This is the third class of a four-part course covering two influential schools of Classical music, taught by Joseph Marchio, the Assistant Conductor of the Cape Symphony and Music Director of the Chatham Chorale. “Classical” refers to an era in music, roughly spanning the 18th century, that was distinct from the music styles both before (17th century Baroque) and after (19th century Romantic). The Classical Era is characterized by melodies that are usually simplified and supported by moving harmony. The First Viennese School often refers to three composers of this period in Vienna: Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven. The Second Viennese School was the group of composers comprised of Arnold Schoenberg and his pupils, particularly Alban Berg and Anton Webern, and close associates in early 20th-century Vienna. Their music was characterized by late-Romantic expanded tonality and later, totally chromatic expressionism without a firm tonal centre, often referred to as atonality.

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