The similarities between architectural features and enlightenment music is particularly fascinating. Elements of grandeur exist in both-- walls of moving sound compared to a towering wall of a building. And in this case, size really does matter. But it wasn't necessarily the whole picture. Grandiose facades and chord progressions were juxtaposed with ornamentations designed to add color and detail to what would otherwise be a blank canvas.
For example, the walls of a building might be towering and massive, but it will usually have some unique architectural details at the top (or anywhere for that matter) which will make each inch of the structure inherently unique, despite it's size. Likewise, an Opera may have a song composed of the same phrase repeating many times, yet each phrase is embellished in a unique and different manner each time. This practice, while first used during the enlightenment, is now a common feature in many parts of modern society (including music and architecture).
Moving away from comparisons between architecture and music, the ideals, and thoughts of the Enlightenment are a fascinating thing to behold. For one thing, it was one of the first times in world history that science was accepted as an alternative to religious beliefs as the answer to many of the world's unanswered questions. I find it all particularly fascinating, especially in the fact that today, hundreds of years later, some of the ideas and scientific progress of that era are still being explored.
The Enlightenment Era was also the rise of the middle class, and the significance of that on today's society cannot be understated. As I delve further into the music of the Enlightenment in the coming weeks, it will be fascinating to learn about and further understand the impact the middle class had on the music of that time.
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