Humanities Assignment 3

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CLASSICAL PERIOD11 Since Greek architecture was already referred to as Classic or Classical, eighteenth-century architecture was occasionally referred to as “Neo-Classical” so as not to be confused with that of the earlier period.

The Classical period followed the Baroque period. One of the French writers of the eighteenth century wrote, “God makes all thing good; man meddles with them and they become evil” (Bishop 303). Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78) wrote about the concept that the individual has worth and that science and government can cor- rupt human goodness. Philosophers at that time went back and forth over issues that dealt with how to establish a society with safeguards to protect freedoms for individuals and …“yet provide an individual’s right of a supreme right to freedom and autonomy” (Bishop 303).

The eighteenth century was a signifi cant period that brought about the devel- opment of the Classical style of music and the development of the symphony orchestra. It was also during this century that the abolition movement began in France and its colonies. The monarchs gradually began to acknowledge some individual rights, including the beginning of free speech and expanded suffrage, but initially it was not done willingly (Parrott).

Following the lead of John Locke, other eighteenth-century thinkers advocated civil liberties such as basic judicial rights, the right to public assembly, and the free- dom of the press. Social and political factors affecting these new ideas included the rise of the middle class and individual enterprise. These developments also contributed the opportunity for some individuals to select their own professions (Parrott).

After the death of Louis XIV in 1715, the cultural center of Europe moved from the Versailles court to Paris. The salons in Paris became gathering places for philosophical and intellectual discussions. The problems of the period were dis- cussed and satire was used to express viewpoints defending the rights of individuals (Parrott).

Public concerts also gave a new group of people the opportunity to experience and appreciate music. During the Classical period, some of the greatest Western composers wrote music that had wide appeal. This music remains meaningful to us today. The three most recognized Classical composers were Franz Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig Van Beethoven (Parrott).

The thinkers and individuals who organized disciplines into classifi cations helped alter points of view. Because of these changes in ideas, the eighteenth century has been called the Age of Reason and the Age of Enlightenment (Parrott).

Toward the end of the eighteenth century, the notion that laws should be made with consent of the governed, rather than imposed upon them by royalty, became

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widespread in the minds of the people. This new mindset inspired two major upheavals. The American Revolution of 1776 and the French Revolution of 1789 shattered the old idea of the divine rights of kings in Western political life (Parrott).

During this period, the greater availability of printed material helped influence the people’s opinions. One important work was Common Sense by Thomas Paine (1737–1809). Paine moved from England to America in 1774. He was a staunch believer in human rights and wrote anti-slavery tracts. He believed that legitimate laws were designed to protect individual citizens (Parrott).

In 1770, the grandson of Louis XIV was the ruler of Spain. He would be the last Hapsburg ruler of Spain. Louis XIV would be alive for fifteen more years. Britain and the Netherlands allied together in hopes of discouraging Spain and France from possibly uniting. The European powers fought several wars during the eighteenth century. One, the War of the Spanish Succession, was settled by the Treaty of Utrecht. Other wars, such as the conflict between Austria and Prussia, were struggles over the right to rule over hereditary Hapsburg territories. Hostilities between Austria and Prussia developed into a colonial struggle between France and Britain. In America, the conflict was known as the French and Indian War. After winning many of the eighteenth-century wars, Britain became the dominant European power—a position it held until World War I (1914–18).

The philosophers of the eighteenth century embraced the spirit of the Enlighten- ment. Catholic Austria under Maria Theresa and her son Joseph II enacted reforms. They included freedom for serfs and economic modernization. Peter the Great con- tinued to reform Russia. Catherine II was a German princess. She gained support from the population despite favoring the nobility over the serfs. She believed in educating women and in patronizing the arts.

The thinkers of the Enlightenment, such as Thomas Paine and Benjamin Franklin, were inspired by science, but they believed that God created the universe. These indi- viduals wanted an educational curriculum independent from the Church. The influen- tial thinkers in the Parisian salons were authors such as Denis Diderot, François-Marie Arouet de Voltaire, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Their ideas spread to a wide audience in Europe and America through novels, essays, and political pamphlets.

Charles-Louis de Montesquieu, a member of the French nobility and a local judge, wrote satires and political essays. His work was designed as social commentary and intended to send a persuasive message. Montesquieu called for separate jurisdic- tions divided among executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government. His ideas were very influential and were used by the Framers of the American Constitu- tion (Parrott).

German philosophers during the early seventeenth century were interested in metaphysics. Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (1646–1716) argued that God had created a harmonious universe. Immanuel Kant believed that God existed even though we cannot see him or demonstrate his existence. One the most complex ideas attributed to Kant was transcendental metaphysics. His transcendentalism was adopted by the Romantic movement (Parrott).

Unlike Kant, David Hume, a Scottish philosopher and historian, was interested in the limits of reason and the distinction between inner and outer experience.

The main artistic style in France after Louis XIV died was the Rococo style. Rococo artists such as Jean-Antoine Watteau and François Boucher represented the frivolity, fine material possessions, and rich taste of that style. Artists in Britain produced their own version of the Rococo style. British artists focused on portraiture rather than the frivolity of Boucher’s work.

The director of the Royal Academy of Arts was founded in London in 1768. Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723–92) was its first director. He advocated the study of Greek and Roman art and he introduced the idea of combining Classical and Rococo features.

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Robert Adam, an architect from Scotland, combined Greek, Roman, and Etruscan designs with Rococo color schemes in his buildings.

William Hogarth was an English engraver who drew and etched the working class and used satire to expose the aristocrats’ way of life. Still life and genre painting help viewers today understand eighteenth-century bourgeois style. The best-known painter of the bourgeois style was Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin.

Virtuoso musicians traveled from city to city. Women learned to play the harp, and men tended to take up the violin or flute. Composers began to write music and perform for their own enjoyment rather than for a special occasion. The style of the eighteenth century is referred to as Classical. This is due to its structure, proportion, order, and formal organization. Mozart, Beethoven, and Haydn were major composers who wrote lengthy symphonies for orchestra. A major German composer of opera was Christoph Willibald Gluck. Gluck emphasized the chorus just like the Greeks had done in their performances of Greek tragedy.

The orchestra began to take on its standard form of four sections during the middle of the eighteenth century. The piano was an important instrument that also came into use toward the end of the eighteenth century. During the Classical Period, compos- ers such as Mozart and Beethoven composed music that utilized the timbre unique to the individual instrument. They also began writing for all four sections of the orches- tra, which created a new sound. The earliest symphonies performed at that time had three or four movements and were written in the sonata form. Franz Joseph Haydn was known as the fist major classical composer. Haydn’s The Creation is an oratorio based on Milton’s Paradise Lost (Parrott).

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a child prodigy who wrote forty-one symphonies. He also wrote operas such as The Marriage of Figaro, The Magic Flute, and Don Giovanni. He was a master violinist and a highly skilled pianist.

Ludwig van Beethoven can be placed into the Romantic period toward the end of his life. Beethoven studied with Haydn and used the structure of the Classical style. However, Beethoven was a composer who expressed very intense emotions in his work. His music reflected a unique style, which was more free form, and had an extended musical range (Parrott).

When the British King George III needed funds to pay the debt he amassed during the Seven Years War, he forced the colonists to pay taxes. The Stamp Act of 1765 required the colonists to purchase a stamp or license for the right to read a newspaper, send a letter, or sign a contract. The king eventually repealed the tax, but the problem was not solved. In 1770, British troops fired on colonists in an incident known as the Boston Massacre. In 1773, colonists from Massachusetts protested a tax on tea by throwing tea from ships into Boston Harbor. The First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia. In 1776, the pamphleteer Thomas Paine published the tract Common Sense in which he declared that the American colonies were a new nation.

Thomas Paine and Common Sense Thomas Paine was born in 1737 in England. He went to Philadelphia in 1774 and in 1776 he began the sale of his pamphlet known as Common Sense. This forty-seven-page book influenced the minds of many early settlers in America to become independent. It has been said that this pamphlet had one of the biggest impacts upon individuals in transforming their attitude from being the colonies to becoming independent and join- ing in the American Revolution.

Source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/thomas-paine-publishes-common-sense

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Thomas Paine served in the United States Army and was employed by the U.S. Commission of Foreign Affairs. He returned to Europe in 1787. He then wrote other pamphlets related to topics influencing the ideas of independence which helped per- suade individuals to support the French Revolution. After that, Thomas Paine was arrested in Europe for his political opinions. For that reason, he fled to the United States in 1802. He died in 1809 in New York.

Source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/thomas-paine-publishes-common-sense

The Second Continental Congress formed a committee to draft a statement of independence. The document, primarily drafted by Thomas Jefferson, was the Dec- laration

of Independence.

Despite the Enlightenment views of the Framers of the Constitution, slavery was retained. In 1789 George Washington declined an offer to become king and instead accepted the office of president. Thomas Jefferson became the third president of the United States. He was also a musician and an architect. He founded the University of Virginia because he was a firm believer in public education and a humanist curriculum. The Rotunda at the University of Virginia reflects the shape and form of the Roman Pantheon (Parrott).

During the summer of 1789, 80,000 commoners, enraged at the high cost of grain and bread, stormed the Bastille prison in Paris in search of ammunition and weapons. In August, the National Assembly wrote the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. The clergy were reclassified as ordinary citizens, and the king was made chief executive but had no right to enact laws. Also, slavery was abolished in France. In June 1791, Louis XVI and his queen, the unpopular Marie-Antoinette, tried to escape, but they were captured and imprisoned. Marie-Antoinette was reported to have said, “Let them eat cake,” when she was told that many people were starving because of bread shortages. The artist Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun (1755–1842) captured this attitude in her portrait of the queen. The artist Jacques Louis David reflected his anger over injustice in his paintings. An example is The Oath of the Tennis Court.

In the United States, the rule of the monarchs was over. France was stabilized by Napoléon, but only temporarily (Parrott).

Terminology Cadenza—part of a solo that displays extremely good technical skill. Coda—the end of a section of music added on. Development—the middle section of an orchestral or piano composition in

sonata form.

Duet—two performers playing together. Epistolary—type of novel that uses letters and diaries to reveal character. Exposition—first section of a piece of music where the theme is stated. Galant—elegant, light, and simple style of music popular during the eighteenth

century. Masque—a short dramatic composition of allegorical content usually performed as

a mime, music, and dance for the court. Metaphysics—type of philosophy dealing with existence and understanding. Recapitulation—the third section of a movement in a composition in sonata form

that is restated in the home key.

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Rondo—musical form used in symphonies, sonatas, and chamber works that is based on a recurrent theme.

Sonata—musical composition that includes several movements for solo instruments. Sonata form—used in the Classical period for symphony music, string quartets, and

piano. It has the three movements: exposition, development, and recapitulation. String quartet—an ensemble of instruments: two violins, a viola, and a cello. Symphony—means “sounding together.” An orchestral work with three or four

movements.

Tonic—musical key that is the home key.

QUESTIONS

Questions to Contemplate

Why do you think the Framers of the American Constitution retained slavery?

Why did Thomas Jefferson design the University of Virginia to look like the Pantheon?

What were Thomas Jefferson’s beliefs about a humanist curriculum and public education?

What was meant by Marie-Antoinette’s comment, “Let them eat cake.”

Who was an infl uential writer who started the University of Virginia? What were some of his main beliefs?

How were Montesquieu’s ideas and his treatise The Spirit of Laws (1748) used by the Framers of the American Constitution?

What type of music did Beethoven write?

What type of music did Mozart write?

What are the characteristics of Classical music?

Describe the paintings of Jacques Louis David of France.

Accomplishments of the FINE Art Forms of the Classical Period and Neo-Classical Period

Rejection of the Baroque decorative type of sculpture and use of more formal and or- derly arrangements and formal balance

Rejection of the use of strong diagonals in the overall arrangement of space in paintings

The use of formal balance and order by painters

The use of formal balance and order in the musical arrangements in compositions

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The beginning of the symphony orchestra with four sections: Brass, Woodwinds, Strings, Percussion

The use of piano with the orchestra

The use of a conductor, because the orchestra is larger than a Baroque orchestra

The use of the sonata – allegro form in symphony orchestra compositions

The use of piano along with the symphony orchestra in compositions

The composition became popular: the concerto

In architecture: the use of the style which utilized the ancient Greek forms such as their columns and the Roman use of their dome

Source: http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/sculpture/neoclassical-sculptors.htm