Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven are the ‘big names’ of the Classical era, but this shouldn’t blind you to the work of the many other important composers working in this period. Write down the names and dates of some other composers of the era and choose one or two to research in more depth, and listen to examples of their work. What links, if any, do your chosen composers have with the three major composers considered here?
Other classical composers:
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714 – 1788)
Johann Christian Bach (1735 – 1782)
Muzio Clementi (1752 – 1832)
Christoph Gluck (1714 – 1787)
Luigi Cherubini (1760 – 1842)
Antonio Salieri (1750 – 1825)
A couple of classical guitar composers I recognise:
Fernando Sor (1778 – 1839)
Mauro Giuliani (1781 – 1829)
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_classical_music_composers_by_era#Classical_era
Bach, Johann Christian
Keyboard Concerto in E-Flat Major, Op. 7, No. 5, C59
http://manchesterlib.naxosmusiclibrary.com/streamw.asp?ver=2.0&s=101977%2Fmancheslibnml11%2F144355
(accessed 22/01/18)
The slurred notes towards the beginning of this concerto, as well as scalic runs later, and the Alberti bass, are reminiscent of Mozart, though of course it’s Mozart that partly acquired his style from Bach, not the other way round.
Pizz strings in some of the 3rd movement give an unexpected texture.
Particularly enjoyed the outer movements and the period instruments – a very catchy motif in the opening movement.
Bach, Johann Christian
Keyboard Concerto in G Major, Op. 7, No. 6, C60
http://manchesterlib.naxosmusiclibrary.com/streamw.asp?ver=2.0&s=101977%2Fmancheslibnml11%2F144356
(accessed 22/01/18)
Not nearly as exciting as the Eb concerto.
Bach, Johann Christian
Bassoon Concerto in B-Flat Major, C83
http://manchesterlib.naxosmusiclibrary.com/streamw.asp?ver=2.0&s=101977%2Fmancheslibnml11%2F1117453
(accessed 22/01/18)
Written in 1770, the same year as the above keyboard concertos, this bassoon concerto uses the harpsichord as the continuo instrument, not the piano. The cadential trills sound like Mozart. Part of it reminded me of a Mozart horn concerto.
Bach, Johann Christian (1735–1782)
J.C.Bach was the sixth and youngest son of Johann Sebastian Bach.
He was probably educated at the Thomasschule, Leipzig, where his father worked as Kantor at St Thomas’s Church.
After his father’s death in 1750, Johann Christian moved to Berlin, where his half-brother Carl Philipp Emanuel assumed responsibility for his welfare and education. His first surviving large-scale compositions, including five keyboard concertos, date from his years in Berlin, where he also gained renown as a harpsichordist.
In 1755 J.C.Bach travelled to Italy where he took counterpoint lessons with Padre Martini in Bologna. He concerted to Catholicism and composed several Roman Catholic church works and gained a Milanese patron, Count Agostino Litta. He became ‘second organist’ at Milan Cathedral in 1760.
It was through the medium of opera that he became renowned. Three Italian operas: Artaserse (1760), Catone in Utica (1761), and Alessandro nell’ Indie (1762), were successful enough that it prompted an invitation to compose two works for the King’s Theatre in London. In 1762 Bach travelled to London, where he spent the remaining twenty years of his life as the dominant musical figure in the city, thereby earning the sobriquet ‘the London Bach’. Bach became music master to Queen Charlotte, he taught the harpsichord to the royal family, and organised the queen’s chamber music concerts.
Bach collaborated with his compatriot Carl Friedrich Abel and inaugurated a series of subscription concerts during the mid 1760s. These continued into the next decade when the Bach–Abel concerts moved in 1775 to the lavish Hanover Square rooms. At these concerts many of Bach’s works were given their first performances. He composed predominantly in the galant style that was popular at the time.
Bach did much to champion the pianoforte, an instrument that was much in development at the time. The sonatas from op. 5 are apparently the first works published in England to specify the piano on the title-page.
Although J.C.Bach was acquainted with many great men of his age such as Sir Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough (who painted his portrait), Charles Burney, and Denis Diderot, he appears not to have met many other composers. Handel had died some years earlier and seems to have left something of a gap in English music. The foremost exception is that he met Leopold and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart on their visit to London in 1764–5. Bach is reputed to have performed duets with the eight-year-old Wolfgang. Mozart was much influenced by Bach’s music and arranged three of Bach’s sonatas into concertos.
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
Burkholder, J. P., Grout, D. J., & Palisca, C. V. (2014). A history of western music (Ninth edition.). New York, N.Y.: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Jim Mennell Music 