**All Notes At Bottom Of Page**
Classical Music Overview
Step 1
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Listen to the 3 examples below to answer the following questions
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Share your overall impression of Classical Music. I enjoy that Classical music has a more simple texture, but still remains interesting and enjoyable to listen to. It sounds a lot more relaxed and cleaner than previous eras.
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How does this music sound similar to Baroque Music? The instrumentation is very similar to baroque period, where the strings are the main feature instrument, with some brass and percussion embellishments.
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How does this music sound different from Baroque Music? Baroque music was highly complex and was mostly polyphonic, where classical music is more geared towards homophony, and focusing on one simpler melodic line and building from it.
Step 2
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Does this music from Mozart's Symphony 40 in g minor feel like it is grouped in 2 or 3 beats per measure? 3 beats
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Does this music from Haydn's Symphony 94 'Surprise' feel like it is grouped in 2 or 3 beats per measure? 2 beats
Period Research
Step 1
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Gather resources of your own choosing to answer the following questions
1. Provide approximate dates for the Classical Period punctuated with notable world/historical events.
2. Describe similar qualities and characteristics of Classical Period Art, Architecture and Music. The name classical is applied to the period because in art and literature, there was keen interest in, admiration for, and emulation of the classical artistic and literary heritage of Greece and Rome. In the middle of the 18th century, Europe began to move toward a new style in architecture, literature, and the arts, generally known as Classicism. This style sought to emulate the ideals of Classical antiquity, especially those of Classical Greece. This time period actually drove more towards simplicity than complexity, in both art forms and music.
3. In what ways has listening to the music of Mozart been linked to I.Q. and Intellect? The phrase “the Mozart effect” was coined in 1991, but it is a study described two years later in the journal Nature that sparked real media and public interest about the idea that listening to classical music somehow improves the brain. The idea took off, with thousands of parents playing Mozart to their children, and in 1998 Zell Miller, the Governor of the state of Georgia in the US, even asked for money to be set aside in the state budget so that every newborn baby could be sent a CD of classical music. The students who listened to Mozart did better at tasks where they had to create shapes in their minds. For a short time the students were better at spatial tasks where they had to look at folded up pieces of paper with cuts in them and to predict how they would appear when unfolded.
4. Cite examples of why Vienna was thought of as the 'Cultural Capital of the World' during the Classical Period. During the late eighteenth century Vienna attracted composers from across Europe. Composers like Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven were drawn to the city by patronage of Habsburgs who
were willing to support the music. That period, European music enriched from instruments. Further Vienna could be characterized also as “the capital of serious music” because it hosted
important representatives of the great European traditional.
5. What two instruments were invented and made famous during this time period? The piano became the standard keyboard
instrument, and single reed instruments like the clarinet family were also introduced.
6. What are 2 features that distinguish the harpsichord from the piano? A piano is a “struck string instrument” that makes sounds by striking strings with hammers and vibrating them. A harpsichord is a “plucked string instrument” that makes sounds by plucking strings with plectrums and vibrating them. Also, a harpsichord cannot make a sound in different strength because of its structure. It was one of the reasons why a fortepiano, an early piano, was invented.
A fortepiano was a revolutionary instrument that had the characteristics a harpsichord didn’t have: a fortepiano could make both forte and piano and it had a pedal that could sustain the sound.
7. Provide the following Mannheim School trivia: History, Composers & Musical Innovations: Mannheim school, in music, a group of 18th-century composers who assembled themselves in the city of Mannheim, Germany, under the patronage of Duke Karl Theodor (reigned 1743–99), the elector palatine. They distinguished themselves particularly in their instrumental music, which proved to be of great significance in the development of the mature Classical style. The Mannheim school consists chiefly of two generations of composers. The first includes Johann Stamitz, who was the founder and inspired conductor of the orchestra; Ignaz Holzbauer; Franz Xaver Richter; and Carlo Giuseppe Toeschi. These men established the supremacy of the Mannheim school and, in their orchestral works, initiated many of the effects that were to popularize it. The composers of the second generation are Anton Filtz; Johann Christian Cannabich, who perfected the orchestra; Anton and Karl Stamitz; and Franz Beck. The origins of the Mannheim school go back to the court of the Elector Charles III Philip, who moved from Heidelberg to Mannheim in 1720, already employing an orchestra larger than those of any of the surrounding courts. The orchestra grew even further in the following decades and came to include some of the best virtuosi of the time.
Step 2
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Use Haydn's Head to answer the following quesitons
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Who was Haydn’s Patron? The esterhazy family
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What was it that people were hoping to discover by studying Haydn’s head? Scientists wanted to study the head of a real genius, as their studies believed that head shape was linked to character and intelligence.
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Describe the events in 1954 that led up to reuniting Haydn’s skull with the rest of his remains. The proud scientist kept hayden's head in his own house. When they wanted to get the body from vienna for a halloween celebration, they found that the head was missing. The police tried to find the head, but the wife hid it. When the scientist died, it ended up at a museum, and was then displayed in a glass case on a piano. Finally, the head was returned to the eterhazi family and back to the rest of the body in 1954.
America during the Classical Period
Step 1
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What characteristics from Francis Hopkinson, My Days Have Been So Wondrous Free(original signer of the Declaration of Independence and first Classical composer born in America) sounds "American" to you? The intervals and cadences sound very american, as it reminds me of our anthems. It also has some christmas carol vibes in some moments. Another thing to consider is that the words are really all about being free, which is America's staple slogan, "land of the free".
Step 2
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Boston born William Billings, considered to be the foremost representative of early American Music composed Chester, the original National Anthem, between 1770 and 1778, as the Revolutionary War was brewing. The hymn-like song was a call to resistance against the British. What musical elements made this a good National Anthem?
(Musical Elements; Pitch, Rhythm, Dynamics, Tempo, Texture, Timbre, Form, Purpose, Harmony, Melody, Expression, Mood, Language, Style, etc.)
This is a good anthem because it is simple, memorable, yet has the powerful brass that sparks emotional response. The strong percussion with the snare drum is also very militaristic and gives a feeling of patriotism, which was very appropriate for the revolutionary war brewing. The mercatos in the brass also convey a sense of strength.
Step 3
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Use the Amaranth publishing site to provide trivia regarding the following topics
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Folk Music In Colonial America:
Appalachian music is the traditional music of the region of Appalachia in the Eastern United States. It derives from various European and African influences—including English ballads, Irish and Scottish traditional music (especially fiddle music), hymns, and African-American blues. Instruments typically used to perform Appalachian music include the banjo, American fiddle, fretted dulcimer, and guitar. The colonial era in America began in 1607 with the colonization of Jamestown, Virginia. Music of all genres and origins emerged as the United States began to form. From the Indigenous spiritual music to the African Banjos, music in the United States is as diverse as its people. In New England, the music was very religious and was vitally important in the rising of American music. The migration of people southward lead to the settling of the Appalachian Mountains where many poor Europeans inhabited and brought country blues, and fiddling. As music spread, the religious hymns were still just a popular.
Fun facts; Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry were both known and traveled fiddlers in their younger days in Virginia.
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Two pieces of music composed on the death of George Washington "The Toast to General Washington", and the "Seven Songs" composed by Francis Hopkinson were a dedication to George Washington.
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Songs of Francis Hopkinson: One of the most famous works of Hopkinson was "My Day Have Been So Wondrous Free", along with other works such as "The Garland", "Give Me Thy Heart" and "Advice to Amanda".
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Lowell Mason:
Lowell Mason was the latter-day chief of the "scientific" Better Music movement that drove the popular shape-note tune books of the old Yankee singing masters out of New England, leaving what used to be called the Old Southwest (then not including Texas) the only spirited congregational singing in the country to this day, and bequeathing the Protestant Church in the Atlantic states its long, sad heritage of hired soloists, paid choirs, and shamefaced congregational mumbling. His hymns are so dully correct in harmony, so feeble in melody, and so uniform in their watery characterlessness that they constitute a monument to Christian antimusicality. The combination of the solfege singing system and the shaped note printing system fostered the popularity and wide spread of social singing events in America. However, the "Better Music Movement" led by Lowell Mason in the early nineteenth century pushed for the removal of this "crude and lewd" music. Mason's movement was successful except in the rural South (regions of Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Texas).
Step 4
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Describe the timbre of the Glass Armonica invented by Ben Franklin and describe how it works. The glass armonica has a very high, ringing tone. It makes your ears buzz when you hear it, and has a beautiful echo to it that reminds me of bells being played in a church. The instruent was inspired by glass ringing when you rub a wine glass, and being able to tune the glass with different amounts of liquids. But then, it was found that you can also tune the glass with how large or small it is. It then has a hole drilled into it, a cork placed into it, and then arranged in order of pitch. It is then able to be rotated, and when you wet your hand you can play all different notes.
HONORS TRACK:
OPTION 3
Use the following resources to research Mozart's Concerti
1. What is a Concerto? A concerto is a musical composition generally composed of three movements, in which, usually, one solo instrument is accompanied by an orchestra or concert band.
2. How many did Mozart compose? He composed 27 concertos.
3. What instruments were featured? The main solo instruments were for horn, flute, clarinet, and piano
4. What key signatures were used? Mozart generally gravitated towards major keys as that was most common at the time. The ones that he wrote in minor keys were one in G, C, D, E minor.
5. What is your favorite Mozart Concerto? Why? My favorite concerto is Mozart Horn Concerto No. 1, because it is what I am auditioning on my french horn. I love how the orchestra compliments the horn motifs, and how it is almost a call and response at times. The mix of staccato and legato moments for the horn is very pleasant to listen to. I think the timbre of the horn mixed with the strings is so beautiful as well.
