The Classical Era — Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven in Vienna

The Classical Era — The Birth of “Modern Music”

From Bach’s death in 1750 (previous article) to the late style of Beethoven around 1820: 70 years — the Classical period (German Klassik). It is often described as the clearest, most balanced era in the history of music.

Three Senses of “Classical”

• Narrow — these 70 years (1750–1820), Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven
• Middle — Western art music from the Middle Ages to the 19th century
• Broad — all Western art music including the present (as in the overview)

This article uses the narrow sense.

The Great Shift from Baroque to Classical

Around 1750, music changes rapidly:

Baroque Traits (Previous Article)

• Continuo (improvised harmonic accompaniment)
• Polyphony and counterpoint
• A unified affect (one movement = one affect)
• Ornamentation

Classical Traits

• The abolition of continuo (harmonic accompaniment written out)
• A clear structure of theme + accompaniment
• Contrasting affects (themes oppose and develop within a movement)
• Sonata form at the center
• The aesthetics of balance and clarity

Sonata Form — The Core of the Classical Era

Sonata form was consolidated in the Classical era as the logical structure of music:

The Basic Structure

1. Exposition — first theme (in the tonic) and second theme (in the dominant, etc.)
2. Development — themes are unfolded through various keys and transformations
3. Recapitulation — first and second themes return in the tonic
4. (Coda — closing section)

“Two opposing themes contend in the development and are unified in the recapitulation” — a dialectical musical structure.

Where It Is Used

• The opening Allegro of a symphony, sonata, or string quartet
• The central form of middle-period Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven
• The skeleton of modern classical music

Pre-Classical — The Mannheim School and C. P. E. Bach

Transitional figures:

The Mannheim School (1740–1770)

The Mannheim court orchestra of Elector Karl Theodor became the finest ensemble in Europe (famous for the ascending “Mannheim rocket”). Johann Stamitz (1717–1757) and others.

Mozart visited in 1777 and was deeply influenced.

Emanuel Bach (C. P. E. Bach, 1714–1788)

The son of J. S. Bach. He championed a sensitive style (Empfindsamer Stil), pursuing emotional expression through sudden modulations and dynamic contrasts. Haydn said “the person from whom I really learned was Emanuel Bach.” He also had a great influence on Beethoven.

Haydn — Architect of the Classical Era

Franz Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) is treated at length in article 03 of the sister [Lineage of the Piano] series. Here we focus on his symphonies and string quartets.

106 Symphonies

• Single-handedly perfected the symphony
• No. 45 in F-sharp minor, “Farewell” (1772) — musicians leave the stage one by one
• No. 94 in G, “Surprise” (1791) — a sudden fortissimo
• No. 100 “Military,” No. 101 “The Clock,” No. 103 “Drumroll,” No. 104 “London” — the London symphonies (1791–1795)

68 String Quartets

• Established the standard form of the string quartet (two violins, viola, cello)
• Op. 33 “Russian Quartets” (1781) — introduces the scherzo movement
• Op. 76 “Erdődy Quartets” (1797) — a late masterpiece; the second movement of “Emperor” became the theme of the Austrian (and later German) national anthem

Oratorios The Creation and The Seasons

Die Schöpfung (1798) and Die Jahreszeiten (1801) are late vocal masterpieces. Massive German oratorios under the influence of Handel’s Messiah.

Mozart — Masterpieces in Every Genre

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) is detailed as a piano composer in article 03 of the sister [Lineage of the Piano] series. Here we focus on opera and symphony.

41 Symphonies

• No. 25 in G minor, K. 183 (1773) — a minor-key masterpiece at 17 (opening of Amadeus)
• No. 40 in G minor, K. 550 (1788) — minor, tragic, famous worldwide
• No. 41 in C major, “Jupiter,” K. 551 (1788) — a contrapuntal finale; often called Mozart’s greatest work

The three great symphonies of 1788 (Nos. 39, 40, 41) were composed in just six weeks — Mozart’s last symphonies.

Operas — 22 Works

Mozart’s operas are among the most beloved works in music history:

• Idomeneo (1781) — the summit of opera seria (heroic opera)
• Die Entführung aus dem Serail (1782) — a German Singspiel
• Le nozze di Figaro (1786) — the summit of opera buffa (comic opera); libretto by Da Ponte
• Don Giovanni (1787) — tragicomedy; the confrontation with the stone statue
• Così fan tutte (1790) — an experiment testing lovers’ fidelity
• Die Zauberflöte (1791) — Singspiel, Masonic symbolism; just before Mozart’s death

The “Da Ponte Trilogy”

The collaboration between Mozart and the librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte (1749–1838):

• Le nozze di Figaro (1786)
• Don Giovanni (1787)
• Così fan tutte (1790)

The summit of Italian opera. Still central to the repertoire of every major opera house.

Sacred Music

• Requiem in D minor, K. 626 (1791, unfinished) — an anonymous commission that overlapped with his own death
• Mass in C minor, K. 427 — a large-scale mass connected to his marriage to Constanze

The “Lacrimosa” of the Requiem contains the last eight bars Mozart himself wrote. His pupil Süssmayr completed the work.

Beethoven — Summit of the Classical Era, Doorway to Romanticism

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) is detailed as a piano composer in article 04 of the sister [Lineage of the Piano] series. Here we focus on symphonies and string quartets.

Nine Symphonies

• No. 1 in C major, Op. 21 (1800) — the completion of Haydn’s style
• No. 3 in E-flat, “Eroica,” Op. 55 (1804) — the great orchestral revolution, 50 minutes long
• No. 5 in C minor, “Fate,” Op. 67 (1808) — the famous four-note motif
• No. 6 in F major, “Pastoral,” Op. 68 (1808) — a pioneer of programme music, in five movements
• No. 7 in A major, Op. 92 (1813) — Wagner’s “apotheosis of the dance”
• No. 9 in D minor, “Choral,” Op. 125 (1824) — a revolutionary symphony introducing soloists and chorus; the “Ode to Joy” is now the anthem of the European Union

The “Ode to Joy” of the Ninth

The finale quotes Schiller’s An die Freude:

“Joy, beautiful spark of divinity, daughter of Elysium.”

“Alle Menschen werden Brüder” — “all people become brothers.” Adopted as the EU’s official anthem in 1985.

At the premiere on 7 May 1824, the deaf Beethoven was turned around to see the audience’s frenzy and wept. One of the most moving premieres in the history of music.

16 String Quartets

• Early (Op. 18, 1798–1800) — in Haydn’s style
• Middle (Op. 59 “Razumovsky,” Op. 74, Op. 95) — symphonically expanded
• Late (Op. 127–135, 1824–1826) — deep, mystical late-style — one of the summits of music history

Missa Solemnis, Op. 123 (1823)

A five-part choral mass composed alongside the Ninth Symphony. Beethoven himself called it “the greatest work I have ever written.”

The Enlightenment and Music

The Classical era is the era of the Enlightenment:

• Aesthetics of reason, order, balance
• The French Revolution of 1789 — reflected in music too
• Napoleon crowned emperor in 1804 — Beethoven strikes out the Eroica dedication
• Congress of Vienna 1815 — the reactionary period

Music migrated from the church and aristocracy to the civic public:

• The spread of public concerts
• Mass-market music publishing
• Founding of conservatories (Paris Conservatoire, 1795)
• The birth of music criticism (Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, 1798)

Vienna — Capital of Music

All three great Classical composers worked in Vienna:

• Haydn — Esterházy (Hungary) and Vienna
• Mozart — from his move to Vienna in 1781 until his death
• Beethoven — from his move to Vienna in 1792 until his death

Why Vienna?

• Capital of the Habsburgs — aristocratic patronage
• A crossroads of the German-speaking world and Italian culture
• Highly developed orchestra and opera
• Early development of civic musical culture

The origin of “Vienna, city of music” lies in these 70 years. The 21st-century Vienna Philharmonic is a direct descendant.

Relation to the Sister [Lineage of the Piano] Series

The sister series is a 300-year history from a keyboard perspective. This series is a 1500-year history of the whole musical world. In the Classical era:

Sister series	This series	Correspondence
03 Mozart and Haydn (piano)	04 Classical (overview)	Same era, different vantage
04 Beethoven (piano)	04 Classical (overview)	Adds symphonies and quartets

“A pianist first plays Classical music, then in this series learns symphonies, quartets, and operas” — read in that order, a three-dimensional picture emerges.

Other Classical Composers

• Muzio Clementi (1752–1832) — piano sonatas and music publishing
• Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778–1837) — Mozart’s pupil, Beethoven’s peer
• Luigi Cherubini (1760–1842) — opera, director of the Paris Conservatoire, admired by Beethoven
• Johann Karl Stamitz (1745–1801) — heir of the Mannheim school

Modern Impact

• Sonata form, symphony, string quartet — the central forms of modern classical music
• Opera — the Mozart trilogy is standard everywhere
• Chamber culture — the string-quartet tradition
• Vienna Philharmonic, Salzburg Festival — institutions that carry the Classical inheritance
• Education — the core of any conservatory curriculum

From This Article to the Next

We have traced 70 years of the Classical era. The next article enters the early Romantic period (1820–1860). Schubert (1797–1828) and the lied; Mendelssohn (1809–1847) and his symphonies and piano works; Schumann (1810–1856) and poetic music; Chopin (1810–1849) and Liszt (1811–1886) — the shift from the clarity of Enlightenment to Romantic emotional expression. Runs in parallel with articles 05 and 06 of the sister [Lineage of the Piano] series, seen here from the perspective of the symphony, the lied, and chamber music.