Rise

of the Keyboard Sonata in Galant and Empfindsam styles

• related to “domestic sphere”

• performed to oneself or one’s family

MUHI 201
History of Western Music I • musical gestures are primarily small-scale, decorous, “feminine” in
character
Fall 2017 [except Empfindsam = male music for male audience]

Rise of the Symphony:

Concert Life and the Rise of the Symphony
• related to the “public sphere”

Peter Bennett • performed at public concert to a paying audience

• musical gestures are large-scale, often “masculine” in character

How did it happen? The Public Concert: France

The term “Sinfonia” associated with the music before an Italian opera – e.g. Paris, Le Concert Spirituel
the “sinfonia avanti l’opera” (“symphony before the opera”)
• founded in 1725 by Anne Dannican Philidor
• gradually liberated from operatic context • performs instrumental and sacred Latin music during Lent
• uses orchestra and soloists from the Opera
• performed as an accompaniment to an evening social events, in a • held in a room at the Tuileries Palace
building adapted for the purpose, or in the open air – defined by • charges admission
their social context and function, not their musical characteristics
Sample program: 1754
• gradually become the reason for the gathering, not the
accompaniment to it Symphony, Stamitz
Domine in virtute, Cordelet
Nubes et Caligo, Lalande
• become more and more serious as a result Violin concerto, Stamitz
Sonata for viola d’amore, Stamitz
Coeli enarrant, Mondonville

i.e. in almost all public concerts, the Symphony is programmed

as an Overture

The Public Concert: Italy Function and history define symphony’s musical characteristics
e.g. Milan, Lenten Concert series Johann Adolf Scheibe, Critische Musikus (1737)

• founded in 1730s by Giovanni Battista Sammartini
o composer of operas and sacred music
o teacher of Glück 1737-41
o credited with providing the model for Haydn’s music
• takes place on the ramparts of Castello Sforzesco – 1758 becomes the Intrada, a type of instrumental work which really comes from the
Academia Filarmonico
The Italians were never skillful in imitating the larger instrumental pieces
with which the French and, following them, the Germans introduced their
operas, and so they chose another type of instrumental piece to begin
their operas. This kind of theatrical symphonie, however, originated from
trumpeters, who were needed to produce loud sounds at the beginning of
a musical work, sounds which other instruments attempted to imitate.
These then are the Intradas. Since however they had very little melodic
interest, the main purpose being to produce a loud and lively and
penetrating sound, composers attempted to find a better and more
pleasing way of rendering the old symphonies more pliable and more
melodious, while cleansing them of unnecessary ornamentation. At the
same time they were careful to retain the lively mood of the Intrada, and
when all these features were combined, there finally emerged the present
genre of Symphony.

1
The symphony should be simple for an orchestra to play: The Symphony around 1750

And since, unlike the sonata, it is not meant to be practiced, but rather • introductory function (“Overture”)
to be read accurately at sight, it must contain no difficulties which • loud dramatic opening based on trumpet calls of Intrada
cannot be mastered immediately and performed accurately by all of the • also likely to have characteristics of operatic overture – rushing
players. feeling, creating excitement
• scored for orchestra
• does not feature a soloist
• technically simple
• makes use of possibilities of orchestration
• 3-4 contrasting movements
• intended for public performance

combines
• loud, public, strong gestures
• quiet, private, “galant” gestures
• gestures that relate to “orchestral” quality

e.g. Giovanni Battista Sammartini, Symphony no.13 in G, OAWM 7 Formal structure

Form? Dramatized Binary Form (Sonata Form)

Style?
A ://: B
I V V I

A:
establish I (1-4)
modulate to to V (ending on V of V)(4-8)
confirm V with distinctive musical material (9-17)

B:
unstable, modulatory (18-33)
recapitulation in I (39-50) features double return – arrival in I coincides with
statement of opening material
distinctive musical material of 9-17 now
recapitulated in I

Style
The Public Concert: Mannheim
• distinctive “hammer blow”, Intrada-type opening (1-2)
becomes common In the 18th century Mannheim is:
opening strategy for
• galant style answering phrase (3-5) many symphonies
• dissonant appoggiaturas • seat of Elector of Palatinate (from 1716)
e.g. Mozart no.41 • of the most brilliant courts in Europe
• melody and accompaniment
• home to large musical establishment (53 singers and instrumentalists,
• orchestral effect 9-11 12 trumpeters and timpanists by 1723)

Patronage is court rather than public

Johann Stamitz

• in Mannheim 1741-57
• leads orchestra and trains players from 1744

“There are more solo players and good composers in this than perhaps in any
other orchestra in Europe; it is an army of generals, equally fit to plan a battle
as to fight it.”

2
The Symphony in Mannheim Properties of a Mannheim Symphony:

Generally regarded as the most important precursor to the Classical • “Mannheim sigh” = appoggiatura
symphony of Haydn and Mozart
• “Mannheim steamroller” = long, ascending crescendo
Burney
• “Mannheim rocket” = upwards arpeggio
It has not been merely at the Elector’s great opera that instrumental
music has been so much cultivated and refined, but at his concerts, • opening gesture often forte “curtain” [“or hammer blow”] – the premier
where this extraordinary band has … [the opportunity] … to display all its coup d’archet followed by piano, galant answer
powers and to produce great effects without the impropriety of
destroying the greater and more delicate beauties peculiar to vocal
music; it was here that Stamitz, stimulated by the productions of Jomelli, [Actually all “Mannheim” characteristics are found in Italian opera overtures
first surpassed the bounds of common opera overtures, which had of the period. The “Mannheim” school was invented by German
hitherto only served in the theater as a kind of court crier, with an “O musicologists to compete with the “Viennese” school]
Yeah” in order to awaken attention …

e.g. J.C. Bach, Symphony in Bb, OAWM 8 The Mannheim style

[Not a good example – not composed by a Mannheim composer] • constructed from 2-measure fragments of melody
• frequent repetition
Form: not binary form • highly sectionalized
• slow harmonic rhythm
Style: ? • triadic themes
• tremolo (1/16 or 1/8 note) in strings
• orchestral color rather than line dominates
• uses horns and oboes (Bach also flutes, clarinets, bassoon)
• typically 4 movements F/S/Minuet/F

Back to Domestic Music … Another Galant – private yet sociable

Music as the center of social activity: domestic music

• might imitate the sounds of a public concert for orchestra

• might imitate the melody of a new kind of opera aria
• might enable friends to collaborate – the sonata for keyboard and
solo instrument

e.g. J.C. Bach, Sonata for Keyboard in D, OAWM 3

• orchestral effects from newly emerging symphony

• galant keyboard textures – the Alberti bass, Lombard rhythm, thin
texture, many appoggiaturas, regular phrasing, …
• contrasting themes – dynamic, loud, percussive vs songlike, lyrical
– many styles combined in one piece

The galant style of J.C. Bach contains the seeds of what later
becomes known as the “Classical” style

3
Another Galant – private yet sociable

e.g. Mozart sonatas for piano and violin, 1780s

“These sonatas are unique in their genre, rich in new ideas and in
marks of the maker’s great musical genius, they are brilliant and
made to measure for the instrument. The violin accompaniment
blends so artfully with the keyboard part that both instruments
demand continuous attention, so that these sonatas need a violinist
who is as skillful as the keyboard player … It is just not possible to give
a full description of this original work.”