MUAR 211 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Tonality, Chromatic Scale, Jean-Philippe Rameau
17 Apr 2016
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Document Summary
Classical period no later than 1750--1820 (or so) Social & political context of the classical era. The cultural movement into which the music of the second half of the 18th century must be placed is known as the enlightenment, an identification that thinkers and writers of the time proudly claimed for themselves. The enlightenment era was characterized by a rising faith in and advocacy of scientific inquiry and social equality: the continuing legacy of humanist ideals that surfaced in the renaissance. Rise of the middle class and decline of the patronage system. An increase in wealth (= power) among the middle and working classes was accompanied by a parallel decline in inherited wealth and the power of the aristocracy. These cultural shifts had profound consequences for how, where and for whom art (including, of course, music) was created, funded and received.
