The Baroque Era

1
The Baroque Era

• Mid 1600s to Mid 1700s

2
Your Goal is to be able to answer this at the end
of the unit. Describe the events that occurred in
Europe from the middle 1600s to the middle
1700s that led historians to separate this time
period from the Renaissance and label it the The
Baroque. Be sure to define the word baroque and
list examples from the time period that are good
illustrations of the Baroque style.
3
Baroque

• Very Ornate
• Highly Embellished
• Over Decorated

4
Composers decorated music with fancy notes called
ornaments
5

• Three main types of
• ornaments are
• Trills
• Turns
• and Runs

6
Composers began to write more music for
instruments alone (without singers) as
developments were made to the instruments
themselves.
7
Composers have 3 main employers

• The Church
• Royalty
• The Aristocracy
• (Rich People)

8
Three major composers of the Baroque
areAntonio VivaldiGeorge Friderick
HandelJohann Sebastian Bach
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Antonio Vivaldi

• 1678 - 1741

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Italian composer who worked for the Catholic
Church. Vivaldi is one of the most prolific
composers in history.

• What is Prolific?

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Prolific

• Creating many products of the mind.

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During his lifetime Vivaldi composed

• 50 operas
• over 40 songs for choir and orchestra
• 100 works for orchestra alone
• Almost 500 concertos

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What is a Concerto?
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Concerto

• A musical composition for one or more solo
  instruments with piano or orchestral
  accompaniment.

15
Vivaldi helped standardize the three movement
form for the Concerto

• Fast - Slow - Fast

16
Vivaldis most famous composition was a
collection of four violin concertos called

• The Four Seasons

17
The word-painting of the Renaissance became so
refined during the Baroque that composers just
left out the words and used the music alone to
tell the story.
18
Word-Painting without words became a basic
fundamental writing tool for instrumental
compositions
19
Listen to how Vivaldi paints a picture of the
seasons of the year with these examples from the
four seasons.

• Can you guess which season goes with these two
  excerpts?

20
George Friderick Handel

• (1685 - 1759)

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Handels Career Path

• German Born
• Trained in Italy
• Became famous in England
• Composed his most famous work in Ireland

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Handels most famous work was an oratorio
titledThe Messiah

• What is an oratorio?

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Oratorio

• A piece of music for full orchestra, choir and
  solo singers with a religious theme. It is like
  an opera but without staging and costumes.

24
Here is a clip from The Messiah

• Ill bet you have heard it before.

25
Johann Sebastian Bach

• 1685-1750

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Bach was known more as an organist than a
composer during his lifetime.
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Bach wrote music in his spare time that he wanted
to exist rather than simply what his employers
wanted to hear. He wrote music for musics sake.
28
Bach was the Master of the Fugue. What is a
fugue you ask?
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Fugue is like a cannon or a round but has similar
rather than identical melodies entering at
different times.