Classical Music Period: Characteristics and Composers

Introduction to the Classical Period

The Classical period in Western music generally encompasses the years between 1750 and 1820. However, the term Classical music is often used colloquially to refer to Western art music, spanning various styles from the ninth century to the present, particularly from the sixteenth or seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries.

The Classical period falls between the Baroque and the Romantic periods.

Main Characteristics of Classical Music

Classical music features a lighter, clearer texture than Baroque music and is less complex. It is mainly homophonic, meaning a melody above chordal accompaniment (though counterpoint was still used, especially later in the period). The style galant was prominent during the Classical period, emphasizing light elegance in contrast to the Baroque's dignified seriousness and grandeur.

Variety and contrast within a piece became more pronounced. There was a greater variety of keys, melodies, rhythms, and dynamics (using crescendo, diminuendo, and sforzando), along with frequent changes in mood and timbre. Melodies were typically shorter than those in Baroque music, with clear-cut phrases and clearly marked cadences. The orchestra increased in size and range; the harpsichord continuo fell out of use, and the woodwind section became self-contained. As a solo instrument, the harpsichord was replaced by the piano (or fortepiano). Early piano music was light in texture, often featuring Alberti bass accompaniment, but it later evolved to become richer, more sonorous, and more powerful.

Key Composers of the Classical Period

The most renowned composers from this period are Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Franz Schubert. Other notable figures include Luigi Boccherini, Muzio Clementi, Antonio Soler, Antonio Salieri, François Joseph Gossec, Johann Stamitz, Carl Friedrich Abel, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, and Christoph Willibald Gluck. Ludwig van Beethoven is also regarded either as a Romantic composer or as a transitional figure leading into the Romantic period.

Instrumental Forms in Classical Music

Importance was given to instrumental music. The main forms were the sonata, string quartet, symphony, concerto, serenade, and divertimento. Sonata form developed into the most important structure, used in the first movement of most large-scale works, as well as in other movements and single pieces like overtures.

Compositional Style of the Classical Period

• An emphasis on elegance and balance.
• Short, well-balanced melodies and clear-cut question-and-answer phrases.
• Mainly simple diatonic harmony.
• Mainly homophonic textures (melody plus accompaniment) but with some use of counterpoint (where two or more melodic lines are combined).
• Use of contrasting moods.

Amadeus: A Fictionalized Look at Mozart

Amadeus is set in Vienna, Austria, during the latter half of the 18th century. It presents a fictionalized story of Mozart from the time he left Salzburg, described by its writer as a "fantasia on the theme of Mozart and Salieri". Mozart's music is featured extensively in the film's soundtrack. The film portrays a fictional rivalry between Mozart and the Italian composer Antonio Salieri at the court of Emperor Joseph II. The narrator, Salieri, presents the story in an autobiographical style, starting and ending in a similar manner, a technique known as "in medias res".