Comparing Music
- This is a preview of the essay.
To view the full text you must login!
Comparing music
Vivaldi's second allegretto (baroque period)
Mozart's menuetto Allegretto (classical period)
In the baroque period the orchestra was quite small. It consisted of two kettledrums, two French horns, two trumpets, two oboes, a bassoon, eight violins, three violas, a double base, two cellos and a harpsichord.
In the classical period the orchestra grew. It now had two kettle drums, two French horns, two trumpets, two pairs of new instruments- the flute and the clarinet, two bassoons, twenty violins, eight violas, four double bases and six cellos (no more harpsichords).
In Vivaldi's second allegro, he used a solo violin, a solo cello, violas and a harpsichord for the base continua. A base continua is a keyboard instrument playing chords and a low stringed instrument playing the base line.
In Mozart's menuetto Allegro he used flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, French horns, violins, violas and double bases. The French horns add texture to certain parts of the piece.
Music from the baroque period, like the second allegro features terraced dynamics, in which the jumps from loud to soft (or vice versa), without gradual changes. Music from the classical period much like the menuetto or allegretto was where crescendos and diminuendos were introduced in dynamics...