The Classical Period

The Classical Period

Not to be confused with the generalised term „classical music‟, the actual Classical period was a very short but crucially important period of music, running from about 1750 to the death of Beethoven in the 1820s. This was the period when much of the features of modern music were fully established - particularly the concept of balance through repetition and contrast of the elements of music. It was the period of three heavyweight composers - Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, who between them took all genres of music to a new level and influenced countless composers after them.

Classical artists took their influence from the symmetry of ancient Greek and Roman architecture, and the order imposed on nature found in landscaped gardens of the time.

The original version of the G minor did not include clarinets but Mozart later re-worked it to include them, suggesting that the work was indeed performed at some point in his lifetime. It was published a few years after his death, and by the beginning of the 19th century was recognized as an important work in the orchestral repertoire.

Structure

Since Classical style is all about balance, it is best to begin by looking at the form of this movement, which is the first movement in a four-movement work. Like most first movements in multi-movement works of the Classical period, this Allegro is in sonata form, which is a slightly more complex type of ABA (or ternary) form, governed particularly by the use of keys to structure the music.

Here is a clear, simple explanation of sonata form at work in this piece:

The „A‟ section is known as the exposition, because the main themes are „exposed‟ for the first time. In this movement, like in most sonata form pieces, there are two main themes, which we call subjects. The first subject is in the tonic key, G minor, and begins in bar 1, without any introduction. In bar 20 this same first subject starts to modulate, which means we are in a transition passage - a passage of music which links the first subject to the second. Called this a bridge passage. In bar 44 we hear the other main theme - the second subject. This is in the relative major (B flat major), and contrasts in lots of ways with the first subject. The exposition ends with a „winding up‟ section called a codetta - a mini version of the coda we will hear at the end of the music. Then the whole exposition is repeated.

The „B‟ section of the movement is called the development, because Mozart takes some time to develop (or play around with) some of the material we heard in the exposition. In this case, he concentrates entirely on the first subject and has some fun presenting it on different instruments, sometimes overlapping it with itself, and going through a lot of different, related keys. The development lasts from bars 101 to 164.

Once Mozart has had enough playing about with it he „recaps‟ by giving us both subjects, and the transition, again, in a section known as the recapitulation or the returning „A‟ section. However there are some big differences.

The first subject starts the recapitulation in bar 164, as we would expect, in the tonic key of G minor. The transition comes in again, but this time Mozart does not modulate to the dominant. Instead he moves through a number of keys and returns to the tonic.

In bar 227 we hear the second subject in the tonic key, which makes it sound very different as it is now a minor-key melody.

Finally we hear the closing section, or coda, from bar 260 to the end. One of the strengths of sonata form is that though we feel we have been on a very interesting journey, we arrive home in a very satisfying way.

Melody

Classical music focuses heavily on melody, and Mozart himself is responsible for some of the simplest and most poignant melodies ever written.

The first subject begins with a three-note rhythm repeated three times, followed by a rising sixth. These two ideas are later broken up into mini „cells‟ and developed incessantly, particularly in the development section. Both the first and second subjects have equal four-bar question and answer phrases, which in turn can be broken into equal two-bar phrases. Furthermore, the answering phrase, which begins in bar 5, is the same as the questioning phrase, but a tone lower. This is a sequence, and there are many examples.The