Taken from Pauly, Music in the Classic Period

Movements flexible in number and type

Written for performance: local abilities and numbers taken into account

Little stylistic distinction between chamber and orchestral music:

Texture: often contrapuntal — canon (some minuets) & fugue (finales of 3, 13, 40)

Folk character, esp. in minuets

Minuet not a fixed form

Winds emphasized in trios — vestige of Baroque

No. 26 — Gregorian chant (lamentation) used as cantus firmus in several movements.

No. 31 — (hunting type) opening bars of the first movement brought back toward the end of the last: Cyclic.

Great number of movements in minor

Unpredictable forms

Large variety of 2nd theme treatments

Possibly distant key relationships between movements

"False Reprise"

No. 44 (E minor)

No. 49 (F minor) — 2nd movement characterized by leaps, syncopation: restlessness.

No. 45 (F-sharp minor) — "Farewell Symphony". Monothematic 1st mvmt; new theme in development (in D major) — does not return in recap.

Simpler, more concise themes, lending themselves to "Working out" technique

Orchestration — full, equivalency: all sections participate in theme presentations

More chromaticism (Mozart influence?) and transitional material

Continued formal experimentation — "now … reveals mastery"

Large orchestra (London symphonies)

More attention to woodwinds; participation in slow movements

Cellos/trumpets have melodic significance, independent from basses/horns (sometimes)

Deliberate rustic/folk material for broad London audiences

Mediant relationships between sections or movements

Longer

Grand, majestic scale: slow intros

Related themes, or monothematicism

Thematic development throughout the movement, not just development

Counterpoint sectional rather than continuous

Greater length to balance first mvmt

Much variety in slow-mvmt form: sonata, ternary (B section in minor), simple or double variations, combinations of above

Extension of form & tempo of minuet (toward scherzo)

Sonata-Rondo finales

Abrupt harmonic shifts and pauses (in London finales)

No. 73: among first to exhibit "Spinning out" technique

No. 82/I: chromatic transition from 1st to 2nd theme

No. 94: sudden ff crash on weak beat in slow movement ("Suprise" symphony)

No. 100: percussion (tri, cym, BD) in finale: Turkish ("Military" symphony); extensive coda (I)

No. 103: slow intro returns just before end of the mvmt.

No. 104/II: heavy, eloquent woodwind participation; chromaticism

Usually 5 movements (2 minuets)

Simple enough for amateurs

Viola not independant; often follows cello 8ve higher

Minuets simple, retaining dance characteristics

1st violin dominates melodic material (= singer in slow movements)

Small dimensions

4 movements

Growing thematic participation in instruments other than 1st vln.

Increased imitation and counterpoint

Op. 9, no. 2, last mvmt: opening theme returns in cello

Op. 20, no. 2 Adagio and no. 5/I: Storm and Stress — esp. in rhythm, accents

Op. 20, nos. 2, 5, 6: finales are fugues — 4, 2, 3 subjects, respectively

Mature part-writing, requiring 4 equally talented performers

Demonstration of motivic development throughout movement

Monothematicism

Musical humor

Greater variety of key relationships between movements and with modulation/tonicization

Increased harmonic variety starting with op. 50

Theme & Variations in slow movements

Term "Scherzo" substituted for "Minuet" in op. 33, but little difference, other than tempo. Not a continued practice.

Motivic development and fragmentation in op. 50, no. 6/I

Last movement op. 54, no. 1: typical "humor" in treatment of main theme

Op. 74, no. 3: keys of mvmts 1 & 2: G minor (ends w/ G major), E major

Op. 74, no. 3/II: expressive and chromatic largo

Op. 76, no. 3: Theme & Var. /accompaniment in last variation chromatic and rhythmically complex