Baroque Instrumental Music




Became as important as vocal music
New instruments - improved old inst.
Great virtuosos
Early - not yet focus on individual color


Performed on whatever instruments available
Late - timbre became important

Wrote more idiomatically
Baroque instruments




Strings (with gut strings)
Woodwinds - recorder, flute, oboe, bassoon
Brass - trumpets, horns - natural instruments
Keyboard - organ, harpsichord, clavichord
Baroque
Concerto


Opposition between two dissimilar bodies of
sound
Solo Concerto



Virtuoso playing, experiments in sonority
Allegro-Adagio-Allegro
Concerto Grosso


Opposition between small group - concertino - and
large group - tutti or ripieno
Bach’s 6 Brandenburg Concerti
Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)

Biography, works and Influences




Report by ---- none this year
Like Bach - renowned in his day as a performer
Established ritornello
Use of pictorial imagery
Vivaldi - The Four Seasons



Based on poetry - word painting
Programmatic concerto for solo violin
First movement - “Spring”



Birds joyous welcome of spring
Murmur of streams, thunder and lightning
Ritornello or refrain
Baroque Suite

Dances - all in the same key







Allemande - German
Courante - French
Sarabande - Spanish
Jig - English
Minuet, gavotte, bourée, passepied
Binary structure (A-B) ---> A-A-B-B
Corelli, Bach, Couperin, de la Guerre
Jacquet de la Guerre (c. 1666-1729)

Biography, Works and Influences



Report by ----- none this year
Sacred cantatas, chamber music
Pieces for Harpsichord - suite
Baroque Orchestral Suite

Handel - Water Music



Lively rhythms and catchy melodies
Opens with French overture
#2 Alla Hornpipe
English country dance in lively triple meter
 A-B-A form


Terraced dynamics
Baroque Sonata, etc.

Sonata da camera - chamber sonata


Sonata da chiesa - church sonata




Suite of stylized dances
More serious and contrapuntal - s-f-s-f
Trio sonata - 2 violins + continuo (2 players)
Passacaglia - ground bass, stately triple meter
French Overture, Italian Overture
Baroque Keyboard Music

Prelude



Expansion of a melodic or rhythmic figure
Homophonic
Fugue



Subject started alone - in one voice
Imitated in another voice while 1st continues with
countersubject
Opposition between home and contrasting keys
J.S.Bach - Prelude and Fugue in C min.

From Well-Tempered Clavier


Prelude



New system of temperament - 48 preludes & fugues
Unity of mood, single affection
Improvisatory style - perpetual motion
Fugue


In 3 voices
Subject, countersubject, bridge, episodes
Baroque Instrumental Forms



Can you name 4 important instrumental
forms of the Baroque period?
Can you explain/describe each?
Can you give an example of a piece in each
form?