The
18th Century:
Overview
The 1700s began as the full flowering of the
beginning of "late baroque" music, and secular music which arose during the previous
century has now overtaken sacred music as the dominant musical
force. The
Concerto Grosso, developed by Corelli and Torelli, two composers of
the Bologna school, and Corelli's development of
tonality began spreading into Germany and Northern Europe around
1700.
Additionally, Corelli's release on January 1, 1700 of his set of
violin sonatas, Opus 5, will turn the music world on it's heels.
Contemporary
violinist Andrew Manze, director of the Academy
of Ancient Music, has written that Corelli's Opus 5 constitutes:
| "Arguably the
finest and most influential [set of violin sonatas] ever
assembled. This publication was the single most important musical
link between the shadowlands of the seventeeth century and the
eighteenth's Newtonian Enlightenment. All other baroque sonatas
can be defined as being pre- or post-Corelli." |
Although we
don't agree with his concept of 'shadowlands', this quote shows what a respected violinist has to say about Corelli.
The new century will see the full flowering of the Baroque
with the works of the great master J.S.
Bach, the last and the greatest of the Baroque masters.
Bach died in 1750 as an unknown organist, while his son C.P.E.
Bach helped pioneer the lighter rococo, or gallant style of music
that moved away from the more serious and learned baroque style.
C.P.E. and brother Christian will be a major influence on Haydn and Mozart who will
create the final flowering of the century where the concerto
grosso from the previous century will be transformed into the
piano concertos of Mozart, and the the final form of the symphony
and string quartet will be created out of the ashes of the
trio sonata and the sinfonia. The story goes, however, that after
the initial influence of Bach's famous sons earlier in Mozart's
life, later Mozart will discover rare copies of the elder J.S.
Bach's cantatas and motets in one of the churches where Bach had
previous been employed and, as the story goes, exclaimed "At
last, I now have someone to learn from!" In his last works,
Mozart moved away from his springy, formal, and sometimes
superficial works of earlier days, to which his last symphonies
give ardent testimony.
The century will end with the full flowering
of tonality with these forms that will become
the germ for the great music of the Romantic
Era of the following century.
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