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Unit VII
Vocal Music of the Baroque
“Opera is the delight of Princes.”
—Marco Da Gagliano
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21. Baroque Opera
The New Genre of the Baroque Era
Large-scale musical drama combining
• Poetry
• Acting
• Scenery
• Costumes
• Singing
• Instrumental music
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The Components of Opera
Recitative
• Secco:
• Accompagnato:
Aria
Mozart: Don Giovanni, “Chi è la?”
Mozart: Don Giovanni, “Ah! Del padre…”
Handel: Messiah, “O thou that tellest”
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The Components of Opera
• Recitative
– Secco
– Accompagnato
• Aria
– Da capo aria
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Ensemble numbers: Duet, Trio, Quartet, etc.
Chorus
Overture/sinfonias
Libretto, Librettist
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Early Opera in Italy
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Lavish spectacles
Claudio Monteverdi
Orfeo, Arianna
Coronation of Poppea
arioso
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Opera in France
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Italian opera rejected
Developing a national style
Tragédie lyrique
Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632–1687)
Genre won favor with King Louis XIV
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Opera in England
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Masque
James I and Charles I
Stage plays forbidden during the Commonwealth
Play set to music and called “concert”
was allowed
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Opera in England
John Blow
and
Henry Purcell
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Henry Purcell
(1659–1695)
• English singer, organist,
and composer
• Adopted elements from
Italian and French opera
• Sacred and secular
music
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Purcell: Dido and Aeneas,
Act III: Dido’s Lament (Listening Guide)
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Girls’ boarding school
Virgil’s Aeneid
Librettist: Nahum Tate
Plot: Aeneas leaves Dido, who loves him
Listening Guide PDF
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Purcell: Dido and Aeneas, Act III:
Dido’s Lament and Chorus
(Listening Guide)
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Recitative: “Thy hand, Belinda”
Aria: “When I am laid in earth”
– Five-measure chromatically descending
ground bass (ostinato)
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Chorus: "With drooping wings"
– Polyphonic texture
– Word painting especially on words
"drooping wings"
Listening Guide PDF
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Purcell: Dido and Aeneas,
Act III: Dido’s Lament (Listening Guide)
Recitative: “Thy hand, Belinda”
Chromaticism
“Sigh motive”
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Purcell: Dido and Aeneas,
Act III: Dido’s Lament (Listening Guide)
Aria: “When I am laid in earth”
Ground Bass or Ostinato
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George Frideric Handel
(1685–1759)
• German-born composer
of Italian, French, and
German styles catering to
English audiences
• Vocal music:
Opera seria
(Julius Caesar)
Oratorio
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22. Barbara Strozzi
and the Italian Secular Cantata
• Cantata (Italian “to sing”)
• Vocal genre for solo singers
and instrumental accompaniment
• Based on lyric, dramatic, or narrative poetry
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Barbara Strozzi (1619–1677)
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Italian singer and composer
Educated in Venice
Worked in a male-dominated field
Prolific composer of madrigals, arias, cantatas,
and sacred motets
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Strozzi: Begli occhi (Beautiful Eyes)
(Listening Guide)
• Short secular cantata
• Two sopranos and continuo
• Shifts between unmeasured
and measured rhythm
• Abrupt tempo and mood changes
• Text speaks of unrequited love
• Dissonances emphasize bitterness
Listening Guide PDF
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23. Bach and the Sacred Cantata
• Sacred cantatas
• Secular cantatas
• Sacred cantatas for
the Lutheran church
• Multimovement
works
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The Lutheran Chorale
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Chorale
Battle hymns of the Reformation
Martin Luther
Early hymns: in unison
Later hymns: 4-part harmony, soprano melody
Unifying thread of the Protestant cantatas
Billings: “Chester”
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Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750),
German Composer, Organist, Educator
• Culminating figure of the
Baroque style
• Career in Northern Germany
• Musical family
• Organist and composer
• Devout Lutheran
• Secular and church patrons
during career
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Duties at Leipzig
• Church
• University collegium musicum
• More
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Keyboard Music
The Well-Tempered Clavier
Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier I, Prelude No. 1
Instrumental Music
Sonatas and concertos
Bach: Flute Sonata No. 2, “Siciliano”
Bach: Concerto for Violin and Oboe, II
The Brandenburg Concertos
Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 6, III
Orchestral suites
Bach: Orchestral Suite No. 2, “Badinerie”
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Sacred Vocal Music
• 200-plus + church cantatas
• Passions
• One Catholic Mass
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Contrapuntal Master
• Musical Offering
• The Art of Fugue
Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 4, III (fugue)
Bach: Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue (fugue)
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Bach’s Cantatas
• Typically have 5–8 movements
• Many movements based on chorale tune
• Several choral numbers, recitatives, arias
Listening Guide PDF
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Bach: Cantata No. 80, A Mighty Fortress
Is Our God, Nos. 1, 8 (Listening Guide)
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Bach: Cantata No. 80, A Mighty Fortress
Is Our God, No. 1 (Listening Guide)
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Bach: Cantata No. 80, A Mighty Fortress
Is Our God, No. 8 (Listening Guide)
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24. Handel and the Oratorio
• Oratorio
– Performed by solo voices, chorus,
orchestra
– No staging or costumes
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24. George Frideric Handel
(1685–1759)
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International career
German-born
Studied and composed in Italy
London and the Royal
Academy of Music
• Italian opera seria, oratorios
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Handel’s Music
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Diatonicism
Tone color
40-plus operas
Expanded role of chorus
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Handel’s Music
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Prolific composer of
instrumental music
Orchestral suites
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Water Music
Music for the
Royal Fireworks
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Handel: Messiah, Nos. 18, 44
(Listening Guide)
• Premiered in Dublin in 1742
• Written in 24 days
• Libretto: compilation of Old and New Testament
Listening Guide PDF
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Handel: Messiah, Nos. 18, 44
(Listening Guide)
Three-part form:
• I: Christmas
French overture
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Handel: Messiah, No. 18
(Listening Guide)
Soprano aria “Rejoice greatly” (da capo aria)
Melisma
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Handel: Messiah, No. 44
(Listening Guide)
Hallelujah Chorus: contrasting textures
•“Hallelujah! Hallelujah!”
homophonic
•“For the Lord God reigneth”
monophonic
•“The Kingdom for this world is become” homophonic
•“And He shall reign for ever and ever”
polyphonic
•“King of Kings and Lord of Lords”
homophonic
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Handel: Messiah, Nos. 18, 44
(Listening Guide) Listening Guide PDF
III: Redemption of the world through faith
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