[MUSIC] Have you ever noticed that when you turn on your TV or watch an ad on the Internet, or open a newspaper that you see such and such a watch or such and such an automobil, even a fancy villa, advertised as having classical style? What's that mean, it's a classic? Well, maybe that that object is a high end product. That it has a sense of balance and proportion, of purity. Maybe a lack of clutter and excessive detail that has caused it to be appreciated over a very long period of time. Timeless beauty. And this is true of high end western art music, what we call classical music, as opposed to the generally beloved popular music. Classical music, be it Josquin des Prez or Bach or Mozart, even Wagner, or Beethoven, Stravinsky, this is all thought of as classical music with a lowercase c, music that has been written down and preserved for us over time. Music that can be studied. This broad general use of the term classical, has this lower case c. This term classical music was first used in Germany in 1836, and it first applied to the music from Bach to Beethoven. But gradually it got extended to mean all notated art music from roughly the year 1000 up to the present day. Classical music with an uppercase C subsequently came to mean more specifically the music from the 1750 to roughly 1820. Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and early Schubert. So Classical music, with an upper-case C, is a subset of classical music, music with a certain style. The style of Mozart, for example. But what does it sound like? Can you picture in your mind's ear, the sound of Mozart? Can you bring to mind the sound of Mozart? Do you recognize Mozart in the classical style? Well let's find out. Which is Mozart? Let me play three pieces. One of which is in the classical style by Mozart. Which is the one by Mozart? Is it A, B, or C? [MUSIC] Okay, well, that's an introduction to A, let's go on now to hear Piece B. Is this Mr. Mozart? [MUSIC] Well, how about now this one, Piece C, is this Mozart? [MUSIC] Okay, let's pause it there. Well it's not A. It chugs along with a kind of relentless rhythm and the melody is one long stream. This is music by Bach. And it's not B. The sound is way too big here. There are large number of brass instruments. Trumpets at the end we heard, trombones and horns earlier. This means it's from the 19th century or later. This selection is by Richard Wagner. So the correct answer is, as you may have guessed, C. Only violins are sounding, the texture is very light, no brass at all, the structure melodically is very symmetrical. Balanced phrasing here. Well you've likely heard enough of Mozart beforehand, to know that C is indeed the correct answer. So you know already a bit about Classical music with a capital C. But what about architecture, which is the building here from the Classical period, 1750 to 1820? The one from the classical period is the one to the left. Even though, again, we see the columns, the capitals, the triangular pediment in the rotunda and the classical windows. The image to the right is the original from Roman antiquity. It's the famous Pantheon, in Rome, of course. The one to the left, again, is Thomas Jefferson's library at the University of Virginia. The classical model is drawn upon here. But they're both classics. All right, let's go now to Vienna, Austria. Here's the Emperor's dancing hall in Vienna where Mozart and his wife danced and for which Mozart, Hayden, Beethoven, they all wrote dance music. Notice the windows here. This is something that interests me, windows from the classical period 18th century. Five panes of glass across, with a semi circular lunette, divided light. Now let's go to the concert hall of my own Yale University. Notice the windows here are exactly the same. And indeed, if I took a picture, I might have done so of a window in my own living room, I'd get the same type of design, a classic design. To make this point In another way, let's look at this very classical building constructed in the heart of Paris in the 18th century with its classical features, and sense how wide-spread it became in the United States in the 19th and 20th centuries as the US Capital and one state capital after another was built. So the classical era looks rather conservative and rather conventional, and a lot of it stays with us today. But it wasn't always that way. There was political change and political revolution came to France with the French revolution and to North America in the American Revolution, with the Declaration of Independence. And there were changes in fashion, as you can see here on the screen. The wig and the sword of the gentleman of around 1750 and the face paint and the beauty marks, they all disappear. Here's how Handel looked around 1750. And then Beethoven half a century later, replaced by a more natural, less aristocratic look. And changes were coming to opera as well. Serious opera, opera seria, was being infiltrated, if not replaced, by a lighter kind of opera called Opera comique in France, or Opera buffa in Italy. It often had just spoken dialogue and more tuneful melodies, not the lengthy del capo aureos that we heard before. And the plots in the librettos showcased everyday characters, a man-servant, a butler or a maid. The slide to the left shows the famous castrato from the mid 18th century. And that on the right, a modern recreation of how the barber Figaro, in Mozart's, The Marriage of Figaro, is often depicted. Let's watch a portrayal of Barber Figaro in a production with subtitles. [MUSIC] Okay, if you wanna dance. Notice he's saying [FOREIGN], the little count. What is really said in the vernacular is you little, you can fill in the blank yourself. It's a very dismissive attitude toward his lord and master on the part of Figero the barber. [MUSIC] I'll call the tune [FOREIGN]. [MUSIC] Okay. He begins to ape, mimic, poke fun at, the fashions of the aristocracy. [MUSIC] La Capriola, Capriola was a dance step. Actually a dance step of the aristocracy. And if you wanna dance your step, I'll call the tune. [MUSIC] Okay, maybe we'll pause it right here. Well that kind of opera, subversive opera, by Mozart is very different from high flown Opera seria of the baroque. The classical period, while conservative architecturally, was often revolutionary socially. And sometimes revolutionary musically. Mozart's opera Figaro was premiered at a Viennese theatre, one run by Emperor Joseph II. But the Emperor's sister, Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, literally lost her head in the French revolution. That was just to begin just three years after the premiere of Mozart's opera. As you heard, there is tension, and there is drama in this seemingly serene music of the classical period.
