Editing Classical period (music) (section)

=== Baroque/Classical transition c. 1750–1760 ===
{{See also|History of sonata form}}
[[File:Joseph Siffred Duplessis - Christoph Willibald Gluck - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|[[Christoph Willibald Gluck|
Gluck]], detail of a portrait by [[Joseph Duplessis]], dated 1775 ([[Kunsthistorisches Museum]], Vienna)]]

In his book ''[[The Classical Style]]'', author and pianist [[Charles Rosen]] claims that from 1755 to 1775, composers groped for a new style that was more effectively dramatic. In the High Baroque period, dramatic expression was limited to the representation of individual ''affects'' (the "doctrine of affections", or what Rosen terms "dramatic sentiment"). For example, in Handel's oratorio ''[[Jephtha (Handel)|Jephtha]]'', the composer renders four emotions separately, one for each character, in the quartet "O, spare your daughter". Eventually this depiction of individual emotions came to be seen as simplistic and unrealistic; composers sought to portray multiple emotions, simultaneously or progressively, within a single character or movement ("dramatic action"). Thus in the finale of act 2 of Mozart's ''[[Die Entführung aus dem Serail]]'', the lovers move "from joy through suspicion and outrage to final reconciliation."<ref name=Rosen>[[Charles Rosen|Rosen, Charles]]. ''[[The Classical Style]],'' pp. 43–44. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1998</ref>

Musically speaking, this "dramatic action" required more musical variety. Whereas Baroque music was characterized by seamless flow within individual movements and largely uniform textures, composers after the High Baroque sought to interrupt this flow with abrupt changes in texture, dynamic, harmony, or tempo. Among the stylistic developments which followed the High Baroque, the most dramatic came to be called ''[[Empfindsamer Stil|Empfindsamkeit]]'', (roughly "[[sensitive style]]"), and its best-known practitioner was [[Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach]]. Composers of this style employed the above-discussed interruptions in the most abrupt manner, and the music can sound illogical at times. The Italian composer [[Domenico Scarlatti]] took these developments further. His more than five hundred single-movement keyboard sonatas also contain abrupt changes of texture, but these changes are organized into periods, balanced phrases that became a hallmark of the classical style. However, Scarlatti's changes in texture still sound sudden and unprepared. The outstanding achievement of the great classical composers (Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven) was their ability to make these dramatic surprises sound logically motivated, so that "the expressive and the elegant could join hands."<ref name=Rosen />

Between the death of J. S. Bach and the maturity of Haydn and Mozart (roughly 1750–1770), composers experimented with these new ideas, which can be seen in the music of Bach's sons. Johann Christian developed a style which we now call ''Roccoco'', comprising simpler textures and harmonies, and which was "charming, undramatic, and a little empty." As mentioned previously, Carl Philipp Emmanuel sought to increase drama, and his music was "violent, expressive, brilliant, continuously surprising, and often incoherent." And finally Wilhelm Friedemann, J.S. Bach's eldest son, extended Baroque traditions in an idiomatic, unconventional way.<ref name=Rosen/>

At first the new style took over Baroque forms—the ternary ''[[da capo aria]]'', the ''[[sinfonia]]'' and the ''[[concerto]]''—but composed with simpler parts, more notated ornamentation, rather than the improvised ornaments that were common in the Baroque era, and more emphatic division of pieces into sections. However, over time, the new aesthetic caused radical changes in how pieces were put together, and the basic formal layouts changed. Composers from this period sought dramatic effects, striking melodies, and clearer textures. One of the big textural changes was a shift away from the complex, dense [[polyphony|polyphonic]] style of the Baroque, in which multiple interweaving melodic lines were played simultaneously, and towards [[homophony]], a lighter texture which uses a clear single melody line accompanied by chords.

Baroque music generally uses many harmonic fantasies and polyphonic sections that focus less on the structure of the musical piece, and there was less emphasis on clear musical phrases. In the classical period, the harmonies became simpler. However, the structure of the piece, the phrases and small melodic or rhythmic motives, became much more important than in the Baroque period.
[[File:Muzio Clementi - sonata in g minor no.3, op 50, 'didone abbandonata' - ii. adagio dolente.ogg|thumb|left|200px|[[Muzio Clementi]]'s Sonata in G minor, No.&nbsp;3, Op.&nbsp;50, "Didone abbandonata", adagio movement]]
Another important break with the past was the radical overhaul of [[opera]] by [[Christoph Willibald Gluck]], who cut away a great deal of the layering and improvisational ornaments and focused on the points of [[Modulation (music)|modulation]] and transition. By making these moments where the harmony changes more of a focus, he enabled powerful dramatic shifts in the emotional color of the music. To highlight these transitions, he used changes in instrumentation ([[orchestration]]), melody, and [[Musical mode|mode]]. Among the most successful composers of his time, Gluck spawned many emulators, including [[Antonio Salieri]]. Their emphasis on accessibility brought huge successes in opera, and in other vocal music such as songs, oratorios, and choruses. These were considered the most important kinds of music for performance and hence enjoyed greatest public success.

The phase between the Baroque and the rise of the Classical (around 1730), was home to various competing musical styles. The diversity of artistic paths are represented in the sons of [[Johann Sebastian Bach]]: [[Wilhelm Friedemann Bach]], who continued the Baroque tradition in a personal way; [[Johann Christian Bach]], who simplified textures of the Baroque and most clearly influenced Mozart; and [[Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach]], who composed passionate and sometimes violently eccentric music of the ''Empfindsamkeit'' movement. Musical culture was caught at a crossroads: the masters of the older style had the technique, but the public hungered for the new. This is one of the reasons C. P. E. Bach was held in such high regard: he understood the older forms quite well and knew how to present them in new garb, with an enhanced variety of form.