1600-1750
Baroque

Scientific Discovery
 Galileo
 Newton

Giant Composers
 J. S. Bach
 Handel
Baroque: Three Periods

early:
 opera
 homophonic texture

middle:
 instrumental music

late:
 polyphony
Characteristics of Baroque Music
Unity of Mood: a piece usually expresses
one mood
 Rhythm:

 patterns are repeated through out
 the beat is emphasized

Melody: repeated
Baroque Dynamics

Terraced Dynamics:
 alternation between loud and soft dynamics
 organ and harpsichord could not crescendo
Basso Continuo
Common type of accompaniment
 Bass line with improvised chords

 cello or bassoon on bass
 harpsichord or organ on harmony
Basso continuo
The Baroque Orchestra
small (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

The Baroque Orchestra
Baroque Forms

movements: a piece that sounds fairly
complete and independent but is part of a
larger composition.
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

 Pay and prestige were high
 compositions were performed
 Still a servant of the patron
Music in Baroque Society

Church musicians
 earned less than the court and lower status
 supplemented with weddings and funerals
Town musicians
 Opera houses

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 or prelude: 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
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:
based on the Greek myth
 Euridice by Jacopo Peri, the earliest opera
that has been preserved.
 Orfeo by Claudo Monteverdi, the first great
opera

Early operas:
Written for nobility:
 1637 first public opera house in Venice (San
Cassiano)
 Use of castrato

 male hero
 women's roles only in church-dominated areas
Claudio Monteverdi
b. Cremona, Italy
 Court of Mantua, singer, violinist, director
 Composer at St. Mark's Cathedral in Venice

The Baroque Sonata
a composition in several movements for one
to eight instruments (during the early
baroque)
 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.





Spring has arrived, and full of joy
The birds greet it with their happy song.
The streams, swept by gentle breezes,
Flow along with a sweet murmur.
Covering the sky with a black cloak,
Thunder and lightning come to announce the
season.
When all is quiet again, the little birds
Return to their lovely song.
Spring Concerto

Three movements
 fast, in ritornello form
 slow
 fast
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (16851750)

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

The Fugue: terminology
the answer is the subject in the dominant
 countersubject:
a different melodic idea
which always appears with the subject
 episode: transitional section
 stretto: close imitation.
 pedal point: a single held-out tone, usually
in the bass

Bach in Leipzig - duties

Cantor at St. Thomas Church
 music at four municipal churches
 rehearsed, conducted, and composed and
extended work for each Sunday
Music education of 55 students at St.
Thomas School
 Oversaw stadtpfeiffers (Musicians’ Guild)

Bach in Leipzig - duties

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
 Today is Buried in St. Thomas Church
 Forgotten at his death

 Mendelssohn, 1829, St. Matthew Passion
Bach - Church Cantatas
most of his vocal music if sacred
 No difference between sacred and secular
forms
 used operatic forms such as aria and
recitative in sacred cantatas

 Italian Concerto
 French Suite

All genres except opera
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
Cantata






written for chorus, vocal soloists, organ and
small orchestra.
text from the Bible or familiar hymns
used to reinforce the sermon
half-hour
included choruses, recitatives, arias, and duets.
(all are also found in opera)
Bach composed about 295 cantatas
Cantata No. 140: Mvt. 4, the
tenor chorale
uses ritornello form
 contrast of string ritornello and slow chorale
melody

Bach - St. Thomas Church
George Friderick Handel
George Frideric Handel
b. Halle, Germany (one month before Bach)
 Hamburg: opera
 Italy
 Elector Georg Ludwig of Hanover

Handel in London
favorite of Queen Anne
 Royal Academy of Music - Italian Operas
 English Oratorios after failure of Italian
Opera
 Blind - from cataracs
 Buried in Westminster Abbey

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
The Oratorio
set to a narrative text
 no acting or scenery
 most are biblical
 originally performed in prayer halls called
oratorios

Handel - Oratorios
generally Old Testament
 for the paying public, not church
 have plots, but no scenery or acting
 chorus is the focus

Messiah - Three Acts

Christmas
 "Ev'ry Valley Shall Be Exalted"
○ aria for tenor
○ use of word painting
 “For unto Us a Child Is Born”
○ Rondo form
○ borrowed from an Italian duet "No, I will not trust you, blind love,
cruel Beauty! You are too treacherous, too charming a deity!”
○ little difference between sacred and secular styles
○ no copyright laws
Easter

Hallelujah Chorus
 Homophony
 Monophony
 Polyphony
 Chorale
 Fugue
 Pedal
Pentecost
“I know my Redeemer liveth”
 over 50 selections

Handel - Perennially popular
Westminster