Classicism in Cinemascope

January 21, 8:15 PMSF Classical Music ExaminerScott Foglesong

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Once in a while you discover that you know absolutely nada about somebody close. You thought you understood every gesture, every thought, every reaction. You thought the relationship was solid, everlasting, maybe a little predictable but a cherished safe harbor nonetheless.

Then he/she ups and leaves you dumbfounded by running off to Abu Dhabi with the pizza delivery boy.

The vast bulk of the music-loving public is rather like that in regards to the Viennese Classical, a period from roughly 1750 to 1820 (estimates vary) in which the Baroque idiom gave way to compositional practices still very much with us to this day. The Enlightenment, as it is known, is a musical period very near and dear to our hearts.

The Classical is, after all, the time of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven (at least in his earlier years.) Talk about a cherished safe harbor; are there any compositions more sacred than the last three Mozart symphonies, Haydn's Creation, string quartets from all three composers, The Marriage of Figaro, etc.?

But here's the big surprise, that running-off-to-Abu-Dhabi blow to the sense of security: most of us don't know jack you-know-what about this era. In a lot of ways, it's the largest single terra incognito in modern music.

Consider that there are literally tens of thousands of symphonies, all written from 1770 to about 1790, languishing in monasteries, palaces, and libraries throughout Europe. We can assume that most of them are icky (Sturgeon's Law: 90% of everything is bunk.) However, we may also assume that some are well worth hearing and studying.

Consider also that great gray area in most people's music-history knowledge: from about 1740 to 1770, just what in blazes was going on?

The great Baroque figures were reaching the ends of their careers; Bach was floating through the rarefied contrapuntal heavens of The Art of Fugue, The Musical Offering, The Goldberg Variations, and the completion of the B Minor Mass; Handel was bringing out his later oratorios.

But what about the younger generations? What were they doing? The full-tilt Classical style didn't just spring into existence with Haydn's mature symphonies or Mozart's move to Vienna, you know. It took a good long time in developing, but the vast body of music during those transition years is almost entirely unknown, as are the composers who wrote it.

Even Haydn's works of the 1760s and 1770s aren't particularly well-known by most concert-goers, who typically hear works only of Haydn's sixth decade or beyond (the 'London' symphonies, quartets Op. 74/75, or the oratorios.) For that matter, only about six or seven of Mozart's symphonies are familiar to most folks.

The discovery of that repertoire -- operas by Jommelli, Hasse, or Leo; instrumental works by Stamitz, Cannabich, Christian Bach, Emanuel Bach, Holzbauer, Wagenseil, et al., can be a revelation to a modern listener. There is a great deal more here than dainty Rococo trifles mincing about with pinkies extended, not a brain in their pretty little heads. You find energy, enthusiasm, and excitement, the heady music of an era of change.

Thus the Viennese Classical is a rich treasure, just waiting to be opened and explored.

Fortunately we have an approachable, immensely learned guide to the entire era. Daniel Heartz, emeritus professor at UC Berkeley, has gifted us with three luxuriant volumes covering this fertile period in European music:

• Music in European Capitals: The Galant Style, 1720-1780
  
  
• Haydn, Mozart and the Viennese School 1740-1780
  
  
• Mozart, Haydn, and Early Beethoven: 1781-1802
  
  

What distinguishes the Heartz books from many other musicological and/or historical volumes is Heartz's focus on the music itself. This is a work meant to be followed with scores and recordings.

Just to take one example out of hundreds, Heartz goes through two different nearly contemporary settings of Metastasio's libretto Artaserse, by Vinci and Hasse.

Abundant musical examples (both modern typesetting and reproductions of original publications) make it possible to follow his arguments rather easily provided you're reasonably literate in reading music notation. If you desire (or require) supplement via recordings, today's vast online resources (such as the Naxos Music Library) will come in handy.

The volume covering the earliest developments was the second to be published, Music in European Capitals: The Galant Style, 1720-1780. This is the book most likely to introduce you to composers you never knew about, some we tend to think of as Baroque (Vivaldi, Pergolesi), and some definitely Classical (Hasse, Graun, Emanuel Bach, and so forth.)

Heartz organizes his coverage largely by locale: Naples, Venice, Dresden and Berlin, Stuttgart and Mannheim, and Paris. Along the way we are acquainted with a host of wonderful composers: Leo, Jommelli, Piccinni, Vivaldi, Veracini, Locatelli, Tartini, Sammartini, Domenico Scarlatti, Galuppi, Hasse, Graun, Emanuel Bach, Stamitz, Holzbauer, Schubart, Cannabich -- well, it goes on and on.

Nearly two hundred pages cover the development of Classical opera -- Philidor, Monsigny, Grétry, then Gluck receives a chapter of his own. Heartz concludes with "Three Apostles of the Galant Style" -- Christian Bach, Paisiello, and Boccherini, each master given extensive and sympathetic coverage.

The first volume published is the second chronologically. Haydn, Mozart and the Viennese School 1740-1780 covers the earlier careers of Haydn, Mozart and their contemporaries. It is here that you learn about Monn, Wagenseil, Salieri, Ditters, Vanhal, Hofmann, and Ordonez. Once again Gluck is accorded a chapter of his own; the fellow was one of the heavyweights of the era.

Heartz's coverage of Haydn's career up to 1780 is probably the clearest you will find, as is his richly sympathetic material on young Mozart.

I had been holding my breath in anticipation for the third volume, and it is finally available: Mozart, Haydn, and Early Beethoven: 1781-1802. Here we are at the absolute heart of the Viennese Classical. Lesser lights are left to the previous two volumes; this one focuses entirely on the Big Three.

Heartz zooms in tightly on the music itself; thirteen pages alone are devoted to Haydn's Op. 33 string quartets, including ten separate musical examples (not all from Haydn, but also drawing from Gluck and Beethoven.) Twenty-one pages cover Haydn's late masterpiece "The Creation".

Heartz's attention to Mozart is no less luxuriant. Given his stature as a recognized authority on the Mozart operas, it is not surprising that his coverage of Mozart's operas is exemplary and thorough. To give one example, La clemenza di Tito, Mozart's late, oft-maligned opera seria, is covered from pages 289 to 305 with such care, attention, and affection that it is really impossible to think of the work as lesser-quality Mozart ever after.

Heartz takes pains to cover Beethoven's pre-Vienna period, especially in regards to the music itself. Typically Beethoven's works in Bonn are dismissed quickly, but here they are given some long-needed exposure. We make it through 1802 and the Second Symphony, and there the three-volume series ends.

Even from my feeble descriptions, it should be clear that these are not light volumes aimed at the musically uneducated reader. They will be most valuable to folks who can read music well enough to follow the examples and have enough commitment to the era to find the thought of 2800 pages on a single era intriguing.

But given those provisos, no better coverage of the Galant/Classical eras can be found.

Libraries are sure to have copies, but these are books definitely worth owning, provided that the pocketbook can handle the strain of three hardbound, high-quality W.W. Norton & Co. volumes. (That's especially true of the first-published volume, now out of print.)

I've linked to Amazon, but you may be able to find cheaper used copies elsewhere -- try Google Book Search.

Clockwise from top left: Graun, Hasse, Wagenseil, and Jommelli