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167-565: Antonio Salieri (18 August 1750 – 7 May 1825) was an Italian composer and teacher of the classical period . He was born in Legnago , south of Verona , in the Republic of Venice , and spent his adult life and career as a subject of the Habsburg monarchy . Salieri was a pivotal figure in the development of late 18th-century opera. As a student of Florian Leopold Gassmann , and

334-454: A Mass in C major written without a "Gloria" and in the antique a cappella style (presumably for one of the church's penitential seasons) and dated 2 August 1767. A complete opera composed in 1769 (presumably as a culminating study) La vestal ( The Vestal Virgin ) has also been lost. Beginning in 1766 Gassmann introduced Salieri to the daily chamber music performances held during Emperor Joseph II 's evening meal. Salieri quickly impressed

501-835: A protégé of Christoph Willibald Gluck , Salieri was a cosmopolitan composer who wrote operas in three languages. Salieri helped to develop and shape many of the features of operatic compositional vocabulary, and his music was a powerful influence on contemporary composers. Appointed the director of the Italian opera by the Habsburg court, a post he held from 1774 until 1792, Salieri dominated Italian-language opera in Vienna. During his career, he also spent time writing works for opera houses in Paris, Rome, and Venice, and his dramatic works were widely performed throughout Europe during his lifetime. As

668-501: A "clearer", "cleaner" style that used clearer divisions between parts (notably a clear, single melody accompanied by chords), brighter contrasts, and "tone colors" (achieved by the use of dynamic changes and modulations to more keys). In contrast with the richly layered music of the Baroque era, Classical music moved towards simplicity rather than complexity. In addition, the typical size of orchestras began to increase, giving orchestras

835-403: A Day ) in 1784, which was not a success. Salieri next turned to Giambattista Casti as a librettist; a more successful set of collaborations flowed from this pairing. In the meantime, Da Ponte began working with Mozart on Le Nozze di Figaro ( The Marriage of Figaro ). In 1785 Salieri produced one of his greatest works with the text by Casti, La grotta di Trofonio ( The Cave of Trophonius ),

1002-457: A booming market for pianos, piano music, and virtuosi to serve as exemplars. Hummel, Beethoven, and Clementi were all renowned for their improvising. The direct influence of the Baroque continued to fade: the figured bass grew less prominent as a means of holding performance together, the performance practices of the mid-18th century continued to die out. However, at the same time, complete editions of Baroque masters began to become available, and

1169-465: A carriage accident sustained on his final visit to Italy. Gassmann's two daughters, Anna Fuchs and Therese Rosenbaum , were both famous singers trained by Salieri; the younger, Therese, made a particular name for herself as a Mozart interpreter. Charles Burney , in one of his published accounts of his many European tours surveying the musical scene, recalls, on a visit to Joseph II and his court, meeting Gassmann and finding him very forthcoming. Among

1336-411: A carriage some years earlier, Salieri succeeded him as assistant director of the Italian opera in early 1774. On 10 October 1775 Salieri married Therese Helferstorfer, the daughter of a recently deceased financier and official of the court treasury. Sacred music was not a high priority for the composer during this stage of his career, but he did compose an Alleluia for chorus and orchestra in 1774. During

1503-604: A comic mock-epic by Tassoni , in which a war between Modena and Bologna follows the theft of a bucket. This uneven work was followed by a popular comedic success La locandiera  [ it ] ( The Mistress of the Inn ), an adaptation of the classic and popular spoken stage comedy La locandiera by Carlo Goldoni, with the libretto prepared by Domenico Poggi. The majority of Salieri's modest number of instrumental works also date from this time. Salieri's instrumental works have been judged by various critics and scholars to lack

1670-456: A completely original opera buffa . Salieri's first full opera was composed during the winter and carnival season of 1770; Le donne letterate and was based on Molière 's Les Femmes Savantes ( The Learned Ladies ) with a libretto by Giovanni Gastone Boccherini  [ it ] , a dancer in the court ballet and a brother of the composer Luigi Boccherini . The modest success of this opera launched Salieri's 34-year operatic career as

1837-508: A component of aesthetic taste in later decades. The Farewell Symphony , No. 45 in F ♯ minor, exemplifies Haydn's integration of the differing demands of the new style, with surprising sharp turns and a long slow adagio to end the work. In 1772, Haydn completed his Opus 20 set of six string quartets, in which he deployed the polyphonic techniques he had gathered from the previous Baroque era to provide structural coherence capable of holding together his melodic ideas. For some, this marks

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2004-534: A composer of over 35 original dramas. Following the modest success of Le donne letterate Salieri received new commissions for writing two additional operas in 1770, both with libretti by Giovanni Boccherini. The first, a pastoral opera, L'amore innocente ( Innocent Love ), was a light-hearted comedy set in the Austrian mountains. The second was based on an episode from Miguel de Cervantes ' Don Quixote – Don Chisciotte alle nozze di Gamace ( Don Quixote at

2171-469: A concerto for organ in C Major in two movements (the middle movement is missing from the autograph score, or perhaps, it was an improvised organ solo) (also 1773); and two concertante works: a concerto for oboe, violin and cello in D major (1770), and a flute and oboe concerto in C major (1774). These works are among the most frequently recorded of Salieri's compositions. Upon Gassmann's death on 21 January, most likely due to complications from an accident with

2338-563: A considerable amount of money in the process. Beginning in 1778 the Emperor wished to have new works, in German, composed by his own subjects and brought on the stage with clear Imperial support. This in effect left Salieri's role as assistant court composer in a much-reduced position. Salieri also had never truly mastered the German language, and he now felt no longer competent to continue as an assistant opera director. A further blow to his career

2505-561: A deep impression on Salieri for the rest of his life. Salieri's education included instruction in Latin and Italian poetry by Fr. Don Pietro Tommasi, instruction in the German language, and European literature. His music studies revolved around vocal composition and thoroughbass . His musical theory training in harmony and counterpoint was rooted in Johann Fux 's Gradus ad Parnassum , which Salieri translated during each Latin lesson. As

2672-444: A further boost to the string quartet and other small ensemble groupings. It was during this decade that public taste began, increasingly, to recognize that Haydn and Mozart had reached a high standard of composition. By the time Mozart arrived at age 25, in 1781, the dominant styles of Vienna were recognizably connected to the emergence in the 1750s of the early Classical style. By the end of the 1780s, changes in performance practice ,

2839-440: A glimpse of hellish torture, kept the opera on the stage in Paris for over forty years. A young Hector Berlioz recorded the deep impression this work made on him in his Mémoires . Upon returning to Vienna following his success in Paris, Salieri met and befriended Lorenzo Da Ponte and had his first professional encounters with Mozart . Da Ponte wrote his first opera libretto for Salieri, Il ricco d'un giorno ( A Rich Man for

3006-425: A keyboard ( harpsichord or organ ) and usually accompanied by a varied group of bass instruments, including cello , double bass , bass viol , and theorbo . One way to trace the decline of the continuo and its figured chords is to examine the disappearance of the term obbligato , meaning a mandatory instrumental part in a work of chamber music . In Baroque compositions, additional instruments could be added to

3173-501: A large audience. Mozart wanted to achieve both. Moreover, Mozart also had a taste for more chromatic chords (and greater contrasts in harmonic language generally), a greater love for creating a welter of melodies in a single work, and a more Italianate sensibility in music as a whole. He found, in Haydn's music and later in his study of the polyphony of J.S. Bach , the means to discipline and enrich his artistic gifts. Mozart rapidly came to

3340-492: A local priest with proper respect. Salieri responded to the reprimand by saying the priest's organ playing displeased him because it was in an inappropriately theatrical style. Sometime between 1763 and 1764, both of Salieri's parents died, and he was briefly taken in by an anonymous brother, a monk in Padua , and then for unknown reasons in 1765 or 1766, he became the ward of a Venetian nobleman named Giovanni Mocenigo (which Giovanni

3507-401: A more powerful sound. The remarkable development of ideas in " natural philosophy " had already established itself in the public consciousness. In particular, Newton's physics was taken as a paradigm: structures should be well-founded in axioms and be both well-articulated and orderly. This taste for structural clarity began to affect music, which moved away from the layered polyphony of

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3674-430: A musical style which emphasized light elegance in place of the Baroque's dignified seriousness and impressive grandeur. Structurally, Classical music generally has a clear musical form , with a well-defined contrast between tonic and dominant , introduced by clear cadences . Dynamics are used to highlight the structural characteristics of the piece. In particular, sonata form and its variants were developed during

3841-521: A number of his arias on the CD Divas of Mozart's Day . In 2008, another female opera star, Diana Damrau , released a CD with seven Salieri coloratura arias. Since 2000, there have also been complete recordings issued or re-issued of the operas Axur Re d'Ormus , Falstaff , Les Danaïdes , La Locandiera , La grotta di Trofonio , Prima la musica e poi le parole and Il mondo alla rovescia  [ de ] . Salieri has yet to fully re-enter

4008-399: A piece became more pronounced than before, and the orchestra increased in size, range, and power. The harpsichord was replaced as the main keyboard instrument by the piano (or fortepiano ). Unlike the harpsichord, which plucks strings with quills, pianos strike the strings with leather-covered hammers when the keys are pressed, which enables the performer to play louder or softer (hence

4175-457: A requiem, and many offertories, graduals, vesper settings, and sacred cantatas and oratorios. Much of his sacred music dates from after his appointment as Hofkapellmeister in 1788. His small instrumental output includes two piano concerti , a concerto for organ written in 1773, a concerto for flute , oboe and orchestra (1774), a triple concerto for oboe, violin and cello, and a set of twenty-six variations on " La folia di Spagna " (1815). In

4342-434: A result, Salieri continued to live with Gassmann even after Gassmann's marriage, an arrangement that lasted until the year of Gassmann's death and Salieri's own marriage in 1774. Few of Salieri's compositions have survived from this early period. In his old age Salieri hinted that these works were either purposely destroyed or had been lost, with the exception of a few works for the church. Among these sacred works there survives

4509-536: A rivalry between the German and the Italian schools of music. Carl Maria von Weber , a relative of Mozart by marriage whom Wagner has characterized as the most German of German composers, is said to have refused to join the Ludlamshöhle (Ludlam's cave), a social club of which Salieri was a member, and avoided having anything to do with him. These rumors then made their way into popular culture. Albert Lortzing 's Singspiel Szenen aus Mozarts Leben LoWV28 (1832) and

4676-480: A royal wedding at which Salieri's Axur, re d'Ormus would be performed. Mozart was not pleased by this. The rivalry between Salieri and Mozart became publicly visible as well as audible during the opera composition competition held by Emperor Joseph II in 1786 in the Orangery at Schönbrunn. Mozart was considered the loser of this competition. Mozart's 1791 opera The Magic Flute echoes that competition because

4843-467: A self-contained section, consisting of clarinets , oboes , flutes and bassoons . While vocal music such as comic opera was popular, great importance was given to instrumental music. The main kinds of instrumental music were the sonata , trio , string quartet , quintet , symphony , concerto (usually for a virtuoso solo instrument accompanied by orchestra), and light pieces such as serenades and divertimentos . Sonata form developed and became

5010-477: A series of on-stage dances with singing from both solo protagonists and the chorus. This was a pattern imitated by later composers, most famously and successfully by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Don Giovanni . Salieri also wrote several bravura arias for a soprano playing the part of a middle-class character that combined coloratura and concertante woodwind solos, another innovation for comic opera that

5177-416: A single character or movement ("dramatic action"). Thus in the finale of act 2 of Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail , the lovers move "from joy through suspicion and outrage to final reconciliation." Musically speaking, this "dramatic action" required more musical variety. Whereas Baroque music was characterized by seamless flow within individual movements and largely uniform textures, composers after

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5344-490: A spur to writing spectacular, idiomatic parts for certain instruments, as in the case of the Mannheim orchestra , or virtuoso solo parts for particularly skilled violinists or flutists. In addition, the appetite by audiences for a continual supply of new music carried over from the Baroque. This meant that works had to be performable with, at best, one or two rehearsals. Even after 1790, Mozart writes about "the rehearsal," with

5511-442: A style which we now call Roccoco , comprising simpler textures and harmonies, and which was "charming, undramatic, and a little empty." As mentioned previously, Carl Philipp Emmanuel sought to increase drama, and his music was "violent, expressive, brilliant, continuously surprising, and often incoherent." And finally Wilhelm Friedemann, J.S. Bach's eldest son, extended Baroque traditions in an idiomatic, unconventional way. At first

5678-480: A trend to larger orchestras and forced the disbanding or reduction of many theater orchestras. This pressed the Classical style inwards: toward seeking greater ensemble and technical challenges—for example, scattering the melody across woodwinds, or using a melody harmonized in thirds. This process placed a premium on small ensemble music, called chamber music. It also led to a trend for more public performance, giving

5845-494: A variety of media. Notes References Classical period (music) The Classical Period was an era of classical music between roughly 1750 and 1820. The classical period falls between the Baroque and Romantic periods. Classical music has a lighter, clearer texture than Baroque music but a more varying use of musical form , which is, in simpler terms, the rhythm and organization of any given piece of music. It

6012-409: A vice- Kapellmeister and later Kapellmeister, his output expanded: he composed over forty symphonies in the 1760s alone. And while his fame grew, as his orchestra was expanded and his compositions were copied and disseminated, his voice was only one among many. While some scholars suggest that Haydn was later overshadowed by Mozart and Beethoven, it would be difficult to overstate Haydn's centrality to

6179-1207: A virtuoso solo performer playing a solo work for violin, piano, flute, or another instrument, accompanied by an orchestra. Vocal music, such as songs for a singer and piano (notably the work of Schubert), choral works , and opera (a staged dramatic work for singers and orchestra), was also important during this period. The best-known composers from this period are Joseph Haydn , Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , Ludwig van Beethoven , and Franz Schubert ; other names in this period include: Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach , Johann Christian Bach , Luigi Boccherini , Domenico Cimarosa , Joseph Martin Kraus , Muzio Clementi , Christoph Willibald Gluck , Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf , André Grétry , Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny , Leopold Mozart , Michael Haydn , Giovanni Paisiello , Johann Baptist Wanhal , François-André Danican Philidor , Niccolò Piccinni , Antonio Salieri , Etienne Nicolas Mehul , Georg Christoph Wagenseil , Johann Simon Mayr , Georg Matthias Monn , Johann Gottlieb Graun , Carl Heinrich Graun , Franz Benda , Georg Anton Benda , Johann Georg Albrechtsberger , Mauro Giuliani , Christian Cannabich and

6346-468: A witty study of amorous intrigue and emotion, proved a popular and lasting international success. Upon his return at imperial behest to Vienna in 1780, Salieri wrote one German Singspiel, Der Rauchfangkehrer ( The Chimney Sweep ), which premiered in 1781. Salieri's Chimney Sweep and Mozart's work for the same company in 1782, Die Entführung aus dem Serail ( The Abduction from the Seraglio ), were

6513-537: Is a name mostly used to refer to three composers of the Classical period in late-18th-century Vienna : Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. Franz Schubert is occasionally added to the list. In German-speaking countries, the term Wiener Klassik (lit. Viennese classical era/art ) is used. That term is often more broadly applied to the Classical era in music as a whole, as a means to distinguish it from other periods that are colloquially referred to as classical , namely Baroque and Romantic music . The term "Viennese School"

6680-485: Is at this time unknown), a member of the powerful and well connected Mocenigo family . It is possible that Salieri's father and Mocenigo were friends or business associates, but this is obscure. While living in Venice , Salieri continued his musical studies with the organist and opera composer Giovanni Battista Pescetti , then following Pescetti's sudden death he studied with the opera singer Ferdinando Pacini (or Pasini). It

6847-584: Is clearly reflective of the mature Haydn and Mozart, and its instrumentation gave it a weight that had not yet been felt in the grand opera . His contemporary Étienne Méhul extended instrumental effects with his 1790 opera Euphrosine et Coradin , from which followed a series of successes. The final push towards change came from Gaspare Spontini , who was deeply admired by future romantic composers such as Weber, Berlioz and Wagner. The innovative harmonic language of his operas, their refined instrumentation and their "enchained" closed numbers (a structural pattern which

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7014-413: Is in league with Salieri, I'll never get a text from him, and I would love to show him what I can really do with an Italian opera." In July 1783, he again wrote to his father of "a trick of Salieri's", one of several letters in which Mozart accused Salieri of trickery. Decades after Mozart's death, a rumor began to circulate that Mozart had been poisoned by Salieri. This rumor has been attributed by some to

7181-419: Is likely folk-derived and is known as La Folía . This simple melodic and harmonic progression had served as an inspiration for many baroque composers and would be used by later romantic and post-romantic composers. Salieri's setting is a brooding work in the minor key, which rarely moves far from the original melodic material, its main interest lies in the deft and varied handling of orchestral colors. La Folia

7348-406: Is mainly homophonic , using a clear melody line over a subordinate chordal accompaniment , but counterpoint was by no means forgotten, especially in liturgical vocal music and, later in the period, secular instrumental music. It also makes use of style galant which emphasizes light elegance in place of the Baroque's dignified seriousness and impressive grandeur. Variety and contrast within

7515-491: Is no sense in which they were engaged in a collaborative effort in the sense that one would associate with 20th-century schools such as the Second Viennese School, or Les Six . Nor is there any significant sense in which one composer was "schooled" by another (in the way that Berg and Webern were taught by Schoenberg), though it is true that Beethoven for a time received lessons from Haydn. Attempts to extend

7682-557: Is now a Salieri Opera Festival sponsored by the Fondazione Culturale Antonio Salieri and dedicated to rediscovering his work and those of his contemporaries. It is developing as an annual autumn event in his native town of Legnago, where a theatre has been renamed in his honor. In 2003, mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli released The Salieri Album , a CD with 13 arias from Salieri's operas, most of which had never been recorded before. Patrice Michaels sang

7849-477: Is set free. He expressed himself in enchanting notes, Now he is floating to everlasting beauty. During his time in Vienna, Salieri acquired great prestige as a composer and conductor, particularly of opera, but also of chamber and sacred music . Among the most successful of his 37 operas staged during his lifetime were Armida (1771), La fiera di Venezia (1772), La scuola de' gelosi (1778), Der Rauchfangkehrer (1781), Les Danaïdes (1784), which

8016-530: Is used as the warden's theme music, seemingly to invoke the image of jealousy of the inferior for his superior. In 2006, the movie Copying Beethoven referred to Salieri in a more positive light. In this movie, a young female music student hired by Beethoven to copy out his Ninth Symphony is staying at a monastery. The abbess tries to discourage her from working with the irreverent Beethoven. She notes that she too once had dreams, having come to Vienna to study opera singing with Salieri. The 2008 film Iron Man used

8183-522: The Chevalier de Saint-Georges . Beethoven is regarded either as a Romantic composer or a Classical period composer who was part of the transition to the Romantic era. Schubert is also a transitional figure, as were Johann Nepomuk Hummel , Luigi Cherubini , Gaspare Spontini , Gioachino Rossini , Carl Maria von Weber , Jan Ladislav Dussek and Niccolò Paganini . The period is sometimes referred to as

8350-546: The Clarinet Quintet (1789) and the 40th Symphony (1788) had been premiered on the suggestion of Salieri, who supposedly conducted a performance of it in 1791. In his last surviving letter from 14 October 1791, Mozart told his wife that he had picked up Salieri and Caterina Cavalieri in his carriage and driven them both to the opera; about Salieri's attendance at his opera The Magic Flute , speaking enthusiastically: "He heard and saw with all his attention, and from

8517-655: The Varietas Delectat , a contemporary dance show inspired by the music of Antonio Salieri. On 14 November 2011 in Graz, Austria, the hometown of the librettist Leopold Auenbrugger , Salieri's Der Rauchfangkehrer was given its first modern production. In July 2014 there was another modern production of this Salieri opera. This time it was the Pinchgut Opera of Sydney, Australia, performing it as The Chimneysweep . The Sydney Morning Herald referred to it as

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8684-529: The dominant chord , e.g., in the key of C major, modulating to G major). This introduced darker colors to music, strengthened the minor mode, and made structure harder to maintain. Beethoven contributed to this by his increasing use of the fourth as a consonance , and modal ambiguity—for example, the opening of the Symphony No. 9 in D minor . Ludwig van Beethoven , Franz Schubert , Carl Maria von Weber , Johann Nepomuk Hummel , and John Field are among

8851-430: The pianoforte replaced the harpsichord , enabling more dynamic contrast and more sustained melodies. Over the Classical period, keyboard instruments became richer, more sonorous and more powerful. The orchestra increased in size and range, and became more standardised. The harpsichord or pipe organ basso continuo role in orchestra fell out of use between 1750 and 1775, leaving the string section. Woodwinds became

9018-533: The string quartet became a prominent genre. The symphony form for orchestra was created in this period (this is popularly attributed to Joseph Haydn ). The concerto grosso (a concerto for more than one musician), a very popular form in the Baroque era, began to be replaced by the solo concerto , featuring only one soloist. Composers began to place more importance on the particular soloist's ability to show off virtuoso skills, with challenging, fast scale and arpeggio runs. Nonetheless, some concerti grossi remained,

9185-517: The 1780s, while Mozart lived and worked in Vienna, he and his father Leopold wrote in their letters that several "cabals" of Italians led by Salieri were actively putting obstacles in the way of Mozart's obtaining certain posts or staging his operas. For example, Mozart wrote in December 1781 to his father that "the only one who counts in the Emperor's eyes is Salieri". Their letters suggest that both Mozart and his father, being Austrians who resented

9352-426: The 18th century progressed well, the nobility became the primary patrons of instrumental music, while public taste increasingly preferred lighter, funny comic operas . This led to changes in the way music was performed, the most crucial of which was the move to standard instrumental groups and the reduction in the importance of the continuo —the rhythmic and harmonic groundwork of a piece of music, typically played by

9519-508: The Austrian imperial Kapellmeister from 1788 to 1824, he was responsible for music at the court chapel and attached school. Even as his works dropped from performance, and he wrote no new operas after 1804, he still remained one of the most important and sought-after teachers of his generation, and his influence was felt in every aspect of Vienna's musical life. Franz Liszt , Franz Schubert , Ludwig van Beethoven , Anton Eberl , Johann Nepomuk Hummel and Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart were among

9686-565: The Baroque and most clearly influenced Mozart; and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach , who composed passionate and sometimes violently eccentric music of the Empfindsamkeit movement. Musical culture was caught at a crossroads: the masters of the older style had the technique, but the public hungered for the new. This is one of the reasons C. P. E. Bach was held in such high regard: he understood the older forms quite well and knew how to present them in new garb, with an enhanced variety of form. By

9853-433: The Baroque period toward a style known as homophony , in which the melody is played over a subordinate harmony . This move meant that chords became a much more prevalent feature of music, even if they interrupted the melodic smoothness of a single part. As a result, the tonal structure of a piece of music became more audible . The new style was also encouraged by changes in the economic order and social structure. As

10020-401: The Classical era, it became more common for composers to indicate where they wanted performers to play ornaments such as trills or turns. The simplification of texture made such instrumental detail more important, and alit so made the use of characteristic rhythms, such as attention-getting opening fanfares, the funeral march rhythm, or the minuet genre, more important in establishing and unifying

10187-597: The Emperor on the latter's death in 1774. Another Italian composer, Giuseppe Bonno , succeeded Gassmann as court conductor. In 1771, Gassmann founded the Tonkünstler-Societät (Society of Musical Artists), which was the first group in Vienna to give concerts for the general public, and for the benefit of its members' widows and orphans. He wrote his oratorio La Betulia liberata for that purpose. In 1774, he died in Vienna from long-term consequences of

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10354-554: The Emperor, and Gassmann was instructed to bring his pupil as often as he wished. This was the beginning of a relationship between monarch and musician that lasted until Joseph's death in 1790. Salieri met Pietro Antonio Domenico Trapassi, better known as Metastasio , and Christoph Willibald Gluck during this period at the Sunday morning salons held at the home of the Martinez family. Metastasio had an apartment there and participated in

10521-626: The First Viennese School to include such later figures as Anton Bruckner , Johannes Brahms , and Gustav Mahler are merely journalistic, and never encountered in academic musicology. According to scholar James F. Daugherty, the Classical period itself from approximately 1775 to 1825 is sometimes referred to as "the Viennese Classic period". Musical eras and their prevalent styles, forms and instruments seldom disappear at once; instead, features are replaced over time, until

10688-632: The High Baroque period, dramatic expression was limited to the representation of individual affects (the "doctrine of affections", or what Rosen terms "dramatic sentiment"). For example, in Handel's oratorio Jephtha , the composer renders four emotions separately, one for each character, in the quartet "O, spare your daughter". Eventually this depiction of individual emotions came to be seen as simplistic and unrealistic; composers sought to portray multiple emotions, simultaneously or progressively, within

10855-422: The High Baroque sought to interrupt this flow with abrupt changes in texture, dynamic, harmony, or tempo. Among the stylistic developments which followed the High Baroque, the most dramatic came to be called Empfindsamkeit , (roughly " sensitive style "), and its best-known practitioner was Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach . Composers of this style employed the above-discussed interruptions in the most abrupt manner, and

11022-577: The Imperial Court, as a new National Theater. The re-launched theaters would promote German-language plays and musical productions that reflected Austrian (or as Joseph II would have said) German values, traditions, and outlook. The Italian opera buffa company was therefore replaced by a German-language Singspiel troupe. Joseph and his supporters of Imperial reform wanted to encourage pan-national pride that would unite his multi-lingual and ethnic subjects under one common language and hoped to save

11189-589: The Larghetto movement from Salieri's Piano Concerto in C major. The scene where Obadiah Stane, the archrival of Tony Stark, the wealthy industrialist turned Iron Man, tells Tony that he is being ousted from his company by the board, Obadiah plays the opening few bars of the Salieri concerto on a piano in Stark's suite. Salieri's life, and especially his relationship with Mozart, has been the subject of many stories, in

11356-557: The Marriage of Camacho ). In these first works, drawn mostly from the traditions of mid-century opera buffa , Salieri showed a penchant for experimentation and for mixing the established characteristics of specific operatic genres. Don Chisciotte was a mix of ballet and opera buffa , and the lead female roles in L'amore innocente were designed to contrast and highlight the different traditions of operatic writing for soprano, even borrowing stylistic flourishes from opera seria in

11523-581: The Papageno–Papagena duet is similar to the Cucuzza cavatina in Salieri's Prima la musica e poi le parole . The Magic Flute also echoes Salieri's music in that Papageno's whistle is based on a motif borrowed from Salieri's Concerto for Clavicembalo in B-flat major. However, there is also evidence attesting to Mozart and Salieri sometimes appearing to support each other's work. For example, when Salieri

11690-508: The Roman republic during the consulship of Cicero . These operas were composed in 1787 and 1792 respectively. Two other operas of little success and long-term importance were composed in 1789, and one great popular success La cifra ( The Cipher ). As Salieri's political position became insecure he retired as director of the Italian opera in 1792. He continued to write new operas per imperial contract until 1804 when he voluntarily withdrew from

11857-835: The approval of Gluck, Salieri was offered the commission, which he gratefully accepted. Joseph II granted Salieri permission to take a year-long leave of absence (later extended), enabling him to write for La Scala and to undertake a tour of Italy. Salieri's Italian tour of 1778–80 began with the production of Europa riconosciuta ( Europa Recognized ) for La Scala (revived in 2004 for the same opera house's re-opening following extensive renovations). From Milan, Salieri included stops in Venice and Rome before returning to Milan. During this tour, he wrote three new comic operas and he collaborated with Giacomo Rust on one opera, Il talismano  [ it ] ( The Talisman ). Of his Italian works one, La Scuola de' gelosi ( The School for Jealousy ),

12024-448: The attention of Haydn, who hailed the new composer, studied his works, and considered the younger man his only true peer in music. In Mozart, Haydn found a greater range of instrumentation, dramatic effect and melodic resource. The learning relationship moved in both directions. Mozart also had a great respect for the older, more experienced composer, and sought to learn from him. Mozart's arrival in Vienna in 1780 brought an acceleration in

12191-409: The balance of availability and quality of musicians. While in the late Baroque, a major composer would have the entire musical resources of a town to draw on, the musical forces available at an aristocratic hunting lodge or small court were smaller and more fixed in their level of ability. This was a spur to having simpler parts for ensemble musicians to play, and in the case of a resident virtuoso group,

12358-468: The beginning of the "mature" Classical style, a transitional period in which reaction against late Baroque complexity yielded to integration of Baroque and Classical elements. Haydn, having worked for over a decade as the music director for a prince, had far more resources and scope for composing than most other composers. His position also gave him the ability to shape the forces that would play his music, as he could select skilled musicians. This opportunity

12525-421: The big textural changes was a shift away from the complex, dense polyphonic style of the Baroque, in which multiple interweaving melodic lines were played simultaneously, and towards homophony , a lighter texture which uses a clear single melody line accompanied by chords. Baroque music generally uses many harmonic fantasies and polyphonic sections that focus less on the structure of the musical piece, and there

12692-767: The complex passage work and extended statements on tonic and dominant. When Haydn and Mozart began composing, symphonies were played as single movements—before, between, or as interludes within other works—and many of them lasted only ten or twelve minutes; instrumental groups had varying standards of playing, and the continuo was a central part of music-making. In the intervening years, the social world of music had seen dramatic changes. International publication and touring had grown explosively, and concert societies formed. Notation became more specific, more descriptive—and schematics for works had been simplified (yet became more varied in their exact working out). In 1790, just before Mozart's death, with his reputation spreading rapidly, Haydn

12859-402: The continuo group according to the group or leader's preference; in Classical compositions, all parts were specifically noted, though not always notated , so the term "obbligato" became redundant. By 1800, basso continuo was practically extinct, except for the occasional use of a pipe organ continuo part in a religious Mass in the early 1800s. Economic changes also had the effect of altering

13026-513: The course of the Classical period, symphonies and concertos developed and were presented independently of vocal music. The "normal" orchestra ensemble—a body of strings supplemented by winds—and movements of particular rhythmic character were established by the late 1750s in Vienna. However, the length and weight of pieces was still set with some Baroque characteristics: individual movements still focused on one "affect" (musical mood) or had only one sharply contrasting middle section, and their length

13193-445: The development of the Classical style. There, Mozart absorbed the fusion of Italianate brilliance and Germanic cohesiveness that had been brewing for the previous 20 years. His own taste for flashy brilliances, rhythmically complex melodies and figures, long cantilena melodies, and virtuoso flourishes was merged with an appreciation for formal coherence and internal connectedness. It is at this point that war and economic inflation halted

13360-471: The discovery of "a long-forgotten treasure". Salieri has even begun to attract some attention from Hollywood. In 2001, his triple concerto was used in the soundtrack of The Last Castle , featuring Robert Redford and James Gandolfini. It is a story that builds on the rivalry between a meticulous but untested officer (Gandolfini) serving as the warden of a military prison and an imprisoned but much admired and highly decorated general (Redford). The Salieri piece

13527-461: The dramatic and highly fictionalized depiction of Salieri in Peter Shaffer 's play Amadeus (1979), which was given its greatest exposure in its 1984 film version , directed by Miloš Forman . His music today has regained some modest popularity via recordings. It is also the subject of increasing academic study, and a small number of his operas have returned to the stage. In addition, there

13694-418: The early classical period and was frequently used. The Classical approach to structure again contrasts with the Baroque, where a composition would normally move between tonic and dominant and back again , but through a continual progress of chord changes and without a sense of "arrival" at the new key. While counterpoint was less emphasised in the classical period, it was by no means forgotten, especially later in

13861-486: The era of Viennese Classicism (German: Wiener Klassik ), since Gluck, Haydn, Salieri, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert all worked in Vienna . In the middle of the 18th century, Europe began to move toward a new style in architecture , literature, and the arts, generally known as Neoclassicism . This style sought to emulate the ideals of Classical antiquity , especially those of Classical Greece . Classical music used formality and emphasis on order and hierarchy and

14028-736: The exiled royal house of Portugal in 1824. Axur and his other new compositions completed by 1792 marked the height of Salieri's popularity and his influence. Just as his apogee of fame was being reached abroad, his influence in Vienna began to diminish with the death of Joseph II in 1790. Joseph's death deprived Salieri of his greatest patron and protector. During this period of imperial change in Vienna and revolutionary ferment in France, Salieri composed two additional extremely innovative musical dramas to libretti by Giovanni Casti. Due, however, to their satiric and overtly liberal political inclinations, both operas were seen as unsuitable for public performance in

14195-469: The first opera buffa published in full score by Artaria . Shortly after this success, Joseph II had Mozart and Salieri each contribute a one-act opera and/or Singspiel for production at a banquet in 1786. Salieri collaborated with Casti to produce a parody of the relationship between poet and composer in Prima la musica e poi le parole (First the music and then the words). This short work also highlighted

14362-598: The general repertory, but performances of his works are progressively becoming more regular. His operas Falstaff (1995 production from the Schwetzingen Festival ) and Tarare (1987 production, also from the Schwetzingen Festival) have been released on DVD. In 2004, the opera Europa riconosciuta was staged in Milan for the reopening of La Scala in Milan, with soprano Diana Damrau in

14529-408: The great classical composers (Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven) was their ability to make these dramatic surprises sound logically motivated, so that "the expressive and the elegant could join hands." Between the death of J. S. Bach and the maturity of Haydn and Mozart (roughly 1750–1770), composers experimented with these new ideas, which can be seen in the music of Bach's sons. Johann Christian developed

14696-494: The harpsichord to play basso continuo until the practice was discontinued by the end of the 1700s. One crucial change was the shift towards harmonies centering on "flatward" keys: shifts in the subdominant direction . In the Classical style, major key was far more common than minor, chromaticism being moderated through the use of "sharpward" modulation (e.g., a piece in C major modulating to G major, D major, or A major, all of which are keys with more sharps). As well, sections in

14863-471: The imperial chapel continued, his duties required the composition of a large number of sacred works, and in his last years, it was almost exclusively in religious works and teaching that Salieri occupied himself. Among his compositions written for the chapel were two complete sets of vespers, many graduals, offertories, and four orchestral masses. During this period he lost his only son in 1805 and his wife in 1807. Salieri continued to conduct publicly, including

15030-408: The implication that his concerts would have only one rehearsal. Since there was a greater emphasis on a single melodic line, there was greater emphasis on notating that line for dynamics and phrasing. This contrasts with the Baroque era, when melodies were typically written with no dynamics, phrasing marks, ornaments, as it was assumed that the performer would improvise these elements on the spot. In

15197-436: The influence of Baroque style continued to grow, particularly in the ever more expansive use of brass. Another feature of the period is the growing number of performances where the composer was not present. This led to increased detail and specificity in notation; for example, there were fewer "optional" parts that stood separately from the main score. The force of these shifts became apparent with Beethoven's 3rd Symphony, given

15364-502: The inspiration and innovation found in his writing for the stage. These orchestral works are mainly in the Galant style, and although they show some development toward the late classical, they reflect a general weakness in comparison to his operatic works of the same and later periods. These works were written for mostly unknown occasions and artists. They include two concertos for pianoforte, one in C major and one in B flat major (both 1773);

15531-471: The international political situation, pedagogical works written to aid his students in voice, and finally simple songs, rounds or canons written for home entertainment; many with original poetry by the composer. He also composed one large-scale instrumental work in 1815 intended as a study in late classical orchestration: Twenty-Six Variations for the Orchestra on a Theme called La Folia di Spagna . The theme

15698-496: The late 1750s there were flourishing centers of the new style in Italy, Vienna, Mannheim, and Paris; dozens of symphonies were composed and there were bands of players associated with musical theatres. Opera or other vocal music accompanied by orchestra was the feature of most musical events, with concertos and symphonies (arising from the overture ) serving as instrumental interludes and introductions for operas and church services. Over

15865-445: The major genres of the day: opera, and the virtuoso concerto. Whereas Haydn spent much of his working life as a court composer, Mozart wanted public success in the concert life of cities, playing for the general public. This meant he needed to write operas and write and perform virtuoso pieces. Haydn was not a virtuoso at the international touring level; nor was he seeking to create operatic works that could play for many nights in front of

16032-411: The minor mode were often used for contrast. Beginning with Mozart and Clementi, there began a creeping colonization of the subdominant region (the ii or IV chord, which in the key of C major would be the keys of d minor or F major). With Schubert, subdominant modulations flourished after being introduced in contexts in which earlier composers would have confined themselves to dominant shifts (modulations to

16199-578: The more serious style that Mozart and Haydn had formed is Muzio Clementi , a gifted virtuoso pianist who tied with Mozart in a musical "duel" before the emperor in which they each improvised on the piano and performed their compositions. Clementi's sonatas for the piano circulated widely, and he became the most successful composer in London during the 1780s. Also in London at this time was Jan Ladislav Dussek , who, like Clementi, encouraged piano makers to extend

16366-407: The most famous of his pupils. Salieri's music slowly disappeared from the repertoire between 1800 and 1868 and was rarely heard after that period until the revival of his fame in the late 20th century. This revival was due to the fictionalized depiction of Salieri in Peter Shaffer 's play Amadeus (1979) and its 1984 film version . The death of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1791 at the age of 35

16533-524: The most famous of which was Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Viola in E-flat major . In the classical period, the theme consists of phrases with contrasting melodic figures and rhythms . These phrases are relatively brief, typically four bars in length, and can occasionally seem sparse or terse. The texture is mainly homophonic , with a clear melody above a subordinate chordal accompaniment , for instance an Alberti bass . This contrasts with

16700-408: The most important form. It was used to build up the first movement of most large-scale works in symphonies and string quartets . Sonata form was also used in other movements and in single, standalone pieces such as overtures . In his book The Classical Style , author and pianist Charles Rosen claims that from 1755 to 1775, composers groped for a new style that was more effectively dramatic. In

16867-437: The most important kinds of music for performance and hence enjoyed greatest public success. The phase between the Baroque and the rise of the Classical (around 1730), was home to various competing musical styles. The diversity of artistic paths are represented in the sons of Johann Sebastian Bach : Wilhelm Friedemann Bach , who continued the Baroque tradition in a personal way; Johann Christian Bach , who simplified textures of

17034-557: The most prominent in this generation of "Proto-Romantics", along with the young Felix Mendelssohn . Their sense of form was strongly influenced by the Classical style. While they were not yet "learned" composers (imitating rules which were codified by others), they directly responded to works by Haydn, Mozart, Clementi, and others, as they encountered them. The instrumental forces at their disposal in orchestras were also quite "Classical" in number and variety, permitting similarity with Classical works. Florian Leopold Gassmann Gassmann

17201-430: The music can sound illogical at times. The Italian composer Domenico Scarlatti took these developments further. His more than five hundred single-movement keyboard sonatas also contain abrupt changes of texture, but these changes are organized into periods, balanced phrases that became a hallmark of the classical style. However, Scarlatti's changes in texture still sound sudden and unprepared. The outstanding achievement of

17368-429: The music flows smoothly and without obvious interruption. He then took this integrated style and began applying it to orchestral and vocal music. Haydn's gift to music was a way of composing, a way of structuring works, which was at the same time in accord with the governing aesthetic of the new style. However, a younger contemporary, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , brought his genius to Haydn's ideas and applied them to two of

17535-459: The name Eroica , which is Italian for "heroic", by the composer. As with Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring , it may not have been the first in all of its innovations, but its aggressive use of every part of the Classical style set it apart from its contemporary works: in length, ambition, and harmonic resources as well making it the first symphony of the Romantic era . The First Viennese School

17702-524: The new style took over Baroque forms—the ternary da capo aria , the sinfonia and the concerto —but composed with simpler parts, more notated ornamentation, rather than the improvised ornaments that were common in the Baroque era, and more emphatic division of pieces into sections. However, over time, the new aesthetic caused radical changes in how pieces were put together, and the basic formal layouts changed. Composers from this period sought dramatic effects, striking melodies, and clearer textures. One of

17869-428: The new style, and therefore to the future of Western art music as a whole. At the time, before the pre-eminence of Mozart or Beethoven, and with Johann Sebastian Bach known primarily to connoisseurs of keyboard music, Haydn reached a place in music that set him above all other composers except perhaps the Baroque era's George Frideric Handel . Haydn took existing ideas, and radically altered how they functioned—earning him

18036-400: The next three years, Salieri was primarily concerned with rehearsing and conducting the Italian opera company in Vienna and with teaching. His three complete operas written during this time show the development of his compositional skills, but included no great success, either commercially or artistically. His most important compositions during this period were a symphony in D major, performed in

18203-462: The northern German states, where it helped to establish Salieri's reputation as an important and innovative modern composer. It was also the first opera to receive a serious preparation in a piano and vocal reduction by Carl Friedrich Cramer  [ de ] in 1783. Armida was soon followed by Salieri's first truly popular success, a commedia per musica in the style of Carlo Goldoni La Fiera di Venezia ( The Fair of Venice ). La Fiera

18370-404: The old approach is simply felt as "old-fashioned". The Classical style did not "die" suddenly; rather, it gradually got phased out under the weight of changes. To give just one example, while it is generally stated that the Classical era stopped using the harpsichord in orchestras, this did not happen all of a sudden at the start of the Classical era in 1750. Rather, orchestras slowly stopped using

18537-652: The only two major successes to emerge from the German Singspiel experiment, and only Mozart's opera survived on the stage beyond the close of the 18th century. In 1783 the Italian opera company was revived with singers partly chosen and vetted by Salieri during his Italian tour; the new season opened with a slightly re-worked version of Salieri's recent success La Scuola de' gelosi . Salieri then returned to his rounds of rehearsing, composition, and teaching. However, his time at home in Vienna quickly ended when an opportunity to write an opera for Paris arose, again through

18704-433: The original name "fortepiano," literally "loud soft") and play with more expression; in contrast, the force with which a performer plays the harpsichord keys does not change the sound. Instrumental music was considered important by Classical period composers. The main kinds of instrumental music were the sonata , trio , string quartet , quintet , symphony (performed by an orchestra), and the solo concerto , which featured

18871-409: The overture, to the last choir there was not a piece that didn't elicit a 'Bravo!' or 'Bello!' out of him [...]." Salieri, along with Mozart's protégé Johann Nepomuk Hummel educated Mozart's younger son Franz Xaver Mozart , who was born about four months before his father's death. Salieri and his music were largely forgotten from the 19th century until the late 20th century. This revival was due to

19038-494: The patronage of Gluck. Salieri traveled abroad to fulfill an important commission. The opera Les Danaïdes ( The Danaids ) is a five-act tragédie lyrique . The plot was based on an ancient Greek legend that had been the basis for the first play in a trilogy by Aeschylus , entitled The Suppliants . The original commission that reached Salieri in 1783–84 was to assist Gluck in finishing a work for Paris that had been all but completed; in reality, Gluck had failed to notate any of

19205-469: The performance on 18 March 1808 of Haydn 's The Creation during which Haydn collapsed, and several premieres by Beethoven including the 1st and 2nd Piano Concertos and Wellington's Victory . He also continued to help administer several charities and organize their musical events. His remaining secular works in this late period fall into three categories: first, large-scale cantatas and one oratorio Habsburg written on patriotic themes or in response to

19372-410: The period, and composers still used counterpoint in "serious" works such as symphonies and string quartets, as well as religious pieces, such as Masses. The classical musical style was supported by technical developments in instruments. The widespread adoption of equal temperament made classical musical structure possible, by ensuring that cadences in all keys sounded similar. The fortepiano and then

19539-495: The personal losses that struck Salieri in the same period, led to his withdrawal from operatic work. Related to this Mosel quotes the aged composer concerning the radical changes in musical taste that were underway in the age of Beethoven, "From that period [circa 1800] I realized that musical taste was gradually changing in a manner completely contrary to that of my own times. Eccentricity and confusion of genres replaced reasoned and masterful simplicity." As his teaching and work with

19706-548: The points of modulation and transition. By making these moments where the harmony changes more of a focus, he enabled powerful dramatic shifts in the emotional color of the music. To highlight these transitions, he used changes in instrumentation ( orchestration ), melody, and mode . Among the most successful composers of his time, Gluck spawned many emulators, including Antonio Salieri . Their emphasis on accessibility brought huge successes in opera, and in other vocal music such as songs, oratorios, and choruses. These were considered

19873-427: The political situation threatened and eventually overwhelmed Austria, which was repeatedly crushed by French political forces, Salieri's first and most important biographer Ignaz von Mosel described the emotional effect that this political, social, and cultural upheaval had on the composer. Mosel noted that these radical changes, especially the invasion and defeat of Austria, and the occupation of Vienna intertwined with

20040-615: The politically reactive cultures of Leopold II and later Francis II . This resulted in two of his most original operas being consigned to his desk drawer, namely Cublai, gran kan de' Tartari ( Kublai Grand Kahn of Tartary ) a satire on the autocracy and court intrigues at the court of the Russian Tsarina , Catherine the Great , and Catilina , a semi-comic/semi-tragic account of the Catiline conspiracy that attempted to overthrow

20207-513: The popular 1984 film Amadeus uses the cliché of the jealous Salieri trying to hinder Mozart's career. Ironically, Salieri's music was much more in the tradition of Gluck and Gassmann than of the Italians like Paisiello or Cimarosa . In 1772, Empress Maria Theresa commented on her preference for Italian composers over Germans like Gassmann, Salieri, or Gluck. While Italian by birth, Salieri had lived in imperial Vienna for almost 60 years and

20374-403: The practice in Baroque music , where a piece or movement would typically have only one musical subject, which would then be worked out in a number of voices according to the principles of counterpoint , while maintaining a consistent rhythm or metre throughout. As a result, Classical music tends to have a lighter, clearer texture than the Baroque. The classical style draws on the style galant ,

20541-466: The princess's piano teacher. "Salieri and his tribe will move heaven and earth to put it down", Leopold Mozart wrote to his daughter Nannerl . But at the time of the premiere of Figaro , Salieri was busy with his new French opera Les Horaces . In addition, when Lorenzo Da Ponte was in Prague preparing the production of Mozart's setting of his Don Giovanni , the poet was ordered back to Vienna for

20708-563: The range and other features of their instruments, and then fully exploited the newly opened up possibilities. The importance of London in the Classical period is often overlooked, but it served as the home to the Broadwood's factory for piano manufacturing and as the base for composers who, while less notable than the "Vienna School", had a decisive influence on what came later. They were composers of many fine works, notable in their own right. London's taste for virtuosity may well have encouraged

20875-423: The relative standing of instrumental and vocal music, technical demands on musicians, and stylistic unity had become established in the composers who imitated Mozart and Haydn. During this decade Mozart composed his most famous operas, his six late symphonies that helped to redefine the genre, and a string of piano concerti that still stand at the pinnacle of these forms. One composer who was influential in spreading

21042-532: The renowned Venetian playwright Carlo Goldoni . In 1763 he was called to Vienna as court ballet composer, and was held in great affection by Emperor Joseph II . In 1764 he was appointed chamber composer to the Emperor, and in 1772 court conductor. In 1766 Gassmann met up-and-coming young Antonio Salieri in Venice, invited him to return with him to Vienna and taught him composition using Johann Joseph Fux 's textbook Gradus ad Parnassum . Salieri remained in Vienna, and succeeded Gassmann as chamber composer to

21209-525: The rest of his life. In that year he became Kapellmeister of the Imperial Chapel upon the death of Giuseppe Bonno ; as Kapellmeister he conducted the music and musical school connected with the chapel until shortly before his death, being officially retired from the post in 1824. His Italian adaptation of Tarare , Axur proved to be his greatest international success. Axur was widely produced throughout Europe and it even reached South America with

21376-456: The scores for the new opera and gave the entire project over to his young friend. Gluck feared that the Parisian critics would denounce the opera by a young composer known mostly for comic pieces and so the opera was originally billed in the press as being a new work by Gluck with some assistance from Salieri, then shortly before the premiere of the opera the Parisian press reported that the work

21543-435: The shift from "vocal" writing to "pianistic" writing, the growing pull of the minor and of modal ambiguity, and the increasing importance of varying accompanying figures to bring "texture" forward as an element in music. In short, the late Classical was seeking music that was internally more complex. The growth of concert societies and amateur orchestras, marking the importance of music as part of middle-class life, contributed to

21710-567: The singer Nancy Storace . This work, although it had been printed by Artaria in 1785, was considered lost until 10 January 2016, when the Schwäbische Zeitung reported on the discovery by musicologist and composer Timo Jouko Herrmann of a copy of its text and music while doing research on Antonio Salieri in the collections of the Czech Museum of Music. Mozart's Davide penitente (1785), his Piano Concerto KV 482 (1785),

21877-467: The special place that Italian composers had in the courts of the Austrian nobility, blamed the Italians in general and Salieri in particular for all of Mozart's difficulties in establishing himself in Vienna. Mozart wrote to his father in May 1783 about Salieri and Lorenzo Da Ponte , the court poet: "You know those Italian gentlemen; they are very nice to your face! Enough, we all know about them. And if Da Ponte

22044-453: The stage, he recognized that artistic styles had changed and he felt that he no longer had the creative capacity to adapt or the emotional desire to continue. Also as Salieri aged, he moved slowly away from his more liberal political stances as he saw the enlightened reform of Joseph II's reign, and the hoped-for reforms of the French revolution, replaced with more radical revolutionary ideas. As

22211-497: The stage. Of his late works for the stage only two works gained wide popular esteem during his life, Palmira, regina di Persia ( Palmira, Queen of Persia ) (1795) and Cesare in Farmacusa  [ de ] (Caesar on Pharmacusa ), both drawing on the heroic and exotic success established with Axur . His late opera based on William Shakespeare 's The Merry Wives of Windsor , Falstaff ossia Le tre burle (Falstaff, or

22378-422: The summer of 1776, and the oratorio La Passione di Gesù Cristo with a text by Metastasio , performed during Advent of 1776. After the financial collapse of the Italian opera company in 1777 due to financial mismanagement, Joseph II decided to end the performance of Italian opera, French-spoken drama, and ballet. Instead, the two court-owned theaters would be reopened under new management, and partly subsidized by

22545-429: The three tricks) (1799) has found a wider audience in modern times than its original reception promised. His last opera was a German-language Singspiel Die Neger  [ de ] ( The Negroes ), a melodrama set in colonial Virginia with a text by Georg Friedrich Treitschke (the author of the libretto for Beethoven's Fidelio ); it was performed in 1804 and was a complete failure. When Salieri retired from

22712-745: The title role. This production was also broadcast on television. In November 2009, Il mondo alla rovescia was given its first staging in modern times at the Teatro Salieri in Legnago in a co-production between the Fondazione Culturale Antonio Salieri and the Fondazione Arena di Verona for the Salieri Opera Festival. From 2009 to 2011 Antonio Giarola directed the Festival. From 2009 to 2012 Antonio Giarola also directed

22879-674: The titles "father of the symphony " and "father of the string quartet ". One of the forces that worked as an impetus for his pressing forward was the first stirring of what would later be called Romanticism —the Sturm und Drang , or "storm and stress" phase in the arts, a short period where obvious and dramatic emotionalism was a stylistic preference. Haydn accordingly wanted more dramatic contrast and more emotionally appealing melodies, with sharpened character and individuality in his pieces. This period faded away in music and literature: however, it influenced what came afterward and would eventually be

23046-401: The tone of a single movement. The Classical period also saw the gradual development of sonata form , a set of structural principles for music that reconciled the Classical preference for melodic material with harmonic development, which could be applied across musical genres. The sonata itself continued to be the principal form for solo and chamber music, while later in the Classical period,

23213-490: The tradition of reform that Gluck had begun in the 1760s and that Salieri had emulated in his earlier opera Armida . Salieri's first French opera contained scenes of great solemnity and festivity, but overshadowing it all was darkness and revenge. The opera depicted politically motivated murder, filial duty and love in conflict, tyrannicide, and finally eternal damnation. The opera, with its dark overture, lavish choral writing, many ballet scenes, and electrifying finale depicting

23380-414: The typical backstage antics of two high-flown sopranos. Salieri then returned to Paris for the premiere of his tragédie Lyrique Les Horaces ( The Horatii ), which proved a failure, which was more than made up for with his next Parisian opera Tarare , with a libretto by Beaumarchais . This was intended to be the nec plus ultra of reform opera, a completely new synthesis of poetry and music that

23547-423: The use of coloratura in what was a short pastoral comedy more in keeping with a Roman Intermezzo . The mixing and pushing against the boundaries of established operatic genres was a continuing hallmark of Salieri's own personal style, and in his choice of material for the plot (as in his first opera), he manifested a lifelong interest in subjects drawn from classic drama and literature. Salieri's first great success

23714-409: The vanguard of a broad change in style and the center of music. They studied one another's works, copied one another's gestures in music, and on occasion behaved like quarrelsome rivals. The crucial differences with the previous wave can be seen in the downward shift in melodies, increasing durations of movements, the acceptance of Mozart and Haydn as paradigmatic, the greater use of keyboard resources,

23881-552: The wealthiest of his pupils received their lessons for free, a tribute to the kindness Gassmann had shown Salieri as a penniless orphan. In November 1823 Salieri attempted suicide. He was committed to medical care and suffered dementia for the last year and a half of his life. He died in Vienna on 7 May 1825, aged 74 and was buried in the Matzleinsdorfer Friedhof on 10 May. At his memorial service on 22 June 1825, his own Requiem in C minor – composed in 1804 –

24048-409: The weekly gatherings. Over the next several years Metastasio gave Salieri informal instruction in prosody and the declamation of Italian poetry, and Gluck became an informal advisor, friend, and confidante. It was toward the end of this extended period of study that Gassmann was called away on a new opera commission and a gap in the theater's program allowed for Salieri to make his debut as a composer of

24215-488: Was Johann Nepomuk Hummel . Hummel studied under Haydn as well; he was a friend to Beethoven and Franz Schubert . He concentrated more on the piano than any other instrument, and his time in London in 1791 and 1792 generated the composition and publication in 1793 of three piano sonatas, opus 2, which idiomatically used Mozart's techniques of avoiding the expected cadence, and Clementi's sometimes modally uncertain virtuoso figuration. Taken together, these composers can be seen as

24382-441: Was an 18th-century anticipation of the ideals of Richard Wagner . Salieri also created a sacred cantata Le Judgment dernier ( The Last Judgement ). The success of his opera Tarare was such that it was soon translated into Italian at Joseph II's behest by Lorenzo Da Ponte as Axur, re d'Ormus ( Axur, King of Hormuz ) and staged at the royal wedding of Franz II in 1788. In 1788 Salieri returned to Vienna, where he remained for

24549-401: Was appointed Kapellmeister in 1788, he chose to revive Figaro instead of introducing a new opera of his own, and when he attended the coronation festivities for Leopold II in 1790, Salieri had no fewer than three Mozart masses in his luggage. Salieri and Mozart even jointly composed a cantata for voice and piano, Per la ricuperata salute di Ofelia , which celebrated the return to the stage of

24716-457: Was born in Brüx , Bohemia , and was most likely trained by Johann Woborschil, the local chorus master. His father was a goldsmith who may well have opposed his son's choice of a musical career. From 1757 until 1762, he wrote an opera every year for the carnival season in Venice , and was also appointed choirmaster in the girls' conservatory in Venice in 1757. Many of the librettos he set were by

24883-802: Was born on August 18, 1750, to Antonio Salieri and his wife, Anna Maria. Salieri started his musical studies in his native town of Legnago ; he was first taught at home by his older brother Francesco Salieri (a former student of the violinist and composer Giuseppe Tartini ), and he received further lessons from the organist of the Legnago Cathedral, Giuseppe Simoni, a pupil of Padre Giovanni Battista Martini . Salieri remembered little from his childhood in later years except for passions for sugar, reading, and music. He twice ran away from home without permission to hear his elder brother play violin concertos in neighboring churches on festival days and he recounted being chastised by his father after failing to greet

25050-413: Was by Marco Coltellini , the house poet for the imperial theaters. While Salieri followed the precepts set forth by Gluck and his librettist Ranieri de' Calzabigi in the preface to Alceste , Salieri also drew on some musical ideas from the more traditional opera seria and even opera buffa , creating a new synthesis in the process. Armida was translated into German and widely performed, especially in

25217-447: Was first presented as a work of Gluck's , La grotta di Trofonio (1785), Tarare (1787) ( Tarare was reworked and revised several times as was Les Danaïdes ), Axur, re d'Ormus (1788), La cifra (1789), Palmira, regina di Persia (1795), Il mondo alla rovescia (1795), Falstaff (1799), and Cesare in Farmacusa (1800). Salieri's earliest surviving work is a Mass in C major. He would write four major orchestral masses,

25384-531: Was first used by Austrian musicologist Raphael Georg Kiesewetter in 1834, although he only counted Haydn and Mozart as members of the school. Other writers followed suit, and eventually Beethoven was added to the list. The designation "first" is added today to avoid confusion with the Second Viennese School . Whilst, Schubert apart, these composers certainly knew each other (with Haydn and Mozart even being occasional chamber-music partners), there

25551-531: Was followed by rumors that he and Salieri had been bitter rivals, and that Salieri had poisoned the younger composer; however, this has been disproved because the symptoms displayed by Mozart's illness did not indicate poisoning and it is likely that they were, at least, mutually respectful peers. Despite denying the allegations, Salieri was greatly affected by the accusations and widespread public belief that he had contributed to Mozart's death, which contributed to his nervous breakdowns in later life. Antonio Salieri

25718-756: Was in the realm of serious opera. Commissioned for an unknown occasion, Salieri's Armida was based on Torquato Tasso 's epic poem La Gerusalemme liberata ( Jerusalem Delivered ); it premiered on 2 June 1771. Armida is a tale of love and duty in conflict and is saturated in magic. The opera is set during the First Crusade and features a dramatic mix of ballet, aria, ensemble, and choral writing, combining theatricality, scenic splendor, and high emotionalism. The work clearly followed in Gluck's footsteps and embraced his reform of serious opera beginning with Orfeo ed Euridice and Alceste . The libretto to Armida

25885-540: Was later adopted by Weber in Euryanthe and from him handed down, through Marschner, to Wagner), formed the basis from which French and German romantic opera had its beginnings. The most fateful of the new generation was Ludwig van Beethoven , who launched his numbered works in 1794 with a set of three piano trios, which remain in the repertoire. Somewhat younger than the others, though equally accomplished because of his youthful study under Mozart and his native virtuosity,

26052-436: Was less emphasis on clear musical phrases. In the classical period, the harmonies became simpler. However, the structure of the piece, the phrases and small melodic or rhythmic motives, became much more important than in the Baroque period. Another important break with the past was the radical overhaul of opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck , who cut away a great deal of the layering and improvisational ornaments and focused on

26219-413: Was not significantly greater than Baroque movements. There was not yet a clearly enunciated theory of how to compose in the new style. It was a moment ripe for a breakthrough. The first great master of the style was the composer Joseph Haydn . In the late 1750s he began composing symphonies, and by 1761 he had composed a triptych ( Morning , Noon , and Evening ) solidly in the contemporary mode. As

26386-526: Was not wasted, as Haydn, beginning quite early on his career, sought to press forward the technique of building and developing ideas in his music. His next important breakthrough was in the Opus 33 string quartets (1781), in which the melodic and the harmonic roles segue among the instruments: it is often momentarily unclear what is melody and what is harmony. This changes the way the ensemble works its way between dramatic moments of transition and climactic sections:

26553-636: Was performed for the first time. His remains were later transferred to the Zentralfriedhof . His monument is adorned by a poem written by Joseph Weigl , one of his pupils: Ruh sanft! Vom Staub entblößt, Wird Dir die Ewigkeit erblühen. Ruh sanft! In ew'gen Harmonien Ist nun Dein Geist gelöst. Er sprach sich aus in zaubervollen Tönen, Jetzt schwebt er hin zum unvergänglich Schönen. Rest in peace! Uncovered by dust Eternity shall bloom for you. Rest in peace! In eternal harmonies Your spirit now

26720-518: Was poised for a series of successes, notably his late oratorios and London symphonies . Composers in Paris, Rome, and all over Germany turned to Haydn and Mozart for their ideas on form. In the 1790s, a new generation of composers, born around 1770, emerged. While they had grown up with the earlier styles, they heard in the recent works of Haydn and Mozart a vehicle for greater expression. In 1788 Luigi Cherubini settled in Paris and in 1791 composed Lodoiska , an opera that raised him to fame. Its style

26887-454: Was regarded by such people as the music critic Friedrich Rochlitz as a German composer. The biographer Alexander Wheelock Thayer believes that Mozart's rivalry with Salieri could have originated with an incident in 1781, when Mozart applied to be the music teacher of Princess Elisabeth of Württemberg , and Salieri was selected instead because of his reputation as a singing teacher. The following year Mozart once again failed to be selected as

27054-473: Was the most monumental set of orchestral variations before Brahms ' Variations on a Theme by Haydn . His teaching of budding young musicians continued, and among his pupils in composition (usually vocal) were Ludwig van Beethoven , Antonio Casimir Cartellieri , Franz Liszt and Franz Schubert . See: List of music students by teacher: R to S#Antonio Salieri . He also instructed many prominent singers throughout his career, including Caterina Canzi . All but

27221-546: Was through Pacini that Salieri gained the attention of the composer Florian Leopold Gassmann , who, impressed with his protege's talents and concerned for the boy's future, took the young orphan to Vienna, where he personally directed and paid for the remainder of Salieri's musical education. Salieri and Gassmann arrived in Vienna on 15 June 1766. Gassmann's first act was to take Salieri to the Italian Church to consecrate his teaching and service to God, an event that left

27388-412: Was to be partly by Gluck and partly by Salieri, and finally, after popular and critical success on stage, the opera was acknowledged in a letter to the public by Gluck as being wholly by the young Salieri. Les Danaïdes was received with great acclaim and its popularity with audiences and critics alike produced several further requests for new works for Paris audiences by Salieri. Les Danaïdes followed in

27555-418: Was when the spoken drama and musical Singspiel were placed on an equal footing. For the young composer, there would be few, if any, new compositional commissions to receive from the court. Salieri was left with few financial options and he began casting about for new opportunities. In 1778 Gluck turned down an offer to compose the inaugural opera for La Scala in Milan. Upon the suggestion of Joseph II and with

27722-476: Was widely imitated. Salieri's next two operas were not particular or lasting successes. La secchia rapita ( The Stolen Bucket ) is a parody of the high flown and emotive arias found in Metastasian opera seria . It also contains innovative orchestrations, including the first known use of three tympani. Again a classic of Renaissance literature was the basis of the libretto by Boccherini, in this case,

27889-471: Was written for Carnival in 1772 and premiered on 29 January. Here Salieri returned to his collaboration with the young Giovanni Boccherini, who crafted an original plot. La Fiera featured characters singing in three languages, a bustling portrayal of the Ascension-tide Fair and Carnival in Venice, and large and lengthy ensembles and choruses. It also included an innovative scene that combined

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