Announcement
• Corrected URL
• www.colorado.edu/music/Courses/em
us1832004
Exam on February 25
• Will cover Medieval, Renaissance,
and Baroque period
• Will also cover some basic musical
terminology
• Listening examples (refer to GUIDES
not CD tracks): 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 12, 15,
16, 17, 18, 20, and 21
• Bring a #2 pencil
Oratorio
• Definition: a work for chorus, vocal
soloists, and orchestra on a sacred
subject (usually Old Testament
stories)
• Many of Handel’s were in English
• Most famous: Messiah
• Written for a charity concert in Dublin,
Ireland
Handel’s Messiah
• written in 1742
• Not a typical oratorio because it
doesn’t tell a single story
• in three parts, each articulating a part
of Christian doctrine.
• Christmas- prophesy
• Easter- suffering and death,
Resurrection
• Redemption
Messiah: first excerpt
• (skip the overture-start your listening
at track 21)
• Chorus “glory to God”
• Preceded by recitative (first with basso
continuo, then with orchestra)
• Examples of text painting in chorus?
Messiah: second excerpt
• “Rejoice greatly”
• Aria for soprano
• Form ABA (with orchestra
introduction)
• Virtuoso singing
• Listen for which words are
emphasized
• (Emphasis on certain words is a way of
interpreting the text)
Messiah: third excerpt
• Famous “Hallelujah!”
• Listen for the differences between
homophonic texture and fugue
• Fugue is an older style used for
serious subjects, a musical symbol of
tradition (eg. ”he shall reign forever
and ever”)
Antonio Vivaldi
• Spent much of his life in Venice, Italy
• Taught at a high-class orphanage for
girls
• Girls were highly trained musically
• Wrote hundreds of CONCERTOS for
them
Concerto
• Definition: work for soloist (or a
group of soloists) and orchestra
• Most of Vivaldi’s were written for his
students to play
• Most of Vivaldi’s were for stringed
instruments, but he also wrote
concertos for unusual instruments
like piccolo and mandolin
Concerto
• Famous example: The Four Seasons
• Group of concertos for violin
• Intended to depict winter, spring,
summer, and fall
Vivaldi, ‘Spring”
• From The Four Seasons
• Form: alternating orchestra part
(called RITORNELLO) with soloist
part (called EPISODE)
• Solo episodes depict scenes from
spring: birds, brook, thunder
Keyboard Music
• Elizabeth C. Jacquet de la Guerre
• (1668-1733)
• Prodigy on the Harpsichord (a Baroque
The ELEMENTS of MUSIC
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p.5
MELODY
RHYTHM
HARMONY
TEXTURE
DYNAMICS/TEMPO
FORM
TIMBRE
INSTRUMENTS
Families of the Orchestra
• STRING
• WOODWIND
• BRASS
• PERCUSSION
p.9
Medieval (c.500-1450)
• Chant (Haec Dies)
• Organum (Haec Dies)
• Motet (O mittisima/Virgo/Haec dies)
RENAISSANCE: Sacred
• Motet: Ave Maria … Virgo serena
by Josquin Deprez
• Mass: Pope Marcellus Mass (Gloria)
by Giovanni Palestrina
RENAISSANCE: Secular
• ITALIAN MADRIGAL
• A un giro
• by Claudio Monteverdi
• ENGLISH MADRIGAL
• Fair Phyllis
by John Farmer
Baroque Instrumental Genres
• Prelude & Fugue: Bach
• C minor, from “Well Tempered Clavier” bk.1
• Suite: Jacquet de la Guerre
• 2nd Gigue, Suite 1 “Pièces de Clavecin”
• Concerto: Vivaldi
• “Spring” from “The Four Seasons”
Baroque Vocal Genres
• Opera: Purcell, “Dido and Aeneas”
• Oratorio (“Handelian”):
Handel,“Messiah”
• Cantata (Lutheran): Bach, “A Mighty
Fortress is our God”