Unit VIII: Instrumental Music of the Baroque

1
Unit VIII Instrumental Music of the Baroque

• Chapter 25
• The Baroque Sonata and Concerto

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The Rise of Instrumental Music

• Period of rapid development of instruments and
  virtuosic instrumental techniques
  
• Organ Bach and Handel
• Violin Corelli and Tartini
• Harpsichord Scarlatti and Couperin
• Composers begin to write more idiomatically
• Orchestration considered for the first time

3
Baroque Instruments

• Strings
• Finest instruments the world has seen constructed
  by Stradivarius, Guarneri and Amati
  
• Strings made of gut rather than steel - softer,
  but more penetrating sound
  
• Bows convex rather than concave
• sound board shallower

4
Woodwinds

• Used for color, solo work
• Wooden transverse flute, recorder, oboe and
  bassoon common

5
Brass

• Trumpet a favored solo instrument-still
  valveless
  
• Horns used often as complement to woodwinds-also
  natural horn

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Keyboard

• Provide harmonies in continuous setting
• Used as solo instruments
• Organ-distinct sound, colors differentiate stops
  and highlight contrapuntal voices

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Keyboard

• Harpsichord
• Strings plucked by quills
• Tones do not sustain, therefore ornamentation
  abounds
  
• Double keyboard provide subtleties of sonority
  and dynamics

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Keyboard

• Clavichord
• A favorite home instrument
• Strings struck by metal tangents
• Sound sustains, as long as key is depressed
• Both clavichord and harpsichord replaced by piano
  by the end of the 18th Century

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Sonata Types

• Chamber sonata usually a group of stylized
  dances
  
• Church sonata which is more serious in tone and
  more contrapuntal in texture.
  
• Trio Sonata- written for two violins and continuo
  therefore name is misleading as it refers to the
  parts and not to the of players for which it is
  written.
• Solo sonata- written for unaccompanied
  instruments notable composers are Domenico
  Scarlatti and J.S. Bach

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Concerto types

• Orchestral form for soloist(s) contrasted against
  the full orchestra
  
• Typically 3 movements-Allegro (fast), Adagio
  (slow), Allegro (fast)
  
• Solo concerto-violin most common in the Baroque

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Concerto types

• Concerto grosso-small group of soloists
  (concertino) Vs. full orchestra (ripieno or
  tutti)
  
• Bachs six Brandenburg concertos, written for
  Margrave of Brandenburg, are of the concerto
  grosso type

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Antonio Vivaldi

• 1678-1741
• Known as the Red Priest in reference to his hair

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Antonio Vivaldi

• Maestro di concerti at the Conservatorio
  delOspedale della Pieta, one of four orphanages
  for girls in Venice
  
• His orchestra made up entirely of girls form the
  school was known throught Europe for their
  precision and virtuosity
  
• Died poor in Vienna

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Vivaldis Music

• Rapid scale passages
• Extended arpeggios
• Repeated notes
• Contrasting registers

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Vivaldis Music

• The Four Seasons
• Group of 4 violin concertos
• Each concerto accompanied by a poem, presumably
  by Vivaldi, describing a particular season
  
• Each line of the poem is graphically described
  within the music
  
• Such a close association to literary depiction
  make this music programmatic

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Vivaldis Music

• La Primavera (The Spring)
• The least graphic, most atmospheric of the four
  concertos
  
• 5 part string division with continuo
• Poem and music evoke bird song, the gentle murmur
  of streams, and a storm
  
• The orchestra unifies the work with a ritornello
  which alternates with solo passages
  
• See pp. 150 - 151 for Listening Guide 15, (CD
  1/62-67)