Music in the making; Choral music of the Classical period

Music in the making produced by Milliken university under a grant from the educational television and radio cooperation with the National Association of educational broadcasters. Milliken School of Music presents Professor Wesley Snyder and the Millikan choir in a recorded consideration of choral music in the classical period during this period which comprises the last half of the eighteenth century composers produced an astonishing number of instrumental compositions but apparently neglected the purely choral forms. Other several reasons for this but perhaps the most important is the fact that the orchestra had only recently developed into symphonic stature instruments had been improved and with them the technical proficiency of the players had increased. The orchestra offered therefore a vast new and practically unexplored territory

for composers. And they responded with a wealth of compositions and new forms. The two great composers of the period were of course Haydn and Mozart whose compositions in the instrumental field are among the lasting monuments of musical art when they chose to write choral works. Maybe still the full measure of their genius on the task and produced choral works which are equal to their instrumental compositions before commenting upon the subject at hand. Professor Snyder would like you to listen to the smoothly flowing by the with bliss from Haydn's the creation as sung by the Milliken University Choir Professor Snyder is conducting.

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A a good logo and was yeah yeah it is still over it it. Was oh it was. What you have just heard is music of the age of Haydn and Mozart. It's the age of reason in music. Now this period consists of the

last 25 years of the 18th century the last quarter and it was an era of form of architectural music. Now by that is meant that music was constructed almost like a building. Regular phrases were balanced one against another and whole sections were placed side by side and a wonderful edifice of sound was erected there upon Haydn's music is music of the arching phrase each phrase seems to rise and fall as if by reason of some logical plan or some compelling need. His music is strictly within the limits of tonality and consequently sounds so right to our ears. Now the limits of tonality by that is meant that within the keys established there is a clear feeling of return to home base so to

speak. He Haydn used nearly related keys and stayed within the boundaries of tonality so that you always have of a feeling of being close to home. A short going away and a return that is the basis of Haydn's music. Now in his great choral work the creation his use of the solo voice against the chorus is always effective. The phrases follow one another in a logical order and yet you're seldom aware of any concern for design that Haydn may have had. The music seems to pour forth effortlessly in the chorus that comes to mind is the marvelous work. This is a brilliant chorus with a solo voice soaring high above the chorus. The

phrases are regular in length and they fall into a sort of pattern easily recognizable. The effect is that the music poured forth from Haydn spin with no trouble at all. Let us hear that work now as done by the Millikan arc Apollo choir the soloist is Arlene Steinberg Soprano. We're.

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The last. The music of Haydn was mentioned as being strictly within limits of tonality so also is that of Mozart but Mozart had begun to use tones and chords that were foreign to the tonality of a given composition. His melodic and harmonic resources were enriched by this but he began a trend that eventually led to the breakdown of tonality. I've mentioned tonality several times and perhaps a word of explanation is in order at this point. It's an interesting fact that no sooner had the tonal system evolved from the modal system of the earlier period then the seeds of its destruction were sown in the Renaissance period which is generally the sixteenth century church modes were used as the scales out of which music was built.

The church modes were the same as our own white note scales on the piano by beginning on D for instance and playing all the white notes up to the next higher D. We sound the notes of the Dorian mode. The East scale on white notes is the Phrygian mode and the F scale is the Lydian and the G scale the Mixolydian. If the Dorian mode a B flat is substituted for the B natural then the result is the pure minor scale. If B flat is substituted for the B in the Lydian Mode The result is the major scale. Now such substitutions were common and consequently the modes lost their distinctive character and all began to sound somewhat like our own major or minor scales. This is the simple explanation of what tonality is. It's simply the use of major major and

minor keys as the basis for musical composition. As the classical period progressed more and more sharps and flats were inserted into the scales and by the end of the Romantic period which followed the whole tonal system was felt to have served its purpose it had been used up the increasing use of sharps and flats is very clear in the music of Mozart. We can notice that especially in the beginning of the last section of is our very own corpus. Yes the Word of God incarnate which we hear now as sung by the Millikan choir.