The Enlightenment Case Museum
Life in the 1700s
Music of the 1700s
Music in the 1700s changed as Romanticism (a new genre and style) began to exist. Romanticism brought a great love to nature, distracted people from the corrupted society, and brought up mysteries about mythology, religion, the supernatural and the unknown. Romanticism changed the ways of music by inventing bold, new orchestral sounds for the opera genre. Overtures were written, but not as introductions to operas. Instead, they were written for concert pieces with themes that were suggested by books, plays, and personal experiences. Romanticism also began to invent program music, which became popular between romantic composers. Program music was music that told a story for the listener to image as the composition goes on.
Johann Sebastian Bach
About Him:
- born March 31, 1685
- born in Eisenach, Thuringia, Germany
- created emotional music
- classified as Romanticism artists
Compositions:
- Ave Maria
- Christmas Oratario
- The Well-Tempered Clavier
George Frederick Handel
About Him:
- born Feburary 23, 1685
- born in Halle, Brandenburg, Germany
- started making North German style music
- Italian style took over his music
Compositions:
- Rinaldo
- Water Music
- Giulio Cesar
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
About Him:
- born January 27, 1756
- born in Salzburg, Austria
- created music for every major genre of that time
- created symphony, opera, and chamber music
Compositions:
- The Magic Flute
- Requiem
- The Marriage of Figaro
The Well-Tempered Clavier by Bach
Water Music by Handel
The Marriage of Figaro by Mozart
Art of the 1700s
Just like music, Romanticism style changed art in the 1700s by entering artists's mind and changing the way they painted and expressed their masterpieces to the public. Romanticism could be seen more prominently in paintings rather than in sculptures and architecture. Subjects for paintings were now more often taken from nature. Biblical, mythological, and supernatural subject were also used. Romantic artists used radiant colors expressive brushwork to paint their masterpieces. Artists began to prefer using curving lines and shapes to express their paintings.
- very religious arts
- the church loved their style of art
- art was "full of motion"
- made incredible ceiling frescoes
Rococo Artwork:
- focused on more interior designs
- only for royalty
- made paintings, architecture for buildings, and sculptures
Baroque Artwork
A Fantastic Cave with Odysseus and Calypso
The Night Watch
The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa
Rococo Artwork
Peasant Life in the 1700s
- poverty
- women did house work everyday
- men had hard labor daily for about 17 - to - 18 hours
- landowning peasants lived a little better than the average peasant
- school was year-round
- religion was heavily studied in school
- children at 14 could either start working or continue onto secondary school
- few possessions
- basic, bland diets
- experienced everything in its most raw form
- no control in the shape of their lives
- no shield from heat in the summer and cold in the winter
- played street sports for entertainment
- hockey, stickball (baseball or softball), golf, soccer
- often had to trade for supplies and needs to survive