PART 4: Video Intro

 

Three guitars and a drum set. It was the standard instrumentation for all sorts of rock groups from the 1960s and '70s-the Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Who, etc., and it's astounding to think about how much music was squeezed from that particular combination. It worked, and it worked well--for a time, at least. In the last twenty or so years, especially with the advent of electronic keyboards, there's been a kind of free expansion of rock instrumentation. But some musicians have never tired of the old combination and continue to find new sounds in the "classic" combination.

Every age seems to have its own instrumentation-some favorite combination, or maybe a few combinations-that naturally express the sound and ideas, the "zeitgeist" of a time. Some work for a while and then wear thin. Others keep being reinvented by succeeding generations.

The Baroque trio sonata was the three-guitars-and-a-drum-set of its time. Despite its name, the trio sonata combination actually used four instruments. Bear with me while I briefly explain why. The typical trio sonata instrumentation used two high instruments (such as 2 violins, or a flute and oboe, or even violin and flute, etc.) to carry the melodic lines. They played over an accompaniment of harpsichord with a cello (or bassoon or gamba) doubling the bass part (left hand) of the keyboard. This was the engine that drove hundreds of composers in writing literally thousands of pieces.

By the middle of the 18^th century the trio sonata began to metamorphose into a slightly different, more flexible combination, one which became seminal in the history of music: the string quartet.

Two violins, a viola, and a cello. This instrumentation was the three-guitars-and-a-drum-set of the 18th century.  It constituted one of the major genres of the classical era, and it is still not exhausted to this day, because many wonderful modern string quartets continue to be written in the 20th century.  The father of this genre is generally considered to be Franz Josef Haydn, a composer who became known for the genial name of "Papa" Haydn. What an incredible life span Haydn had--going from the last days of the Baroque era (he was born 18 years before the death of Bach in 1732) through the classical era, and beyond (he died in 1809, on the cusp of the Romantic era.)

The first string quartets were somewhat of an adaptation of the trio sonata texture because they featured the upper voices so much. The bass parts were very subservient to the top parts, as you can see from this brief example, in which the cellist plays just one note, over and over!

Haydn: String Quartet (called a "divertimento") Opus 1, No. 1

Either the cellists' union complained about their second-class parts or Haydn just decided to give them more interesting ones...either way, the string quartet under his hands soon evolved into a very democratic union of four parts, each contributing equally, and each with equal weight to pull. This excerpt of a Haydn string quartet should make the changed approach obvious:

Haydn: String Quartet Opus 20, No. 2

The string quartet was built on the four movement scheme: a fast opening movement generally in sonata form, a slow movement, a minuet and a fast finale.

Listening to string quartets--or better yet, playing string quartets is one of the most civilized activities I can think of. Thomas Jefferson loved to play string quartets to unwind--he even invented a special music rack to hold the sheet music parts for a quartet. You can see it on display at his Virginia home, Monticello. It is a single stand, of beautifully carved and polished wood, holding four separate music racks that form a square around one communal stand.

 

STRING QUARTETS: Haydn: Op. 33, No. 2 Mozart: K. 465 in C Beethoven: Op. 18 in F; Op. 59, No. 2; Op. 131 in c#

Haydn composed over 80 string quartets during a period of about 40 years. His quartets feature a lively give-and-take of all parts, in his characteristically jocular style. Mozart's quartets, by contrast, have a more refined emotional tone. Beethoven expanded the quartet (some of his run more than a half-hour in length), and he often replaced the minuet movement (the third movement) with a scherzo, which was a little rougher in feeling than the more aristocratic minuet. Beethoven's late string quartet in c# minor is actually in seven movements--an unusual shape which was an innovation. The whole piece is built somewhat like a big arch, with the highpoint being the center movement, around which the other six movements flowed.

One more comment on this idea of the civilizing quality of string quartets--a friend of mine, Dr. Paula Washington, did research at New York University in which she monitored the brain waves of people while they played string quartets. Often a quartet moves and breathes as a unit, and the members of this group, as is common with string quartets, always had a camaraderie with each other. They mentioned feeling that, while they played together, they were on the "same wavelength"-- and Paula's pictures of their brain activity proved that they really were! When they felt the sensation of being in sync with each other in the act of playing, their brain waves actually reflected that.

Public music

It has been said that the classical style was the first to cultivate both public music and private music, meaning music for concert halls as opposed to music for the home, the chamber or the salon. In the realm of private music the classical era gave birth, as we saw, to the genre of the string quartet, while its gift to the field of public music was the symphony.

Think about it for a moment: here we have the beginning of public concerts, presented before large, paying audiences, in big halls. If you were a composer, what kind of piece would you write? And what kind of performing forces would you use?

The natural response of 18^th century composers was to use this new public venue to produce something ambitious. They opted for creating large-scale works of substantial breadth and depth: symphonies, concertos, and operas. The symphony in particular showcased a big instrumental ensemble--an orchestra--that could fill a large hall impressively. In this way we can see how intertwined the origins of the symphony were with the advent of concert halls and the growth of the orchestra.

The "standard" orchestra we know today, then, developed in Italy and Germany during this time period. It ranged in size from about 20 players up to about 60 by the end of the century. The orchestra (or symphony, as it is also called) usually included:

A symphony is an extended orchestral work in several movements. As a genre it originated in the "sinfonia," a fast-slow-fast opera overture movement which became popular enough among audiences to warrant its performance on the concert stage--without the opera!

The earliest symphonies were short--perhaps 15 minutes long--so that a composer such as Haydn could write 102 of them. During the course of the late 18^th century the symphony became the most prestigious and important avenue for public recognition. Symphonies became longer and more complicated, with a consequence that a composer such as Mozart was able to write only 41 of them, while Beethoven penned just 9.

	Mozart "Jupiter Symphony," just simply one of the most gorgeous pieces of music ever written. The last movement is a famous tour-de-force of updated contrapuntal technique.
It doesn't use imitative counterpoint (as in Bach, for instance, when a melody in one voice is imitated in another voice), but rather non-imitative counterpoint (meaning that the contrapuntal texture is made up of several different melodies/ideas.) At one point, Mozart juggles five different ideas at the same time--and they work together perfectly.

Beethoven in particular expanded the symphony to vast dimensions of unprecedented length. The symphony was a grand statement for him and he used them for political, moral, and philosophical musings. Beethoven's symphonies are a catalog of bold innovations, including:

• larger performing forces
• literal programs (the "Pastorale" symphony)
• incorporation of voice (the 9^th symphony, which has vocal soloists and chorus)
• Replacement of the (polite) minuet with the (sometimes rather impolite) scherzo.
• Constant development. Beethoven did not limit the development of his ideas to the "development section." Rather, he sometimes started development right away in the exposition, and even continued it up through the coda.

 

Beethoven Symphony No. 3. The Eroica (or "Hero") was originally dedicated to Napoleon, who Beethoven thought was an enlightened leader. Upon hearing that Napoleon had crowned himself emperor, however, Beethoven violently crossed out the dedication and declared that the piece was dedicated instead to the memory of a hero (a hero in general).

The 6th Symphony is the "Pastorale," which you might recognize from the old Disney film, "Fantasia." It is a quite literal description of bucolic life, complete with sunny skies, shepherds tunes, and raging thunderstorms.  The 9th Symphony is too ambitious to be summed up in a few words. But suffice it to say that it contains the famous "Ode to Joy" which has virtually become the anthem of world peace. It was played at the opening of the Olympic Games in Nagano, in Spring 1998, and is probably Beethoven's most well known melody.

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