The Classical Era in Central Europe

The great intellectual and cultural revolution of the 18th century known as the Enlightenment had its origins in the dramatic scientific advances of the previous century, particularly the breakthrough in physics by Newton.  The scientific method was increasingly seen as being applicable to other areas of human thought and activity in that it was viewed as a paradigm: structures should be well-founded in axioms and be both well-articulated and orderly. Influenced by these intellectual trends, in the middle of the 18th century, Europe began to move toward a new style in the arts, generally known as Classicism.  This taste for structural clarity began to affect music as well. Classical music used formality and emphasis on order and hierarchy, and 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 a more powerful sound.

The most significant composer heralding in the new style was Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714-1787). Gluck’s father was a native of Bohemia, who briefly held a position as gamekeeper in Upper Palatinate, where his son Christoph Willibald was born before moving back to Bohemia when his son was 8 years old. Gluck, whose checkered early career saw him run away from home at 14, finding musical employment successively in Prague, Vienna, Milan and London before finally settling in Vienna in 1754. Here he met like-minded figures in the operatic world with whom he played a central role in the radical overhaul of opera and ballet. The first result of the new thinking was Gluck's Don Juan, a new kind of dramatic ballet, more concerned with expressing emotion than with displaying stylized gestures. Similarly with his operas, beginning with his famous Orfeo ed Euridice of 1762, Gluck tried to achieve a noble, neo-classical or "beautiful simplicity," whose emotional appeal and dramatic cohesion made a deep impression on its audiences.

It was during these years that the musical center of gravity gradually shifted to Vienna, which became the uncontested musical capital of Europe in the classical era, dominated by the giant figures of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven.  These composers have tended to overshadow their contemporaries who also contributed to the classical musical revolution.  Heralding from many different parts of the Habsburg Monarchy, most were products of the strong musical training at all the empire’s educational institutions.  Initially talented composers such as Haydn’s younger brother, Michael Haydn (1737-1806) or the Prague born Josef Mysliveček (1737-1781) were drawn to employ in traditional musical centers such as Salzburg for the former and Italy for the latter.  One of the younger Haydn’s masterpieces, the Requiem for his archbishop, greatly influenced Mozart’s great Requiem of 1791, while Mysliveček, a friend of the Mozart family, provided young Wolfgang with significant compositional models. But from the 1770s much musical talent from the provinces was drawn to the capital. Johann Georg Albrechtsberger (1736-1809) hailed from the province of Lower Austria before being appointed court organist in Vienna in 1772 and Kapellmeister at St. Stephen’s cathedral in 1792.  In addition to being a composer and organist he was a music theorist and one of the teachers of Beethoven. His trombone concerto is often highlighted by the trombone community. Franz Anton Hoffmeister (1754-1812) came from what was then the Austrian province of Hither Austria and came to Vienna at the age of 14 to study law. Turning to music by the 1780s he became one of the city’s most popular composers. In 1785 he also established one of Vienna’s first music publishing businesses. Anton Zimmermann (1741-1781) from the province of Austrian Silesia he worked as a composer, violinist, conductor, and artist manager, not in Vienna, but in near-by Pressburg (now Batislava). The Bohemian Václav (Wenzel) Pichl (1741-1805) became first violinist of the Vienna court theatre at the express recommendation of Empress Maria Theresia.  His younger Bohemian contemporary Anton (Antonín) Kraft (1749-1820) was a close friend of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. A cellist for whom Haydn wrote his second cello concerto, he became a founding member of the Schuppanzigh Quartet, which gave the first performances of many of Beethoven's string quartets.  The Viennese native, Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf (1739-1799) studied Music both at a Jesuit school and with private tutors. In 1761 he was engaged as violinist in the Imperial Theatre orchestra, and in 1762 its conductor, working closely with Gluck. Dittersdorf's most eminent pupil was Johann Baptist Wanhal (1739-1813), whose modern Czech nomenclature form, Jan Křtitel Vaňhal, was introduced in the 20th century. From very humble beginnings he was able to earn a living as a village organist and choirmaster, coming to Vienna in 1760 as part of the personal train of Countess Schaffgotsch. Wanhal was a prolific composer. Many of his symphonies are in minor keys and were highly influential to the so-called “Storm and Stress” symphonies of Haydn and Mozart. In the 1780s he was an active participant in Viennese musical life and a friend of both Haydn and Mozart. He and Dittersdorf played string quartets together with Haydn and Mozart, Dittersdorf taking first violin, Haydn second violin, Mozart viola and Wanhal cello.

Another close friend and Masonic Lodge brother of Mozart was his exact contemporary, the Moravian Paul Wranitzky (Pavel Vranický) (1756-1808).  Abandoning his theological studies at the Jesuit university of Olomouc, where he also received his musical training, he studied music in Vienna and became the concertmaster and eventually conductor of the Court Opera. Wranitzky was a prolific composer of operas, symphonies and string quartets who was highly respected by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven.  He acted as executor of Mozart’s will for the composer’s widow and was the explicitly preferred conductor by the respective composers for the premieres of Haydn’s Creation and Beethoven’s First Symphony. The slightly younger Bohemian, Franz Krommer (František Vincenc Kramář) (1759-1831) studied violin and organ with his uncle in the Hungarian town of Turany (in modern-day Slovakia) and held a succession of posts in the private orchestras of nobles in Vienna and in Hungary. From 1813 until his death in 1831, Krommer held the position of composer for the Imperial Court of Austria, and from 1818 that of Kapellmeister. Krommer’s output was prolific, but he is especially known today for his idiomatic and at times powerful music for wind ensemble. The Vienna-born Anton Eberl (1765-1807) may have been a student of Mozart’s, and certainly maintained a close relationship with the Mozart family. A gifted pianist, Eberl was also a close friend of Beethoven, whose symphonies show traces of his influence. His music engages in remarkably imaginative and experimental formal innovations, developing the Viennese Classical style beyond the point at which Mozart had left it, picking up where he had left off. In his day Eberl’s symphonies were considered to rival Beethoven’s.

Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837) was the son of the director of the Imperial School of Military Music in Vienna was a child prodigy. At the age of eight, he was offered music lessons by Mozart, who was impressed with his ability. Hummel was taught and housed by Mozart for two years free of charge and made his first concert appearance at the age of nine at one of Mozart's concerts. Hummel's father then took him on a European tour before returning to Vienna to study with Albrechtsberger, Haydn and Salieri. In 1804, Hummel became concertmaster to the Esterházy establishment at Eisenstadt. Although he had taken over many of the duties of Kapellmeister, or music director, because Haydn's health did not permit him to perform them himself, he continued to be known simply as the concertmaster out of respect to Haydn, receiving the title of Kapellmeister only after the older composer died in May 1809. He remained in the service of Prince Esterházy for seven years altogether before being dismissed in May 1811 for neglecting his duties. Initially returning to Vienna he began touring Europe in 1814, eventually accepting positions as Kapellmeister in Stuttgart and Weimar, where he died. Hummel’s ouevre is broadly varied, but he never wrote a symphony. Hummel died famous, but his compositions, which adhered to classical ideas were increasingly falling out of fashion with the onrush of Romanticism.

Jan Václav Hugo Voříšek (1791-1825), son of a local schoolmaster, choirmaster and organist in Bohemia, was also a child prodigy.  Initially studying in Prague, he moved to Vienna in 1813, where he studied with Hummel. While Voříšek was enthralled by the classical style of Mozart, he was especially intrigued by the music of Beethoven, whom he met in 1814. Moving in Vienna’s musical circles he became fast friends with Schubert and soon won esteem as a composer of orchestral, vocal and piano music.  He is best known today for his one symphony, similar in style to Beethoven’s first two symphonies but in its melodically inventive idiom similar to Schubert's. Voříšek died prematurely in 1825 at the age of 34 and was buried in the same cemetery as Beethoven and Schubert.

(N.B.: The composers in this posting are listed in chronological order by date of birth)