Classical❷

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart（Joannes Chrysostumos Theophilas Mozart）

     Wolfgang Amadeus mozart was aborn on Jan 27, 1756 in Salzbury. He was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works.And he acknowledged as  pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music.

     When he was tow years old, he wrote the first minuet of his life.And he also wrote the first Opera and Symphony No.1 when he was eight years old, in that time, Mozart was acknowledged as child prodigy.

About Mozart's family:
Father: Leopold
Mother: Maria Anna (died when he was 12 years old)
Sister: Maria Anna ("Nannerl")

     Mozart was made a lot of money by work for the church, and his father was so proud of him. Then the Pope of Rome wants Mozart works for him, but Mozart did not do that From this time, he fells in love with Aloysia Webber, who was a Opera singer(in that time, thought women who performed on stage were thought it was posititute), and moved to Vienna when he was 20 years old. 

    

     In that time, Mozart was not good with money, and his father find jobs that was work for Pope who was head of church for both of them(Mozart and his girl friend), and both goes back to Salzbury. But Mozart did not work for Pope, then he went to Vienna again. Then his dad introduces Aloysia to a man who was a member of Royal family(duke).And Aloysia married with the duke. For this reason, he married with Aloysia's sister which is named Constanza.The girl who was only love Mozart, but Mozart not really love her at first. From that, he wrote a Opera which called "Cosi fan tutti"(Women are like that) 

Cosi fan tutti（Women are like that）
Roles:
Don Alfonso              --old man
Guglielmo, Ferrando      --soldiers
Fiordiligi, Dorabella   --The two soldiers' girl friends
Despina                      --waitress

His other Opera:

Abduction of the seraglio

La clemenzi di titus

Le Nozze di Figaro

Don Giovanni

Die Zamberiflote

La finta semplice

Mitridate, re di Ponto

Lo sposo deluso (imcomplete)

    

                    Papagena and Papageno

     He died before he finishs his last piece of work "Lacrimisa", he only finished 9 bars of "Lacrimisa" of requiem, and he was died on fifth of December in 1791 when he was just 35 years old.

Mozart's monument

Classical❶

String quartet 'The Joke', movement 4 (Haydn)

     Franz Joseph Haydn (31 March 1732 – 31 May 1809) was an Austrian composer, one of the most prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these genres. He was also instrumental in the development of the piano trio and in the evolution of sonata form.


     This quartet was composed in the classical period. The term string quartet means that this is written for four string instruments. 

     The 4th movement is in rondo form. This form is characterised by having repeated sections, also known as refrains, in the tonic key, with sections in between, know as episodes. Another musical form commonly used in this period, especially in first movements, are sonata form.

     Functional tonality: notice use of closely related keys: mainly dominant major and relative minor, except for brief modulations in development section. Also, conventional cadences(eg. perfect and imperfect cadence) are used.

What going on in this piece？
    
     The joke of the quartet's title doesn't come until the last movement. I think the beginning is good-natured enough, the main point of interest in the development is a little flight of fancy for the first violin, a few measures of busy solo passagework that could almost pass for a cadenza had this section not been introduced with standard accompaniment in the exposition.

     The trio section contains a charming, slightly rustic dance tune. The slow movement is a Largo sostenuto. The stately melody rises from the cello to the top of the ensemble and undergoes a mild transformation in combination with a second, hesitant chordal theme.

     The Presto, a rondo finale, is based entirely on a quick, silly little repeated-note tune of four giddy two-bar clauses. After a couple of variations the music pulls up short for a brief, bleak Adagio passage, whereupon the inane theme starts up again.

     But now in the coda-here comes the joke-the tune is split into its four tiny components, with a two-bar rest after each one. And just when the melody seems finally to have spurted its final section, Haydn inserts a four-measure rest, suggesting that the work is over, but then has the quartet blurt out the tune's first clause again-taking the audience by surprise, and leaving the movement hanging in mid-air with an unfinished phrase.

Baroque❸

Vivaldi's Four Seasons

 

SPRING (CONCERTO NO. 1)

1Joyful Spring has arrived,
The birds welcome it with their happy songs,
And the brooks in the gentle breezes
Flow with a sweet murmur.
The sky is covered with a black mantle,
Thunder and lightning announce a storm.
When they are silent, the birds
Take up again their harmonious songs.

2And in the flower-rich meadow,
To the gentle murmur of leaves and plants
The goatherd sleeps, his faithful dog at his side.

3 To the merry sounds of a rustic bagpipe

Nymphs and shepherds dance in their beloved spot
When Spring appears in its brilliance.


SUMMER (CONCERTO NO. 2)

1 Under the merciless sun
Languishes man and flock; the pine tree burns,
The cuckoo begins to sing and at once
Join in the turtle doves and the goldfinch.
A gentle breeze blows, but Boreas
Joins battle suddenly with his neighbour,
And the shepherd weeps because overhead
Hangs the dreaded storm, and his destiny.

2 His tired limbs are robbed of their rest
By his fear of the lightning and the heavy thunder
And by the furious swarm of flies and hornets.

3 Alas, his fears are well founded
There is thunder and lightning in the sky
And the hail cuts down the lofty ears of corn.


AUTUMN (CONCERTO NO. 3)

1 The peasant celebrates with song and dance
The pleasure of the rich harvest,
And full of the liquor of Bacchus
They finish their merrymaking with a sleep.

2 All are made to leave off singing and dancing
By the air which now mild gives pleasure
And by the season which invited many
To enjoy a sweet sleep.

3 At dawn the hunters
With horns and guns and dogs leave their home
The beast flees; they follow its traces.
Already terrified and tired by the great noise
Of the guns and the dogs, and wounded it tries
Feebly to escape, but exhausted dies.

WINTER (CONCERTO NO.  4)

1 Frozen and shivering in the icy snow.
In the strong blasts of a terrible wind
To run stamping one’s feet at every step
With one’s teeth chattering through the cold.

2 To spend the quiet and happy days by the fire
Whilst outside the rain soaks everyone.
To walk on the ice with slow steps
And go carefully for fear of falling.

3 To go in haste, slide and fall down:
To go again on the ice and run,
Until the ice cracks and open.
To hear leaving their
Iron-gated house Sirocco,
Boreas and all the winds in battle:
This is winter, but it brings joy.

    
     The Four Seasons concertos were inspired by four paintings of the seasons by the artist Marco Ricci. Music that tells a story or paints a picture is called  programme music. Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons stand out as some of the most descriptive music ever written and were revolutionary in their time.

How do I feel this concerto？

Metre – I usually find that the main pulses fit into groups of twos, threes, or fours. We can  follow the metre while the music is playing. A good place to start is the beginning of “Autumn,” where there are four pulses per measure.

Tempo – The speed may vary from very slow to very fast. The first movement of “Autumn” to be played allegro, while the second movement is adagio.

Dynamics – Dynamics refer to how loudly or softly the music should be played.In baroque music the dynamics usually change abruptly rather than gradually. I can hear this clearly in the first few moments of “Spring.”
Timbre – The bright violin sounds different from a darker-toned viola or from the deep, low cello, even if it’s playing exactly the same note. I can hear an excellent example of the contrast of timbres between the violins and the cellos shortly after the beginning of “Summer.”

Harmony – Some chords sound gentle and pleasant, some may sound harsh or unpleasant. The composer uses these to create the kind of mood he wants at each moment. Listen to the beginning of “Winter.” No melody at all, hardly any rhythm, but what harmony!!  Vivaldi sustains each chord for eight even pulses, then he goes on to the next. Each new chord is a surprise. You never know where Vivaldi will lead you next.

Baroque❷

Baroque music

What is a Baroque dance suite?
    
     Usually begins with a Prelude/Overture/Sinfonia type introductory movement. It is then followed by dance movements.


Four main movements:

Allemande: a stately dance in a quadruple metre of German origin, usually with an upbeat.

Courante/Corrente: a lively dance of Frence origin usually in a triple metre(3/2, 3/4)


Sarabande: this has a slow triple metre(usually 3/4 or 3/2), usually with an emphasis on the 2nd beat


Gigue/Giga: its origin is the British jig. It has in a lively compound metre(6/8, 6/16, 6/4, 9/8)but could also be 3/8 simple triple. This is usually the final movement.
    
     These dance suites could be written for solo instruments, such as keyboard, lute, wind and string instruments.Also, these dance suites could be written for ensembles.
     Composer of Baroque dance suites include Handel, Bach, Telemann, Couperin, Rameau, etc.




Instrumental music

Sarabande and Gigue from Partita in D--by Bach


     These works were not intended for actual dancing, but to be played at home, usually on the harpsichord.
     Here there are no dynamics or marks of articulation, both of them are in the same key and each is in binary form, which means this consists of two repeated sections.
     In sarabande, he uses rounded binary form, the first ending with a perfect cadence in D, the second with an imperfect cadence. The texture of this piece is homophonic.
     As many baroque gigues, the usual time signature is  in compound tine.The first 21 bars are in a fugal texture, the opening melody is known as the fugal subject and is followed by a fugal answers in the left hand, above which the right hand part is known as the countersubject. But Bach does not intend this to be a full-down,serious fugue.
     Unlike the sarabande, the two sections of the gigue are of equal length, but the tonal plan is similar,the first section ends in the dominant and the second passes through a variety of related keys before ending in the tonic. 


Q&A：


Q: What is a rounded binary form?
A: A/Opening theme returns hear the end.




Fugue


What is a fugue?
    
     An imitative polyphonic composition in which a theme or themes are stated successively in all of the voices of the contrapuntal structure.



     In the opening section, the ‘exposition’, the main theme or ‘subject’ is announced in the tonic, after which the second ‘voice’ enters with the Answer, i.e. the same theme at the dominant (or subdominant) pitch while the first may proceed to a Countersubject. This procedure is repeated at different octaves until all the voices have entered and the exposition is complete.

Its main elements are:

(1) a theme, or subject, stated first in one voice alone and then successively in all voices;

(2) the continuation of a voice after the subject, forming an accompaniment to the subject statements in the other voices and sometimes assuming sufficiently distinct character as to be called a countersubject;

(3) passages that are built on a motive or motives derived from the subject or the countersubject but in which these themselves do not appear.

     Those sections in which the subject appears at least once in all voices are called expositions; those in which it does not appear at all are called episodes. Expositions other than the opening one often modulate. The formal structure of any fugue is an alternation of exposition and episode, and an infinite variety of formal scheme is possible. The term fugue designates a contrapuntal texture which may be in any formal design. Imitation as the systematic basis for musical texture was first applied during the generation of Josquin Desprez, Loyset Compère, and others, c.1500. During the 16th cent. the technique was further developed in the instrumental ricercare and canzone. In Germany in the 17th cent. composers such as Sweelinck, Froberger, and Buxtehude developed contrapuntal pieces based on one subject, which led to the fugal style exemplified in the Art of the Fugue, the Goldberg Variations, and the Well-tempered Clavier of J. S. Bach, the master of fugue.

Development of fugue:

     After J.S Bach's fugue was adapted by Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven to the classical style. Brahms was the chief composer to make use of the fugue in the romantic period. A contemporary volume of preludes and fugues is Paul Hindemith's Ludus Tonalis (1943).




Works cited page:
http://www.answers.com/topic/fugue

Bibliography

See A. Mann, The Study of Fugue (1958), R. Bullivant, Fugue (1971).