Music of the Baroque Period

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Music of the Baroque Period

• (1600-1750)

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Baroque Historical Highlights

• Age of Absolutism Kings and Queens are
  all-powerful
• Known for extreme decadence and extravagance of
  aristocracy (e.g. Louis XIV and his palace of
  Versailles)
• Church Splits in Two Europe split into Catholic
  countries (Italy, France, Spain) and Protestant
  countries (England, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden)

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The Palace at Versailles
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The Royal Chapel, Hall of Mirrors Royal Coach
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The Kings Bedroom, Marie Antoinettes Room, The
Opera House
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Baroque Defined

• Baroque means exaggerated or over-ornamented
  these adjectives relate to music and visual arts

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Baroque Artistic Highlights

• Emphasis on DRAMA (extreme and heightened
  emotion) in music and visual arts
• Caravaggios paintings show this emphasis on
  DRAMA

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Baroque Musical Highlights

• Birth of OPERA - theatrical presentations with
  music and elaborate stage spectacle
• New focus on instrumental music and instrumental
  accompaniment to voices
• New emphasis on chords and use of BASSO CONTINUO

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Baroque Music Style Characteristics
Timbre new emphasis on instrumental music instrumental accompaniment to voices
Rhythm beat is emphasized lots of forward motion
Melody elaborate, ornamented, continuously expanding, long and winding
Form one main theme repeated over and over
Dynamics sudden changes from loud to soft and soft to loud called terraced dynamics
Texture more rapid changes in texture (homophony, imitative polyphony) throughout a single movement or piece of music
Harmony new emphasis on chords orchestra mainly consists of strings and basso continuo (bass melody instrument like cello or bassoon chord generating instrument harpsichord, organ, or lute)
Mood the same mood throughout movement this heightened emotional state called affect (vocal music is exception vocal music has many changes of mood, but closely follows text)
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Baroque Music Genres

• Vocal Music Genres
• Opera
• Oratorio
• Cantata

• Instrumental Music Genres
• Chamber Music
• Concerto Grosso

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Opera

• Sung theatrical work
• Staged with costumes and sets
• Example HENRY PURCELL "Dido's Lament" from Dido
  and Aeneas CD1/69-70

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Henry Purcell
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HENRY PURCELL "Dido's Lament" from Dido and Aeneas

• Aria vs. Recitative

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Aria

• Song for solo voice with orchestral accompaniment
• usually expressing an emotional state through its
  outpouring of melody
• found in operas, oratorios, and cantatas

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Recitative

• Vocal line in opera, oratorio, or cantata that
  imitates the rhythms and pitch fluctuations of
  speech, often serving to lead into an aria

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HENRY PURCELL "Dido's Lament" from Dido and Aeneas

• Listen for Basso continuo in Recitative

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Basso Continuo (continuous bass)

• Baroque accompaniment made up of a bass part
  usually played by two instruments
• A keyboard (or other chord-making instrument,
  such as a lute or organ), and
• A low melodic instrument (such as cello or a
  basson)

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HENRY PURCELL "Dido's Lament" from Dido and Aeneas

• Aria built on Ground bass

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Ground Bass (basso ostinato)

• A repeating bass line
• This one has dark-sounding harmony and is
  descending in pitch
• Variation form in which a musical idea in the
  bass is repeated over and over while the melodies
  above it constantly change
• Common in Baroque music

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Didos Lament from Dido and Aeneas

• Dido sings
• Thy hand, Belinda, darkness shades me,
• On thy bosom let me rest
• More I would be death invades me
• Death is now a welcome guest.

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Didos Lament from Dido and Aeneas

• When I am laid, am laid in earth, may my wrongs
  create
• No trouble in thy breast.
• Remember me! But ah! Forget my fate.

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Oratorio

• Like opera, but unstaged
• Uses a religious story
• Example GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDELs Messiah
• "Hallelujah" CD2/11-16
• "Ev'ry Valley Shall Be Exalted" CD2/10

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George Frideric Handel
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G.F. Handels Evry Valley Shall Be Exalted
from The Messiah

• Listen for
• Terraced dynamics
• Emphasis of beat
• Ornamented melody
• Continuous affect
• Word painting

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Terraced Dynamics

• Abrupt alternation between loud and soft dynamic
  levels
• Characteristic of Baroque Music
• Not found in Medieval or Renaissance Music

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Affections /Affect p.95 of text

• The expression of one basic mood in Baroque music
• Specific rhythms or melodic patterns were
  associated with specific moods
• Not characteristic of OPERA, but found in
  oratorio and cantatas

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G.F. Handels Evry Valley Shall Be Exalted
from The Messiah

• Evry valley.
• (text painting highlighted in blue and purple)
• Evry valley shall be exalted, and evry mountain
  and hill made low,
• The crooked straight, and the rough places plain.

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GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDELs "Hallelujah Chorus from
Messiah

• Listen for
• Changes in texture
• Hymn-like Homophony
• Imitative Polyphony
• Pedal Point
• Emphasis of beat

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Cantata

• Like opera, but unstaged, with religious text
• Performed ONLY in churches
• Example J.S. BACH Cantata No. 140 Wachet auf,
  ruft uns die Stimme (Sleepers Awake) Mvt. 4
  Tenor Chorale CD1/71-73 Mvt. 7 Chorale
  CD1/74-75

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Johann Sebastian Bach
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J.S. BACH Cantata No. 140 Wachet auf, ruft uns
die Stimme (Sleepers Awake)

• Mvt. 7 Chorale
• Listen for
• Hymn-like homophony
• Complete and incomplete cadences

• Mvt. 4 Tenor Chorale
• Listen for
• Ornamented melody
• Continuous affect

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Chamber Music

• Uses a small group of musicians, with one player
  to a part
• Meant for smaller, more intimate performance
  venues
• Includes music for solo instruments
• J.S. Bachs Organ Fugue in G Minor The Little

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J.S. BACH Organ Fugue in G Minor (The "Little")

• Fugue form (features imitative polyphony)
• Subject (Main Theme) stated in different
  voices during Exposition
• Exposition followed by alternating Episodes
  (non-imitative) and Subject Entries (imitative)
• Countersubject - countermelody that accompanies
  Subject in Exposition Subject Entries
• Picardy Third

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Concerto Grosso

• Ritornello form - Ritornello (a homphonic or
  polyphonic block of music) alternating with
  Episodes (contrasting melodic, softer dynamics,
  virtuosic scales and arpeggios)
• Tutti vs. Soli groups

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Antonio Vivaldi
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Examples of Baroque Concerto Grosso

• J.S. Bach
• Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D Major
• Movement 1
• Antonio Vivaldi
• Concerto for Violin and String Orchestra, Op. 8,
  No. 1, La Primavera Spring
• from The Four Seasons
• Movement 1