Classical Period
Learning Tasks

I. The student will read all pages of the reading assignments from The Enjoyment of Music.

II. The student will be able to define the terms which relate to the Classical Era as found on the terms page. Please e-mail this as a homework assignment. More information about e-mailing homework assignments may be found on the Homework Assignment Page.
E-mail the terms.

III. The student will read about the composers represented in the listening assignments, listen to examples of their work, and be able to identify them as composers of the Classical Period (1750-1825).

IV. A small musical idea is a motive. Click here to see an example of a motive.  A motive grows and develops into a theme.  A theme can be one small "brick" in the construction of a symphony.  Listen to the Irish folk group The Chieftains as they play "The Wind that Shakes the Barley." The first tiny melody, or "motive," can be heard as it evolves into quite an elaborate setting.  
Write and e-mail a list of three ways the original theme changes and develops. Consult the listening guide on pages 610 and 611 of the test to formulate your answer. Send with tasks V and VII.

V. NOW! This assignment requires more sophisticated listening skills. It involves a minuet and trio by Mozart from his Ein Kleine Nachtmusick. Follow the listening activity as outlined in your text on page 234. First, listen for the distinct sections: Minuet, Trio, Minuet. Then, see if you can hear the two sections of the minuet as outlined in the guide. Write a paragraph describing a dance of Mozart's day in which this dance was performed. What would you wear? What would a ballroom look like?
Send via e-mail with learning tasks IV and VII.

VI. You have a choice of assignment with this task. Pick either choice #1 or choice #2. 
Choice #1: View the film Amadeus and watch it in its entirety. It is on reserve in the library. This film won 5 Academy Awards, including "Best Picture." Write a 2-page paper on one of the following topics: "Mediocrity vs. Genius," "Salieri's Relationship to God," or "Mozart's Music as a Film Score."
Send this via e-mail with learning tasks IV and V.
Choice #2: The student will rent and watch the feature film Immortal Beloved and write a 2-page description of how Beethoven's life was the impetus for his creativity. How was his music used to enhance the screenplay of this film?
E-mail this description as instructed on the homework assignments page.

VII. This learning task allows the student to explore A-B-A style. There are two opportunities to do this. First, try the task given on the shape-building page. After you work on that page, complete the tasks outlined on the architecture page.
E-mail your completed work with tasks IV and V.

Look at the picture of Thomas Jefferson's rotunda at the University of Virginia here, which is designed in the classic A-B-A style. Each wing with the half-circle windows is an "A." The large domed structure in the center is the contrasting "B." Now go to the Folk Song page to see how a simple tune can also demonstrate an A-B-A style.
Name a simple folk song or nursery rhyme song in A-B-A form which is familiar to you. Remember: One melodic theme (A) begins. A contrasting theme (B) is heard, and then there is a return to the A theme.
Send the song's name via e-mail with the first part of task VII.

VIII. Rondo form follows this pattern of themes: A-B-A-C-A etc. This beautiful second movement of Beethoven's C minor, Pathétique sonata is in rondo form. The listening guide is on page 298 of your text. Listen for the return of each A section.

IX. Hopefully, you are beginning to develop a sense of the Classical composers' penchant for formal structure. Here is another! The "theme and variations" was a favorite and often found itself in symphonic or sonata movements. Listen to the second movement of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and make a list of the ways that Beethoven varies the two themes that are present. The listening guide on page 278 is helpful.
E-mail this with tasks  X and XI.

X. Franz Schubert, like Beethoven, bridged the gap stylistically between the Classical and Romantic periods. The song, Die Forelle, by Schubert, is about a little trout in a bubbly stream. It is the nearest to "Impressionism" I can think of before that era in the latter 19th century. Listen to this song. You can see the shimmer of sunlight on the scales of the fish and hear the water tumble over rocks. When the poor fish, caught by the cold-blooded fisherman, thrashes on the end of the pole in the last stanza of this modified strophic song, the music, reflecting the water, becomes turbulent.

Schubert also wrote a quintet based on the song Die Forelle. Notice, as you listen to the Fourth Movement, similarities in accompaniment and melody between the song and the quintet. List the instruments which play this quintet and the tempo and structure of each movement as outlined on pages 319-124 of the text. Pay close attention to the "Theme and Variations" in the Fourth Movement.

Play the "Trout Game" on the CD entitled Multimedia Schubert which is on reserve in the library. Save yourself a trip to the library by completing this task at the same time as Multimedia Mozart in Task XI! Match the stones which have the same melodies. E-mail me a list of 5 things that happen in the water when you get a match! Fun!

Listen to the the Trout Quintet in its entirety by clicking on "Charting the Trout Quintet." This will give you a clear idea of when themes begin and end.
Send the list of instruments, tempo, and structure and the list from the game with tasks IX and XI.

XI. Compare the representation of Bach's orchestra with the Classical Orchestra (see textbook page 259) and the Romantic orchestra (see textbook page 402). Write a 1-page discussion of the growth of the orchestra from the Baroque through the Romantic. Discussion should include the introduction of new instruments and the advent of the "Concert Hall" concept in Europe. On reserve in the Learning Lab at VHCC is Microsoft's CD-Rom Multimedia Mozart. In the Contents click on "The Instruments." Read "From Home to Concert Hall."
E-mail your discussion with assignments IX and X. 

XII. Two very important genre for the Classical composers were the concerto and the symphony. Baroque and Classical composers had two different ideas of what the concerto should be. In the Baroque, there was often a small group of instruments (concertino) in contrast to a full orchestra. In the Classical period the concertino generally consisted of a solo instrument only, typically a violin or the piano. The Classical concerto often has three movements in fast-slow-fast sequence.

The cadenza became a favorite medium for show and improvisatory skills. This was a fancy solo passage toward the end of a movement. It adds drama! The orchestra becomes silent and the solo instrument shines forth!

Listen to this portion of Mozart's Piano Concerto in G Major, K. 453. (Mozart's music always has a "K" number which refers to a catalog of his music compiled by Ludwig Köchel.) There is a contrast between the orchestra's massive sound and the fancy, showy antics of the solo instrument. This listening file contains the cadenza.

XII.The word "symphony" means "ensemble." Your text explains the symphony as a work which evolved from the Italian operatic overture. This very important genre can be traced through many other historical tracts as well.

Alessandro Scarlatti began to call the introductions to his operas "Sinfonias." They, like the Italian overtures which proceeded, fell into sections with "quick-slow-quick" tempo sequencing. These individual sections became "movements" as we know them today. There was much expansion of the original idea of a movement. Musical themes were developed, varied, placed in formal schemes that had never before been tried.

The Classical symphony is exemplified in the work of 3 composers, the Viennese masters. They are Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven. Beethoven's early works followed the standard Classical forms, but as he matured as a composer and suffered mental anguish which stemmed from his deafness, his music took on new dimensions. Romanticism was the perfect expression for Beethoven's dynamic style. In the works of Mozart and Haydn, contemporaries of Beethoven, style and form were of the utmost importance, producing works that were strict, formal, and, in some ways, unyielding.

While Haydn preferred monothematic symphonies, Mozart used several themes.  In his Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550, he uses the "rocket" theme. This was a favorite device of the Classicists. This theme begins on a low pitch and rises rapidly and aggressively to a high pitch. Listen to this example.

XIV. The student will take the test on the entire Classical Period.