Music History - Classical Period

Classical period last for about 90 years, which started from approximately 1730 and ended in about 1820.  Music at this period is much lighter and clearer and also less complex texture than in Baroque period.  Musical directions was starting to be indicated in the music, such as crescendo, diminuendo and ritard.  Homophonic is mainly used in this period, and change of mood and tempo became more popular.  Orchestra was bigger than in Baroque period, harpsichord was also fell out of the orchestra, and the woodwind section has became an independent section already.

(I love classical music! :D)

Sonata form, often called first movement form or sonata-allegro form, was invented in this period.  This is one of the the major forms that is being used in classical music such as symphonies and chamber music. It consists of an exposition, a development and a recapitulation.


The exposition includes a first subject that consist of one or more themes, and all of them are in home key.  It is then followed by a transition for the composer to modulate from the key of the first subject to the key of the second one.  Then, the second subject will be appeared in a different key(usually the dominant if the key of the first subject is in major, and the relative major if the key of the first subject is in minor).  Then, the exposition will be ended in a perfect cadence by a codetta, which is a shorter form of coda.


It is then followed by the development part.  It is usually in the same key of the codetta of the exposition, and keys may be changes throughout the whole development part.  It consists of one or more extended themes from the exposition.  The length of development varies greatly in each piece, although it always shows a greater degree of tonal, harmonic and rhythmic instability than other parts.  At the end of the development part the key will be returned to the dominant key for preparing the start of recapitulation.


Recapitulation is the repeat of the exposition, thus it also consist of the first subject, transition, second subject and the codetta.  The second subject is now in the home key, sometimes with change of mode from major to minor or vice versa.  The codetta is sometimes replaced by a coda, which is much longer and contains more details than the codetta.

(A timeline of sonata form)

The most representative composer in this period is probably Mozart.  His full name is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and born in 27th January 1756 in Salzburg, Austria.  In his 35 years' life, he has composed over 600 works, including symphonies, minuets, operas, concertos, piano solos and duets, string quartets etc. Some of his famous pieces are Variations of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" (Piano Solo), Don Giovanni(opera), Turkish March(Piano Solo), Die Zauberflöte ( The Magic Flute, opera ), Cosi fan tutti ( Women are all like that, opera ).He and his sister who named Nannerl are prodigies in music.  They both played piano very well and always helped to earn money in several European journeys, but Mozart was always ill and have to be taken a good care.  In later years, he had studied the music composed by J.S.Bach and Joseph Haydn, thus being influenced in come of his famous pieces such as Die Zauberflöte ( The Magic Flute ) and the finale of Symphony No.41.  Mozart was ill ( probably fever ) and dead in 5th December, 1791.  His final piece "Requiem" was finished by Süssmayr, one of his juniors.

(The Magic Flute)

Let's listen to the famous Aria "Queen of Night" in the opera The Magic Flute! ENJOY! :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2ODfuMMyss