Cardinal Mazarin

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Cardinal Mazarin
Queen Anne of Austria
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Louis XIV
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The Palace at Versailles

• Hall of Mirrors
• Extravagance

• Versailles
• Landscaping

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Opera in France

• Tragedie lyrique combo of dance scenes, lyrical
  music and plot based upon courtly love.
• Jean Bapiste Lully
• (1632-1687)
• father of French opera

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How evil is opera?
a French critic, late 1600s Opera is a bizarre
affair made up of poetry and music, in which the
poet and the musician, each equally obstructed by
the other, give themselves no end of trouble to
produce a wretched work.
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How evil is opera?
Opera was illegal in Rome in the early 1700s.
an English critic, 1872 Opera is to be regarded
musically, philosophically, and ethically, as an
almost unmixed evil.
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Opera in England

• James I (r. 1603-25)
• Charles I (1625-490
• Stuart Kings
• Supported musical plays called masques to be
  performed in private palaces.
• Very popular during this period of time.

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Commonwealth Period

• 1649-60
• Ruled by the Puritans
• Opera, Stage Plays, Secular forms of
  entertainment were forbidden.
• Considered blasphemous
• Plays set to music could be performed if set with
  the proper precautions.
• John Blow is the first English masque writer.
• His pupil, Henry Purcell (1659) was the first
  major English Opera Composer.

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Henry Purcell 1659-1695
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Dido and Aeneas (1689)

• Dido, filled with grief meets her death. (loss of
  love)
• Climbs a funeral pyre.
• Music descending line in ground bass is a sign
  of grief in baroque music.
• Descending line paints laid in earth.
• Use of ground bass.
• Use of dotted rhythms to denote royalty.

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Dido and Aeneas, Act III Didos Lament

• Virgils Aeneid
• Adventures of Aeneas after the fall of Troy
• Aeneas is stranded in Carthage, Northern African
  coast
• Falls in love with Dido, Queen of Carthage
• Aeneas pushes her away as he must leave for
  Italy. Soon to be the founder of Rome.

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After Dido . . .

• English preferred spoken drama
• Purcell wrote some Semi-operas
• Example The Fairy Queen (1692)
• Opera had support of the monarchy in France and
  the public in Italy, but from neither in England

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Baroque Instrumental Music

• This is the first time that we see instrumental
  music sharing the same stature as vocal music.
• For the first time, there was a clear separation
  of Vocal and Instrumental music

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Baroque Instrumental Practice

• There were no classics, so contemporary
  composers were very prolific
• Modulations and chromatic harmonies and melodies.
• Virtuosity (music that shows off the technical
  skills of the performer)

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Baroque Instrumental Evolution

• Early Baroque Instrumental music uplifted musical
  line rather than blend. Late Baroque music will
  focus more on the idea of blend and refined
  orchestration.

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Keyboard Music

• Equal tempered tuning

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Keyboard Instruments

• Three main instruments
• Organ sacred venues and some home chapels
• Tracker Action
• Great, positive, and portative organ
• Harpsichord basso continuo for orchestra and
  dance music. Solo instrument. Strings plucked by
  a Plectrum.
• Clavichord strings struck by hammers made
  originally from bone. Precursor to the piano.

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Positive organ Portative organ
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Baroque Organs
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Harpsichord
Harpsichord, ca. 1675Made by Michele
TodiniRome, Italy
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Clavichord
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The keyboard, allowed composers to think
vertically (tonal system) rather than
horizontally (modal system) more than one
note could be played at a time.
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The Baroque Suite

• Instrumental dance music from the Renaissance
  period now refined in a new style of sound and
  compositional technique.
• Pastiche of different international styles of
  dance forms.
• First function was dancing at social functions.
• Other functions dinner music.

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Order of the Dance Suite
Overture (Optional)Allemande Germany
4/4 time Moderate Courante French 3/4
time Moderate Sarabande Spain 3/4
time Slow Other Dances (Optional) Minuet Gav
otte BourreeGigue England 6/8 time Fast
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Types of Dances
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Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre (1666-1729)
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Innovations

• Instrument building families
• Stradivarius, Guarneri, and Amati
• Strings
• Cat gut
• Slightly different playing technique.bowing
• Woodwinds mellow sound as opposed to a more
  brassy sound in modern times.

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Innovations

• Brass
• Originally a military instrument for signals
• Without valves
• Key changes made by inserting longer or shorter
  crooks in the horn.

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The Concerto

• A three movement piece (FSF) music that is
  created from two masses or bodies of sound.
• Concertare to contend with or to compete with.

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The Two Masses of Sound

• Concertino small group.
• Tutti or ripieno large group (orchestra)
• tutti (all) ripieno (full)

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Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
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The Life of J.S. Bach

• Born in Eisenach, Germany, which was also the
  birthplace of Martin Luther.
• Bachs family supplied musicians.
• Musicians agent, or broker.
• Orphaned at age of ten, raised by his older
  brother.
• Brother was an organist and Bachs first music
  teacher (family apprenticeship)

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Background

• J. S. Bach is one of the most well-researched
  composers with more each year

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• The Bach family was made up of more than 70
  composers and performers in Germany from the 16th
  to the early 19th centuries.

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• His father, Johann Ambrosius Bach (1645-1695),
  was a renowned violinist and was employed as a
  court trumpeter and music director in the town of
  Eisenach. Bach probably learned to play the
  violin at an early age from his father.

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• His mother, Maria Elisabeth Lämmerhirt
  (1644-1694), also came from a musical family.

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Bach as a young man
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Johann Sebastian Bach

• Over 1000 musical pieces in every genre except
  opera
• Cantatas (1 per week for 8 years)
• Public complained for his flowery music
• Protestant themes (in search of God)
• Musicians felt his
• music too difficult

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Bachs Signature
J.S.Bach (musical) cross. Bach signed himself
with a single note (using 4 different
pitches) B Left staff (treble clef) A Upper
staff (tenor clef) C Right staff (alto clef)
H Lower staff (treble clef)
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Bachs Work

• Church Musician
• Write music for services
• Play organ
• Teach choirs
• Teach soloists
• Conduct orchestra, choirs
• Court Musician
• Wrote music for entertainment
• Wrote commissioned pieces
• School teacher
• Organ teacher
• Organ construction consultant
• Composersacred secular music
• Husband/father

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Bachs Career

• Early positions
• Arnestadt, Germany 1703-07
• Organist
• Muhlhausen
• Organist.
• These were not significant positions but rather
  churches with small forces for music.
• A good starting point for his career.

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• Bach became an organist in Arnstant in 1703 and
  stayed there until 1707, when he went to
  Muhlhausen until 1708. He showed a bit of his
  temper, having arguments with both employers.
• In 1707, he married his cousin, Maria Barbara.
• They went on to have 7 children, before she died
  in 1721.

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The Big Three

• Weimar, Germany
• Secular position
• Employed by the Duke of Weimar
• There were many differences between the Duke and
  J. S. Bach.

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Weimar

• Bach serves as an organist to the Ducal Chapel
  and as a chamber musician.
• Duke preferred the older style of hymns and
  accompaniment in worship. He was not interested
  in Bachs innovations.
• Bach was resolved not to change his personal
  style of composition.

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Weimar

• Bach, as a member of the patronage system was in
  fact considered the property of the Duke.
• He was imprisoned for almost a month for trying
  to leave the Dukes employment without the Dukes
  permission.
• Finally he was allowed to leave after Bach simply
  made the life of the Duke miserable.

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Bachs second position Cothen.

• 1717-23
• Secular position for the Prince of Anhalt-Cothen
  (cousin to the Duke of Weimar)
• Here Bach wrote his famous suites, concerti,
  sonatas, and a large amount of keyboard music.
• The six Brandenburg Concerti for the Margrave of
  Brandenburg.

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Leipzig The third great position

• Leipzig was a musical and cultural center of
  southeastern Germany.
• St. Thomas Kirche (church) was the center of
  religious music in Leipzig.
• Bachs position.
• Music director
• Organist
• Cantor
• Responsible for all of the music for every large
  Lutheran church in the district.
• Director of the collegium musicum

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Bach at Leipzig

• St. Thomas Church and School

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• Since the best man could not be obtained,
  mediocre ones would have to be accepted.
• -Leipzig town council member commenting on the
  hiring of Bach

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During the earlier years at Leipzig, Bachs work
demonstrated his ability of storytelling using
dramatic melodies or chords to represent
different events of life. Example of this style
include The Passion of St. John
(1723) Magnificant (1723) The Passion According
to St. Matthew (1729) Christmas Oratoro (1734)
Bach composed many pieces of music and they are
often listed with the letters BWV followed by a
number. Such as BWV 212 or such.
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In 1721, Bach married Anna Magdalena Wilken, who
was a professional singer. They ended up having
13 more children during their marriage.
Bach made a final move to Leipzig in 1723. There
he became the Director of Music at the St.Thomas
School and the Cantor for the St. Thomas Church.
He was responsible for all music in all 4
churches in the town.
It is interesting to see that Bach did not travel
much during his lifetime and stayed within a
small area of Germany.
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Places Bach lived
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Germany
Bachs life and work
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The Cantata

• A multi-movement work for the Lutheran worship
  service that is a musical statement backing the
  text of the current days liturgy.
• Based upon famous hymn or chorale tunes.
• Aria
• Recitative
• Instrumental accompaniment (small orchestra)

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Fugue Form
Fugue Form- A B A1
A Exposition Exposes the subject in all voices
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Picture this fugue
Subject alone
Episode
Subject inalto
Subject intenor
Subject inbass
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Innovations in Orchestra

• Concertos
• Solo instruments
• Grosso led to orchestra works
• Composers notation
• Specified instrumental parts
• Dynamic markings and speed
• Key signature in the title

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• Did you know?

Bach shares his birth year with G.F.Handel.
Handel also had cataract surgery performed by
oculist John Taylor. American composer, Edward
MacDowell said, "Bach and Handel were in every
way quite different, except that both were born
in the same year and killed by the same doctor.
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• By 1748 Bach was nearly blind from cataracts.
• In March and April of 1750, he was operated on by
  the English oculist John Taylor. The operations
  and the treatment that followed them may have
  hastened Bach's death.
• Johann Sebastian Bach died on July 28, 1750.