The Growth of Public Concert During the Classical Era

The most significant aspects of the growth of public concert during the Classical era relate to the need for entertainment and objectivity in musical composition. The Classical era started in the year 1775 and ended in 1825, and it was characterized by emulation, admiration for, as well as keen interest in the Classical literary and artistic heritage of Rome and Greece (Churgin, 1982). The rise in public concert during the Classical era got influenced significantly by the people’s need for entertainment. The public concerts during the Classical period reflected the transformations that occurred in the societies in which the music was being composed. The Classical era, therefore, marked the first period in the history of music when public concerts formed an essential component of the musical scene. Besides, the growth of public concerts created a new view that music should be composed for the entertainment and enjoyment of the common people (Churgin, 1982).

            The growth of public concert during the Classical era was also due to the need for objectivity in music, which characterizes the music in the Classical period. Although emotion forms an essential aspect of all forms of music, emotions got controlled carefully during the Classical era, and such emotional controls are evident in the use of expressive differences and dynamics in various sections of a musical composition (Churgin, 1982). The previously used terraced dynamics and the expression of non-variable emotion in a piece of music got replaced during the Classical era by a classical trait of changing the emotional content of a section of a musical composition. Dynamically, such a transformation was accomplished by the use of crescendos and decrescendos in various parts of a musical piece (Churgin, 1982).

            In overall, the growth of public concert during the Classical era got significantly influenced by the people's need for entertainment and objectivity in music. The musical compositions got characterized by careful attention to formality, as well as restraint and elegance. Besides, the formal structure of public concerts was based on effective use of harmonic structure and thematic development.

References

Churgin, B. (1982). Music of the Classical Era. The Musical Quarterly, LXVIII (2), 228-237. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mq/lxviii.2.228