Page 118 - (DK) The Classical Music Book - Big Ideas Simply Explained

116

ITS FORTE IS

LIKE THUNDER,

ITS CRESCENDO

A CATARACT

SYMPHONY IN E FLAT MAJOR, OP. 11, NO. 3,
(1754–1755), JOHANN STAMITZ

IN CONTEXT

FOCUS
Expanding the scope
of the orchestra

BEFORE
1720s Composers of
Neapolitan operas, such
as Leonardo Vinci, write
“sinfonie” (symphonies) in
three movements as preludes
to their dramatic works.
1732 Italian composer
Giovanni Battista Sammartini
begins to write a series of
three-movement symphonies.
n 1741, the composer Johann Stamitz’s musical home Mannheim,
AFTER Stamitz moved from his home seen here in an engraving of 1788
1766 In Paris, Mozart I in Bohemia (now the Czech showing the Elector's castle, court
befriends the Mannheim Republic) to Mannheim, capital church (Hofkirche), and armoury
composer and conductor of the Electoral Palatinate, a became a center of music innovation.
Christian Cannabich, a pupil German territory. There he became
and follower of Stamitz. court violinist and, in 1745, was group, not from the keyboard, as had
appointed concertmaster of the previously been the norm, but from
1772 Haydn, in his Sturm orchestra. Stamitz raised the his desk at the head of the violin
und Drang (“Storm and Stress”) standards of orchestral playing, section, using his bow to signal the
symphonies, further explores hiring talented musicians, some start of the piece and to indicate
the emotive style of orchestral of whom were also composers rhythm and tempo. Under Stamitz,
music pioneered by the in their own right, and extended the Mannheim orchestra became
Mannheim composers. the orchestra by adding wind renowned for the superb quality
instruments, such as oboes and and precision of its playing and for
horns. He directed this diverse the new soundscape that it created.

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