The Baroque Period1600-1750Music AppreciationMs. Martin

Explanation of Baroque Music

The Baroque period saw the creation of tonality.

During the period, composers and performers used more elaborate musical ornamentation, made changes in musical notation, and developed new instrumental playing techniques.

Baroque music expanded the size, range, and complexity of instrumental performance, and also established opera as a musical genre. Many musical terms and concepts from this era are still in use today.

Music Notation

Genres: Toccata

Toccata: (from Italian toccare, "to touch") is a virtuoso piece of music typically for a keyboard or plucked string instrument featuring fast-moving, lightly fingered or otherwise virtuosic passages or sections, generally emphasizing the dexterity of the performer's fingers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhQTvaZtURY

Baroque Organ

Genres: Cantata

Cantata: (literally means "sung", derived from the Italian word "cantare") is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Xq2bq4eDgA

Genres: Oratorio

Oratorio: a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of

a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias.

However, opera is musical theatre, while oratorio is strictly a concert piece—though oratorios are sometimes staged as operas, and operas are sometimes presented in concert form.

Genres: Oratorio

In an oratorio there is generally little or no interaction between the characters, and no props or elaborate costumes.

A particularly important difference is in the typical subject matter of the text. Opera tends to deal with history and mythology, including age-old devices of romance, deception, and murder, whereas the plot of an oratorio often deals with sacred topics, making it appropriate for performance in the church.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-WNkZF8cWo

Oratorio

Genres: Opera

Opera: is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text (called a libretto) and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting.

Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance.

The performance is typically given in an opera house, accompanied by an orchestra or smaller musical ensemble

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8Vkq5xKkHQ

Operahaus

Opera

Opera

Genres: Fugue

Fugue: a contrapuntal compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject (theme) that is introduced at the beginning in imitation (repetition at different pitches) and recurs frequently in the course of the composition.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RG7rx3BO6JY

Genres: Concerto grosso

Concerto grosso: the musical material is passed between a small group of soloists (the concertino) and full orchestra (the ripieno or concerto grosso).

This is in contrast to the concerto which features a single solo instrument with the melody line, accompanied by the orchestra.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71Rhuh2TSR8

Instruments

Strings Violin, Viol, Viola, Tenor violin, Cello, Contrabass,

Lute, Mandolin, Guitar, Harp, Hurdy gurdy Woodwinds

Baroque flute, Baroque oboe, Rackett, Recorder Brasses

Baroque trumpet, Cornett, Horn, Serpent, Sackbut

Keyboards Fortepiano – early version of piano, Harpsichord,

Organ

Melody

Feeling of continuity. An opening melody will be heard over and

over again in the course of the piece. Even if the character of the piece is constant, the passage is varied.

Many baroque melodies are complex and elaborate. They are not easy to sing or play.

Baroque melodies give and impression of dynamic expansion rather than balance and symmetry. It gives a whole feeling of a jumble yet a theme is distinctly heard.

Rhythm

Unity of mood in baroque is first conveyed by the continuity of rhythm.

Rhythmic patterns heard at the beginning of the piece are reiterated many times throughout the piece.

This relentless drive compelled the music to push forward. This forward motion is hardly ever interrupted.

The beat is also far more distinct in baroque music.

Texture

Late baroque music is often and predominantly polyphonic in texture: many melodic lines compete for the listener’s attention.

Usually the soprano and the bass line are more important and imitation between various lines is very common.

A melodic line that happen in one voice will happen in other voices as well.

However, this was not strict during Bach’s and Handel’s time short snatches of homophonic pieces may also occur.

Dynamics

Paralleling the continuity of mood, the dynamics of the piece also stay constant for some period of time before it shifts to another level.

When the dynamics shift, it is sudden like physically stepping of a step. Therefore, terraced dynamics are a distinctive quality of baroque music.

Gradual changes such as crescendo and decrescendos are unheard of, this is partly due to the fact that the manuals of the keyboards instrument then were able to provide only the loud or the soft sound. They were not able to provide the “in between” sound.

Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741):

Born in Venice, Italy Became an ordained

priest in 1703, but no longer wished to celebrate mass because of asthma

Nicknamed “the red-headed priest”

Son of the leading violinist of St. Mark’s Basilica and educated as a musician and priest

Became ill in 1703 and excused from his priestly duties

Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741):

Employed at Conservatory of the Pieta in Venice for 36 years

Was a Conductor, Composer, Teacher, & Superintendent

Wrote 49 operas, numerous cantatas, oratorios, motets

Composed The Four Seasons, Gloria

Listening: Four Seasons-Spring

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Born in Eisenach, Germany same year as Handel

Spent his entire life within a 40 mile radius of his birth home

Fathered 20 children from his 2 consecutive wives

Received earliest musical training from his father, who was a town musician

After his father died, he studied with his older brother Johann Christoph, an organist

Bach composed in all of the musical forms popular during the Baroque period except opera

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) First three professional positions were as

organist Moved to Cothen to write court

entertainment music Last job in Leipzig where he was

responsible for all music in St. Nicholas and St. Thomas churches

Wrote numerous cantatas and sacred music

Famous Cantatas: Christ lag in Todes Banden, Ein feste Burg, Jesu der du meine Seele

Important Large Scale Works: The Christmas Oratorio, Magnificat, Mass in B minor, St. John Passion, St. Matthew Passion

Died in 1750, when the Baroque period ended, many of his works were not performed until 100 years later

Listening: For Unto Us a Child is Born, Magnificat, Toccata in f sharp minor

George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)

Born in Halle, Saxony-Germany Pleaded to his father for music

lessons as a young man; father sent him to F. W. Zachow to study

Handel became an outstanding organist & harpsichordist; also studied violin and oboe

Graduated from University in Halle in 1702

First position was as an organist in Halle

Composed music in 4 catagories:

1. Secular cantata 2. Catholic sacred mass 3. Oratorios 4. Operas

George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)

At 25 he became Director of the Electoral Court of Hanover under King George I of England

For 35 years his main job was writing operas, but today his oratorios are more popular

Known as the greatest composer of oratorio during the Baroque period

Notable oratorios: Israel in Egypt, Messiah, Judas Maccabaeus

Notable operas: Rinaldo, Giulio Cesare, Rodelinda, Orlando, Serse

Buried in Westminster Abbey in London

Listening: Water Music Suite, Music for the Royal Fireworks, Dixit Dominus, Concerto Op 7-Opening, Messiah-Hallelujah Chorus

Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725) From Naples, Italy First large-scale work was performed

when he was 19 Many patrons including Prince

Ferdinando de Medici, Queen Christina of Sweden, Cardinal Pamphili

Appointed as the Maestro di Cappella His operas incorporated 3 movement

sinfonias (overture), paving the way for the classical symphony

Expanded Sinfonia concept and ventured into orchestral writing

Best known for operas: La Rosaura, Teodora, Tigrane, Griselda

Wrote 600 church cantatas, 150 oratorios, numerous sacred compositions

Listening: Concerto #1 in f, Concerto #4 in g

Henry Purcell (1659-1695):

Born in Westminster, England Considered the greatest English

composer of opera Father was a singer in the court of King

Charles II Started musical career as a chorister in

the Chapel Royal Wrote Dido and Aeneas, an opera

written for a girl’s boarding school In 1669, he became the organist at

Westminster Abbey and wrote only sacred music there

Died in 1695, buried beside the organ in Westminster Abbey

Important Works: King Arthur, The Fairy Queen, The Tempest, Orpheus Britannicus, Te Deum and Jubilate

Listening : Trio Sonata 7, Incidental Music from the Fairy Queen