Clasicism

The time of the lights.

The last years of the eighteenth century, the lights, the Declaration of Human Rights, the French
Revolution and the subsequent Napoleonic wars involving the birth of the Age
Contemporary, in which we live. In that context, appeared what we now know as
Viennese classicism, had the immense good fortune of being a language of three of the most tal-
ented musicians we have ever had:
Joseph Haydn, W. A. Mozart and Beethoven.
1760 - 1824
The triumph of form
We call form the structure of the composition used for write a musical work. Classicism fixing those
that predominate long.
Instrumental Forms
1. Forms for the solo instrument and chamber music: Piano sonatas and string quartets, .... pi-
ano quintets with clarinet, etc.
2. Forms for large sets:
a. Disappears Baroque concerto grosso, include piano concertos and violin.
b. Symphonies: Joseph Haydn is the father of this musical form that is simply a Sonata
for Orchestra.
Vocal Forms
1. Sacred Music: The Church loses much power at this time and, incidentally, economic ca-
pacity to order large works to great authors. Still can not aside masterpieces as the oratorio
"The Creation "by Haydn or the" Missa solemnis "by Beethoven.
2. Profane music:
a. Opera: Just to mention "As vidas de Figaro," "Don Giovanni, "Così fan tutte” and
“Magic Flute ", all of W. A. Mozart, it is enough to have a idea of the quality of the
works that written in this period.

Franz Joseph Haydn (1732 - 1809)

This son of a wheelwright and a housewife ever forgotten songs that her parents sang in
child and the influence of the folklore of his native Austria is present in all his work.
He spent 30 years at the service of the Esterházy family, a the richest of the time. Haydn was com-
missioned to direct the orchestra and opera company private. This family of Hungarian nobility kept
in his palace Esterhaza, built in the image of Versailles (the King
France), only bigger. There, isolated from the world average, Haydn could try and work hard but
quiet, far from the intrigues of the European Courts. Nonetheless his fame
spread abroad throughout Europe and their symphonies (composed 104 !!!)
had much success in Paris and London.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)
Mozart's genius, a virtuoso, a prodigy son of a .... violinist and composer Leopold, who resigned
his own career to devote all their efforts to harness the incredible ability that his son had to music.
WA Mozart died at age 35 but left more than 600 works, 22 operas, 41 symphonies (the last 8
worksmaster), 27 piano concertos, 5 for violin, string quartets which he dedicated to his admired
Haydn, quintets... serenades his successor in Vienna, a boy named Ludwig van Beethoven culimi-
naría classicism and would open the door to true Revolution: Romanticism.