I'll bet your still wondering what period Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms all belonged to, ...and further that, "didn't they all write  Classical music?"  We get into snobbish waters very quickly when we forget that what is called "Classical music" at the music store was actually "popular music" from different times in the past.  Some have chosen to categorize it as "serious" muisc ...as opposed to "friviolous" I guess.  To be correct, there is actually a period of  "Classical style",  ..yes this could be fuel for a trick question at the hands of an unscrupulous instructor, ...but I would never do that.

The art of the Classical period focused on the perfection of form as an end in itself.   In the hands of Haydn and Mozart, "Sonata form" evolved to its perfection.  "Sonata form" was a logical way of creating an extended instrumental composition.  This structure became the basis of the the first movement of any "classical" symphony.  Sometimes "sonata form" would also so be used as the structure for other movements of a symphony too.  A single movement in "sonata form" has three roughly definable occurances:  a.) Exposition - a primary theme is played followed by at least one secondary theme, sometimes more, b.) Development - the two or more themes undergo a progression - using the disection of theme fragments, or elaboration, or intermingling, or trapsing through related keys, the composer causes the themes to undergo some kind of metamorphisis, and c.) Recapitulation - the two or more themes emerge somehow transformed in the last moments of the movement.

Why the name "sonata form"?  A "sonata" was typically a composition for an instrument or instruments written in three sections.  Therefore "sonata form" was a logical step in naming the structure because the form involved three process within a single movement.  To muddy the waters more, a "classical" symphony can be written today if it conforms to the form, and can also be another kind of composition at the same time.

Its time for another "historical perspective"  moment (...yes, I'm guilty of more sweepng generalizations):  In order to see what fostered "clasical music" no longer being "popular  music" we have to jump out of the present. Today we are innundated with the massive distribution of the product of "music", which hadn't happened yet in the late 18th century.  Today we are conditioned to the instant availablility of music,  which is no longer consumed only "live" by the royalty.  Today we can purchase a "virtual" live performance of anything that is recorded and have the whole London Philharmonic perform it in our bedroom at the push of a button.  Today we can purchase sheet music by the reams, which allows us the access to personally perform any of a myriad of works produced by the combined genius of the ages. This ability is a historically recent development.  Remember we mentioned that at one point an uncomfortably large quantity of Bach's compositions were minutes away from never seeing the twentieth century and that the rediscovery of Bach's music was due almost totally to the efforts of a later Felix Mendlessohn. With the nineteenth century came the advent of live music performance, available for the mass consumption of the populus  ...and herein a big change takes place.  The audience - the consumer - is no longer limited to belonging to the artistically educated upper social strata of previous time periods, and usually was therefore less consistently musically trained.  This is by no means "bad" of itself, but it is the begining of the parting of the waters between hi-brow and lo-brow tastes.  This was a natural offshoot of the growth of a middle class in the nineteenth century and the technological developments of the twentieth century, ...but historically, at our current "classical" point in time, we arn't there yet.

Our focus for this session of the Classical period will be Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), and trying to experience the structure we explained above called "sonata form".
 

Listening time - I:
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.)
 

Listening time - II:
 etc.
 
 

Beethoven's impending deafness is attributed by some to be the birth of the romantic period.  As a result of his desparate straits, Beethoven's work takes on a mood anger and darkness that begins to eclipse the unswerving focus on form alone.  Others would argue waiting for Hector Berlioz and the Symphonie Fantastique to herald the arrival of unbrideled romanticism - but this we can argue next session.