First Viennese School

The Viennese Classical period (ca. 1780-1827 ) is a style of European art music. Its members include Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven. In a broader sense is meant by this term also includes the " the Classical era ." Hence, often composers such as Antonio Salieri, Michael Haydn and Carl Ditter von Dittersdorf be added.

Properties of music

The three great composers of the Viennese classical one- mastering and sublimation of different music types and styles of composition from folk song to the Baroque polyphony. They combine characteristics of the gallant and emotional style and perform various other German, French and Italian styles in a variety of genres together.

The special feature of their way of composing are three highly advanced method: obbligato accompaniment, openwork style and motivic- thematic work.

These methods are used in almost all genres, after they have been primarily developed mainly in chamber music ( string quartet ) and orchestra music ( symphony ) by Joseph Haydn. Also in the opera (eg Mozart) and in sacred music (eg Beethoven ) identify the invoice been composed. Instrumental music is learned by doing the Viennese classics an appreciation of autonomous art. Mostly in their head sets there is no way the schematic, rather imaginatively and individually applied sonata form as a framework for a dialectical, thematically specific way of composing.

Vienna as a city of music

Space and background for these developments gave Vienna as a city with a diverse musical culture that demanded a variety of musical production. Goods Paris (Opera) and London ( public concert ) in the second half of the 18th century, initially the trend-setting music cities of Europe, Vienna became especially with the glorification of Mozart after his death and the arrival of Beethoven European supremacy. Mozart had hitherto been regarded as rather a Viennese size; Beethoven looked Vienna already as the desirable goal of his career. Clairvoyant formulated this circumstance his patron, Count Ferdinand Ernst Gabriel von Waldstein: "Through uninterrupted diligence you will receive Mozart's spirit from Haydn's hands. "

Crucial for the constitution of a "Wiener Klassik", the years after Mozart relocation to Vienna. Here, the compositional interaction between Joseph Haydn and Mozart began to emerge, starting with the mutual excitation of novel composition of string quartets and continued with the establishment of the symphony audience as the most effective kind of time.

Influences from outside Vienna

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart learned especially on his travels composers and know their music. Teodor de Wyzewa and Georges de Saint- Foix fathomed in her great Mozart works (1936-1946), the diverse traces of it. Mention may be made especially of the London Johann Christian Bach, a number of composers of Italian opera and the Masters of the Mannheim school. Finally, the indirect influences of George Frideric Handel ( vocal works such as Messiah ) and Johann Sebastian Bach (Instrumental music and motets ) are mentioned.

All the learned Beethoven personally directly or indirectly in Joseph Haydn's and Mozart's familiar compositions. Influences from outside of Vienna, was also a example of Italian and French opera and the French orchestral music. Beethoven himself boasted Luigi Cherubini as direct model.

Discussion of the term

While the English-language musicology the term " Wiener Klassik" rather avoid and a broader classical concept maintains that German musicology discussed him controversial. Ludwig Finscher want him, Raphael Georg Kiesewetter thoughts of 1834 following limit on the works of Joseph Haydn and Mozart 1781-1803. Hans Heinrich Eggebrecht, supported by extensive, in -depth analyzes its musical detail Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven comprehensive definition. Carl Dahlhaus, however, Friedrich Blume led idea further, Classical and Romantic formed a common classical-romantic era. This dialectical connection between Viennese Classicism and Romanticism manifested particularly clearly in the comparison of Beethoven and Schubert. Thrasybulus Georgiades arranged Schubert in his analyzes of the vocal and instrumental music, the three major players in the "Wiener Klassik" and showed Schubert's classical composition techniques, especially in the songs and the " Unfinished " on.