Music in the Enlightenment

The period we have called the Second Europe began with a music style called the Baroque. The Baroque exemplifies the values and ideals of that outlook. It too is characterized by reason, order, proportion, logic, balance, form--words used often by the Enlightenment. There is exuberance and emotion in Baroque music but it is controlled and disciplined. Reason or Order discipline vigor, emotion and feeling.

Two of the greatest figures of Baroque music were Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) and George Frideric Handel (1650-1759). But there were others, not so well known today, but still important and enjoying a revival of interest. For example, Jean-Joseph Mouret (1682-1738) and Jeremiah Clarke (1674-1707).

There is a good site, Classical Music Archives, which offers midi files you can play on your computer after registering (free).

I will play in class as many as I can from the following selections to give you a "taste" of Baroque: (You can click on each to listen if you have Microsoft Media Player.)

(1) Mouret’s Rondeau (Played by Wynton Marsalis)

(2) Clarke's "The Prince of Denmark's March" (also played by Marsalis.)

(3) Bach's "Brandenburg Concerto No. 2" (by Marsalis)

(4) Handel's air from Messiah, "The Trumpet shall sound" (by Robert Shaw and the Atlanta Symphony).

Next in line of artistic and musical styles was the Rococo, a delicate, fanciful, decorative, elegant extension of the Baroque.

Perhaps no one more aptly characterizes this style than Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791). See if you hear the qualities described above in his work Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, "Rondo: Allegro."

Another composer whose work illustrates these same characteristics is Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809). I particularly like his "Serenade" which is the slow movement from the String Quartet in F Major, Opus 3, No. 5.