Three important listening examples

Hello my thousands of readers, I come again ready to tickle that classical music bone that you all love and adore me for. This week I will be taking a different type of approach to the blog as I talk about three different listening examples that make good material for my upcoming exam.

The first example is a Trio Sonata in B-flat major by Bach. I bet you were thinking of ole’ Toccata and Fugue in D Minor Bach, but I’m talking about his 5th child C.P.E Bach. This piece is a sort of hybrid binary form, but it has many elements that hint at the beginnings of sonata allegro form. The 2 part solo instruments are a flute and a violin with a cello basso line. The piece does not have very many cadences and the phrasing seems to be asymmetrical. The first 10 bars of the movement sets the “theme” and it’s built upon in some way throughout the piece. I think this piece is an important reference material because of all of the foreshadowing of content that is to come in the Classical Era.

The next example I am choosing is the Symphony in D major op.3, No.2, first movement by Johann Stamitz. This piece is a very great example of what was the typical quality of classical symphony music. yes, this isn’t Mozart, Haydn, or Beethoven, but it still holds true to their top quality of music. The ensemble this music was written for was the Mannheim Orchestra. They were, at the time, one of the best and premiere orchestras. This music reflects that with it’s use of the coup d’ archet and the mannheim rocket. The piece includes a second theme which further hints at the movement towards this sonata allegro form. content-wise, I believe this is a perfect example to have on an exam as its memorable, has a lot to talk about/digest, and just sounds great if I’m being honest.

The last example that I think is important is Domenico Scarlatti’s Song for Harpsichord in D major. This piece is a great example of the shift of baroque era compositions to the more classical era. It combines the counterpoint and seemingly “busy” lines, but still is able to be digested by an audience with its slow harmonic rhythm. This piece also serves as a good basis for the type of virtuoso’s that were performing at this time. With its fast sixteenth note scalular runs and running arpeggio’s, the bar for the average player was set very high.