Page 124 - ESSENTIAL LISTENING TO MUSIC

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Marketing pitchmen encourage us every day, on TV, on the web, and in print, to buy a particular watch or automobile by saying that it has “classical styling,” suggesting that the product possesses a certain timeless beauty. When applied to music, “classical styling” also implies a “high-end” product. We use the word classical to signify the “serious” or “art” music of the West as distinguished from popular music. We call this art music “classical” because there is something about the excellence of its form and style that makes it enduring—it has stood the test of time. Yet in the same breath, we may refer to “Classical” music (now with a capital C), and by this we mean the music of a specific historical period, 1750–1820, a period of the great works of Haydn and Mozart, and the early masterpieces of Beethoven. The creations of these artists have become so identified with musical proportion, balance, and formal correctness—with standards of musical excellence— that this comparatively brief period has given its name to all music of lasting aesthetic worth.
“Classical” derives from the Latin classicus, meaning “something of the first rank or highest quality.” To the men and women of the eighteenth cen- tury, no art was more admirable, virtuous, and worthy of emulation than that of ancient Greece and Rome. Other periods in Western history also have been inspired by classical antiquity—the Renaissance heavily so (see Chapter 4)—but no era more than the eighteenth century. Classical architec- ture, with its geometric shapes, balance, symmetrical design, and lack of clut- ter, became the preferred style for public buildings, not only in Europe but also in the fledgling United States. Thomas Jefferson (Figure 7.1), while serving as American ambassador to France (1784–1789), traveled to Italy and brought Clas- sical design back home with him. The U.S. Capitol, most state capitols, and count- less other governmental and university buildings abound with the well-propor- tioned columns, porticos, and rotundas of the Classical style (Figures 7.2 and 7.3).
Figure 7.1
Thomas Jefferson
Figure 7.2 and 7.3
The Pantheon in Rome and the library of the University of Virginia, designed by Thomas Jefferson (above). Jefferson had visited Italy and studied ancient ruins while ambassador to France. The portico, with columns and triangular pediment, and central rotunda are all elements of Classical style in architecture.
102 chapter seven introduction to the classical style: haydn and mozart
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