Jean-Baptiste Masse
(c1700 - c1756)
Michel Blavet
(1700 - 1768)
Johan Agrell
(1701 - 1765)
Giovanni Battista Sammartini
(1701 - 1775)
Johann Ernst Eberlin
(1702 - 1762)
Johann Gottlieb Graun
(c1702-1771)
Carl Heinrich Graun
(c1703-1759)
Giovanni Battista Pescetti
(c1704 - c1766)
Antonio Domenico Viraldini
(1705 - 1741)
Baldassare Galuppi
(1706 - 1785)
Georg Reutter
(1708 - 1772)
Michel Corrette
(1709 - 1795)
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi
(1710 - 1736)
Domenico Alberti
(1710 - 1740)
Thomas Arne
(1710 - 1778)
Wilhelm Friedemann Bach
(1710 - 1784)
William Boyce
(1711 - 1779)
John Stanley (1712 - 1786)
Johann Ludwig Krebs
(1713 - 1780)
Per Brant
(1714 - 1767)
Gottfried August Homilius
(1714 - 1785)
Christoph Willibald Gluck
(1714 - 1787)
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
(1714 - 1788)
Georg Christoph Wagenseil
(1715 - 1777)
Hinrich Philip Johnsen
(1716 - 1779)
Johann Wenzel Anton Stamitz
(1717 - 1757)
Leopold Mozart
(1719 - 1787)
William Walond
(1719 - 1768)
Johann Philipp Kirnberger (1721 - 1783)
Sebastián Ramón de Albero y Añaños
(1722 - 1756)
Karl Friedrich Abel
(1723 - 1787)
Armand-Louis Couperin
(1727 - 1789)
Florian Leopold Gassmann
(1729 - 1774)
Giuseppe Sarti
(1729 - 1802)
Antonio Soler
(1729 - 1783)
Joseph Haydn
(1732 - 1809)
François-Joseph Gossec
(1734 - 1829)
Johann Gottfried Eckard
(1735 - 1809)
Johann Christian Bach
(1735 - 1782)
Johann Georg Albrechtsberger
(1736 - 1809)
Michael Haydn
(1737 - 1806)
Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf
(1739 - 1799)
Johann Baptist Vanhal
(1739 - 1813)
André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry
(1741 - 1813)
Giovanni Paisiello
(1741-1816)
Luigi Boccherini
(1743 - 1805)
Franz Nikolaus Novotny
(1743 - 1773)
Carl Stamitz
(1745 - 1801)
Joseph Schuster
(1748 - 1812)
Domenico Cimarosa
(1749 - 1801)
Antonio Salieri
(1750 - 1825)
Antonio Rosetti
(c1750 - 1792)
Dmytro Bortniansky
(1751 - 1825)
Muzio Clementi (1752 - 1832)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
(1756 - 1791)
Joseph Martin Kraus
(1756 - 1792)
François Devienne
(1759 - 1803)
Luigi Cherubini (1760 - 1842)
Franz Danzi
(1763 - 1826)
Franz Xaver Süssmayr (1766 - 1803)
Wenzell Muller (1767 - 1835)
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827) (Classical/Romantic bridge)
Antoine Reicha (1770 - 1836)
Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778 - 1837) (Classical/Romantic bridge)
Fernando Sor (1778 - 1839)
John Field (1782 - 1837) Carl Maria von Weber (1786 - 1826)
(Classical/Romantic bridge)
Franz Schubert (1797 - 1828) (Classical/Romantic bridge)
Beginning of the Classical Style (1730-1760)
At first the new style took over baroque forms - the ternary "aria
da capo" and the "sinfonia" and "concerto" - and simply composed
with simpler parts and more emphatic sections. However, over time,
the new aesthetic caused radical changes in how pieces were put
together - the basic layouts changed. (See Sonata Form). Composers
from this period sought dramatic effects, striking melodies, and
clearer textures. One important break with the past was the radical
overhaul of opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck, who cut away a great
deal of the layering and improvisional ornament, and focused on the
points of modulation and transition. By making these moments where
the harmony changes more focal, he created the ability for powerful
dramatic shifts in the emotional color of the music. He used
instrumentation, melody and changes in mode to highlight these
moments. Among the most successful composer, Gluck spawned many
emulators, for example Antonio Salieri. Their emphasis on
accessibility was hugely successful in opera, and in vocal music
more widely: songs, oratorios and choruses. These were considered
the most important kinds of music for performance, and hence
produced the highest public estimation for success.
The phase between the baroque and the rise of the classical, with
its broad mixture of competing ideas and attempts to unify the
different demands of taste, economics and idea, goes by many names.
It is sometimes called "galant", "rococo", or "pre-classical", or at
other times, "early classical". It is a period where composers still
working in the baroque style are still successful, if sometimes
thought of as being more of the past than the present - Bach, Handel
and Telemann all compose well past the point where the homophonic
style is clearly on the rise. Musical culture was caught at a cross
roads, the masters of the older style had the technique, but the
public hungered for the new. One of the reasons why C.P.E. Bach was
held in such high regard: he understood the older forms quite well,
knew how to present them in new garb, with a variety of form, and
soon after as far as overhauling the older forms from the baroque.
