Chapter Summary

The Rococo, a subperiod from about 1715-40, was dominated by aristocratic French ideas. Rococo music reflected a reaction against the heaviness of the Baroque and pointed toward the Classical style. The predominant texture was homophonic and the character light and graceful.

The German expressive style shared the Rococo taste for simplicity but was a middle-class art, more sentimental and less frivolous than the elegant Rococo.