Mannheim School

           Mannheim School  -  Mannheim, Germany had the best orchestra in Europe c. 1740 - 1780.

                                              (Memes of the Mannheim School  - 10 minute documentary)

             Composers of the Mannheim school introduced a number of novel ideas into the orchestral 
      music of their day: sudden crescendos – the Mannheim Crescendo (a crescendo developed via 
      the whole orchestra) – and diminuendos; crescendos with piano releases; the Mannheim Rocket 
      (a swiftly ascending passage typically having a rising arpeggiated melodic line together with a 
      crescendo); the Mannheim Roller (an extended crescendo passage typically having a rising mel-
      odic line over an ostinato bass line); the Mannheim Sigh (a mannered treatment of the Baroque 
      practice of putting more weight on the first of two notes in descending pairs of slurred notes); 
      the Mannheim Birds (imitation of birds chirping in solo passages); the Mannheim Climax 
      (a high-energy section of music where all instruments drop out except for the strings, usually 
      preceded by a Mannheim Crescendo); and the Grand Pause where the playing stops for a moment, 
      resulting in total silence, only to restart vigorously.  The Mannheim Rocket can be a rapidly 
      ascending broken chord from the lowest range of the bass line to the very top of the soprano line.  
      Its influence can be found at the beginning of the fourth movement of Mozart's Symphony No. 40 
      and the start of Eine kleine Nachtmusik, and the very start of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 1 in 
      F minor, Op. 2, No. 1.


            Members of the Mannheim school abandoned quickly the praxis of the basso continuo in 
      their compositions, which was almost universal in the Baroque era, and they used the minimum 
      of contrapuntal elaboration. One of their chief innovations is the four-movement symphony form, 
      introducing the menuet as its third movement, which was originally one of the Baroque suite's 
      movements.  The Mannheim school played an important role in the development of the sonata 
      form, which is generally the form of the classical symphony's first movement.  In their orchest-
          ration practice, the clarinet appears both as part of the woodwind section and as a solo 
      instrument.


                  Johann Stamitz  

                  Franz Xaver Richter

                  Ignaz Holzbauer 

                  Carl Stamitz  (son of Johann)

                  Franz Ignaz Beck 

                  Ignaz Fränzl 

                  Christian Cannabich