This document summarizes classical music history from 1730 to 1825 through four periods. It describes how the classical style emerged from the Baroque era, with composers like Haydn and Mozart establishing forms like the symphony and string quartet. Their works saw a shift to clearer textures, striking melodies, and integration of Baroque and classical elements. Younger composers like Beethoven then expanded on these styles, writing longer, more complex works that marked the late classical period and transition to romanticism.

1. By: Miguel Iriarte Eduardo Lacave Diego Ruiz CLASSICAL MUSIC HISTORICAL CONTEXT

2. Index 4 Periods: 1730-1760 1760-1775 1775-1790 1790-1825

3. 1730-1760 At first the new style took Baroque forms like “da capo aria” and the “sinfonía”. However, over time, the new aesthetic caused into how pieces were put together, and basic layouts changed. Composers from this period sought dramatic effects, striking melodies, and clearer textures. Another important break with the past was the radical overhaul of opera by Chtistoph Willibald Gluck.

4. 1760-1775 In the late 1750s there were flourishing centers of the new style. A lot of symphonies were composed and there were "bands" of players associated with theatres. Many consider this breakthrough to have been made by C.P.E. Bach, Gluck, and several others. In fact, C.P.E. Bach and Gluck are often considered to be founders of the Classical style. This period faded away in music and literature: however, it influenced what came afterward and would eventually be a component of aesthetic taste in later decades. The “Farewell Symphony” No. 45 in F Minor, exemplifies Haydn's integration of the differing demands of the new style. In 1772, Haydn completed his Opus 20 set of six string quartets. For some this marks the beginning of the "mature" Classical style, where the period of reaction against the complexity of the late Baroque began to be replaced with a period of integration of elements of both Baroque and Classical styles.

5. 1775-1790 Haydn, having worked for over a decade as the music director for a prince, had far more resources and scope for composing than most and also the ability to shape the forces that would play his music. His first important breakthrough was in the Opus 33 string quartets (1781). Haydn's gift to music was a way of composing, but a younger contemporary (Mozart), brought his genius to Haydn's ideas and applied them to two of the major genres of the day: opera, and the virtuoso concerto.

6. 1775-1790 (II) Mozart rapidly came to the attention of Haydn, who hailed the new composer, studied his works, and considered the younger man his only true peer in music. In Mozart, Haydn found a greater range of instrumentation, dramatic effect and melodic resource; the learning relationship moved in two directions. It was during this decade that public taste began, increasingly, to recognize that Haydn and Mozart had reached a higher standard of composition. By the time Mozart arrived at age 25, in 1781, the dominant styles of Vienna were recognizably connected to the emergence in the 1750s of the early Classical style. One composer who was influential in spreading the more serious style that Mozart and Haydn had formed is Muzio Clementi, a gifted virtuoso pianist who tied with Mozart in a musical "duel" before the emperor in which they each improvised and performed their compositions.

7. 1790-1825 When Haydn and Mozart began composing, symphonies were played as single movements and many of them lasted only ten or twelve minutes; instrumental groups had varying standards of playing, and the continuo was a central part of music-making. In 1790, just before Mozart's death, with his reputation spreading rapidly, Haydn was poised for a series of successes, notably his late oratorios and "London" symphonies. The moment was again ripe for a dramatic shift. During the 1790s, there emerged of a new generation of composers. In 1788 Luigi Cerubini settled in Paris and in 1791 composed Lodoiska, an opera that rose him to fame. Its style is clearly reflective of the mature Haydn and Mozart, and its instrumentation gave it a weight that had not yet been felt in the grand opera. The most fateful of the new generation was Beethoven, who launched his numbered works in 1794 with a set of three piano trios, which remain in the repertoire. He concentrated more on the piano than any other instrument, and his time in London in 1791 and 1792 generated the composition and publication in 1793 of three piano sonatas, opus 2, which idiomatically used Mozart's techniques of avoiding the expected cadence, and Clementi's sometimes modally uncertain virtuoso figuration.

8. 1790-1825 (II) The crucial differences with the previous wave can be seen in the downward shift in melodies, increasing durations of movements, the acceptance of Mozart and Haydn. In short, the late Classical was seeking a music that was internally more complex. The growth of concert societies and amateur orchestras, marking the importance of music as part of middle-class life, contributed to a booming market for pianos, piano music, and virtuosi to serve as examplars. Hummel, Beethoven, and Clementi were all renowned for their improvising. Direct influence of the Baroque continued to fade. Another feature of the period is the growing number of performances where the composer was not present. This led to increased detail and specificity in notation; for example, there were fewer "optional" parts that stood separately from the main score. The force of these shifts became apparent with Beethoven's 3rd Symphony, given the name Eroica, which is Italian for "heroic", by the composer. As with Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, it may not have been the first in all of its innovations, but its aggressive use of every part of the Classical style set it apart from its contemporary works: in length, ambition, and harmonic resources.

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