# The greatest movement or single piece of all time to represent "Classical style"



## Ethereality (Apr 6, 2019)

*The greatest movement or single piece of all time to represent "Classical style"*

I'll just start with my own opinion. For the purely classical sound, I think Movement 4 of Beethoven's 3rd is the very height of the period. Seriously  how can you do better than this in Classical form? 




I'd usually go for the 6-2, but this time it's about something more in the essence of the era. How do you decide what _sounds_ Classical in style and what doesn't? I suppose I might choose a Movement in chamber, opera, concerto, Mozart's profound harmonies and melodies or the famous 5-1, but I've just gotta go with 3-4 and Beethoven's mastery over development, orchestration and rhythm.


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## Dima (Oct 3, 2016)




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## Eclectic Al (Apr 23, 2020)

Looking at your request I have gone towards the "most representative" interpretation of what you're after - what is the most perfect expression of classical style? You have to go for Haydn, and then you have so many great movements to choose from. How about 96-1?


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

It must be a big piece if it is to incorporate all the different angles and flavours of classicism. How about the Marriage of Figaro or Don Giovanni?


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## Dima (Oct 3, 2016)

For me it is more interesting what piece of that kind will descript best baroque style and avangarde. Italian, french and german baroque is so different that I can't choose one piece. Could someone do it?


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## Fabulin (Jun 10, 2019)

Dima said:


> For me it is more interesting what piece of that kind will descript best baroque style and avangarde. Italian, french and german baroque is so different that I can't choose one piece. Could someone do it?


BWV565 has properties of southern German, northern German, and Italian baroque, so maybe it?

As for the avant-garde, you could try this:




Not because it is necessarily the greatest, but because I bet many, many diverse influences can be found in it.


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## RICK RIEKERT (Oct 9, 2017)

Dima said:


> For me it is more interesting what piece of that kind will descript best baroque style and avangarde. Italian, french and german baroque is so different that I can't choose one piece. Could someone do it?


German composers in J.S. Bach's day thought of themselves as cosmopolitan musicians, absorbing the styles and genres of French and Italian music. Although composers such as Froberger, Telemann and Muffat had cultivated the _vermischte Geschmack_ ('mixed taste') with more or less success, it was, as Fabulin suggests, Bach himself who thoroughly assimilated French and Italian influences, particularly the Italian sonata and concerto and French dance music and ornamentation, into the German polyphonic tradition. I would say that this unique fusion of national styles into a higher unity is the most remarkable single factor, along with his almost superhuman technical craftmanship, in Bach's mature instrumental music.

One can hear it for example in the keyboard Partitas of _Clavierubing I_, which elevate this stylistic diversity, already evident in the French Suites, to the status of a governing principle. The Brandenburg Concertos also show Bach fusing French, Italian, and German elements and putting his own twist on these styles.


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## Dima (Oct 3, 2016)

Fabulin said:


> BWV565 has properties of southern German, northern German, and Italian baroque, so maybe it?


It is one of the greatest peice, but I don't think it is typical music of baroque era.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

Always liked this for its straight-forwardness, but not without charm.


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Noted. .


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## isorhythm (Jan 2, 2015)

Enthusiast said:


> It must be a big piece if it is to incorporate all the different angles and flavours of classicism. How about the Marriage of Figaro or Don Giovanni?


If we have to narrow it down more, hard to better than the Figaro Act II finale.


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## Allegro Con Brio (Jan 3, 2020)




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## Fabulin (Jun 10, 2019)

RICK RIEKERT said:


> German composers in J.S. Bach's day thought of themselves as cosmopolitan musicians, absorbing the styles and genres of French and Italian music. Although composers such as Froberger, Telemann and Muffat had cultivated the _vermischte Geschmack_ ('mixed taste') with more or less success, it was, as Fabulin suggests, Bach himself who thoroughly assimilated French and Italian influences, particularly the Italian sonata and concerto and French dance music and ornamentation, into the German polyphonic tradition. I would say that this *unique fusion of national styles into a higher unity is the most remarkable single factor, along with his almost superhuman technical craftmanship*, in Bach's mature instrumental music.
> 
> One can hear it for example in the keyboard Partitas of _Clavierubing I_, which elevate this stylistic diversity, already evident in the French Suites, to the status of a governing principle. The Brandenburg Concertos also show Bach fusing French, Italian, and German elements and putting his own twist on these styles.


I don't know about superhuman, but that sounds about right for Williams and the 20th century as well. This has been an insider consideration for some time, that Williams is not, as some laymen would proclaim "the modern Mozart", or "the modern Beethoven", but rather a sort of theatrical flipside of Bach. [ok, maybe that's not the most fortunate phrasing, but one gets the point - Bach stayed away from opera, and Williams has an overwhelming majority of his work in film]


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## Coach G (Apr 22, 2020)

"The greatest movement or single piece of all time to represent 'Classical style'"

I say: Mozart's _Clarinet Concerto_; seamless, balanced, beautiful, as if it the music just seems to compose itself.


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## ORigel (May 7, 2020)

_The Magic Flute_, _Cosi Fan Tutti_, or _The Creation_.


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## ORigel (May 7, 2020)

Coach G said:


> "The greatest movement or single piece of all time to represent 'Classical style'"
> 
> I say: Mozart's _Clarinet Concerto_; seamless, balanced, beautiful, as if it the music just seems to compose itself.


Especially the first movement, IMO.


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## Templeton (Dec 20, 2014)

Deleted.............


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## consuono (Mar 27, 2020)




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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

These two feel like ruby and sapphire to me. Everytime I post one of them, I want to post the other as well.

Memoriam fecit mirabilium suorum [ 5:17 ] 
Suscitans aterra inopem [ 15:40 ]





Magna opera domini exquisita [ 4:30 ]
Gloria patri et filio [ 24:51 ]







consuono said:


> https://youtu.be/-KwB6rkPBTQ


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