'The Classical Style' reading group, week six

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. 

'The Classical Style' reading group, Week Five

 Domenico Scarlatti

 3. The Origins of the Style 

By ERIC WAGNER
Special guest blogger

Pg. 47 –  Johann Sebastian Bach: born March 31, 1685, died July 28, 1750.  

George Frideric Handel: born March 5, 1685, died April 13, 1759.  

Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti: born October 26, 1685, died July 23, 1757. 

Haydn composed his Op. 33 String Quartets in 1781.  

This chapter outlines the musical world of Robert Anton Wilson’s The Earth Will Shake and The Widow’s Son: continuing influence of Scarlatti, Bach, and Handel; a very young Mozart; and Haydn toiling away in relative obscurity in Esterhazy in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.  

Rosen writes: 

The idea of a Form striving to define itself, to become flesh in all these different ways, is attractive, but even as a metaphor it sets a trap. It leads one to assume that there was such a thing as ‘sonata form’ in the late eighteenth century, and that the composers knew what it was, whereas  nothing we know about the situation would lead us to suppose anything of the kind. The feeling for any form, even the minuet, was much more fluid. 

                                                - pg. 52 

This passage helps to address Oz Fritz’s comment, “I don't know why Rosen calls the sonata a texture and not a form. Perhaps he will explain that as we move along.” 

(It does bother me that Rosen always uses male pronouns when refering to generic composers or artists.) 

    In Sonata Forms Rosen writes: 

    In the eighteenth century, consequently, there was no notion of an isolated  sonata form as such: all that existed was a gradually evolving conception of     the composition of instrumental music – a pure instrumental style untroubled  by the exigencies of concerto, dance music, or opera overture, unhampered  by the old-fashioned procedures of fugue and variations. It is significant that     eighteenth-century accounts of sonata form are all description of     instrumental compostion in general. 

- pg. 14-15 

New reading group begins! 'The Classical Style' [Updated]

The Classical Style by Charles Rosen 

By ERIC WAGNER
Special guest blogger

Week 1: Overture 

Schedule: 

5/25/2026 Overture 

6/1 Preface to the First Edition, A New Preface, Acknowledgments, Bibliographic Note, Note on the Music Examples. 

I   INTRODUCTION 

6/8 1. The Musical Language of the Late Eighteenth Century 

6/15 2. Theories of Form 

6/22 3. The Origins of the Style 

II   THE CLASSICAL STYLE 

6/29 1. The Coherence of the Musical Language 

7/6 2. Structure and Ornament 

III   HAYDN FROM 1770 TO THE DEATH OF MOZART 

7/13 1. String Quartet 

7/20 2. Symphonies 

7/27  

IV   SERIOUS OPERA 

V   MOZART 

8/3 1. The Concerto 

8/10 2. String Quintet 

8/17 3. Comic Opera 

VI   HAYDN AFTER THE DEATH OF MOZART 

8/24 1. The Popular Style 

8/31 2. Piano Trio (Doomed Music) 

9/7 3. Church Music 

VII   BEETHOVEN 

9/14 1. Beethoven 

9/21 2. Beethoven’s Later Years and the Conventions of His Childhood 

9/28 Epilogue 

At the end of first grade they put some of the first graders in the second grade classroom for the last few weeks of school. One day the second grade teacher told us about Franz Joseph Haydn. She said he had become famous, but then, as now, some people fell asleep at the concerts, so he wrote a special piece for them, and she played us the second movement of Haydn’s Surprise Symphony. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOLy6JxEDLw&list=RDVOLy6JxEDLw&start_radio=1 

This utterly delighted my first grade mind. I could think of nothing cooler. I went home and told my mom about it, and she got me an LP of Haydn’s Surprise and Clock Symphonies that Christmas. I listened to them over and over again over the decades. 

Around December 1990 I read Joseph Kerman’s The Beethoven Quartets which blew me away, and in 1991 I read a bunch of other Kerman books. In Kerman’s Contemplating Music he raved about Charles Rosen’s The Classical Style, so it read it that summer, and I’ve read it over and over again over the past 25 years, along with all of Rosen’s other books. I also love Rosen’s piano playing. I love the synergetic experience of reading him and then listening to his recordings and trying to grok the music. Thank you for joining me on this voyage to Esterhazy, Salzburg, Vienna, and beyond. 

UPDATE: Given that there is interest in Sonny Rollins in the comments, I thought some of you might want to read the New  York Times obituary (gift link). 

One more reminder: New reading group starts on May 25

 One more reminder that a new reading group begins on May 25, lead by Eric Wagner:  Charles Rosen’s The Classical Style: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven. 

More details at a previous post.  Here again is Eric's statement: ""It pleases me to announce that we will begin a reading group on Charles Rosen’s The Classical Style: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven. This book provides a great analysis of music dear to Bob Wilson, especially Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata. Many people, including me, consider this book one of the best books on music ever written. We will begin on Monday, May 25. I recommend using the Expanded Edition of the text, but you may use the original edition if you would like to. I really look forward to this study group!"

I got my good condition used copy for less than $10 at BookFinder.com. 

As per usual, the way it works is that Eric writes a blog post and everyone else weighs in with comments. 

Here are Robert Anton Wilson's desert island recordings list, you'll see plenty from the guys Rosen writes about. 

The surprise in RAW's list is the one rock group, Iron Butterfly. My younger readers actually may not remember "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida." 

I mostly listen to classical music these days. but just for fun, here are 10 of my favorite rock music albums. I could have listed a few others, and I'm sure as soon as I hit "Publish," I'll think of something I wish I had included. 

Revolver, the Beatles.
Sticky Fingers, the Rolling Stones.
Out of Time, REM.
Speaking in Tongues, Talking Heads.
New Miserable Experience, the Gin Blossoms.
At Budokan, Cheap Trick.
Copper Blue, Sugar.
Aurora Gory Alice, Letters to Cleo.
Armed Forces, Elvis Costello and the Attractions.
Shake It Up, the Cars. 

New online reading group for Rosen's 'Classical Style'

 

Eric Wagner has asked to lead a new online reading group for The Classical Style: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven by Charles Rosen and I have agreed, note that Eric recommends the expanded edition. We start in May with the usual format, i.e. Eric will write a blog post and anyone who wants to take part will be invited to weigh in with the comments.

Here is Eric's statement:

"It pleases me to announce that we will begin a reading group on Charles Rosen’s The Classical Style: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven. This book provides a great analysis of music dear to Bob Wilson, especially Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata. Many people, including me, consider this book one of the best books on music ever written. We will begin on Monday, May 25. I recommend using the Expanded Edition of the text, but you may use the original edition if you would like to. I really look forward to this study group!"

I can't resist adding a couple of points. This book won the National Book Award, so Eric is not alone in his opinion.

I recently ran across a Tyler Cowen podcast that discussed music, and Tyler said that he believes the top three composers are Bach, Mozart and Beethoven. This is the received opinion, but I agree with it. Haydn also is considered an important composer; Sviatoslav Richter, my favorite piano player, once said that Haydn is better than Mozart. So if you are a music fanatic, this is a good opportunity to learn something.

Eric has more musicological  knowledge than I do. I told Eric I was worried I would not be able to follow Rosen's points, and he assured me, "Yes, he has technical stuff, but he also has tons of entertaining nontechnical stuff." So apparently if you are as ignorant as me, you can still learn something.

If you are searching for a cheap used copy, it might help to know that the ISBN for the expanded edition is 9780393317121. Bookfinder.com is a good search engine for finding used books and I found a copy for less than $10.

Charles Rosen was a noted piano player as well as a scholar, as the Wikipedia bio explains. Eric has been bending my ear about him for years. 

I am currently listening to all of Beethoven's 32 sonatas, concentrating on a particular sonata each week (I am at number 18, about to start on number 19). Eric currently has a similar Beethoven listening project, tying it to a re-read of Timothy Leary's The Game of Life.