Lecture 14: Classical Music II

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LECTURE 14: Classical Music II

STYLE COMPARISONS and FORM

How strong are your stomach muscles?

We're about to find out! There's a listening exercise I like to do in the classroom that works just fine at the computer too-and it will give you a little chance to stretch a bit and test your strength!

We're going to listen to two excerpts:

J.S. Bach's Allemande from the G Minor English Suite (the beginning; you may remember it because we heard it a few lectures back)
Mozart's Sonata in F Major for Piano (beginning)

The point of the exercise is to see the difference in phrasing between the Baroque style and the Classical-- a difference which is at the crux of understanding the two styles. I won't tell you exactly what that difference is-that's what your muscles are going to tell you!

Before we begin, of course, make sure you recall what a phrase is (you can go back to Lecture 1 for a quick refresher). You may remember that phrases are often strung together to form complete thoughts-- it is these complete thoughts which we want to follow. I'd like you to listen to each piece and tally up how many complete thoughts you hear in each excerpt.

Let's take the Bach example first. Here's how to do the exercise. Give yourself enough room to stretch your legs out straight in front of you. Start out with both legs stretched out and just hold them there. Listen to the opening phrase. When it ends put your legs down and keep them down through the whole next phrase. When that phrase ends extend your legs again and keep them up throughout that phrase. So in other words you'll be alternating one-phrase-legs-up and one-phrase-legs-resting. You will need to concentrate to determine where the phrase/idea endings are. Please count up how many phrases you hear in each of the excerpts.

Now: Here are the Bach and the Mozart- don't peek below while you're listening and don't cheat on those leg lifts!

Bach: Allemande from G minor English Suite
Mozart: Exposition from F Major Piano Sonata, K. 332

O.K.-What did you come up with?

If you were listening carefully you were probably dying through the Bach. There was really only one phrase in the whole excerpt, and it was about 65 seconds long, so you would have had no chance to lower your legs at all in that entire excerpt! Have you ever followed a musical line so closely in your life? Bach, like many Baroque composers, really loved long, long lines, and for a keyboard player that's really not a problem. But Bach was also notorious for writing this kind of long, long line for oboists, flutists, and singers, too. Since they would have had precious little chance to take a breath (as you had no chance to lower your legs) they regarded Bach's lines as killing. No doubt this was demanding stuff-but you have to admit that it's also very beautiful! The Mozart was probably the opposite story. You were raising and lowering your legs all the time, because the phrases were so short and there were so many of them. Perhaps you even had a hard time figuring out where one phrase ended and the next began.

So now you've seen how Bach could write strikingly long phrases while Mozart wrote short ones. All kidding aside, does that tell you anything? Does that mean anything, or have any impact on the music? Yes, it actually does, in several ways.

You may remember that the Baroque era started with a fascination for ancient Greek culture and for the idea of unity in expression. This manifested itself in the idea of a single affect, or mood, for each piece. The Bach was certainly unified in that respect. By comparison, Mozart might seem to be almost manic in his hopping from one idea to the next. In the time it took Bach to finish one idea, Mozart had gone through about seven different ones!

The composers of the later 18^th century found the old unity boring; the new style had much more variety in it. Music, they thought, should express a range of emotions, and the contrast and tension that their juxtaposition produced was the basis for a whole new approach to form and a totally different artistic experience.

Now, what else do you notice?

Let's look at the rhythm. Not only were there many melodies of contrasting character, but the rhythms of the music changed also. The rhythm of Baroque music had a regularity to it that many people today really enjoy. The term for it was "fortspinnung" (pronounced "fort-shpinnung"), implying that the music was "spun forth," or spun out. But that regularity was seen as tedious and unimaginative to composers of the new style.

What else is different between these two styles?

Dynamics were also contrasting in our examples, and not just because the harpsichord handles dynamics differently than the piano. In the Baroque era, dynamics were stable for longer periods of time whereas in the Classical era dynamics were more graded and varied. In other words, one heard more crescendos and decrescendos in classical music, and dynamics were certainly written in more frequently (by contrast, Bach did not use dynamics markings in his entire career except for a handful of times.)

Did you notice textural differences? The Bach piece had little snippets of polyphony and imitation; the left hand part was as melodically important as the right hand part. You know that polyphony practically became a dirty word in the early classical era-- and the Mozart sonata is a good example of the alternative texture that classical composers preferred: it was called homophony.

The term homophony has two meanings: in Renaissance music it stood for a chordal texture. But in the classical era it referred to a texture of "melody over accompaniment." In homophony, a melody reigns over and above a simple accompaniment. The Mozart sonata features lovely melodic lines in the top part (right hand) over a simple accompaniment in the bottom part (left hand), whereas in the Bach the left hand material is just as interesting and important as the right hand. Later on in the classical era, composers (such as Mozart) rediscovered the beauties of the polyphonic style, although by and large when they incorporated polyphony into their own music it was fashioned in a different way than it had been in the Baroque era.

Now let's do some more listening. Slide the Kamien CD2 into your CD-ROM drive. I'd like to add some comments to the examples on your set. We'll be listening to these three forms:

Theme and Variation
Minuet (and Trio)
Sonata form

Keeping track of where you are in a piece of music is a little like taking a road trip-- you can certainly just "vege out" and go along for the ride. Nothing wrong with that. But if you observe the mountains, look out for the sunsets and get immersed in the whole moving show, it can change your trip altogether. Here are some suggestions for listening along to the Kamien CDs.

Theme and Variation form (Haydn Symphony No. 94 in G)

You're already familiar with Theme and Variation form. But for comparison's sake, think back to the Monteverdi Lamento della Ninfa (or, if you prefer, its modern incarnation in the Ray Charles song!). That was a variation on a bass. That's why that particular type of theme-and-variation was called a passacaglia or chaconne. The Haydn example, on the other hand, is a variation on the upper part, the melody. This is a subtle shift in emphasis, from a type of variation based more on harmony (and centered around material in the bass) to a type of variation based more on melody (and centered around material in the upper part). Think of this concept as once again showing a preference for the homophonic texture over the polyphonic.

The theme is plainly laid out and very obviously sectional. This is typical of themes in variation form and is absolutely necessary because the clearer the structure of the theme the easier it will be for the listener to follow the variations and to actually apprehend what is being varied.

This generally sectional quality is the "up" side of theme-and-variation form. It's what makes the form fun to listen to because it's not too hard to follow and it's fascinating to see how imaginative a composer can be with the same material. But the "up" side is also the "down" side to the form, because the sectional quality is so regular that it can easily become tedious and predictable.

Nonetheless, in the hands of a master, there are many ways to make a theme-and-variation entertaining, even if the theme is as simple as a nursery rhyme, which this example practically is. As you listen, try to pick up as many variant techniques as you can, which can include:

Change of mode (i.e., going from major to minor)
Change of texture (i.e., going from homophonic to polyphonic-but just a touch!)
Change of tempo (i.e., suddenly a slow variation, or a very fast one)
Switching registers (i.e., playing something in a higher area that was formerly in a lower area)
Embellishing the tune (i.e., adding little decorations, passing notes, etc.)
Varying the accompaniment

Minuet: Mozart Eine Kleine Nachtmusik

Perhaps you're wondering what happened to dance music after the Baroque era. Dancing never faded from fashion, certainly, but dances like the Allemande and Courante went out of style. Only the Minuet had a long life, and it was actually extremely popular in the Classical era. Again, then as now, people didn't always dance to dance music--sometimes they just listened to it. And it became a standard movement in many larger pieces such as symphonies and sonatas.

The minuet, like other dances, was in binary form. In terms of gesture it was rather stately, regal, and big, and was often performed by large forces. Probably because of this rather grandiose sweep, it became the fashion to contrast the minuet with a small dance performed by just three players: a trio. The trio had the same binary form with repeats. After the trio the minuet would return (da capo), with or without the repeats taken. As you listen to the Mozart Minuet from Eine Kleine Nachtmusik you'll be going through a number of sections, so see if you can watch out for them and stay "with" the piece.

Sonata form

The final form we'll work on now is sonata form, the crowning glory of the classical era. Sonata form was usually employed in the first movement of symphonies, sonatas, concertos, and other major works. It is a form that showcases the idea of contrast: contrast of themes and contrast of harmonic areas. While the idea of contrasting themes is obvious enough to follow, the contrast of harmonic areas is a subtler concept.

Let's take some time to look at this. Sonata form evolved from binary form (the binary form of dances). You already are quite familiar with dance pieces but we didn't discuss the harmonic basis of them. The composer started in the tonic (the home chord of the key) and modulated to the dominant (the next most important chord of the key) by the end of the first half. The second half, starting in the dominant, modulated further afield, and then worked its way back to the tonic, ending, of course, in the tonic.

Classical composers took this basic scheme and expanded it slightly, changing the format and dimensions to accommodate the idea of contrasting themes. The shape that emerged from this "tweaking" of binary form was basically a ternary form with sections which eventually gained the labels exposition, development, and recapitulation.

In brief, the exposition was the section used to "expose" the ideas--the materials--of the piece, to introduce them to the listener. Generally (though by no means always!) there were two contrasting themes (or theme groups) in the exposition, often a fast, energetic one followed by a more lyrical one. The section started in the tonic with the first theme or theme group; by the end of that first mini-section the piece had already modulated to the dominant. (In the case of a minor-key piece it would modulate to the relative major). The second theme (or theme group) then started in the dominant (or relative major) and stayed there until the end of the exposition. The exposition was filled with contrasting dynamics as well.

The development section was used to develop the material of the exposition. It started out in the dominant (or relative major) and modulated freely through many keys. The idea was to venture far afield of the tonic key and to explore the possibilities of the ideas, fragmenting them, recombining them, and in general transforming them.

This sense of exploration set the stage for the grand climax of the piece: the return home, or the recapitulation. With the recap the composer brings the listener back to the tonic and to the opening material of the exposition. From there on the piece often ran much of the exposition all over again--with one important qualification. Obviously, if the composer repeated the modulatory scheme of the exposition the piece would end in the wrong key--either the dominant or the relative major. So between the first theme (or theme group) and the second, there would have to be some kind of accommodation to keep all the material in the tonic key. This is a tricky maneuver but it is usually done so subtly that the listener doesn't even notice it. If the piece needs a little section at the end the composer will add a coda, or tail section. This little extension of the piece serves to ground the piece and make the ending more satisfying and conclusive.

So there you have it-- a brief rundown of sonata form. It's important to emphasize that sonata form (sometimes called sonata-allegro form, or first-movement form because it is usually used in the first movement of a piece) cannot be nailed down to one scheme or pattern. To the contrary, one of the advantages of sonata form is that it was broad enough to allow individuality and experimentation. The form has in fact been so flexible in history that it has actually lasted until today, although of course, with modifications.

How do you pronounce the names of the famous composers, anyway? That's a question I've been asked. Here, in response, is Linda's little Pronunciation Guide:
Mozart == Mo-tzart (gotta get that little 'tz' sound in there or it's not right.)
Haydn == Hide-in (not like the Planetarium in New York City...)
Beethoven == Bay-toe-vin (you probably knew this one already.)
Bach == this is a hard one to put into English. It's not 'Batch.' You have to make the 'ch' sound as it's done in German, with a gentle throat sound. The dictionary puts it this way: bäkh
All accents are on the FIRST syllable.