The Modal Foundations of Classicism in the Context of the World Perception of the 18th Century
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Abstract
Classicism presents one of the most significant artistic achievements of humanity. The basis of Classicism formed in
the art of music in the 18th century was comprised by the equal tempered scale and the major-minor modal system,
which succeeded the Pythagorean tuning and the assemblage of the medieval church modes. The aforementioned
innovations were the result of a lengthy goal-seeking scholarly search for thinkers and musicians for the end
of creating an ideal musical temperament. This corresponded fully to the overall mentality of the epoch of the
Enlightenment with its veneration of reason, both Divine and human.
The aforementioned innovations comprised an artistic analogy to the images of the infinite homogenous space and
a heliocentric system of the world, which sidelined to the second place the medieval perceptions of a hierarchical world
order with the Earth as the absolute center. The socially-conceived analogue to the centralization of the mode and the
tonal organization of sound may be conceived to be the formation of French absolutism, as well as the teaching created
by the Enlighteners of an ideal concisely structured community of people equal before God ruled by an enlightened
monarch.
The cosmological and social analogies presented in the article testify to the fact that the modal foundations of
musical Classicism corresponded in full to the central world outlook paradigm of the epoch, namely, the conviction of
the Rational and Divine foundations of art, nature and society.
Keywords: Classicism, the equal-tempered scale, major-minor, the heliocentric system, social structure.
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