Prelude 3: The Baroque Spirit
The Baroque Era (1600–1750)
•
Turbulent change in
politics, science, arts
•
Religious wars
•
Exploration of the New
World
•
Rise of middle-class
culture
•
Music making centered in
the home, church, and
universities
Judith Leyster, The Flute Player
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
Prelude 3: The Baroque Spirit
Main Currents in Baroque Music
Monody:
New style featuring solo song with instrumental
accompaniment.
Florentine Camerata
•
Vincenzo Galilei
•
Giulio Caccini
•
Jacopo Peri
Young Woman at a Virgina, Jan Vermeer
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
Prelude 3: The Baroque Spirit
New Harmonic Structures
•
Figured bass
•
Chords created through
improvisation
•
Basso continuo
•
Major-minor tonality
Bach, C.P.E., Trio Sonata in G
View of Toledo, El Greco
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
Prelude 3: The Baroque Spirit
New Harmonic Structures
•
Equal temperament
•
J. S. Bach’s The WellTempered Clavier
Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I,
Prelude and Fugue No. 1
Photo of the grand staircase of the Residenz
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
Prelude 3: The Baroque Spirit
Baroque Musical Style
•  Early Baroque rhythm is freer
•  Late Baroque rhythm is regular and
vigorous
•  Emotions expressed with subtle dynamic
changes and use of dissonant chords
•  Dramatic forte/piano contrasts were also
typical
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
Prelude 3: The Baroque Spirit
The Doctrine of the Affections
•
Union of text and music
•
One mood, or affection, per
movement or piece
Handel: Sampson, “Let the Bright Seraphim”
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
Prelude 3: The Baroque Spirit
The Rise of the Virtuoso Musician
•
Technical improvements in instrument making
•
Composers challenging the performers
– Domenico Scarlatti
– Antonio Vivaldi
Scarlatti: Sonata in E, “Capriccio”
Vivaldi: Concerto for Piccolo
Antonio Vivaldi
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
Prelude 3: The Baroque Spirit
The Rise of the Virtuoso Musician
•  Instrumental
•  Vocal
•  Castrato
•  Countertenor or falsettist
Caricature of Farinelli, Pier Leone Ghezzi
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
Prelude 3: The Baroque Spirit
The Rise of the Professional Female Singer
Increasingly professional women were
singers
and instrumentalists
•
•
•
•
•
Francesca Caccini
Barbara Strozzi
Faustina Bordoni
Francesca Cuzzoni
Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre
Concerto delle donne (Ensemble of the Ladies)
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
Prelude 3: The Baroque Spirit
Internationalism
•  Free interchange among national cultures
•  All-European style
– George Frideric Handel
G. F. Handel
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
Prelude 3: The Baroque Spirit
Exoticism
•  Looking to the Near East, the Americas, and
elsewhere for ideas
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
16. Baroque Opera and Its Components
The Components of Opera
Meredith Hall as Poppea in the opera
The Coronation of Poppea
Large-scale musical drama
combining
•  Poetry
•  Acting
•  Scenery
•  Costumes
•  Singing
•  Instrumental music
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
16. Baroque Opera and Its Components
The Components of Opera
Recitative
•  Secco
•  Accompagnato
Mozart: Don Giovanni, “Chi è la?”
Mozart: Don Giovanni, “Ah! Del padre…”
Aria
•  Da capo aria
Handel: Messiah, “O thou that tellest”
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
16. Baroque Opera and Its Components
The Components of Opera
•  Ensemble numbers: Duet,
trio, quartet, etc.
•  Chorus
•  Overture/sinfonias
•  Libretto, librettist
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
16. Baroque Opera and Its Components
Early Opera in Italy
•
Lavish spectacles
•
Claudio Monteverdi
•
Orfeo, Arianna
•
Coronation of Poppea
•
arioso
Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643)
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
16. Baroque Opera and Its Components
The Spread of Opera
•  Italian opera rejected in France
•  Developing a national style
•  Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632–1687)
•  Genre won favor with King Louis
XIV
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
16. Baroque Opera and Its Components
Opera in England
•  Masque
•  Stage plays forbidden
during the
Commonwealth
•  Play set to music and
Henry Purcell (1659–1695)
called “concert”
was allowed
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
16. Baroque Opera and Its Components
Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas
Henry Purcell
(1659–1695)
•  English singer, organist,
and composer
•  Adopted elements from
Italian and French opera
•  Sacred and secular music
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
16. Baroque Opera and Its Components
Act III: Dido’s Lament (Listening Guide)
•  Girls’ boarding
school
•  Virgil’s Aeneid
•  Librettist: Nahum
Tate
•  Plot: Aeneas leaves
The Death of Dido, Giovanni Barbieri
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
Dido, who loves him
Purcell: Dido and Aeneas, Act III
Dido’s Lament and Chorus
(Listening Guide)
•
Recitative: “Thy hand, Belinda”
•
Aria: “When I am laid in earth”
•
•
Five-measure chromatically descending ground bass
(ostinato)
Chorus: "With drooping wings"
•
•
Polyphonic texture
Word painting especially on words "drooping wings"
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
Purcell: Dido and Aeneas, Act III
Dido’s Lament (Listening Guide)
Recitative: “Thy hand, Belinda”
Chromaticism
“Sigh motive”
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
Purcell: Dido and Aeneas, Act III
Dido’s Lament (Listening Guide)
Aria: “When I am laid in earth”
Ground bass or ostinato
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
17. The Baroque Cantata and Oratorio
•  Cantata (Italian “to
sing”)
•  Vocal genre for solo
singers and instrumental
accompaniment
•  Based on lyric, dramatic,
or narrative poetry
St. Thomas’s Church, Leipzig
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
17. The Baroque Cantata and Oratorio
Bach and the Church Cantata
•  Sacred cantatas
for the Lutheran
church
•  Sacred cantatas
•  Secular cantatas
•  Multimovement
works
J.S. Bach, composer
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
17. The Baroque Cantata and Oratorio
Bach and the Church Cantata
Billings: “Chester”
•
Chorale
•
Martin Luther
•
Early hymns: in unison
•
Later hymns: four-part
harmony, soprano
melody
•
Unifying thread of the
Protestant cantatas
Five Wise and Five Foolish Virgins, Godfried Schaicken
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
17. The Baroque Cantata and Oratorio
Bach and the Church Cantata
•
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
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
17. The Baroque Cantata and Oratorio
Bach and the Church Cantata
Duties at Leipzig
•
Church
•
University collegium
musicum
An evening outdoor concert in 1744
by the collegium musicum of Jena, Germany
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
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
Brandenburg Concertos
Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 6, III
Orchestral suites
Bach: Orchestral Suite No. 2, “Badinerie”
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
17. The Baroque Cantata and Oratorio
Bach and the Church Cantata
•
200-plus church cantatas
•
Passions
•
One Catholic Mass
Dictionary, J.G. Walther
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
17. The Baroque Cantata and Oratorio
Bach and the Church Cantata
•
Musical Offering
•
The Art of Fugue
Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 4, III (fugue)
Bach: Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue (fugue)
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
17. The Baroque Cantata and Oratorio
Bach and the Church Cantata
•  Typically have five to eight movements
•  Many movements based on chorale tune
•  Several choral numbers, recitatives, arias
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
17. The Baroque Cantata and Oratorio
Handel and the Oratorio
George Frideric Handel
(1685–1759)
•
International career
•
German-born
•
Studied and composed in
Italy
•
London and the Royal
Academy of Music
•
Italian opera seria,
oratorios
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
17. The Baroque Cantata and Oratorio
Handel and the Oratorio
•
Oratorio
•
•
Performed by solo
voices, chorus,
orchestra
No staging or costumes
Performance of Handel’s Messiah in 1784
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
17. The Baroque Cantata and Oratorio
Handel and the Oratorio
•
Diatonicism
•
Tone color
•
40-plus operas
•
Expanded role of
chorus
George Frideric Handel (1685–1759)
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
17. The Baroque Cantata and Oratorio
Handel and the Oratorio
•
Prolific composer of
instrumental music
•
Orchestral suites
•
•
Water Music
Music for the Royal
Fireworks
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
Handel: Messiah, Nos. 18, 44
(Listening Guide)
•  Premiered in Dublin in 1742
•  Written in 24 days
•  Libretto: compilation of Old and New Testament
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
18. Baroque Instruments and the Suite
The Rise of Instrumental Music
•  The Rise of Instrumental Music
•  Early- vs. late-Baroque instrumentation
Pietro Domenico Oliviero, Detail of orchestra for 1740 concert
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
18. Baroque Instruments and the Suite
The Rise of Instrumental Music
•  Instrument designs
were improved
•  Finest violins in
history came from
shops of:
– Stradivarius
– Guarneri
A Concert, Leonello Spada
– Amati
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
18. Baroque Instruments and the Suite
The Rise of Instrumental Music
•  Violin strings made of gut
•  Woodwinds made of wood
•  Horns and trumpets: valveless, called “natural”
•  Timpani
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
18. Baroque Instruments and the Suite
The Baroque Suite
Suite: Collection of dance-related
movements
•
Allemande
•
Courante
•
Sarabande
•
Gigue (jig)
•
Other optional dances:
minuet, gavotte, bourrée,
passepied
•
Repeated sections
ornamented second time
Corelli: Violin Sonata, Gigue
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
18. Baroque Instruments and the Suite
Handel and the Orchestral Suite
Two notable suites by Handel
•
Water Music
•
Music for the Royal Fireworks
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
18. Baroque Instruments and the Suite
Music at the French Royal Court
•
Grand entertainments of Louis
XIV and Louis XV
•  Court composer: JeanBaptiste Lully
Composer at the Palace of
Versailles (outside Paris)
•  Director of the 24 Violons du
Roy
•
A French court dancer
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
18. Baroque Instruments and the Suite
Music at the French Royal Court
Jean-Joseph Mouret (1682–1738)
Chambord, a French castle in the Loire valley
•
Theatrical composer at the
court in Paris
•  Stage works
•  Divertissements
•
Instrumental suites
•  Suite de symphonies
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
Mouret: Rondeau, from
Suite de symphonies (Listening Guide)
•  Written for a full Baroque orchestra
•  Familiar fanfare
•
used as theme music for television show
•  Five-part rondo structure (A-B-A-C-A)
•
A section serves as a refrain
•  Regular phrasing, with a strong, even beat
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
19. The Baroque Concerto
•  Contrast and unity
•  Latin concertare (“to contend with”)
•  Opposition of different forces
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
19. The Baroque Concerto
Two Types of Concerti
•  Solo concerto
•  Concerto grosso
– Concertino
– Ripieno, or tutti
Vivaldi: Concerto for piccolo in C, I
Handel: Concerto grosso in G, II
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
19. The Baroque Concerto
Antonio Vivaldi and the Solo Concerto
Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741)
•  Italian violinist and
composer
•  “The red priest”
•  Conservatorio del’Ospedale
della Pietà (Venice)
•  Prolific composer
“Above all, he was
possessed by music.”
—Marc Pincherle
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
Vivaldi: The Four Seasons
(Le quattro stagioni) (Listening Guide)
•  Group of four violin concertos
•  Each concerto accompanied by a poem
•  Music depicts specific lines of the poem
•
•
•
•
No. 1: Spring
No. 2: Summer
No. 3: Autumn
No. 4: Winter
(La primavera)
(L’estate)
(L’autunno)
(L’inverno)
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
Vivaldi: The Four Seasons
(Le quattro stagioni) (Listening Guide)
Spring (La primavera)
Solo violin, string orchestra, continuo
Three movements:
I: Evokes animals and nature
Ritornello form
II: Largo in triple meter
Imagery forms a sleeping goatherd’s poem
Ostinato “dog bark” in violas
III: Rustic dance, drone of bagpipes
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
20. Other Baroque Instrumental Music
Baroque Keyboard Instruments
harpsichord
•
Organ
•
Harpsichord
•
Clavichord
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
20. Other Baroque Instrumental Music
Keyboard Forms
Two basic types
•
•
Based on harmony with
strong element
of improvisation
– Prelude
Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier
– Chorale prelude
Bach: Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring
Stricter forms based on
counterpoint
– Fugue
Bach: Fugue in D
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
20. Other Baroque Instrumental Music
Keyboard Forms
Purcell: Come, ye sons of art away
•  Passacaglia
•  Chaconne
•  Toccata
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
20. Other Baroque Instrumental Music
The Fugue and Its Devices
•  Fuga
•  Contrapuntal, based on imitation
•  Subject unifies the work
•  Choral or instrumental
•  Melodic lines are referred to as voices
Fugue,
Josef Alber, (1925)
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
20. Other Baroque Instrumental Music
The Fugue and Its Devices
Episodes: interludes between statements of the
subject that serve as areas of relaxation.
•  Modulation to foreign keys
•  Use of contrapuntal devices
•  Use of stretto is common
•  Piece ends in tonic key
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
20. Other Baroque Instrumental Music
The Fugue and Its Devices
Original:
Inversion:
Retrograde:
Retrograde inversion:
Augmentation:
Diminution:
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
20. Other Baroque Instrumental Music
Form: Opening of Exposition
Fugue Exposition (4 voice)
Subject Countersubject I Countersubject 2 Contrapuntal line
Answer
Countersubject I Countersubject 2
Subject
Countersubject 1
Answer
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
20. Other Baroque Instrumental Music
Form: Exposition and Episode
Exposition Episode Subject Episode Subject Episode Subject
Entry
Entry
Entry
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
Bach's Contrapunctus 1, from The Art of Fugue
(Listening Guide)
•
four-voice fugue
•
Exposition:
•
•
Subject is presented in order: alto-soprano-bass-tenor
Episode
Music 013-L Music Appreciation