Baroque Music (1600-1750)
Baroque described as filled space on canvas, in stone or in sound.
Baroque - Timeline
• Shakespeare, Hamlet
1600
• Cervantes, Don Quixote
1605
• Jamestown founded
1607
• Galileo, earth orbits sun
1610
• King James Bible
1611
• Bach & Handel
1685
• Newton, Principia Mathematica
1687
• Witchcraft trials in Salem, Mass.
1692
• Defoe, Robinson Crusoe
1719
• Swift, Gulliver’s Travels
1726
Baroque: Three Periods
early:
opera
homophonic texture
middle:
instrumental music
late:
polyphony
Characteristics of Baroque Music
Rhythm:
patterns are repeated through out
the beat is emphasized
Melody: repeated
• Opening melody heard again and again
• Continuous expanding of melodic sequence
Baroque Dynamics -- Terraced Dynamics:
Volumes are constant with abrupt changes—terraced dynamics
alternation between loud and soft dynamics
organ and harpsichord could not crescendo
Basso Continuo
Common type of accompaniment
• Written Bass part
• Continuo: accompaniment played by keyboard instrument following numbers (figured
bass) which specifies the chords, improvised similar to modern jazz & pop “fake book”
notation
• Chords meshed with the melodic line
The Baroque Orchestra
(10 to 40 players)
basso continuo and violin family strings
brass, woodwinds and percussion used occasionally
tone color was subordinate to the melody, rhythm or harmony
Baroque Forms
movements: a piece that sounds fairly complete and independent but is part of a larger
composition.
Ternary:
ABA
Binary:
AB
ABB AAB AABB
Music in Baroque Society
Music written to order: demand for new music.
Main source of diversion in the courts of the aristocracy.
Music Director’s job - Aristocracy
Pay and prestige were high
compositions were performed
Still a servant of the patron
Church musicians
earned less than the court and lower status
supplemented with weddings and funerals
Town musicians
Opera houses
Music careers taught by apprenticeship
orphanages taught music as a trade
The Elements of Opera
opera: a drama in which some or all of the lines are sung to an orchestral accompaniment
libretto: the text of the opera
librettist: the one who writes the libretto
overture: the orchestral introduction to an opera
Opera Singing Styles
aria: a song for solo voice with orchestral accompaniment
recitative: a vocal line that imitates speech, accompanied by basso continuo
ensembles: compositions for two or more singers
Opera Origins – Florence, Italy
Florentine Camerata
Attempt to recreate the Greek tragedy
singing followed the rhythm and pitch fluctuations of speech
homophonic: soloist and simple chordal accompaniment (basso continuo)
polyphony rejected because it would obscure the text
Early operas:
Written for nobility
based on the Greek myth
Euridice by Jacopo Peri, the earliest opera that has been preserved.
Orfeo by Claudio Monteverdi, the first great opera
1637 first public opera house in Venice (San Cassiano)
Use of castrato
male hero
women's roles only in church-dominated areas
Claudio Monteverdi
Italian, early baroque composer
• Wrote first great operatic work, Orfeo
• Worked last 30 years at St. Mark’s in Venice
• Composed both sacred music and secular music for the aristocracy
• Only 3 of his 12 operas still exist
Listening: "Tu se' morta" from Orfeo by Monteverdi
Composed for the court at Mantua
The Baroque Sonata
a composition in several movements for one to eight instruments (during the early baroque)
Solo sonata
any instrumental soloist with basso continuo
trio sonata
two melodic instruments
basso continuo
Antonio Vivaldi: The Red Priest
Antonio Vivaldi - Life
son of violinist at St. Mark's in Venice
priest - "The Red Priest”
Violin teacher, composer, conductor at girl's orphanage
forgotten after his death
best known for his 450+ concerti and concerti grossi
The Concerto and Concerto Grosso
Concerto: piece for instrumental soloist, string orchestra, and basso continuo
Concerto Grosso: piece for instrumental soloists, string orchestra, and basso continuo
The Concerto Grosso: Performers
Soloists
between two and four
best paid, better players
tutti
String orchestra
basso continuo
harpsichord
cello
The Concerto Ritornello form
Three Movements
1. fast: ritornello form: based on alternation of tutti and solo sections
2. Slow
3. fast & ritornello form
The Four Seasons: Four concerti for violin and orchestra
Summer
Fall
Winter
Spring
Listening: "La Primavera", (Spring) Movement one.
Johann Sebastian Bach
(1685-1750)
b. in Eisenach, Germany
long line of musicians
four sons became musicians
Arnstadt: Church organist
Muhlhausen: Church organist
Weimar: Court organist/conductor
Cöthen: Court organist/conductor
The Fugue: terminology
a polyphonic composition based on one theme called a subject
written for three, four or five voices
labeled SATB whether sung or played
the different voices imitate the subject
Subject: the melody or theme of a fugue
theme: a short melody used to build a larger composition
episode: transitional section
stretto: close imitation.
Sequence: imitation on a different pitch
pedal point: a single held-out tone, usually in the bass
Little Fugue in G Minor, by J. S. Bach
Organ (one player) -- four voices
Subject
Subject
Subject
Subject (in foot pedals)
Pedal Point
Episode/Subject alternate using stretto, imitation, and sequence.
Listening: Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D Major, by J. S. Bach
Written for the Prince at Cöthen, dedicated to the Margrave of Brandenburg
Soloists:
flute
violin
harpsichord: first time harpsichord is used as a solo instrument
ritornello form: RSRSRSRSRSRSRSRSR
Bach in Leipzig - duties
Cantor at St. Thomas Church
music at four municipal churches
rehearsed, conducted, and composed an extended work for each Sunday
Music education of 55 students at St. Thomas School
Oversaw stadtpfeiffers (Musicians’ Guild)
director of Leipzig Collegium Musicum
student organization
weekly concerts at a coffeehouse
Organ performer and technician
greatest organist and composer of organ fugues
known for improvisation: music created at the same time as it is performed
Bach
Deeply religious (Lutheran)
20 children by two wives
Blind from cataracs
Wrote in all genres except opera
Today is Buried in St. Thomas Church
Forgotten at his death
Mendelssohn, 1829, St. Matthew Passion
Bach - Church Cantatas (Leipzig)
most of his vocal music if sacred from Leipzig
No difference between sacred and secular forms
used operatic forms such as aria and recitative in sacred cantatas
Italian Concerto
French Suite
The Chorale and Church Cantata
chorale: hymn tune sung to a religious text
chorale prelude: a short composition played by the organist and based on a hymn tune
cantata: for chorus, vocal soloists, organ and small orchestra
included choruses, recitatives, arias, and duets. (all are also found in opera)
text from the Bible or familiar hymns
used to reinforce the sermon
half-hour
Bach composed about 295 cantatas
Listening: Cantata No. 140: Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme
Mvt. 7, chorale finale
4-part, homophonic texture
instruments double voices
Congregation would stand and join
Cantata No. 140: Mvt. 4, the tenor chorale
uses ostinato: a repeating melody
contrast of string ostinato and slow chorale melody
Listening: Cantata No. 140: Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme
Based on the Hymn, "Awake, A Voice is Calling Us” - Mvt. 1
French Overture: dotted rhythms
Italian Ritornello: alternating with chorus
German Chorale: melody in the soprano
George Frideric Handel
(1685-1759)
• Born in Germany—same year as Bach
not from musical family
father wanted him to be a lawyer
• Studied music in Germany, then studied opera in Italy, and finally worked in England
Handel in London
Favorite of Queen Anne
Favorite of King George I
Royal Academy of Music - Italian Operas
English Oratorios after failure of Italian Opera
Handel - Music
Instrumental
suites
organ concerti
concerti grossi
Vocal Music
39 Italian operas
Oratorios (mostly in English)
The Oratorio
a large-scale composition for chorus, vocal soloists, and orchestra
uses choruses, arias, duets, recitatives, and orchestral interludes
chorus acts as commentary
last approximately 2 hours
From Italian opera to English Oratorio
Failure and solutions
Esther
Haman and Mordecai
no acting or scenery
most are biblical
originally performed in prayer halls called oratorios
generally Old Testament
for the paying public, not church
have plots, but no scenery or acting
chorus is the focus
Listening: Messiah
lasts 2 1/2 hours
composed in 24 days
Premiered in Dublin, Ireland in 1742 as a benefit for people in debtor's prison
later tradition as London orphanage benefit concert
Only one to use New Testament verses
Messiah - Three Acts
Christmas
Easter: Hallelujah Chorus
Pentecost
over 50 selections
Handel - Perennially popular