Viennese School

Vienna, the capital of Austria, was a leading cosmopolitan center in the late 18th century.
This vibrant city stood at the crossorads between Europe and the East, and attracted theleading artists, architects, writers and musicians of the day.
The music of the Classical era is best represented by the work of three great composers, Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. All three weree associated with the city of Vienna.

• in 18th century Vienna, Austria emerged as a musical center
• principal composers include Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, leaders in the forging of the Classical style

Schubert's piano quintet in A major, D 667

Based on the strophic poem Die Forelle by German poet Christians Schubart.

PIano makes its entrance in 1st variation.
6 variations total.
In variation 4, minor mode, indicating the stress of the little trout.

Pathetique sonata

Tremolo accompaniment in left hand in first theme is idiomatic writing as the agitated sound cannot be made with pedal due to the staccatos in the right hand.

Mozart's Piano Concerto no. 17 in G Major, K 453

Written for student, Barbara von Ployer.
Completed in 1784
1st movement:
Opens like a quiet march with a dotted rhythm, reminiscent of Mozart's opera music.
Wind instruments! (principal thematic material)
Double exposition (D Major, dominant key, for piano's exposition)
Cadenza towards end of movement: explored themes already heard; Mozart wrote out cadenza himself, a practice not fully established until Romantic era.
Alternate piano and orchestra

2nd movement:
Andante
3'4
C major
combination of rondo and theme and variation form
Like an extended aria (phrases paired in questions and answers)

Operatic characteristics

• Monody- type of music written for solo voice and continuo that imitated the natural rhythms of improvised speech.

This was a revolutionary concept after the polyphonic vocal compositions of the Renaissance.

Recitative was an equally important part of early opera, and indeed in operas until the late 18th century.

Recitative: a type of speech-like singing used in large-scale vocal genres, particularly operas and oratorios.

• It serves for dialogue or narrative and is clearly different from the arias.
• 2 basic types:
• recitative secco, meaning "dry" reciting, where the notes and meter of the singing follow the verbal accents, accompanied only by the occasional harpsichord chords.
• recitative accompagnato, a type of recitative with accompaniment introduced in 1663 in which the voice is accompanied by instruments.

Aria- Important musical piece in an opera

• From the Italian word "air" or "tune," an aria is an elaborate accompanied song for solo voice in a cantata, opera, or oratorio.
• da capo aria form became extremely popular and refers to th emusical form which is A-B-A: repeat from the beginning until you come to the word fine (end.) Thus, a da capo aria is on e in which the first part is repeated and the singer is expected to add ornamentation in the repeated section.

The role of the instruments also gained importance as operas developed as a commentator on the action.

• Ground bass was an important instrumental device.
• It is a short phrase which was repeated over and over in the lower instrumental voice(s) while the upper voices remain independent. The ground bass was a type of ostinato and a chromatic ground bass portrayed sorrow and grief.

By Monteverdi's time (1567-1643), the instruments were featured alone in ritornellos (repeated passages during a scene) and sinfonias (sightly longer passages for orchestra meant to be performed between scenes or acts).

Indeed, the origins of the Classical symphony can be partially traced back to the role of the sinfonia in late Baroque operas.

Finally, most operas opened with an instrumental section to set the mood, and this eventually developed into the overture.

Origins and Development of Opera (1550-1800)

In beginning: opera was an art for the court for a relatively limited public

1637- In Venice, 1st public opera house opened; more available to non-artistic people; opera began to free itself from the aristocratic and humanistic world from which it originated.

opus (sing.)- work (opera, pl.)

Flourished across Europe

-opera houses were built across Europe during 1700's

Opera formed in late 16th century with the rise of 2 music and literary devices:

-pastorale (form of poetry)

-monody (form of speech-like song taken from Greeks (meaning "1 voice"))

Florentine Camerata (camerata meaning "circle"):

• united these 2 concepts in an attempt to return to the aesthetic ideals of the Greeks
• group of Italian artists, writers, and musicians who sought to revive Greek drama (to discover the power and expressiveness in Greek music)
• This group met between approximately 1580 and 1600 at a time when the term "camerata" was in style.
• They rebelled against Renaissance ideas, madrigals (fashionable), and polyphony, and developed new ideas
• They couldn't find any Greek music, so they had to reinvent it.
• At most 2 people sung at 1 time (unnatural for more)
• Words- set for audience ot understand and be moved by expressiveness of text and music
• Style-> recitative ("speech-s0ng")
• In 16th century, a dramatic recitative style had developed, known as stile rappresentativo, or "theatrical style" in Italian. The melody moved freely over a foundation of simple chords. This style of music was refined and developed by the Camerata and became known as recitative or "speech-song." QUESTION????
• Camerata group included Giulio Caccini, Jacopo Peri, Giovanni de'Bardi (founder) and Vencernzo Galilei.
• Helped to create recitative, monody, and opera.
• Le nuove musiche ("new music")- musical collection written by Giulio Caccini in 1602; it contained also songs using monody, a style which featured a single voice supported by only simple accompaniment
• Caccini- Italian composer and singer who lived mainly at Medici family's court in Florence, Italy.

Monody- reaction to polyphonic music of Ren. (1450-1600)

Eventually, da capo ario format became popular.

da capo ("from the head")- form of music which is A-B-A: repeat from the beginning until you come to the word fine (end). Singer was expected to add ornamentation in the repeated A section.

Another name: ternary where, again, the music in 3 parts or sections, with the 3rd section being an exact or ear-exact repetition of the 1st part, with the middle section providing the contrast

-became widely used by the Romantic Era

Early Examples of Operas:

The premiere of L'Euridice in 1600 by Jacopo Peri and Giulio Caccin is considered the beginning of modern opera.

First true opera composer: Monteverdi

• his first opera, L'Orfeo, was performed in 1607.
• introduced the concept of a musical line in to his operas, and from this point forward, monody was used to move the plot forward in the form of recitative, or "speech-song."

Composers did not usually write their own librettos (translates to "little book" and is the text of a vocal work.) In Baroque operas, poets and authors most often wrote the words.

Development of Pianoforte

1709- Italian harpsichord maker Christofori combined aspects of 3 instruments plus an invention of his own to make the first pianoforte.

• From the dulcimer, he took the leather-covered hammer
• From the clavichord, the action of the struck string
• from the harpsichord, a system of dampers attached to the jacks for the damping action
• His own invention, the "escapment" allowed the hammer to fall away from the strings after striking them.

His piano had a compass of 4 1/2 octaves. There were two strings to each note key and each key was also provided with an individual damper.

1740- Silbermann, a German piano builder, invented the prell mechanism which solved the problem of rapid repetition of the hammers.

1770- Stein perfected the Prell mechanism and added an escapment (with an "e" or not?) device. His new action was famous throughout Europe as the Viennese action.

1783- Broadwood of London invented the damper pedal action

1793- Broadwood invented the una corde pedal

1777-Erard brothers of France produced his first piano which brought them much fame. After moving to England, they worked for the Broadwood Company where they combined the rapid action of the German pianos with the powerful sonority of the English pianos.

1818- Erard brothers invented the "double escapement" key action. This action keeps the hammers consistently in touch with the key, allowing repetition of a note without waiting for the hammer to return to its bed. The unheard-of force exerted by Liszt and his pupils caused the instrument makers to screw both ends of the strings in to iron plates to ensure the tuning. Also, the strings were made of the toughest available material, cast steel.

Period from 1800 to 1830- when the piano had more changes than any other standard Western instrument, and its central role in the home was confirmed. The piano's range increased from 6 1/2 to 7 octaves and later to 7 1/3 octaves. Improvements were also made in stringing and tension bracing. By the 1830's, the piano closely resembled the modern piano.

Thus, the history of the piano after the perfection of the double escapemet action is largely concerned with the development of metal bracing that could withstand the ever-increasing tension imposed by the thicker strings required for increased loudness and brilliance.

The greatest single advance was the invention in 1825 of the one piece cast-iron frame by Babcock in Boston, USA, which also allowed for a more accurate tuning. Babcock was also the first to conceive of cross-stringing, an arrangement in which the strings of treble and middle register fan out over most of the soundboard while the bass strings cross over them, forming a separate fan at a higher level. More strings were therefore over the highly resonant central portion of the soundboard. These two features were in the grand piano exhibited in 15 by Steinway and Sons of New York.

Notes in the highest register could now be triple strung for a richer sound, while bass strings were improved by the use of wound steel. The modern piano frame supports a total pull of 20 tons!!! The length of the strings should double every octave and to compensate, the string diameter and weight are gradually increased so that all the strings will be at their proper pitches at the same tension. Loss of tone in the bass is therefore evident on a spinet versus a grand- the lowest bass string on a grand piano, unwound, is 22 feet long.

1874- Steinway developed and added the sostenuto (or middle) pedal to their pianos (it was first used in France in 1860). By 1860, the modern piano as we now have it today had evolved to 88 keys with a total range of 7 1/4 octaves. A nine foot grand's lowest note has a seven foot long string.