure from the light, relaxed ending movement favored by Haydn and Mozart.
Beethoven's most popular works are the nine symphonies, which were conceived for larger
orchestras than Haydn's or Mozart's. For greater power and brilliance, Beethoven sometimes
added the trombone, piccolo, and contrabassoon instruments that had not previously been used
in symphonies. All the orchestral instruments have to play difficult music.
For example, the French horn has prominent melodies, and the timpani participate in the
musical dialogue, rather than merely mark the beat. Each of Beethoven's symphonies is unique
in character and style. There is a curious alternation of mood between his odd-numbered
symphonies (Symphonies No. 3, 5, 7, and 9), which tend to be forceful and assertive, and his
even-numbered ones (Symphonies No. 4, 6, and 8), which are calmer and more lyrical. In the
finale of the Ninth Symphony (Choral), Beethoven took the unprecedented step of using a
chorus and four solo vocalists. They sing the text of Schiller's Ode to Joy, a poem about human
brotherhood.
A hint of the virtuosity and improvisation that so astounded the Viennese can be gotten from
Beethoven's thirty-two piano sonatas, which are far more difficult than the sonatas of Haydn
and Mozart. They exploit the stronger, tonally improved piano of Beethoven's time. Beethoven
drew many new effects from the piano, ranging from massive chords to the hollow, mystical
sounds produced when the right and left hands play far apart on the keyboard. The piano sonatas
the experimental grounds for the compositional techniques he later expanded in the symphonies
and string quartets.
Beethoven's sixteen string quartets, which span his entire career, are among the greatest music
composed. They are unsurpassed in sheer invention, thematic treatment, and heart-rending
expressiveness. In three of the last quartets, Beethoven again stepped beyond the conventions
of classical form: he used five, six, and seven movements (in Op. 132, Op. 130, and- Op. 131
respectively), which he connected in subtle ways. He also wrote five superb piano concertos,
each remarkable in its individuality. In the Fourth and Fifth Piano Concertos, the opening
movement begins with a brief piano solo rather than the traditional orchestral exposition.
While most of Beethoven's important works are for instruments, his sense of drama was also
expressed in vocal music. In his only opera, Fidelio, a wife's heroism enables justice to triumph
over tyranny. Beethoven also composed two masses. The Missa solemnis (Solemn Mass,
1819¬1823) is one of the most monumental and expressive settings of this sacred text.
Beethoven's total output is usually divided into three periods: early (up to 1802), middle (1803-
1814), and late (1815-1827). The music of Haydn and Mozart influences some works 'of the
early period, but other pieces clearly show Beethoven's personal style. The compositions of the
middle period are longer and tend to be heroic in tone. And the sublime works of the last period
well up from the depths of a man almost totally deaf. During this period Beethoven often used
the fugue to express new musical conceptions. The late works contain passages that sound
surprisingly harsh and "modern." When a violinist complained that the music was very difficult
to play, Beethoven reportedly replied, "Do you believe that I think of a wretched fiddle when
the spirit speaks to me?"
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FIRST PERIOD
Patrons
Beethoven established himself in Vienna with the help of contacts he made through his Bonn
employer, the elector of Cologne, Maximilian Franz, whose brother was Habsburg Emperor
Joseph II (reigned 1765-90). Several members of the Austrian, Bohemian, and Hungarian
aristocracy encour- aged and supported him. For a while, Beethoven had rooms in one of the
houses of Prince Karl von Lichnowsky, with whom he traveled to Prague for concerts in 1796
and who sponsored concerts in his palace in Vienna. Prince Lobkowitz kept a private orchestra
that played in Vienna and at his Bohemian country estates and bought rights to first
performances of some of Beethoven's works. He, Prince Kinsky, and Archduke Rudolph-
youngest brother of the reigning emperor Francis II and Beethoven's piano and composition
student-joined in setting up an annuity for the composer so that he would stay in Austria when
he got an attractive offer from Jerome Bonaparte, king of Westphalia. Many of Beethoven's
works of this and later periods are dedicated to these patrons, as well as to the German -
Bohemian Count Ferdinand von Waldstein, and to Baron van Swieten. Beethove n sold a
number of important works to a Leipzig publisher, played as a pianist in concerts that he or
others organized, and gave piano lessons. In this way, he managed to make a living as a n indepe
ndent musician and composer.
Piano Sonatas
Beethoven dedicated his first three piano sonatas to Haydn; indeed, the themes and their
treatment reveal his debt to the older composer. But his sonatas all have four movements instead
of the usual three. Moreover, in the second and third sonatas Beethoven replaced the Minuet
with the more dynamic Scherzo, a practice which he consistently used from then on. His choice
of the uncommon key of F minor for the first sonata may have been suggested by a C. P. E.
Bach sonata in that same key, but Beethoven's extensive use of the minor mode and the bold
modulations in the first three sonatas are highly individual traits.
The Sonata Op. 7 in Eb (1797) is especially characteristic, with its eloquent pauses in the Largo
con gran espressione and the mysterious perpetual arpeggiations that appear in the minore trio
of the third movement. Opus 10, No. 1 (published in 1798), and the Sonate pathetique, Op. 13
(published in 1799), both in C minor, have outer movements of a stormy, passionate nature
(which Beethoven's predecessors associated with that key), and a calm, profound slow
movement in Ab. In the Pathetique, the Grave introduction reappears twice in the first
movement, and the theme of the rondo finale clearly resembles the second theme (in Eb minor)
of the first movement. These features foreshadow the cyclical" inter-movement connections in
Beethoven's later works. Some of the harmonic characteristics in these early works, as well as
Beethoven's frequent use of octaves and the thick full texture in the piano writing, may have
been in spired by the piano sonatas of Muzio Clementi (1752 -1832; see NAWM 109, Audio
127). Other possible influences include the piano sonatas of the Bohemian- born Jan Ladislav
Dussek (1760-1812).
PIANO SONATA IN C MINOR, OP. 13 (PATHÉTIQUE 1798)
The title Pathetique, coined by Beethoven, suggests the tragically passion-ate character of his
famous Piano Sonata in C Minor, Op. 13. Beethoven's impetuous playing and masterful
improvisational powers are mirrored in the sonata's extreme dynamic contrasts, explosive
accents, and crashing chords. At the age of twenty-seven, during his early period, Beethoven
had already created a powerful and original piano style that foreshadowed nineteenth-century
romanticism.
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First Movement: (NAWM 125, Video 128)

Grave (solemn, slow introduction);

Allegro molto e con brio (very fast and brilliant allegro)

The Pathétique begins in C minor with an intense, slow introduction, dominated by an opening
motive in dotted rhythm: long-short-long-short-long-long.
This six-note idea seems to pose a series of unresolved questions as it is repeated on higher and
higher pitch levels. The tragic mood is intensified by dissonant chords, sudden contrasts of
dynamics and register, and pauses filled with expectancy. The slow introduction is integrated
into the allegro that follows it in imaginative and dramatic ways.
The tension of the introduction is maintained in the allegro con brio, a breathless, fast
movement in sonata form. The opening theme, in C minor, begins with a staccato idea that
rapidly rises up a 2-octave scale. It is accompanied by low broken octaves, the rapid alternation
of two tones an octave apart.

Growing directly out of the opening theme is a bridge that is also built from a climbing staccato
motive.

This bridge motive has an important role later in the movement.

The contrasting second theme, which enters without a pause, is spun out of a short motive that
is repeatedly shifted between low and high registers.
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This restless idea begins in E flat minor but then moves through different keys. The exposition
is rounded off by several themes, including a high running passage and a return of the opening
staccato idea in E flat major.

The development section begins with a dramatic surprise: Beethoven brings back the opening
bars of the slow introduction. This reappearance creates an enormous contrast of tempo,
rhythm, and mood. After four bars of slow music, the fast tempo resumes as Beethoven
combines two different ideas: the staccato bridge motive and a quickened version of the
introduction motive. The introduction motive is presented in a rhythmically altered form: short-
short-short-long-long.

The bridge motive is then developed in the bass, played by the pianist's left hand while the right
hand has high broken octaves. After several high accented notes, the brief development
concludes with a running passage that leads down to the recapitulation.
For a while, the recapitulation runs its usual course as themes from the exposition are presented
in the tonic key of C minor. But Beethoven has one more surprise for the coda after a loud
dissonant chord and a brief pause, he again brings back the opening of the slow introduction.
This time the slow music is even more moving, as it is punctuated by moments of silence. Then
the fast tempo resumes, and the opening staccato idea and powerful chords bring the movement
to a decisive close.
Second Movement:
Adagio cantabile (lyrical adagio)
The second movement, in A flat major, is slow, intimate, and songlike. It is in rondo form and
may be outlined A B A C A-coda. The legato main theme (A), played in the piano's rich middle
register, is one of Beethoven's most lyrical melodies.
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This melody is immediately repeated an octave higher with fuller harmony.

Section B is also legato and maintains the opening mood while introducing a new
accompaniment of repeated chords. Section C is a duet between tender legato phrases in the
top part and more animated staccato replies in the bass. This section brings some contrast with
a shift to minor, a powerful crescendo, and a triplet rhythm in the accompaniment. On its last
return, the main melody sounds more flowing, because it is now accompanied by a rocking
figure in triplet rhythm. The movement is rounded off by a poetic coda that descends leisurely
to soft concluding chords.
Third Movement:
Rondo (Allegro)
The last movement, in C minor, is a rapid and energetic rondo. It is outlined A B A C A B A-
coda. The lively main theme (A), in minor, contrasts with the other sections, which are in major.

The B section includes several lyrical themes, while the C section is polyphonic and contains
ideas that are shifted from one hand to the other. Sections B and C both end with a sustained
dominant chord that creates expectancy for the return of the main theme and key. Toward the
end of the stormy coda, a sustained chord is followed unexpectedly by the opening notes of the
main theme, in major rather than minor.

But the consolation of major is brief, as a rapid downward scale brings the movement to a
powerful close in C minor.
Chamber music
If Beethoven's piano writing owes stylistic features to both Clementi Chamber music and
Dussek, his art of developing motives and animating the texture con- trapuntally follows
Haydn's example. The six quartets of Opus 18 (composed 1798-1800) demonstrate this
indebtedness but also show signs of competi- tion with the master, who was still very active in
this genre and dedicated his quartets to some of the same aristocratic patrons as Beethoven did.
In Opus 18, however, Beethoven's individuality shines through in the character of his themes,
the frequent unexpected turns of phrase, the unconventional modulations, and some subtleties
of formal structure.
Among the other chamber works from Beethoven's first period are the three Piano Trios of
Opus 1; three Violin Sonatas, Op. 12; two Cello Sonatas, Op. 5; and the Septet in Eb for strings
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and winds, Op.20, which was played for the first time in 1800 and soon became so popular that
Beethoven grew to dislike it.
First symphony
Beethoven's Symphony No. 1 was premiered at a concert on April 1800, on the same program
with his Septet and a piano concerto, a Mozart symphony, an aria and a duet from Haydn's
Creation, and improvisations by Beethoven at the piano. The four movements of the First
Symphony are so regular in form that they could serve as textbook models. Beethoven's origi-
nality is evident in certain details: in the unusual prominence given to the woodwinds, in the
character of the third movement - a scherzo, though labeled Minuet-and especially in the long
and important codas of the other movements. The frequent markingcresc. < p is but one
example of the careful attention to dynamic shading that is essential to Beethoven's early style.

CARL LUDWIG JUNKER DESCRIBES BEETHOVEN'S PLAYING AND

IMPROVISING AT THE PIANO, NOVEMBER 23, 1791
The greatness of this amiable, soft-spoken man as a virtuoso may, in my opinion, be safely judged from
his nearly inexhaustible wealth of ideas, the highly characteristic expressiveness of his playing, and the
skill he displays in performance. I do not know that he Lacks anything for the making of a great artist. I
have often heard Vogler play by the hour on the pianoforte- of his organ playing I cannot speak, not having
heard him on that instrument-and never ceased to wonder at his astonishing ability. But besides skill,
Bethofen has greater clarity and profundity of ideas and of expression-in short, he speaks to the heart.
He is as good at an adagio as at an allegro. Even the members of this remarkable orchestra [of the elector
of Mainz] are, without exception, his admirers and are all ears when he plays. Yet he is exceedingly
modest and free from all pretension.... His way of handling his instrument is so different from the usual
that he gives the impression of having attained his present supremacy through a path that he discovered
himself.
-From Bossler's Musika/ische Korrespondenz, adapted from Krehbiel's translation in Thayer's Life of
Beethoven, rev. and ed. Elliot Forbes (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1967), p. 105. Junker
(1748-1797) was a writer on music and art and a composer.

Second Symphony
The long Adagio that introduces the first movement of the Second Symphony in D major
(composed in 1802) announces a work conceived on a scale unknown in symphonic music at
that time. The first movement contains a long coda that includes extensive new development
of the principal material. The rest of the symphony has correspondingly large dimensions, with
a profusion of thematic material held together in perfect formal balance. The Larghetto is
especially remarkable for its multiplicity of themes and for its rich singing melody. The Scherzo
and finale are, like the first movement, full of energy and fire. The finale is written in an
enlarged sonata form with suggestions of a rondo in extra recurrences of the first theme, one at
the end of the exposition and one at the coda.

SECOND PERIOD
Within a dozen years after coming to Vienna, Beethoven was acknowledged throughout Europe
as the foremost pianist and composer for piano of his time and as a symphonist on a par with
Haydn and Mozart. His innovations were recognized, although they were sometimes dismissed
as eccentricities. He was befriended by the most prominent families of Vienna and attracted
devoted and generous patrons. Unlike other composers, Beethoven did not cringe or grovel
before his patrons. He drove hard bargains with his publishers and sometimes offered the same
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composition to several at once. Although he wrote on commission, he dodged deadlines. He

could afford, as he said, to “think and think," to revise and polish a work until it suited him.
Eroica Symphony
The Third Symphony, which Beethoven eventually named Sinfonia Eroica" (Heroic
Symphony), was immediately recognized as an important work, but its unprecedented length
and complexity made it difficult at first for audiences to grasp. It marked, in fact, a radical
departure in Beethoven's symphonic writing. The Eroica is not purely absolute or abstract
music: it has a subject-the celebration of a hero-and expresses in music the ideal of heroic
greatness. Even in Beethoven's time, commentators complained that a new theme is presented
in the development of the first movement and that certain passages are insistently dissonant
(NAWM 118, Audio 130). The symphony begins, after two introductory chords, with an
extremely simple theme on the notes of the Eb-major triad, but an unexpected C# gives rise to
endless departures and developments. The other movements, aside from the Scherzo, are also
unusually expansive. Moreover, the entire symphony has a rather dramatic flair.
Dramatization of themes in the Eroica
In the first movement particularly, the principal theme is treated almost like a character in a
play, portrayed as striving, being opposed and subdued, but triumphing in the end. The most
striking event is the recurrence of the syncopations first heard near the beginning, which
culminate in the crashing, offbeat, dissonant chords of the development section. One of the
most suggestive reappearances of the main theme is in the horn, just before the full orchestra
sounds the complete dominant seventh to mark the arrival of the recapitulation. Early listeners
accused the horn player of entering too soon; Carl Czerny, Beethoven's pupil, proposed this
entrance be eliminated, and the French composer and Beethoven admirer Hector Berlioz even
thought it was a copyist's mistake; but the sketches show that Beethoven contemplated this
clever ploy from the very first draft.
Beethoven, Napoleon, and the Eroica
There is evidence that Beethoven intended to dedicate this symphony to Napoleon, his admired
hero who promised to lead humanity into the new age of liberty, equality, and fraternity.
According to the conductor Ferdinand Ries, however, when Beethoven heard that Napoleon
had proclaimed himself emperor (in May 1804), he angrily tore up the title page containing the
dedication, disappointed that his idol proved to be an ambitious ruler on the way to becoming
a tyrant. The story is an exaggeration; the title page of Beethoven's own score, which survives,
originally read Sinfonia grande intitolata Bonaparte" (Grand Symphony entitled Bonaparte),
later corrected to read “Geschrieben auf Bonaparte" (composed on Bonaparte).
On August 6, 1804, months after this alleged incident, Beethoven wrote to his publisher
Breitkopf & Hartel: “The title of the symphony is really Bonaparte”. ... “When the symphony
was first published in Vienna two years later, it bore the title “Sinfonia Eroica ... composta per
festeggiare il sovvenire di un grand Uomo" (Heroic Symphony ... composed to celebrate the
memory of a great man). Whatever his feelings toward Napoleon, Beethoven conducted the
symphony in Vienna in 1809 at a concert that Bonaparte was to have attended.
Listening Note
Beethoven: Symphony no. 3 in Eb, Eroica, op. 55 (1803) 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2
bassoons, 3 horns, 2 trumpets; timpani, 1st and 2nd violins, violas, cellos, double basses
1st movement (Allegro con brio) : Sonata form, Eb
Exposition (mm. 1-148) Two explosive chords: and the main theme of the movement (ex.
i) is heard on the cellos, repeated on winds; there is an orchestral crescendo and it is heard
again more emphatically- but there is a sudden twist and the music is in the dominant key,
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Bb, for the second subject. The second subject in this movement is not a single theme, but a
collection of short ideas: first, a dialogue around a three-note phrase (ex. ii),

then a rising scale in the woodwinds (ex. iii) -which is carried upwards into a powerful,
turbulent tutti by the violins (ex. iv),

after that comes a sustained theme with repeated notes and changing harmonies (ex. v), from
which another crescendo leads to a tutti, ending with emphatic chords and then a lyrical line
for violins and flute.
At the very end of the exposition (which Beethoven directed to be repeated, though this is not
often done), ex. i is heard.
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Development (mm. 148-397) The music shifts to c; and then to C, where ex. ii is set
against the rising scales heard earlier. Then ex. i returns in the cellos and double basses,
successively in c, c# and then d, where an angry tutti bursts out, using ex. iv (with an ex. i
derivative, ex. vi, in quieter interludes). This carries the music on through g, c, f and bb to Ab,
where the music linking ex. ii and rising scales is heard again. Now, however, it gives rise to
a passage like a fugue opening; this, and recollections of first-subject linking material, lead
the music to a huge climax, a series of crashing, dissonant chords.
This breaks off, and out of it comes a new, lyrical theme (ex. vii), in the distant key of e,
heard first on the oboes and then (in a) on the flutes. But now ex. i asserts itself again, in C,
and although ex. vii is heard again (clarinets, Eb) there is a clear feeling that the music is on
its way towards the home key and the recapitulation.
It still takes some time to get there: there is a tutti, with ex. i material weaving through it, then
sustained wind chords with the strings hinting at ex. i, then string tremolos-through which, as
if impatient, a horn softly plays ex. i, and at last we arrive at the...
Recapitulation (mm. 3:98-5:51) Ex. i is heard on the cellos; but then the music takes an
unexpected turn to F (ex. i on the horn) and then another to Db (ex. i on the flute) before it
settles in the home key. The music is adjusted so that it remains in Eb for the second-subject
material, which follows in the succession as before.
Coda (mm. 5:51-6:91) A movement on so large a scale needs to be well rounded off, and the
coda here - as in other large-scale works of Beethoven and later composers - is almost like a
second development section. It starts with ex. i in Db and then in C, moving on into f, where
ex. vii is drawn into the musical argument. Then a long crescendo- related to the one that
ended the development- leads to a lyrical statement of ex. i on horns, then violins, then more
emphatically on the bass instruments (with the rhythm of ex. iv prominent above) and finally
on trumpets and horns. Ex. iii is briefly recalled just before the end.

Funeral March in Eroica

It is the second movement-the Funeral March-more than anything else in the symphony that
links the work with France, the republican experiment there, and Napoleon. The customary
slow movement is replaced by a march in C minor, full of tragic grandeur and pathos, and a
contrasting trio" in C major, brimming with fanfares and celebratory lyricism, after
which the march returns, broken up with sighs at the end. At the opening of the Funeral March,
the thirty-second notes of the strings imitate the sound of muffled drums used in the
Revolutionary processions that accompanied French heroes to their final resting place
(Example 15.1). (See Video 130)
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Fidelio
Beethoven began work on his opera Fidelia almost immediately after finishing the Third
Symphony, and the two works share the Revolutionary at- mosphere: Not only was the rescue
plot popular at the turn of the century, but also the libretto itself was borrowed from a French
Revolutionary - era opera, Leonore ou L'amour conjugal (Leonore, or Conjugal Love), in which
Leonore, disguised as a man, rescues her husband from prison. Beethoven's music transforms
this conventional material, making the chief character Leonore an idealized figure of sublime
courage and self - denial. The whole last part of the opera glorifies Leonore 's heroism and the
great humanitarian ideals of the Revolution. Composing this opera gave Beethoven even more
trouble than he had with his other works. The first performances of the original three-act
version, Leonore, took place in November 1805, just after the French armies had marched into
Vienna. Rearranged and shortened to two acts, the opera was brought out again the following
March but immediately withdrawn. Finally, after still more extensive revisions, in 1814 a third
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version proved successful. In the course of all these changes, Beethoven wrote no fewer than
four different overtures for the opera.
Rasumovsky Quartets Opus 59, No. I
The three quartets of Opus 59 are dedicated to the musical amateur Count Rasumovsky, the
Russian ambassador to Vienna, who played second violin in a quartet that was said to be the
finest in Europe. As a compliment to the count, Beethoven introduced a Russian melody as the
principal theme for the finale of the first quartet and another such tune in the third movement
of the second quartet. These two quartets, composed in the summer and autumn of 1806, have
such a new style that musicians were slow to accept them. When Count Rasumovsky's players
first read through the Quartet No. 1 in F, (video 139) they were convinced that·Beethoven was
playing a joke on them. The first movement is particularly peculiar in its use of single, double,
and triple pedal points, frequent changes of texture-the melody accompanied sometimes by
double stops or harmonically tense homorhythmic episodes-horn imitations, unmelodious
passages exploiting the instruments' extreme ranges, fugues cropping up out of nowhere, and
startling unison passages. Clementi recalled saying to Beethoven, Surely, you do not consider
these [quartets] to be music?" to which the composer replied with unusual self-restraint, Oh,
they are not for you, but for a later age."
Middle symphonies
The Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Symphonies were all composed between 1806 and 1808, a time of
exceptional productivity. Beethoven worked on the Fourth and Fifth Symphonies at the same
time.
Fifth Symphony
The first two movements of the Fifth, in fact, were already done before the Fourth was
completed. The two works are very different, as though Beethoven wished to express
simultaneously two opposite poles of feeling. Joviality and humor mark the Fourth Symphony,
while the Fifth has always been considered the musical embodiment of Beethoven's struggle
with Fate, symbolized in this symphony by the passing from C minor to C major and by the
triumphant finale.
The first movement is dominated by the four-note motive impressively announced in the
opening measures, and the same motive recurs in one guise or another in the other three
movements as well. The transition from minor to major takes place in an inspired passage that
begins with the timpani softly recalling the rhythm of the four-note motive and leading without
a break from the Scherzo into the finale. Here, the entrance of the full orchestra with trombones
on the C-major chord has an electrifying effect. The finale of the Fifth Symphony adds a piccolo
and a contrabassoon as well as trombones to the normal complement of strings, woodwinds,
brass, and timpani.
SYMPHONY NO. 5 IN C MINOR, OP. 67 (1808)
The Fifth Symphony opens with one of the most famous rhythmic ideas in all music, a short-
short-short-long motive. Beethoven reportedly interpreted this four-note motive as "fate
knocking at the door." It dominates the first movement and plays an important role later in the
symphony, too.
The entire work can be seen as an emotional progression from the conflict and struggle of the
first movement, in C minor, to the exultation and victory of the final movement, in C major.
The finale is the climax of the symphony; it is longer than the first movement and more
powerful in sound.
Through several different techniques, Beethoven brilliantly welds four contrasting movements
into a unified work. The basic rhythmic motive of the first movement (short-short-short-long)
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is used in a marchlike theme in the third movement. And this third-movement theme is later
quoted dramatically within the finale. The last two movements are also connected by a bridge
passage.
Beethoven jotted down a few themes for the Fifth Symphony in 1804, but mainly worked on it
during 1807 and 1808, an amazingly productive period when he also composed the Mass in C
Major; the Sonata for Cello and Piano, Op. 69; and the Sixth Symphony.
First Movement: (Video 132)
Allegro con brio (allegro with vigor)
The allegro con brio is an enormously powerful and concentrated movement in sonata form. Its
character is determined by a single rhythmic motive, short-short-short-long, from which
Beethoven creates an astonishing variety of musical ideas. Tension and expectation are
generated from the very beginning of the movement. Three rapid notes of the same pitch are
followed by a downward leap to a held, suspenseful tone. This powerful idea is hammered out
twice by all the strings in unison; the second time, it is a step lower in pitch.

As the opening theme continues in C minor, Beethoven maintains excitement by quickly

developing his basic idea. He crowds varied repetitions of the motive together and rapidly shifts
the motive to different pitches and instruments.
The second theme, in E flat major, dramatically combines different ideas. It begins with an
unaccompanied horn call that asserts the basic motive in a varied form (short-short-short-long-
long-long).

This horn-call motive announces a new legato melody which is calm and contrasts with the
preceding agitation. Yet even during this lyrical moment, we are not allowed to forget the basic
motive; now it is muttered in the background by cellos and double basses.
Beethoven generates tension in the development section by breaking the horn-call motive into
smaller and smaller fragments until it is represented by only a single tone. Supported by a chord,
this tone is echoed between woodwinds and strings in a breathtaking decrescendo. The
recapitulation comes as a tremendous climax as the full orchestra thunders the basic motive.
The recapitulation also brings a new expressive oboe solo at the end of the first theme. The
heroic closing section of the recapitulation, in C major, moves without a break into a long and
exciting coda in C minor. This coda is like a second development section in which the basic
motive creates still greater power and energy.
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Second Movement: (video 132 at mn. 8:00)

Andante con moto (moderately slow but not too slow)
The second movement, in A flat major, is mostly relaxed and lyrical, but it Side 7, band 2
includes moments of tension and heroism. It is an extended set of variations based on two
themes. The main theme (A), softly introduced by the cellos and violas, is a long, legato melody
of great nobility. The second theme (B) begins very gently in the clarinets but soon brings a
startling contrast of mood. The full orchestra suddenly bursts in, and the clarinet melody is
transformed into a triumphant trumpet fanfare. A hushed transitional passage then leads back
to the main theme, presented now in quicker notes.
After several variations, there is a middle section in which fragments of the themes are treated
in new ways. Woodwind instruments are featured, and there is a brief episode in minor. The
movement concludes with a final variation of the main melody, now majestically proclaimed
by the full orchestra, and a coda that poetically recalls what has come before.
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Third Movement: (video 132 at mn. 19:00)

Allegro (scherzo)
The rapid third movement is a scherzo, in C minor, composed of three sections: A (scherzo) B
(trio) A' (scherzo). The scherzo opens with a hushed, mysterious theme played by cellos and
double basses in a low register.

Soon, in sharp contrast, a bold repeated-note theme is hammered out loudly by the horns.

This theme is dominated by the rhythmic pattern short-short-short-long and recalls the basic
motive of the first movement.
The B section (trio), in major, brings a gruff, hurried theme, played by cellos and double basses.

This theme is imitated, in the style of a fugue, by each of the higher strings. The bustling
rhythmic motion of the B section has a feeling of energy and rough humor.
When the scherzo section (A') returns, it is hushed and ominous throughout, sounding like a
ghost of its former self. The mysterious opening theme is now played pizzicato rather than
legato. The repeated-note
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theme is completely transformed in mood; it is no longer proclaimed by horns but is whispered

by clarinets, plucked violins, and oboe.
One of the most extraordinary passages in the symphony follows the scherzo section (A'): a
bridge leading from the dark, mysterious world of the scherzo to the bright sunlight of the
finale. It opens with a feeling of suspended animation as the timpani softly repeat a single tone
against a sustained chord in the strings. Over the timpani pulsation, the violins hesitantly play
a fragment of the mysterious scherzo theme. Tension mounts as this fragment is carried higher
and higher, until a sudden crescendo climaxes with the heroic opening of the finale.

Fourth Movement: (Video 132 at mn. 24:45)

Allegro
The fourth movement, in sonata form, is the climax of the symphony. It brings the victory of C
major over C minor, of optimism and exultation over struggle and uncertainty. For greater
power and brilliance, Beethoven enlarged the orchestra in the finale to include three trombones,
a piccolo, and a contrabassoon. Brass instruments are especially prominent and give a
marchlike character to much of the movement.
The exposition is rich in melodic ideas; even the bridge has a theme of its own, and there is
also a distinctive closing theme. The triumphant opening theme begins with the three tones of
the C major triad, brilliantly proclaimed by the trumpets.

A bridge theme, similar in mood to the opening theme, is announced by the horns and continued
by the violins.

Triplets lend a joyous quality to the second theme, which contrasts loud and soft phrases.

Two powerful chords and a brief pause announce the closing theme of the exposition. This
melody, composed of descending phrases, is first played by the strings and woodwinds and
then forcefully repeated by the entire orchestra.
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The exposition is repeated.

The development focuses mainly on the second theme and its triplet rhythm. A huge climax at
the end of the development is followed by one of the most marvelous surprises in all music.
Beethoven dramatically quotes the whispered repeated-note theme (short-short-short-long) of
the preceding scherzo movement. This ominous quotation is like a sudden recollection of past
anxiety, and it creates a connection between the last two movements. Leading into the powerful
recapitulation of the fourth movement, it prepares the renewal of the victory over uncertainty.
During the long coda of the finale, earlier themes are heard in altered and quickened versions.
Several times, the music keeps going even though the listener thinks it's coming to an end. Over
and over, Beethoven affirms the tonic key and resolves the frenzied tensions built up during the
symphony. Such control over tension is an essential element of Beethoven's genius.
Pastoral Symphony
The Sixth (Pastoral) Symphony was composed immediately after the Fifth, and the two were
premiered on the same program in December 1808. Each of the Pastoral's five movements
bears a descriptive title suggesting a scene from life in the country.
1. The awakening of joyous feelings on getting out into the countryside
2. Scene by the brook
3. Joyous gathering of the country folk
4. Thunderstorm
5. Shepherd’s song; happy and thankful feelings after the storm
Beethoven adapted his descriptive program to the normal sequence of movements, inserting
an extra movement (Storm) that serves to introduce the finale (Thankful feelings after the
storm). In the coda of the Andante movement (Scene by the brook), flute, oboe, and clarinet
join harmoniously in imitating bird calls-the nightingale, the quail, and, of course, the cuckoo
(Example 15.2 – Audio 133). All these programmatic effects are subordinate to the expansive,
leisurely form of the symphony as a whole; the composer himself warned against taking the
descriptions literally: he called them expression of feelings rather than depiction."

Beethoven’s Deafness
Heiligenstadt Testament
The impression Beethoven gave of being moody and unsociable had much to do with his increasing
deafness. He began to lose his hearing around 1796, and by 18o he was almost completely deaf. In the
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autumn of 180, Beethoven wrote a letter, now known as the Heiligenstadt Testament, intended to be read
by his brothers after his death. In it he describes in moving terms how he suffered when he realized that
his malady was incurable:
I must live almost alone like one who has been banished, I can mix with society only as much as true
necessity demands. If I approach near to people a hot terror seizes upon me and I fear being exposed to
the danger that my condition might be noticed. Thus it has been during the last six months which I have
spent in the country.... what a humiliation for me when someone standing next to me heard a flute in the
distance and I heard nothing, or someone heard a shepherd singing and again I heard nothing. Such in-
cidents drove me almost to despair, a little more of that and I would have ended my life-it was only my art
that held me back. Ah, it seemed to me impossible to leave the world until I had brought forth all that I felt
was within me.... Oh Providence-grant me at last but one day of pure joy-it is so long since real joy echoed
in my heart....

Seventh Symphony
The Seventh and Eighth Symphonies were both completed in 1812. The Seventh, like the
Second and Fourth, opens with a long slow introduction with remote modulations, leading into
an Allegro dominated throughout by the rhythmic figure in The second movement (melodic
rhythm), in the parallel minor key of A, received so much applause at the first performance that
it had to be
repeated. The third movement, in the rather distant key of F major, is a scherzo, although it is
not labeled as such. It is unusual because the trio (in D major) recurs a second time as in the
Fourth Symphony, thus expanding the movement to a five-part form (ABABA). The finale, a
large sonata- allegro with coda, has a particularly festal quality. (Listen to the second
movement)
Eighth Symphony
By contrast with the huge scale of the Seventh Symphony, the Eighth reverts to more standard
dimensions, aside from the long coda of the first movement and the still longer one of the finale.
This is the most mercurial of all the nine symphonies, but its forms are extremely condensed.
The second movement is a brisk Allegretto, while the third, by way of compensation, is a
deliberately archaic Minuet instead of Beethoven's usual Scherzo.
Overtures
Beethoven's orchestral overtures are related in style to the symphonies, usually taking the form
of a symphonic first movement. The Leonore Overtures aside, his most important works in this
genre are Coriolan (1807), inspired by a tragic drama that was performed occasionally in
Vienna, and Egmont, composed together with songs and incidental music for an 1810
performance of Goethe's play.
Piano Sonatas
Beethoven composed ten piano sonatas in the five years between 1800 and 1805. Among them
are Op. 26 in Ab, with the funeral march, and Op. 27, Nos. 1 and 2, each designated as "quasi
una fantasia”; the second is popularly known as the Moonlight Sonata. In Op. 31, No.2 in D
minor, (Audio 135) the whole opening section of the first movement, with its rushing passages
and sharp punctuation, has the character of an instrumental recitative, anticipating that of the
Ninth Symphony. The introductory largo arpeggio returns at the start of the development
section and again at the beginning of the recapitulation, each time in expanded form and with
new linkages to the surrounding music; its last appearance leads into an expressive recitative
(see Example 15.3). The finale of this sonata is an exciting mota perpetuo in rondo form.
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HECTOR BERLIOZ ON BEETHOVEN'S SIXTH SYMPHONY

Storm, lightning. I despair of trying to give an idea of this prodigious piece. You have to hear it to conceive
the degree of truth and sublimity that musical painting can reach at the hands of a man like Beethoven.
Listen, listen to these gusts of wind charged with rain, these deaf growlings of the basses, the high
whistling of the piccolos that announce a terrible tempest about to unleash. The storm approaches, it
spreads; an immense chromatic stroke starting in the higher instruments rummages down to the last
depths of the orchestra, hitches on to the basses and drags them with it and climbs up again, shuddering
like a whirlwind that overturns everything in its path. Then the trombones burst forth, as the thunder of the
tympani redoubles in violence. This is no longer rain and wind; it is an appalling cataclysm, the great
flood, the end of the world.
Veil your faces, poor great ancient poets, poor immortals. Your conventional language, so pure, so
harmonious, cannot compete with the art of sounds. You are glorious in defeat, but vanquished. You did
not know what we call today melody, harmony, the association of different timbres, instrumental colors,
the modulations, the learned conflicts of inimical sounds that first combat each other, then embrace, our
surprises of the ear, our strange accents that make the most unexplored depths of the soul reverberate.
-Translated from Hector Berlioz, A travers chants (Paris, 1898), pp. 42-43.
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Waldstein and Appassionata Sonatas

Outstanding among the sonatas of this period are Op. 53 in C major (1st movement video 136)
(1804), called the Waldstein Sonata after the patron to whom it is dedicated, and Op. 57 in F
minor (1805), usually called the Appassionata (Impassioned [Sonata]). Both have three
movements-fast-slow-fast-and both exhibit the patterns of sonata form, rondo, or variations.
But each of the formal schemes has been stretched in all directions to support the natural
development and culmination of exceptionally intense themes. In the first movement of the
Waldstein, Beethoven managed to make the key of C major sound dark and brooding through
the obstinate thundering of thick low chords, to which a figure high in the right hand answers
like a flash of lightning (Example 15.4a). Then the storm clears, and a bright, chordally
accompanied melody in E major glistens where a theme in the dominant is expected (Example
15.4b). The normal" arrival of the dominant in the second part of the exposition is delayed until
near the double bar, just in time to bring back the opening. In the recapitulation, the second
theme is first heard inA major, and its restatement in C major is reserved for the coda.

After the Waldstein and the Appassionata, there were no more sonatas for five years. Then
came the Sonata in F#, Op. 78, which Beethoven once declared to be his favorite, and the
somewhat programmatic Sonata Op. 81a. The latter was inspired by the departure from and
return to Vienna of Archduke Rudolph, one of his patrons and pupils; its three movements are
entitled Lebewohl (Farewell), Abwesenheit (Absence), and Wiedersehn (Return).
Piano Concertos
As a pianist, Beethoven naturally composed concertos to play at his own concerts. His first
three piano concertos date from his early years in Vienna (No. 1 in C, No. 2 in Bb, No. 3 in C
 265

minor). His two largest works in this genre are the Concerto No.4 in G major, Op. 58, composed
in 1805-6, and the Fifth in Eknown as the Emperor Concerto, which was composed in 1809
and first performed in Vienna three years later. The soloist, Carl Czerny (1791-1857), had been
a pupil of Beethoven and subsequently enjoyed a successful teaching career in Vienna,
composing many studies and other works for the piano.
Beethoven retained Mozart's division of the concerto into three movements and the general
outline of the Classic form, while greatly expanding the music's expressive range and
dimensions. Some of Beethoven's most enchanting melodies appear in his piano and violin
concertos, and they are all the more haunting because of unexpected harmonic turns. Virtuosity
is demanded in the solo parts, which are continuously interwoven with the orchestra and assert
their presence forcefully. For example, in Piano Concertos Nos. 4 and 5, the soloist enters with
a cadenza even before the orchestra's exposition begins, a technique Beethoven also applied in
his Violin Concerto, Op. 61 in D major (1806) (Video 137).

THIRD PERIOD
The years up to 1815 were, on the whole, peaceful and prosperous for Beethoven. His music
was played regularly in Vienna, and he was celebrated both at home and abroad. Thanks to the
generosity of patrons and the steady demand from publishers for new works, his financial
affairs were in good order; but his deafness became a more and more serious trial. As it caused
him to lose contact with others, he retreated into himself, becoming morose, irascible, and
morbidly suspicious even toward his friends. Family problems, ill health, and unfounded
apprehensions of poverty also plagued him, and it was only by a supreme effort of will that
Beethoven continued composing. He wrote his last five piano sonatas between 1816 and 1821.
He completed the Missa solemnis in 18, the Diabelli Variations in 1823, and the Ninth
Symphony in 1824, each after long years of labor. The final quartets, Beethoven's musical
testament, followed in 1825 and 1826. At his death in 1827, he had plans for a tenth symphony
and many other new works.

THE IMMORTAL BELOVED

My angel, my all, my very self-Only a few words today and at that with pencil (with yours)-Not till tomorrow
will my lodgings be definitely determined upon-what a useless waste of time - Why this deep sorrow when
necessity speaks-can our love endure except through sacrifices, through not demanding everything from
one another; can you change the fact that you are not wholly mine, I not wholly thine.
In the summer of 1812, Beethoven wrote this impassioned letter to a woman whom he addressed as the
Immortal Beloved, and whose identity posed a baffling riddle for generations of Beethoven biographers.
Whether the letter was ever delivered was also a matter of speculation; dated July 6, but with no year, it
was found among the composer's effects after his death. Although Beethoven had several close
friendships with women, he never married; in fact, even his most serious roman- tic attachments were
short-lived. Who, then, was his secret, undying love?
In a biography published 150 years after the composer's death, Maynard Solomon convincingly unravels
the mystery of Beethoven's Immortal Beloved by recreating a powerful web of circumstantial evidence
from contemporaneous documents. He proposes that the woman was Antonie Brentano, a beautiful
Viennese matron with four children whom Beethoven met in 1810, when she was thirty. (See her miniature
portrait, painted on ivory, also found among Beethoven's possessions when he died.) Her husband was
Franz Brentano, a merchant from Frankfurt who had obtained her father's permission to marry her when
she was only eighteen years old. The couple resided far from Vienna in his native city, where Antonie
missed her family and suffered periods of depression and mysterious physical ailments. During her
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father's illness and death in 1809, they moved back to Vienna and lived in her family's mansion. She
persuaded her husband to open a branch of his business there and remained in Vienna for three years
while she settled her father's affairs and disposed of his estate.
During this period (1810-12) Beethoven was a regular visitor to the Brentano household, where he
attended the quartet concerts that were performed there and often played the piano himself. He dedicated
several compositions to Antonie and, during her periods of gloomy withdrawal when she would admit no
one else to her company, consoled her with his piano improvisations. At some point their attachment
transformed itself into love, despite the looming prospect of Antonie's fated return to Frankfurt with her
husband. It is probably no accident, then, that the letter to the Immortal Beloved - which eventually raises
the issue of their living together - was written shortly after the final auction of her father's possessions.
If Antonie was willing to leave her than return to Frankfurt, Beethoven was unprepared for such a
commitment. Ultimately, he renounced the possibility of a union so heavily weighted with conflicting ethical
and emotional implications. But his anguish and ambivalence are apparent in this letter, written while en
route to Karlsbad, where he was expecting to have a reunion with Antonie during the Brentanos' vacation
that summer. Whatever happened during their meeting, the two separated in the fall; the Brentanos went
back to Frankfurt and Beethoven remained in Vienna. Although they kept in touch, they probably never
saw each other again.

Characteristics of Beethoven's late style

By 1816, Beethoven had resigned himself to living in a soundless world of tones that
reverberated only in his mind. More and more his composi- tions came to have a meditative
character; the urgent sense of communication was replaced by a feeling of assured tranquillity,
passionate outpouring by calm affirmation. The language became more concentrated, more
abstract. Extremes meet: the sublime and the grotesque in the Mass and Ninth Symphony, the
profound and the naive in the last quartets. Classic forms remained, like the features of a
landscape after a geological upheaval-recognizable here and there under distorted contours,
lying at strange angles beneath the new surface.
Variations
In his late compositions, Beethoven deliberately worked out themes and motives until he had
extracted every bit of meaning available from them. This was always the case with his
development sections, but in this period if s especially true in his variation techniques. In
Beethoven's late works, variations a ppear within the slow movements of the Piano Sonata Op.
106, the String Quartet Op. 132, and in the finale of the Ninth Symphony (after the
introduction), to mention a few examples. Although he composed only one independent set for
piano during this period-the Thirty-three Variations on a Waltz by Diabelli, Op. 120, completed
in 1823 - it surpasses anything in this genre since Bach's Goldberg Variations. Rather than
altering the theme in a fairly straightforward manner, Beethoven transformed the very character
of the theme, thus setting these variations apart from earlier ones. Diabelli's commonplace. little
waltz expands surprisingly into a world of variegated moods-solemn, brilliant, capricious,
mysterious-ordered with due regard for contrast, grouping, and climax. Each variation is built
on motives derived from some part of the theme, but altered in rhythm, tempo, dynamics, or
context so as to produce a new design. The Diabelli Variations became the model for
Schumann's Symphonic Etudes, Brahms's Variations on a Theme of Handel, and many other
nineteenth-centuryworks in this genre.
Continuity
Another feature of Beethoven's late style is a continuity achieved by intentionally blurring the
divisions between phrases as well as divisions be- tween sections in sonata forms and other
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movement types. A cadence may fall on a weak beat, and its closing effect may be further
lessened because the uppermost voice sounds the third or fifth scale degree rather than the tonic.
The introduction may be in the same tempo as the Allegro and flow directly into it, as in the
first movement of the Ninth Symphony. The wide- spaced harmonic arches and the leisurely
march of melodies communicate a feeling of vastness in movements such as the Adagio of the
Quartet Op. 127 or the Benedictus of the Missa solemnis.
Improvisatory passages
The improvisatory character of some passages may give us an idea of Beethoven's actual
improvisations at the piano that so impressed his hearers. This compositional style was forecast
in the slow introduction to the Rondo of the Waldstein Sonata, Op. 53. At times Beethoven
lingers over a phrase musingly, as in the slow movement of the Piano Sonata Op. 101; or a
passage is measured freely, as in the Largo intro- duction to the finale of the Sonata Op. 106.
Sometimes these reflective passages culminate in moments of instrumental recitative, as in the
Adagio of the Sonata Op. 110 and in various transitions, as the one preceding the finale of the
Ninth Symphony.
Fugal Texture
Beethoven's late style takes on a universal quality through the prominent use of fugal texture.
His sympathy for this technique came in part from his lifelong reverence for the music of J.S.
Bach but was also perhaps a by - product of his more meditative late style. There are numerous
canonic imitations and learned contrapuntal devices in all the late works, but particularly in the
fugatos that are incorporated in development sections- as in the finale of the Piano Sonata Op.
101. Many movements are predomi- nantly fugal in conception-such as the finales of the
Sonatas Opp. 106 and 110; the first movement of the Quartet in C# minor, Op. 131; the gigantic
Grosse Fuge for String Quartet, Op. 133; and the two double fugues in the finale of the Ninth
Symphony.
New sonorities
Beethoven commanded new sonorities in his last works, apparent, for example, in the widely
spaced intervals at the end of the Piano Sonata Op. 110, or the extraordinary dark coloring of
the orchestra and chorus at the first appearance of the words Ihr stiirzt nieder" (Throw
yourselves down before Him) in the finale of the Ninth Symphony. Some of these experiments
almost require a miracle to make them sound" in performance; the ideas seem too big for human
capabilities to express. For this reason, early critics believed that Beethoven's musical
conceptions went too far in making demands on the players, perhaps because of his deafness.
But whether we approve or condemn these passages, we have no reason to believe that even a
Beethoven with perfect hearing would have altered a single note, either to spare tender ears or
to make life easier for performers.
Quartet Op. 131
As with texture and sonority, so too with form in the instrumental works of Beethoven's third
period: two of the last quartets and two of the final sonatas retain the external scheme of four
movements, but the rest dispense with even this bow to tradition. The Sonata Op. 111 has only
two movements, an Allegro in compact sonata form and an Adagio molto - a long set of
variations on an arietta that is so eloquent and so complete that nothing further seems to be
required. The Quartet Op. 131 has no fewer than seven movements (the first two are in
NAWM 112, Video 138).
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(1) 00:00 – 8:05 A fugue in C# minor, Adagio rna non troppo e molto espressivo, ¢.
(2) 8:05 – 11:00 Allegretto rnolto vivace, D major. This movement is in a compact sonata form,
based on only one theme, a folklike tune first presented against a triple drone (Example 15.5).
(3) 11:00 – 11:45 Eleven measures, Allegro moderato, in the spirit of a recitativo obbligato,
functioning as an introduction to the following movement and modulating from B minor to E
major, the dominant of the next movement.
(4) 11:45 – 25:20 Andante, A major, : A theme made up of two double periods, with six
variations and a coda that encloses an incomplete seventh variation.
(5) 25:20 – 30:12 Presto, E major, ¢. Essentially a scherzo, though in duple rather than triple
time, with a trio that returns twice in rondo fashion after the return of the scherzo, as in the
Fourth and Seventh Symphonies.
(6) 30:12 – 32:30 Adagio, G# minor, . Twenty-eight measures in the form ABB with coda,
introducing the next movement.
(7) 32:30 – 38:50 Allegro, C# minor, ¢, in sonata form.

All this can only be forcibly reconciled with the Classic sonata scheme by calling (1) and (2)
an introduction and first movement, (3) and (4) an introduction and slow movement, (5) a
scherzo, and (6) and (7) an introduction and finale.
STRING QUARTET IN F MAJOR, OP. 18, NO. 1 (1798-1800)
"Accept this quartet as a small token of our friendship, and whenever you play it remember the
days we spent together," wrote Beethoven to a violinist friend after completing the String
Quartet in F Major in 1799. But two years later Beethoven wrote to his friend, "Do not lend
your copy of the quartet to anybody, because I have greatly changed it, having just learned how
to write quartets properly." It is the second version of the String Quartet in F Major that was
published as Op. 18, No. 1, and became the best-known of Beethoven's early string quartets. In
this work each instrumental part is given important thematic material and demands virtuosity
from the player.
The opening movement, in F major (which we'll focus on), is a brilliant allegro in sonata form.
It is followed by a highly emotional slow movement, in D minor, that is also in sonata form.
This second movement, marked adagio affettuoso ed appassionato (tender and impassioned
adagio), was inspired by the burial vault scene in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. The very
rapid third movement, in F major, is a scherzo in A B A form. The whirlwind finale, in sonata-
rondo form, has an extended, mostly polyphonic development section.
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First Movement: (Video 139)

Allegro con brio
The first movement, allegro con brio, is built from transformations of its brief opening motive.
As in the opening movement of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, an amazing variety of musical
material is drawn from a single rhythmic idea. At the beginning of the first movement of the
quartet, the basic rhythmic motive is presented twice, softly, by all four string instruments in
unison; the second time, its last note is a step higher in pitch.

A lyrical answering phrase, in homophonic texture, begins with a variation of the basic motive.

After a forte return of the basic motive in all four instruments in unison, intensity is generated
when the motive is harmonized by dissonant chords.

As the first theme continues, sudden accents, rapid imitations, and additional dissonances make
the motive sound even more tense. After a cadence comes the bridge section, which begins with
a graceful violin melody set against the basic motive in the cello.
The second theme contrasts with the first theme and the bridge owing to its even rhythms and
long phrases. It is ushered in by a syncopated repetition of a single tone in the first violin and
continues with a flowing melody that is passed from the first violin to each of the other
instruments.
The closing theme begins with a flowing upward phrase that resembles the second theme and
ends with a dramatic surprise: after the rising phrase comes a long, questioning silence that is
followed by the basic motive played softly. The rising phrase is then repeated in a high register,
but now the silence is answered by brusque heavy chords in a low register instead of the soft
basic motive. Such abrupt contrasts of register, dynamics, and mood are characteristic of
Beethoven.
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In the development section, the texture becomes polyphonic as the basic motive is quickly
tossed from one instrument to the other. Sharp accents, dissonances, and rapid changes of key
create excitement. A change to homophonic texture occurs when a pulsating accompaniment
supports descending repetitions of the main motive in the violins. After a suspenseful passage
of rapid scales, the recapitulation comes as a triumphant climax when the first theme returns
fortissimo.
In the recapitulation, a shortened version of the first theme and bridge is followed by the second
and closing themes. The coda begins with a powerful new ascending scale idea that is soon
combined with a playful transformation of the basic motive.
Missa Solemnis
The most imposing works of the last period are the Mass in D, known as Missa solemnis the
Missa solemnis, and the Ninth Symphony. Beethoven regarded this Mass as his greatest work.
It is a deeply personal yet universal confession of faith. The score incorporates many more
musical and liturgical symbols than an uninformed listener can grasp. Written to celebrate the
elevation of Archduke Rudolph to archbishop of Olmütz, it is, like Bach's B-minor Mass, too
long and elaborate for ordinary liturgical use.
Debt to Handel
The choral treatmen owes something to Handel, whose music Beethoven revered along with
Bach's. Beethoven adapted the fugal subject of his Dona nobis pacem (a section of the Agnus
Dei) from Handel's setting of “And He shall reign forever and ever" in the Hallelujah Chorus,
and the lofty style of the whole is in the spirit of Handel. Handel's oratorios, however, were
conceived as a series of independent numbers, without interconnecting themes or motives and
without any definite plan of musical unity in the work as a whole. By contrast, Beethoven's
Mass is a planned musical unit-a symphony in five movements, one on each of the five principal
clivi- sions of the Ordinary of the Mass: Kyrie in D, Gloria in D, Credo in B Sanctus in D, and
Agnus Dei in D. In this respect, it resembles the late Masses of Haydn, and like them it freely
combines and alternates choruses and solo ensembles in each movement. Beethoven's attention
 273

to musical form occasionally led him to take liberties with the liturgical text, such as the rondo-
like recurrences of the word Credo" with its musical motive in the third movement.
Ninth Symphony
The Ninth Symphony was first performed on May 7, 1824, on a program with one of
Beethoven's overtures and three movements of his Mass. The large and distinguished audience
applauded vociferously after the symphony. Beethoven did not turn around to acknowledge the
applause because he could not hear it; one of the solo singers plucked him by the sleeve and
directed his attention to the clapping hands and waving hats and handker- chiefs, whereupon
he finally realized the audience's reaction and bowed. The receipts at the concert were large,
but so little remained after expenses that Beethoven accused his friends who had managed the
affair of cheating him. A repetition two weeks later before a half-full house resulted in a deficit.
Thus was the Ninth Symphony launched into the world.
Form of Ninth Symphony finale
The work's most striking innovation remains its use of chorus and solo voices in the finale.
Beethoven had thought as early as 1792, of setting Schiller's Ode to Joy, but more than thirty
years went by before he decided to incorporate a choral finale on this text in his Ninth
Symphony. Consistent with his ethical ideals and religious faith, he selected stanzas that
emphasize universal fellowship through joy, and its basis in the love of an eternal heavenly
Father. Beethoven was troubled by the apparent incongruity of introducing voices at the climax
of a long instrumental symphony. His solution to this aesthetic difficulty determined the
unusual form of the last movement:
• A brief, tumultuous introduction, inspired by the operatic genre of recitativo obbligato.
• A review and rejection (by instrumental recitatives) of the themes of the preceding
movements; proposal of the “joy" theme and its joyful acceptance.
• Orchestral exposition of the theme in four stanzas, crescendo, with coda.
• Return of the tumultuous opening measures.
• Bass recitative: “O Freunde, nicht diese Tone! sodern lasst uns angenehmere anstimmen und
freudenvollere" (0 friends, not these tones, but let us rather sing more pleasant and joyful ones).
• Choral-orchestral exposition of the joy theme, Freude, schoner Gotterfunken" (Beautiful
divine spark of joy), in four stanzas; varied (including a Turkish March"), and a long orchestral
interlude (double fugue) followed by a repetition of the first stanza.
• New theme, for orchestra and chorus: Seid umschlungen, Millionen!" (Join together, O
millions!).
• Double fugue on the two themes.
• A brilliant Prestissimo choral coda, bringing back the Turkish percussion, in which the joy
theme is repeated in strains of matchless sublimity. (Video 140)
Postlude
Beethoven appeared on the scene when new and powerful forces, Like the American and
French Revolutions, were creating enormous social and political upheavals in the world that
Haydn and Mozart had known. While buildi ng on musical conventions, genres, and styles of
the Classic period, Beethoven effectively transformed this Legacy into a body of works that
would become models for composers of the Romantic period.
Only a few of Beethoven's contemporaries understood his Late works, which in any event were
so personal that they could hardly be imitated. His influence on Later composers resulted
mostly from the works of the middle period, especially the Rasumovsky Quartets, the Fifth,
Sixth, and Seventh Symphonies, and the piano sonatas. Even in these works, it was not the
Classic element in Beethoven's style but the revolutionary element-the free, impulsive,
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mysterious, demonic spirit, the underlying conception of music as a mode of self-expression-

that fascinated the Romantic generation. As E.T.A. Hoffmann wrote, "Beethoven's music sets
in motion the Lever of fear, of awe, of horror, of suffering, and awakens just that infinite
Longing which is the essence of romanticism. He is accordingly a completely romantic
composer... .'' Hoffmann realized the importance of structure and control in Beethoven's music
and in the works of Haydn and Mozart, whom he also called "romantic." (Perhaps he used the
word as a general term of commendation.) Romantic or not, Beethoven was one of the great
disruptive forces in the history of music. After him, nothing could ever be the same; he opened
the gateway to a new world.

Contents
CHAPTER 1 MUSIC OF THE EARLY BAROQUE PERIOD ..................................................................... 1
PRELUDE ....................................................................................................................................................... 1
The word "Baroque" ...................................................................................................................................... 3
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF BAROQUE MUSIC ..................................................................... 4
Two practices ................................................................................................................................................ 4
Idiomatic writing ........................................................................................................................................... 4
MONTEVERD1 AND THE SECONDA PRATICA ................................................................................... 5
The affections................................................................................................................................................ 5
MONTEVERDJ'S REPLY TO ARTUSI, 1605 ........................................................................................... 6
Unity of Mood............................................................................................................................................... 6
Rhythm, Harmony, and Cadence .................................................................................................................. 6
Basso Continuo or Figured Bass ................................................................................................................... 7
Contrast and Terraced Dynamics .................................................................................................................. 8
The new counterpoint.................................................................................................................................... 8
Dissonance .................................................................................................................................................... 9
Chromaticism ................................................................................................................................................ 9
Major-minor tonalities .................................................................................................................................. 9
Texture .......................................................................................................................................................... 9
Words and Music ........................................................................................................................................ 10
Passion and grandeur .................................................................................................................................. 10
Patronage..................................................................................................................................................... 10
EARLY OPERA............................................................................................................................................ 11
THE ELEMENTS OF OPERA ................................................................................................................... 11
OPERA IN THE BAROQUE ERA ............................................................................................................ 14
Forerunners ................................................................................................................................................. 15
Greek tragedy as a model ............................................................................................................................ 15
Florentine Camerata .................................................................................................................................... 15
Vincenzo Galilei ......................................................................................................................................... 16
Earliest operas ............................................................................................................................................. 16
Le nuove musiche ....................................................................................................................................... 17
Euridice ....................................................................................................................................................... 17
Peri and recitative style ............................................................................................................................... 17
PERl 'S DESCRlPTlON OF HlS REClTATlVE STYLE ........................................................................... 19
Monteverdi's Orfeo ..................................................................................................................................... 19
Monteverdi: Orfeo (1607), Act 2, excerpt .................................................................................................. 21
Francesca Caccini ....................................................................................................................................... 23
Rome ........................................................................................................................................................... 24
Luigi Rossi's Orfeo ..................................................................................................................................... 24
Venetian opera ............................................................................................................................................ 24
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OPERA IN SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY VEN1CE ................................................................................ 24

Monteverdi's Poppea ................................................................................................................................... 25
Cavalli and Cesti ......................................................................................................................................... 25
Characteristics of opera ............................................................................................................................... 26
VOCAL CHAMBER MUSIC ...................................................................................................................... 26
Strophic Aria ............................................................................................................................................... 26
BAROQUE OSTINATO PATTERNS ........................................................................................................ 26
Romanesca .................................................................................................................................................. 26
Chaconne and Passacaglia .......................................................................................................................... 27
The concertato medium............................................................................................................................... 28
Monteverdi's concertato madrigals ............................................................................................................. 28
MONTEVERDJ'S EIGHTH BOOK OF MADRJGALS ............................................................................ 28
Genres of vocal solo music ......................................................................................................................... 29
Cantata ........................................................................................................................................................ 29
BARBARA STROZZI, SINGER OF lOVE ............................................................................................... 29
CHURCH MUSIC ...................................................................................................................................... 30
THE VENETIAN SCHOOL ........................................................................................................................ 30
Venetian polychoral motets ........................................................................................................................ 31
Venitian influence ....................................................................................................................................... 31
GENRES OF SACRED MUSIC: CATHOLIC AND LUTHERAN......................................................... 31
Grand Concerto ........................................................................................................................................... 31
Concerto for few voices .............................................................................................................................. 31
Oratorio ....................................................................................................................................................... 31
Carissimi’s Jephte ....................................................................................................................................... 32
Oratorio vs. Opera ....................................................................................................................................... 32
THE ECSTASY OF SAINT TERESA ....................................................................................................... 33
Lutheran church music ................................................................................................................................ 33
Sacred concerto in Germany ....................................................................................................................... 33
Heinrich Schütz ............................................................................................................................................. 34
Schütz's Symphoniae sacrae ....................................................................................................................... 38
INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC.......................................................................................................................... 38
DANCE MUSIC ............................................................................................................................................ 39
Suites (videos) ............................................................................................................................................ 39
French lute and keyboard music ................................................................................................................. 39
Influence of Lute technique ........................................................................................................................ 39
Denis Gaultier ............................................................................................................................................. 39
Froberger ..................................................................................................................................................... 40
lMPROVlSATORY COMPOSlTlONS ....................................................................................................... 40
Frescobaldi .................................................................................................................................................. 40
Frescobaldi's toccatas .................................................................................................................................. 41
Froberger’s toccatas .................................................................................................................................... 41
CONTRAPUNTAL OR FUGAI GENRES (IN CONTINUOUS OR NONSECTIONAL IMITATIVE
COUNTERPOINT)....................................................................................................................................... 41
Fantasia ....................................................................................................................................................... 42
English consort music ................................................................................................................................. 42
CANZONA OR SONATA (SECTIONAL GENRES) ............................................................................... 43
Canzona....................................................................................................................................................... 43
Sonata.......................................................................................................................................................... 44
Biagio Marini .............................................................................................................................................. 44
VARlATlONS ................................................................................................................................................ 46
Frescobaldi’s Partite.................................................................................................................................... 46
Chorale variations ....................................................................................................................................... 47
POSTLUDE ................................................................................................................................................ 48
CHAPTER 2 OPERA AND VOCAL MUSIC IN THE LATE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY ................. 50
PRELUDE ..................................................................................................................................................... 50
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VOCAL MUSIC FOR CHAMBER AND CHURCH ................................................................................ 50

OPERA .......................................................................................................................................................... 50
VEN1CE ........................................................................................................................................................ 50
Singers......................................................................................................................................................... 50
Aria types .................................................................................................................................................... 51
NAPLES ......................................................................................................................................................... 51
Alessandro Scarlatti ...................................................................................................................................... 51
Kinds of recitative ....................................................................................................................................... 53
Da capo aria ................................................................................................................................................ 53
France ............................................................................................................................................................ 54
Lully ............................................................................................................................................................... 54
Quinault....................................................................................................................................................... 55
Lully’s recitative ......................................................................................................................................... 56
Récitatif simple et mesuré ........................................................................................................................... 56
Ouverture .................................................................................................................................................... 57
Orchestra ..................................................................................................................................................... 57
ENGLAND..................................................................................................................................................... 57
Masque ........................................................................................................................................................ 57
Purcell ............................................................................................................................................................ 58
Dido and Aeneas ......................................................................................................................................... 58
Act III: Dido's Lament ................................................................................................................................ 59
Henry Purcell .............................................................................................................................................. 61
GERMANY ................................................................................................................................................... 63
Reinhard Keiser .......................................................................................................................................... 63
VOCAL MUSIC FOR CHAMBER AND CHURCH ................................................................................ 63
Italian Cantata ............................................................................................................................................. 63
A. Scarlatti ..................................................................................................................................................... 64
England .......................................................................................................................................................... 65
Church Music ................................................................................................................................................ 65
Oratorio ....................................................................................................................................................... 65
French church music ................................................................................................................................... 66
Motet ........................................................................................................................................................... 66
ANDRE MAUGARS ON THE ITALIAN ORATORIO 1639 .................................................................. 66
F. Couperin .................................................................................................................................................... 66
Lutheran church music ................................................................................................................................ 68
Buxtehude ...................................................................................................................................................... 68
Lutheran Church cantata............................................................................................................................. 69
ERDMANN NEUMEISTER ON THE SACRED CANTATA, 1704 ....................................................... 70
THE PASS10N .............................................................................................................................................. 70
POSTLUDE ................................................................................................................................................... 70
CHAPTER 3 INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC IN THE LATE BAROQUE PERI0D ................................... 72
PRELUDE ..................................................................................................................................................... 72
MUSIC FOR ORGAN .................................................................................................................................. 73
Toccata ........................................................................................................................................................ 73
Fugal section ............................................................................................................................................... 73
THE FUGUE ................................................................................................................................................. 74
ORGAN FUGUE IN G MINOR (LITTLE FUGUE; ABOUT 1709), BY JOHANN SEBASTIAN
BACH ............................................................................................................................................................. 76
Chorale compositions.................................................................................................................................. 78
Organ chorales ............................................................................................................................................ 78
Chorale variation ......................................................................................................................................... 78
KEY CYCLES AND EQUAlL TEMPERAMENT .................................................................................... 78
Chorale fantasia .......................................................................................................................................... 78
Chorale prelude ........................................................................................................................................... 78
MUSIC FOR HARPSICHORD AND CLAVICHORD............................................................................. 79
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Theme and variations .................................................................................................................................. 79

Suites ........................................................................................................................................................... 79
Elisabeth- Claude Jaquet de la guerre ......................................................................................................... 79
Gigue ........................................................................................................................................................... 80
Couperin’s order ......................................................................................................................................... 81
CHARACTERISTIC DANCES OF THE KEYBOARD SUITE.............................................................. 81
Passacaglia and chaconne ........................................................................................................................... 81
BAROQUE ORNAMENTATION............................................................................................................... 82
ENSEMBLE MUSIC .................................................................................................................................... 83
Ensemble sonatas ........................................................................................................................................ 83
Trio sonatas ................................................................................................................................................. 84
Solo sonatas ................................................................................................................................................ 84
EMERGENCE OF THE BAROQUE SONATA........................................................................................ 84
ARCANGELO CORELLJ ........................................................................................................................... 84
Trio sonatas ................................................................................................................................................. 84
Harmonic sequences ................................................................................................................................... 85
Church Sonatas ........................................................................................................................................... 85
Chamber sonata ........................................................................................................................................... 85
Unity of key ................................................................................................................................................ 85
Unity of theme ............................................................................................................................................ 85
Solo sonatas ................................................................................................................................................ 86
Improvisation in musical performance........................................................................................................ 86
Influence outside Italy................................................................................................................................. 86
COUPERIN ON THE UNION OF THE ITALIAN AND FRENCH STYLES ................................. 86
F. Couperin .................................................................................................................................................... 87
LARGER ENSEMBLES .............................................................................................................................. 87
Ensemble music in Germany ...................................................................................................................... 87
Orchestra music .......................................................................................................................................... 87
QUEEN CHRISTINA OF SWEDEN AND HER CIRCLE ...................................................................... 88
THE BAROQUE ORCHESTRA ................................................................................................................ 88
The orchestral suite ..................................................................................................................................... 89
The concerto................................................................................................................................................ 89
Corelli's concertos ....................................................................................................................................... 89
Concerto in Germany .................................................................................................................................. 90
G. Torelli ..................................................................................................................................................... 90
Ritornello .................................................................................................................................................... 90
Other composers of concerti ....................................................................................................................... 90
POSTLUDE ................................................................................................................................................... 90
CHAPTER 4 MUSIC IN THE EARLY EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ......................................................... 92
PRELUDE ..................................................................................................................................................... 92
ANTONIO VIVALDI ................................................................................................................................... 92
Venice ......................................................................................................................................................... 92
The Pietà ..................................................................................................................................................... 93
CHARLES DE BROSSES ON THE CONCERTS 1N VEN1CE ............................................................. 93
Vivaldi's life ................................................................................................................................................ 93
Vivaldi’s work ............................................................................................................................................ 93
Vocal works ................................................................................................................................................ 94
Concertos .................................................................................................................................................... 94
Solo concertos ............................................................................................................................................. 94
Form of the Allegro .................................................................................................................................... 95
Slow Movement .......................................................................................................................................... 95
Changing style ............................................................................................................................................ 96
LA PRIMAVERA (SPRING), CONCERTO FOR VIOLIN AND STRING ORCHESTRA, OP. 8, NO.
1, FROM THE FOUR SEASONS (1725) .................................................................................................... 96
First Movement: Allegro............................................................................................................................. 96
 278

Second Movement: ..................................................................................................................................... 98

Third Movement: ........................................................................................................................................ 98
JEAN-PHILIPPE RAMEAU ....................................................................................................................... 98
La Pouplinière ............................................................................................................................................. 99
Rameau's life ............................................................................................................................................... 99
RAMEAU'S THEORETICAL WORKS .................................................................................................. 100
Rameau’s operas ....................................................................................................................................... 100
Rameau: Hippolyte et Aricie (1733), closing scene of Act 4.................................................................... 102
Characteristics of French opera................................................................................................................. 103
Rameau’s musical styles ........................................................................................................................... 103
Melodic style and Harmonic style ............................................................................................................ 103
Airs............................................................................................................................................................ 104
Choruses.................................................................................................................................................... 104
Instrumental music .................................................................................................................................... 104
Clavecin pieces ......................................................................................................................................... 105
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH ................................................................................................................. 105
Bach’s life and works ................................................................................................................................ 105
BACH AT ARNSTADT, MÜHLHAUSEN, AND WEIMAR: THE ORGAN WORKS ........................ 107
Preludes and fugues .................................................................................................................................. 107
Orgelbüchlein ........................................................................................................................................... 108
Pedagogic aims ......................................................................................................................................... 108
Chorale preludes ....................................................................................................................................... 108
BACH AT CÖTHEN ................................................................................................................................ 110
The well-tempered keyboard ..................................................................................................................... 111
Preludes ..................................................................................................................................................... 111
Fugues ....................................................................................................................................................... 111
Suites ......................................................................................................................................................... 112
Goldberg Variations .................................................................................................................................. 112
BACH AT THE PRINCELY COURT OF CÖTHEN: SOLO AND ENSEMBLE MUSIC .................... 112
Harpsychord concertos.............................................................................................................................. 112
Orchestral suites ........................................................................................................................................ 113
Other instrumental works .......................................................................................................................... 113
The instrumental music ............................................................................................................................. 113
Brandenburg Concertos............................................................................................................................. 114
Bach: Brandenburg Concerto no. 4 in G (1721) ....................................................................................... 115
Bach: 48 Preludes and Fugues, /(1722), Prelude and Fugue in C minor ............................................... 117
BACH AT LEIPZIG: THE VOCAL MUSIC ........................................................................................... 119
ORDER OF THE DIVINE SERVICE IN LEIPZIG ON THE FIRST SUNDAY IN ADVENT:
MORNING .................................................................................................................................................. 121
The Leipzig sacred music ......................................................................................................................... 121
Last years .................................................................................................................................................. 127
B minor Mass (NAWM 91) ...................................................................................................................... 128
Church cantata .......................................................................................................................................... 129
Neumeister cantata .................................................................................................................................... 129
Chorale cantatas ........................................................................................................................................ 129
Secular cantatas ......................................................................................................................................... 132
Large-scale design .................................................................................................................................... 133
RECEPTION HISTORY .......................................................................................................................... 133
JOHANN ADOLPH SCHEIBE'S CRITIQUE OF BACH'S STYLE, 1737 .......................................... 133
GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL .............................................................................................................. 134
London ......................................................................................................................................................... 134
Handel’s life ................................................................................................................................................. 134
HANDEL'S MUSIC.................................................................................................................................. 135
Oratorios ................................................................................................................................................... 135
Choruses.................................................................................................................................................... 136
 279

Operas ....................................................................................................................................................... 137

Arias .......................................................................................................................................................... 138
Instrumental music .................................................................................................................................... 138
Concerto .................................................................................................................................................... 138
CHARlES BURNEY ON HANDEL'S PERSONALITY ......................................................................... 139
FARINELLI, THE ADORED CASTRATO ............................................................................................ 139
Handel’s borrowings ................................................................................................................................. 140
POSTlUDE................................................................................................................................................... 144
CHAPTER 5 THE EARLY CLASSIC PERIOD: OPERA AND INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC IN THE
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ........................................................................................................................... 146
PRELUDE ................................................................................................................................................... 146
COSMOPOLITAN VIENNA..................................................................................................................... 147
J. J. QUANTZ ON THE SUPERIORITY OF A NATIONALLY MIXED STYLE ............................. 148
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE NEW STYLE .................................................................. 149
Contrast of Mood ...................................................................................................................................... 149
Rhythm...................................................................................................................................................... 149
Texture ...................................................................................................................................................... 149
Melody ...................................................................................................................................................... 149
Dynamics and the Piano............................................................................................................................ 150
The End of the Basso Continuo ................................................................................................................ 150
Melodic periodicity ................................................................................................................................... 150
Harmonic periodicity ................................................................................................................................ 150
Emotional contrasts ................................................................................................................................... 151
MUS1CAL STYLE AND SOCIAL CUSTOM IN BRITISH SOCIETY ............................................... 151
JOHANN NIKOLAUS FORKEL ON ORATORY AND MUSIC ......................................................... 152
THE CLASSICAL ORCHESTRA ............................................................................................................ 152
COMPOSER, PATRON, AND PUBLIC IN THE CLASSICAL PERIOD ........................................... 153
SOCIAL TRENDS AND CLASSICAL COMPOSITION ...................................................................... 153
VIENNA ....................................................................................................................................................... 154
CLASSICAL FORMS ................................................................................................................................ 154
SONATA FORM ...................................................................................................................................... 155
2. THEME AND VARIATIONS .............................................................................................................. 159
3. MINUET AND TRIO ........................................................................................................................... 161
EINE KLEINE NACHTMUSIK (A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC), K. 525, BY WOLFGANG AMADEUS
MOZART .................................................................................................................................................... 161
4. RONDO ................................................................................................................................................ 162
THE CLASSICAL SYMPHONY .............................................................................................................. 163
THE CLASSICAL CONCERTO .............................................................................................................. 164
CLASSICAL CHAMBER MUSIC............................................................................................................ 165
OPERA BUFFA .......................................................................................................................................... 166
Intermezzo................................................................................................................................................. 166
Pergolesi la serva pardona......................................................................................................................... 166
French opéra comique ............................................................................................................................... 167
English ballad opera .................................................................................................................................. 168
German singspiel ...................................................................................................................................... 168
OPERA SERIA ........................................................................................................................................... 168
Musical structure ....................................................................................................................................... 168
The aria ..................................................................................................................................................... 168
Abreviated da capo ................................................................................................................................... 169
Reign of the singers .................................................................................................................................. 169
New features of da capo arias ................................................................................................................... 169
Hasse ......................................................................................................................................................... 169
Burney on Hasse ....................................................................................................................................... 170
Faustina Bordoni ....................................................................................................................................... 170
Vocal embellishment ................................................................................................................................ 170
 280

OPERA REFORM ...................................................................................................................................... 171

Gluck ............................................................................................................................................................ 172
GLUCK ON THE REFORM OF OPERA ............................................................................................... 172
Aims of reform.......................................................................................................................................... 172
Influence ................................................................................................................................................... 173
THE QUERELLE DES BOUFFONS ....................................................................................................... 173
INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC: SONATA, SYMPHONY, AND CONCERTO ......................................... 173
SONATA .................................................................................................................................................. 173
Domenico Scarlatti ...................................................................................................................................... 173
Harpsichord sonatas .................................................................................................................................. 174
Early symphonies ...................................................................................................................................... 176
Sonata form (see p 156) ............................................................................................................................ 176
THE EMPFINDSAM STYLE.................................................................................................................... 177
W.F. Bach and C.P.E. Bach ....................................................................................................................... 177
J. C. Bach ..................................................................................................................................................... 178
Main characteristics of empfindsam style ................................................................................................. 179
Sturm und Drang ....................................................................................................................................... 180
GERMAN SYMPHONIC COMPOSERS ................................................................................................ 181
Mannheim and Stamitz ............................................................................................................................. 181
Vienna ....................................................................................................................................................... 181
THE EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY ORCHESTRA ................................................................................... 181
Berlin......................................................................................................................................................... 181
J.C. BACH 'S CONCERTOS.................................................................................................................... 181
POSTLUDE ................................................................................................................................................. 182
CHAPTER 6 THE LATE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: HAYDN AND MOZART ................................ 183
PRELUDE ................................................................................................................................................... 183
FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDN (1732-1809) .................................................................................................... 183
HAYDN'S MUSIC ...................................................................................................................................... 185
HAYDN'S INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC.................................................................................................... 186
SYMPHONIC FORM ............................................................................................................................... 186
First movement form................................................................................................................................. 186
Exposition ................................................................................................................................................. 186
Development ............................................................................................................................................. 187
Recapitulation ........................................................................................................................................... 187
Minuet and Trio ........................................................................................................................................ 187
Finale......................................................................................................................................................... 187
MUSIC AT ESZTERHAZA AND HAYDN'S CAREER ........................................................................ 188
London visits............................................................................................................................................. 188
Last years in Vienna.................................................................................................................................. 188
THE SYMPHONIES OF 1768-74 ............................................................................................................. 189
Sturm und Drang ....................................................................................................................................... 189
Slow movements ....................................................................................................................................... 189
Farewell symphony ................................................................................................................................... 189
THE SYMPHONIES OF 1774-88 ............................................................................................................. 189
Symphony No. 7 ....................................................................................................................................... 189
Symphony No. 56 ..................................................................................................................................... 189
Paris symphonies ...................................................................................................................................... 190
Symphonies Nos. 88 to 92 ........................................................................................................................ 190
LONDON SYMPHONIES ......................................................................................................................... 190
HAYDN ON HIS RIVALRY WITH HIS PUPIL PLEYEL ................................................................... 190
Special effects ........................................................................................................................................... 191
Orchestration ............................................................................................................................................. 191
Harmony ................................................................................................................................................... 192
Movement forms ....................................................................................................................................... 192
Finales ....................................................................................................................................................... 192
 281

SYMPHONY NO. 94 IN G MAJOR (SURPRISE; 1791) ....................................................................... 192

TRUMPET CONCERTO IN E FLAT MAJOR (1796)........................................................................... 195
THE STR1NG QUARTETS ...................................................................................................................... 197
Quartets through 1781............................................................................................................................... 197
Fugues ....................................................................................................................................................... 197
Sonata-form movements ........................................................................................................................... 197
Opus 33 ..................................................................................................................................................... 197
Humor in opus 33...................................................................................................................................... 198
The Quartets of 1785-90 ........................................................................................................................... 198
Last quartets .............................................................................................................................................. 198
Opus 76, No. 3 .......................................................................................................................................... 199
Opus 76, Minuets ...................................................................................................................................... 200
KEYBOARD SONATAS ......................................................................................................................... 201
Sonatas of 1760s and 1770s ...................................................................................................................... 201
Last sonatas ............................................................................................................................................... 201
HAYDN'S VOCAL WORKS ..................................................................................................................... 202
Operas ....................................................................................................................................................... 202
Church music and Masses ......................................................................................................................... 202
Oratorios, Creation and Seasons ............................................................................................................... 202
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791) ................................................................................. 203
Life ............................................................................................................................................................ 203
MOZART'S MUSIC ................................................................................................................................... 205
MOZART'S YEARS IN SALZBURG ..................................................................................................... 206
MOZART'S TEACHERS .......................................................................................................................... 207
Piano Sonatas ............................................................................................................................................ 207
Themes ...................................................................................................................................................... 209
Other instrumental music .......................................................................................................................... 209
Violin sonatas............................................................................................................................................ 209
Serenades and Divertimentos .................................................................................................................... 209
Solo Concertos .......................................................................................................................................... 209
MOZARTS VIENNA YEARS ................................................................................................................... 210
Van Swieten .............................................................................................................................................. 210
Solo Piano works ...................................................................................................................................... 210
The Haydn quartets ................................................................................................................................... 210
Quintets ..................................................................................................................................................... 211
SYMPHON1ES ........................................................................................................................................ 211
Introductions ............................................................................................................................................. 214
Finales ....................................................................................................................................................... 214
SYMPHONY NO. 40 IN G MINOR, K. 550 (1788)................................................................................ 215
PlANO CONCERTOS .............................................................................................................................. 218
Form .......................................................................................................................................................... 219
Baroque elements ...................................................................................................................................... 219
Typical second movement ........................................................................................................................ 219
Typical finale ............................................................................................................................................ 219
Cadenzas ................................................................................................................................................... 220
PIANO CONCERTO NO. 23 IN A MAJOR, K. 488 (NAWM 120) ....................................................... 220
OPERAS ................................................................................................................................................... 225
Figaro ........................................................................................................................................................ 225
MOZART ON OPERA LIBRETTOS....................................................................................................... 226
Don Giovanni ............................................................................................................................................ 226
DON GIOVANNI (1787) ......................................................................................................................... 227
Cosi fan tutte ............................................................................................................................................. 234
Die Entjuhrung .......................................................................................................................................... 234
MOZART AND H1S FATHER ................................................................................................................. 234
Die Zauberflote ......................................................................................................................................... 235
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CHURCH MUSJC ...................................................................................................................................... 235

Masses and Requiem................................................................................................................................. 235
REQUIEM IN D MINOR, K. 626 (1791) ................................................................................................ 236
POSTLUDE ................................................................................................................................................. 237
CHAPTER 7 LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)......................................................................... 238
PRELUDE ................................................................................................................................................... 238
SIR JULIUS BENEDICT DESCRIBES HIS FIRST SIGHT OF BEETHOVEN (1823)..................... 239
Ludwig van Beethoven ............................................................................................................................... 239
BEETHOVEN'S MUSIC .......................................................................................................................... 242
FIRST PERIOD .......................................................................................................................................... 244
Patrons....................................................................................................................................................... 244
Piano Sonatas ............................................................................................................................................ 244
PIANO SONATA IN C MINOR, OP. 13 (PATHÉTIQUE 1798) ........................................................... 244
Chamber music ......................................................................................................................................... 247
First symphony.......................................................................................................................................... 248
CARL LUDWIG JUNKER DESCRIBES BEETHOVEN'S PLAYING AND IMPROVISING AT THE
PIANO, NOVEMBER 23, 1791 ................................................................................................................. 248
Second Symphony .................................................................................................................................... 248
SECOND PERIOD ..................................................................................................................................... 248
Eroica Symphony ...................................................................................................................................... 249
Dramatization of themes in the Eroica ...................................................................................................... 249
Beethoven, Napoleon, and the Eroica ....................................................................................................... 249
Funeral March in Eroica ........................................................................................................................... 251
Fidelio ....................................................................................................................................................... 252
Rasumovsky Quartets Opus 59, No. I ....................................................................................................... 253
Middle symphonies ................................................................................................................................... 253
Fifth Symphony ........................................................................................................................................ 253
SYMPHONY NO. 5 IN C MINOR, OP. 67 (1808)................................................................................... 253
Pastoral Symphony ................................................................................................................................... 261
Beethoven’s Deafness .................................................................................................................................. 261
Heiligenstadt Testament ............................................................................................................................ 261
Seventh Symphony ................................................................................................................................... 262
Eighth Symphony...................................................................................................................................... 262
Overtures ................................................................................................................................................... 262
Piano Sonatas ............................................................................................................................................ 262
HECTOR BERLIOZ ON BEETHOVEN'S SIXTH SYMPHONY ........................................................ 263
Waldstein and Appassionata Sonatas ........................................................................................................ 264
Piano Concertos ........................................................................................................................................ 264
THIRD PERIOD ......................................................................................................................................... 265
THE IMMORTAL BELOVED ................................................................................................................. 265
Characteristics of Beethoven's late style ................................................................................................... 266
Variations .................................................................................................................................................. 266
Continuity ................................................................................................................................................. 266
Improvisatory passages ............................................................................................................................. 267
Fugal Texture ............................................................................................................................................ 267
New sonorities .......................................................................................................................................... 267
Quartet Op. 131 ......................................................................................................................................... 267
STRING QUARTET IN F MAJOR, OP. 18, NO. 1 (1798-1800)............................................................ 268
Missa Solemnis ......................................................................................................................................... 272
Debt to Handel .......................................................................................................................................... 272
Ninth Symphony ....................................................................................................................................... 273
Form of Ninth Symphony finale ............................................................................................................... 273
Postlude ........................................................................................................................................................ 273