MUSI 1107 Chapter Prelude 4: Classicism and Enlightenment Culture Book Notes
Document Summary
Classicism is a constant concern in western culture, since its roots are in the values of order and reason expressed by the ancient greeks and romans, who laid the foundations for the very notion of european identity. The later 1700s were a time when classical ideas were especially strong in europe, combined with a philosophical and intellectual movement known as the enlightenment, which stressed the centrality of reason in human experience. Artists and musicians strove to join the social push toward order and reason, developing works characterized by clarity and regularity of structure, and by an ideal of natural simplicity . This tendency led to the development of an international musical style that was held up by subsequent generations as timeless, embodying the most perfect manifestations of musical logic. The eighteenth century has been called the age of reason as well as the enlightenment.
