An Outline of The History of Western Music Grout ... - The Reel Score

v- imported French company mounted a regular season of 'opéra comique' -
with French style ballets also popular
vi- Italian opera was presented under the guise of 'opera buffa' after a failed
attempt at Germanization
2: Composers
i- Johann Adolph Hasse (1699-1783) a German
ii- Christoph Willibald von Gluck (1714-1787) local to Vienna
iii- Giuseppe Bonno born in Vienna, trained in Naples
iv- Antonio Salieri (1750-1825) born in Italy, brought to Vienna at age 15
v- Florian Gassmann (1729-1774) born in Bohemia
3. An Age of Humanitarianism
a) time of enlightened despots - patronized arts & letters and also promoted social
reform
b) spread of Freemasonary - built on humanitarian ideals and longing for universal
brotherhood
4. Rise of a "General Public"
a) pursuit of learning and love of art became widespread particularly among the
expanding middle class
1: made new demands on writers and artists that affected both subject matter and
manner of presentation
2: a "general public" needed to addressed that went beyond a select group of
experts and connoisseurs
b) as private patronage declined, a modern audience for music emerged
1: public concerts competed with the older-style private concerts and academies
2: after the middle of the century, magazines devoted to musical news, reviews,
and criticism began to appear
c) as in the past, music publishers continued to cater mainly to amateurs with much
music issued in periodicals
C. 18th Century Musical Taste
1. Elements
a) the language of music should be universal - not limited by national boundaries
1: though intellectuals loved to debate the relative merits of various national
musical styles
2: though national schools of opera sprouted which would later blossom in the
Romantic era
b) music should be noble AND entertaining
c) music should be expressive within the bounds of decorum
d) music should be natural - free of needless technical complications and capable of
immediately pleasing any sensitive listener
2. Old styles yielded gradually to the new and both existed side by side
a) New - Pergolesi, Sammartini, some sonatas of C.P.E. Bach
b) Old - J.S. Bach, Handel
c) Baroque - J.S. Bach (1685-1750), Handel (1685-1759) / Forward to the Classical -
G. B. Sammartini (1698-1775) / Classical - Pergolesi (1710-1736), C.P.E. Bach
(1714-1788)