4.1: An Overview of the Classical Era

The Classical Era (1750-~1820)

The Classical era comes after the Baroque Period (refer to Chapter 1 of this text) and is one of the shortest time periods in Western music history, and yet it had one of the most significant impacts on modern music. The term Classical is a bit of a misnomer: the term Classical typically refers to Ancient Greece (the Classical philosophers like Plato, Aristotle, etc.), but the Classical era of music spans the mid- to late 1700s. We use the term to describe this music because the composers, writers, philosophers, and artists of this time period were greatly influenced by that of Ancient Greece. As you'll see in the video links and pages throughout this chapter, Greek aesthetics of logic, reasoning, balance, and symmetry all play a huge role in the organization of music throughout this time period.

The Classical era overlaps with the Age of Enlightenment (~1720-1790), which promoted logic, reasoning, science and individual liberty, and rebelled against the religious oligarchies of the previous centuries. It also promoted a rising middle class at the expense of the political and religious leaders. During this time period, we see the American Revolution as well as the French Revolution. The political philosophers of this time period were influenced by the writings of the Classical Greek philosophers.

Vienna (the capital of Austria) was the cultural hub during much of this time in Europe; composers who wanted to make it big would travel to Austria to get their music performed. Composers like Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart were born in Austria, while Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Germany. These three composers are the most prominent and influential composers of Western European art music of this time period, and together are considered the "First Viennese School" of composition; they influenced composers across all of Western Europe.

The Classical Era sees the birth of the Symphony, a multi-movement work written for orchestra. It also sees the birth of the String Quartet, both as an ensemble of 4 string players, and as a multi-movement work for 4 string players (in other words, composers can write a multi-movement string quartet piece for a string quartet as an ensemble). Although the Piano was invented in the latter half of the Baroque period (which preceded the Classical Era), it gained prominence in the Classical Era. All of the most prominent composers wrote for piano. They wrote for solo piano and they also included it in their chamber works.

One of the greatest contributions to modern music that the Classical Era made was to musical form. As you read through this unit, you'll notice that the music is highly logical in its construction, both from a micro- and macro-level. Music is organized in well-balanced, logical, and sometimes symmetrical ways, from the larger 4-movement cycle all the way down to the 8-measure phrase. As we go through this unit, we'll spend a significant amount of time discussing how the music is organized.

For those interested in downloading a PDF handout of this unit's PowerPoint file, click here.