Classical

In Baroque era, the initial musical ideas or moods maintained throughout the movement which is called the The doctrine of the affections, also known as the doctrine of affects, or by the German term Affektenlehre .
The doctrine fell out of use in the Classical era, because composers began to find it excessively mechanical and unnatural.


Classical era:


Classical era is between Baroque and Romantic era. It's about 1750-1820. Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwing van Beethoven and Franz Schubert are some very famous composer who were from Classical era.


There are some styles of music in Classical era:

• Galant style: a kind of style that is pleasing and not difficult usually free and homophonic
• Emfindsamerstil or Empfindsamer Stil:) is a style of musical composition, intended to express "true and natural" feelings, and featuring sudden contrasts of mood. It was contrast to the Baroque Affektenlehre (The Doctrine of Affections) which the initial musical ideas or mood maintained throughout the movements.
• Sturm und Drang: which means storm and stress. It is a name of movement in German music which contained extreme emotions.

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Sonata form

Sonata form is a musical form that has been widely used since early Classical period. Sometimes it is called first movement form, often used in the first movements in sonatas, symphonies, chamber music, string quartet etc.

The sections of Sonata form:

• Introduction: The introduction section is optional or sometimes be reduced to a minimum.
• Exposition: The main thematic material for the movement shows in exposition. And it also includes:  

               The first subject group  (consists one or more themes and normally in tonic key.)
               Transition  (In this section, composers modulate from the key of the first subject.)                   
               The second subject  (One or more themes in relative keys of the first subject.)
               Codetta (In the Classical period, most expostitons are repeated and end in perfect cadence.)

• Development: Generally, the development starts in the same key as the exposition ends. And before the development ends it will move around other keys.
• Recapitulation: It is a altered repeated of exposittion, includes:

             The First subject group (Usually is the highlight part of a recapitulation and normally in same             
                                                 key and form as in the exposition.)
               Transition (A kind of brief additional development.)
               The second subject group (Usually the same form as exposition but in tonic key.)
               Coda (Usually the same as the one in exposition. This ends the whole sonata.)

• Coda: After the final cadence of the recapitulation the movement may continue with a coda which contains the material which has shown earlier in the movement. And the length of the coda varies, some is long but some is short. The coda, in the end, will ends in perfect cadence in the tonic key.

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String quartet "The joke", movement 4 (Franz Joseph Haydn)
     


Haydn spent a lot of being a director of music to the Hungarian Prince Esterhazy at a palace where he composed lots of music from chamber music,  operas to orchestral works.

      He made the string quartet(two violins, one viola and one cello) the most successful form in chamber music and tried to make four instruments as important as one another. He also settled a four-movement format: fast-slow-minuet-finale. The last movement-finale usually is the fastest movement in the form of rondo(ABAC..A) .

String quartet "The joke", movement 4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDkWBzH6dkE (music)

     This movement is the finale of the second quartet of the set. And its form is rondo. The 1st refrain is in tonic key of E flat major and it is in rounded binary form. It is repeated. The 1st episode passed some related keys : A flat major, F minor then backed in E flat major.
     Then the 2nd refrain came back but this time without repetition. The 2nd episode is a modified repeat of the 1st episode but this time it stayed in the tonic key of E flat major and some parts(bar114-bar116) are more intensive than the 1st episode .
     The final refrain is very short.It started with a repeat of the beginning and followed by a Adagio surprisingly. Then the beginning came back again but it chopped up into two bars phrases by silences. In bar 166, there is a perfect cadence and it seems like the end, but after few bars silence the repeat of beginning started again. Before the audience want to figure out what happen the movement already ended in perfect cadence.
     The texture of the movement is melody-dominated homophony.


Through this movement we can "hear" the Haydn's humor, for example:

• A dominant pedal in cello part remained 13 bars.
• The final refrain chopped up into two bar-phrases by silences.
• In the final refrain, Haydn added a Adagio surprisingly.
• In the last few bars, when people think the movement had ended, however the refrain started again.

Related knowledge:

Chamber music (in small group):

1. Solo (piano)
2. Duo (violin & piano/cello & piano)
3. Trio
4. Quartet
5. Quintet
6. Sextet
7. Septet
8. Octet
9. Nonet
10. Dectet

Double stopping: Playing two notes (on different strings) at the same time on a string instrument.
Periodic phrasing: pairs of equal-length phrases sounding like questions and answers.
Harmonic rhythm: Harmonic rhythm is also known harmonic tempo is the rate at which the chord change.
G.P.: General pause.




Work cited page:
the picture of Haydn http://www.ebaomonthly.com/ebao/readebao.php?eID=e00620




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 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
                           
     Mozart was a composer of the Classical era. He was a very great composer who composed over 600 works contains symphonic, chamber music, opera and choral music, etc. Mozart was a child prodigy who wrote the first opera and symphony No. 1 in E flat at the age of eight. His father's name was Leopeld and his mother's name was Maria Anna. In Mozart's childhood, his father wanted to make money over him so he took Mozart and his sister who also was a child prodigy and good at playing piano on trip all over the Austria.
     
     Mozart once fell in love with a opera singer named Aloysia Webber. But his father didn't live her, he thought being an opera singer wasn't a appropriate job. So he managed to let his son break up with Aloysia. When Mozart found out his love betrayed him, he was so angry and married Aloysia's sister who was the only woman really loved him in his life. And the he wrote the opera Cosi Fan Tuttti meaning all the women are the same.
     
     Mozart also composed the requiem -- Lacrimosa. But only the first nine bars of the Lacrimosa was composed by Mozart himself. The rest of it was finished by his student -- Sussmayr.
     
Opera: 

• Cosi Fan Tutti

Characterises:


The old man -- Don Alfonso 
Soldiers -- Guglielmo and Ferrando
Soldiers' girl friends -- Fiordiligi and Derabella
Servant -- Despina

• Abduction of the Seraglio
• Le Nozze di Figaro (The marriage of Figaro)
• Don Giovanni (1787)

Characterises:
Don Giovanni -- a womanizer
Donna Anna -- the servant
Leporello -- D.G 's servant
Elvira -- D.G's father.When Mozart composed the opera, his father just died.

• Die Zamberiflotte (Magic Flute)

Kabi