The Classical Period (1750 - 1820)
Yes, there is a classical period in the development of western classical music. Certain trends lead up to his period as well as help to define it. These are as follows:
1. Composers began backing off on the extremes of opera, such as writing passages that were intricate and demanding on the vocal cords. They attempted to make opera more natural by focusing more on the dramatic narrative.
2. A new tough kid moves into the neighborhood--the piano.
3. The development of the symphony, which is a mult-movement work for a symphony orchestra. That is, symphony refers to both a style of composing and to an orchestra that performs it.
Christoph Willibald von Gluck
Born: Erasbach, near Weidenwang, July 2, 1714
Died: Vienna, November 15, 1787
Born in Bavaria, Gluck left home at the age of fourteen and spent several years in Prague. Eventully he acquired enough money to travel and study music in Vienna and in Italy. Here he became acquainted with the styles of Baroque opera and composed several operas in the prevailing style. Between 1745 and 1760, he traveled over Europe during which time he was able to make a survey of the state of opera at the time. A musical theorist as well as a composer, by 1761 Gluck had come to the conclusion that the important elements in ballet and opera should be the story and the feelings of the characters, not the ridiculous intrigues, mistaken identities, and myriad sub-plots that had become the stock-in-trade of the Baroque opera. Gluck intended to reform the opera of the late eighteenth-century by abolishing vocal virtuosity for its own sake and causing the music to serve the needs of the drama.
Gluck's first work to incorporate these new practices remains his most popular opera. Premiered in Vienna in 1762, it was based (perhaps not surprisingly) on the classic Greek subject of Orpheus, the greatest musician of legendary antiquity. The lament of Orpheus (castrato) upon losing his beloved wife to the Underworld a second time remains one of the most moving arias from early Classical opera "Che farò senza Euridice" from Orfeo ed Euridice.
Here Janet Baker sings the male part, which originally was written by Gluck to be sung by a castrato. Note the vocalist's melody is not written over-the-top, ornate, difficult to the extreme. This allows the story line to come to the forefront.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSHf_zIgMCo
Links to an external site.
In this version of "Che farò senza Euridice" Luciano Pavarotti sings the male role.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Okcd21d5tg
Links to an external site.
The Piano
Here we will focus on a single instrument, one that has become perhaps the most important in classical music--the piano. It has an interesting history, and it was not until the Classical period that it begins to throw its weight around. Prior to the modern piano, the piano came in earlier forms such as the harpsichord. However, the harpsichord was made with thin strings that were plucked. The sound was soft and the volume non variable. In other words, no matter how hard or soft one presses down on the keys of a harpsichord, the volume of sound was the same. This did not allow composers to write soft, or quiet passages for the instrument, which is seen as a negative.
As technology evolves and the ability to work with metal, the pianoforte or piano for short, comes into existence. It uses thicker strings made with better metal, thus it sounds louder. Also, the hammer mechanisms undergo a design boost and are now able to play soft or loud, depending on the force a player applies to the key when pressing down.
Follow the link below and read about the piano and its evolution in more detail. Be sure to listen to the comparison of the modern piano with the 19th Century version. Read up to the subheading, History and musical performance.
Link Links to an external site.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano