Music of the Baroque Period (1600 - 1750) - Chapter 9

The Baroque period was dynamic, dramatic, spirited, great splendor, grandiose, an age of innovation and adventure. Major advancements were made in science, philosophy, and the arts. The Church and the courts were patrons of the arts. The courts had wealthy monarchs, built magnificent palaces and had court composers and orchestral musicians, chapel choirs, and opera companies. Folk and entertainment music and music for the churches continued, secular classical music was performed for the courts and the upper class.

City governments also became employers of musicians. Musicians were needed for church music, court entertainment, festivals, ceremonies, and public occasions in the cities. Audiences wanted new music always, not the old-fashioned polyphonic music of the Renaissance.

A. Musical Characteristics

New techniques of composition, new forms, development of opera and the orchestra, and the major-minor tonal system were the hallmarks of the Baroque.

Performers developed better techniques, solo keyboard performers and organists improvised ornaments to the melody. Many instruments and musical sounds we know today began in the Baroque period.

1. Homophonic texture: music shifted from polyphony to homophony. In the later Baroque period it was common to create polyphonic textures in a variety of genres.

2. Major-minor tonal system: The basis for composition shifted from the church modes to the major-minor tonal system we know today.

3. Continuo: a type of improvisation. The keyboard player fills in harmonies based on chord symbols and a bass line. It provided a harmonic basis to the new homophonic texture. The continuo involved two players: a cellist to play a bass line, and a keyboard player to fill in or improvise on the chords dictated by the symbols and the bass line. It was called "realizing" the harmonies.

4. Figured bass: a musical shorthand (chord symbols) to help the keyboard player. The chords were not written out, but numbers were placed each chord in the bass line so the keyboard player could improvise the realization.

5. Contrasts: Baroque music is full of contrasts. Voices and instruments, loud and soft, A section and a B section, small group of instruments contrasted with a large group.

6. Rhythm: regular, and energetic, steady pulsation in the bass. There were also pieces with free rhythm in recitative and improvised passages.

7. Melody: a continuous expansion of an idea, without short, regular phrases.

8. Terraced dynamics: contrasting and abrupt volumes, by adding or taking away instruments or voices rather than gradually changing the loudness of the music.

9. Tone painting: began in the Renaissance period. Tone painting conveyed the moods and meanings of the text, expressing a wide range of ideas and feelings. The music tried to describe the words in music like a descending line for the words, "From Heaven above to Earth I come."

10. Instruments: instrumental music became equal to vocal music to composers and listeners. The Baroque orchestra was not as large or as varied as our modern symphony orchestra. The instruments were smaller and quieter, and the main instruments were the violin family plus trumpets, oboes, and flutes. The lute was popular, harpsichord and organ, and the early piano, the pianoforte.

B. Musical Forms and Genres

1.Orchestral works: the concerto and concerto grosso became popular. It was in three movements: fast-slow-fast.

2. Concerto: usually involved one solo instrument with orchestra.

3. Concerto grosso: a small group of soloists (2 - 3), and orchestra.

4. French overture: Originally an opening to an opera. It was in two parts, the first slow, majestic, homophonic; and the second in a faster, polyphonic style.

5. Dance suite: sometimes for orchestra, usually for keyboard. A set of contrasting dances combined to form a single, multi-movement work. Dances such as the allemande, courant, saraband, and gigue.

6. Chamber music: church sonatas and chamber sonatas were written for a small number of instruments and various instrumental combinations. These sonatas contained contrasting sections or movements, often in dance forms.

7. Solo sonata: one solo instrument plus continuo = 3 players

8. Trio sonata: two solo instruments plus continuo = 4 players

9. Keyboard works: toccata, prelude, fantasia and fugue were one movement works. Toccata and prelude were inprovisatory. The fantasia was more complex and used a series of polyphonic variations on one theme. Other types were the chorale prelude and dance suite.

10. Fugue: an imitative form built on one theme. It represents the highest form of Baroque polyphonic music.

B. Choral Music

1. Cantatas and oratorios included vocal solos (arias and recitative), solo ensembles and choruses, and instrumental accompaniment. Both were sacred dramatic works. Oratorios were longer and more complex and were intended for concert halls, often with a narrator. Cantatas were created for worship services.

2. Aria: song-like, melodic and metric.

3. Recitative: the action of the cantata or oratorio was sung speech, in free rhythm, and used the natural inflection of the words, with a simple accompaniment of chords.

C. Opera

1. About 1600 a bunch of scholars sat around and came up with the idea of opera from their interest in the famous Greek tragedies. Opera is setting dramatic texts to music with costumes and staging.

2. Characteristics: word painting, homophonic texture, accompanied monody (expressive, solo singing), choruses, costumes, stage machinery, aria and recitative for carrying the dramatic action and developing the plot.

3. Singers: singers dominated with improvisatory, dazzling vocal effects, displaying virtuosic abilities.

4. Da capo aria: ABA with the final A embellished.

D. Johann Sebastian Bach

1. Nationality: German (1685-1750). Most of his life was spent as choral director and organist at various churches.

2. Master of Baroque forms and genres: organ and harpsichord music, cantatas, instrumental music, a Mass, and passions.

E. George Frideric Handel

1. Nationality: German (1685-1759). Lived in Italy and spent most of his life in London, England. Internationally famous during his lifetime.

2. Famous for his Italian operas and English oratorios, like the Messiah.

3. Wrote instrumental music, concerto grossos, harpsichord and organ music, and orchestral music.

Musical Examples

1. Le Sommeil d'Ulisse (excerpt)
2. Organ fugue in g minor
3. Cantata No. 140 Wachet auf (Sleepers, Awake!) Movements I and VII.

Vocabulary
Figured bass
Concerto
Overture
Dance suite
Sonata
Keyboard genres
Fugue
Chorale
Cantata
Oratorio
Aria
Recitative
Opera
Accompanied monody
Da capo aria

Essay Question

Write a 100-word comparison essay on Le Sommeil d'Ulisse by de la Guerre and Bach's Cantata 140, Wachet auf.
Musical characteristics to consider for your essay are texture, language, number of voices or instruments used, the type and style of accompaniment, sacred or secular, the range of the melody, the range of the dynamics, meter, and the types of voices or instruments used.

Theory

Spencer: Chapter 4, Intervals

Click here to see Vocabulary for Weeks 8 - 9.

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