A Change in Style

• A Change in Style


  This widening audience base, together with the ideals of the Enlightenment, prompted a change in compositional style. Whereas before, most music was written in the polyphonic form, as in Bach’s works, now music was simpler.
• Emphasis was put on music that was perceived as “natural,” that which was homophonic and had vocally conceived melodies, with sparse, light instrumental accompaniment.
• alberti bass


  a manner of accompaniment that produced light, broken chords, came to popularity
• In the Classical period, music became more periodic: you could divide the music into phrases of equal length, and easily tell if a certain phrase is a beginning, a middle, or an end phrase, each reasonably flowing into the next.
• Because music in the Baroque period was polyphonic, entire musical pieces sounded very complex, and only felt finished at the very end.
• This kind of music pleased both the well-to-do, aristocratic members of society and the less learned and financially astute.