Joseph Haydn in England in 1791 (John Hoppner painting)
The Classical Style: Part II – THE CLASSICAL STYLE
1.The Coherence of the Musical Language
By ERIC WAGNER
Special guest blogger
This chapter title makes think of how Aristotle and Aquinas’s ideas of coherence influenced Stephen Dedalus in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
Foreshadowing: In the last chapter of this book Rosen discusses a piece by Schumann that alludes to the final song in Beethoven’s “An Die Ferne Geliebte”, “Nimm sie hin denn, diese Lieder”. I plan to listen to his song a few times a week for the next hundred days so that I can hopefully recognize the allusion when we reach the final chapter. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsgS3I1NORY&list=RDRsgS3I1NORY&start_radio=1
For anyone struggling a bit with this text, I suspect it will get easier when we get to the Haydn chapters. In these early chapters, Rosen deals with a wide variety of music from the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries discussing topics like ”The Coherence of the Style”. When he focuses on one set of pieces by one composer, I think things will make more sense. I think books like this reward rereading because they cover such large topics, and I think Rosen covers them very well.
Pg. 68: Rosen says of the classical style that “a single movement longer than twenty minutes is beyond its reach,” but the fourth movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony tends to run over 24 minutes.
July 4, 2026, marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Pg. 94 mentions “the ferment that followed the American Revolution.” I feel this book suits the troubled times of 2026, I feel grateful for the people reading along with us.
5 comments:
I am still working on this chapter, but when I saw Rosen repeat the claim that Mozart's ninth piano concerto, "Jeanehomme" K. 271 was the first masterpiece in the classical style, so I listened to it tonight. I tried not to do anything for a little while and just listen. It did seem interesting and unusual -- I was surprised by the shifts in tempo. (I listened to Rudolf Serkin with Alexander Schneider leading the Marlboro Festival Orchestra. I looked it up -- Mozart was 21 when he wrote K. 271, in 1777. So the first classical masterpiece was written a year after the U.S. began ...My favorite Mozart PC is No. 21, K. 467, written when he was 29. Mozart's death at age 35 seems ridiculously bad news to me, imagine what he could have written if he had made it to age 40! (John Lennon was 40 when he died.)
I could probably easily spend a month on this chapter. I can only read 2 - 3 pages at a time before losing interest. I seem to have hit a brick wall around p. 89. I also like to google all the many unfamiliar words and terms. For instance, I just learned what a natural sign means having noticed the D♮ at the bottom of p. 88.
If I had the time, I would also listen to all the music examples given. I did listen to Mozart's Concerto for Piano and Orchestra K. 271 mentioned on p. 59. I found it very predictable, so not that interesting, The other piece I heard, Beethoven's Eroica Symphony, moved and delighted my ears, body and soul. It felt distinctly feminine; I thought that may have been due to the make-up of the orchestra which had far more strings than woodwinds or brass. The brass seemed minimal with its use more for texture than for driving melodic parts, to my ear. It consisted only of 4 french horns (the softest brass and a favorite of mine) and 2 trumpets. Michael Boder & ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra performed it.
This sentence form p. 80 stood out: "It was Hayden and Mozart who took this tension, understood its implications throughout the entire area of harmony, the circle of fifths, and created a new language of emotions." Eroica expressed a new language of emotions, for me.
I also would like to hear an example of the Baroque perpetuum mobile mentioned on p. 62. I remember my father, a physics professor, talking about attempts to make a perpetual motion machine, still considered impossible. I'd like to hear the musical equivalent.
After sending my comment, I noticed that Tom and I both listened to Mozart's K. 271 and came away with different opinions. I don't recall the version I heard sounding particularly dynamic so maybe I should hear Serkin and Schneider's rendition.
Thank you for your comment. I love K. 271. Rafi Zabor turned me on to Murray Perahia's playing of the Mozart piano concerti, so I have mostly listened to those over the past seven years. For the decade before that I mostly listened to the Malcolm Bilson fortepiano recordings, recommended by Joseph Kerman.
I sometimes forget that Mozart (1756-1791) and Beethoven(1770-1827) might have had more in common than Mozart and their elder Haydn (1732-1809) had Mozart lived longer. What if Mozart had taught Beethoven?
Thanks to all of you for your hard work. I am sorry if you are not enjoying the text. I hope the study group as a whole pays off for all of you. When Rafi went through his Mozart Piano Concerto obsession, he focussed on the later concerti, #17-27. Rafi also raved about Honeck's recording of the Eroica, which I enjoyed. You might check that out.
Mozart's reputation suffered in the 19th century. Some found him lightweight - not serious enough. Richard Strauss championed Mozart's music at the end of the century, and I think in some ways Mozart's popularity peaked in the 1980's with the play and film "Amadeus" and the hit song "Rock Me Amadeus."
In 1983 the chamber orchestra the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields conducted by Iona Brown gave a concert at Arizona State University. That same night Robert Fripp gave two lecture demonstrations. I heard the orchestra concert, which included the Eroica, and then I ran across campus to hear Fripp's second talk. What a great night.
Most pieces by Bach, Vivaldi and Handel have a sense of perpetuum mobile. Those late Baroque composers emphasized flow rather than the drama which typified Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. You might check out Murray Perahia playing the Bach Partitas (another Rafi favorite).
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