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Overture,
Concerto Grosso, Symphony -
these three form types
dominate the large-scale
instrumental music of the
eighteenth century and, at
the same ime, illustrate a
decisive phase in the
development of European
orchestral music from the
baroque to the classical
style. The Overture (Suite)
was a creation of baroque
France, having developed
from the courtly opera
overture, whose strctly
standardized movement
charachters (Adagio in dotte
rhythms - fugal Allegro -
free repetition of the
Adagio) reflected the
absolutist majesty of the
baroque age and the order of
rationalist thinking, to
which dances and
characteristic pieces could
then be added in any desired
number and order. The
Concerto Grosso, on the
other hand, grew on Italian
soil; in its relative
freedom of form (based on
the four-movement scheme
slow-quick-slow-quick), in
the loose and varied
formation of the individual
movements and in the
colourfulness of the
orchestration it reflected
the unproblematic delight in
musicmaking and the refined
artistic atmosphere -
directed less towards
magnificence than towards
connoisseur anjoyment -
prevailing in Italy's
princely courts and her
wealthy trading cities with
their patrician rulers.
Finally the Symphony, which
took the place of the
Overture and the Concerto
Grosso from the middle of
the century onward, fed
itself on the spirit and
forms of its two
predecessors as well as on
the Italian opera Sinfonia
(Overture), from which it
borrowed the initial
three-movement formal scheme
(quick-slow-quick), its
light structure and its
brilliantly festive mood. On
German soil, towards the end
of the century, it grew into
the representative
large-scale form of courtly
and bourgeois concert life,
in which the personal and
the social, skilful musical
work and a wealth of
stimulation from folk-music,
dance types and 'absolute'
instrumental forms were
blended into a new guise,
infinitely rich and
variegated yet cyclic and
concise.
Telemann's Overture in F
sharp minor - one of the
more than 110 Overtures he
wrote - possibly dates from
the composer's Frankfurt
period (1712-21). Both in
its mixture of dance
movements and characteristic
pieces and in the French
titles to its movements and
French tempo indications it
completely follows the model
of the French
Overture-Suite, though in
the part-writing (for
instance the no longer
Vivace of the Overture
proper) and in the clearly
defines periodizing of the
melody it already represents
a bridge between the late
baroque and early classical
styles. In its bubbling
abundance of ideas and
carefree pleasure in
music-making it displays
Telemann's "social art" in
the best possible light.
A far more serious note is
struck by the impressive
Concerto Grosso by
Hellendaal, which closely
approaches Handel and
Geminiani in style and whose
composer lived and worked in
England from 1752 until his
death. His Op. 3 (1758) is
one of the last printed
editions of concerti grossi
of the age; yet it is
completely free from any
sign of decadence, and the
Concerto in D minor can, by
virtue of its strong,
earnest character and
abundance of harmonic ideas,
the powerful energy of the
quick movements, the elegiac
quality of the Affettuoso
and the catchy thematic
material of the Presto (on a
theme by Handel) and the
Borea (Bourrée), take uts
place worthly alongside the
very best concerti grossi,
even including those of
Handel.
The Symphony in E flat major
by Bach's secon son
(composed 1775-76, printed
1780) is, together with its
three sister-works of the
same edition, not only one
of the leading works of the
"Hamburg Bach" but the
crowning and ultimate
fulfillment of the North
German orchestral symphony
altogether. His
contemporaries praised this
late work of the masters for
its "urgency, fulness of
harmony, genuinely German
melodic style, sun-like
warnth of feeling." The
passionate agitation of a
genuine musical "Sturm und
Drang", a kaleidoscopic
wealth of ever changing
moods and surprising ideas
that literally chase one
another and the thoroughly
independent musical language
of an original genius who
lived only for
self-expression are the
leading characteristics of
the E flat major Symphony as
also of its sisterworks, and
it is these qualities that
give a unique historical
position and significance to
the four last symphonies of
this composer, who was
perhaps the most important
pioneer of the classical
period.
Also in three movements that
lead into one another on the
model of the Italian
Sinfonia is Mozart's
Symphony in D major, which
was written down on the 19th
May 1773 in Salzburg, six
months before the
magnificent "Little"
Symphony in G minor KV 183.
Any similarity with C.P.E.
Bach's eruptive masterpiece,
however, ends with this
external formal scheme;
Mozart's work is still very
clearly an "Italian"
symphony in idion too,
resplendent with surging
orchestral tremoli, broken
chords and a colourful
abundance of themes and, in
contrast to the G minor
Symphony, carefully avoiding
to touch upon darker regions
of expression. And yet there
lives in its outer movements
a great deal of the
spiritual gaiety of the
"genuine" Mozart, and in the
simple oboe melody in
folk-song style of the
Andantino there already
speaks a truly personal,
inspired voice - enough
alone to bear also this
"minor work" of its creator
to eternity.
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