In the middle of the 18th century the last shadows of the Baroque faded into the more intimate, colorful and pastoral Rococo period. All of the art forms, particularly those in painting and music, emphasize the “artificial” disguised as the “natural”. But the 18th century saw a new philosophy begin to emerge in Germany, England and France – ‘The Age of the Enlightenment’ – with the writings of Burke, Paine and Hume, Kant, Hegel and Goethe, Rousseau, Voltaire and Diderot, just to name a few. This new ‘Age of Reason’ influenced all subsequent artistic representation, including Classical music. The history of classical music is tied to this reexamination of the Classical period in all art forms.
One primary aspect of interest in the new Age was its fascination with and absorption of the artist theory and practice of its ancient historical antecedents. The excavations of Pompeii, Herculaneum and the ancient Greek settlements in Asia Minor, as well as the Napoleonic revival of the ideals and scope of the Roman Empire, all nourished an international current of imitation of classicism: ‘Neo-Classicism’. Classical Period music has links to these looks backward.
