Music History I- Baroque

Baroque

-1600-1750

-Means distorted

-Age of Absolutism

Absolutism

Total power of a monarch (e.g. King Louis XIV “I am the state”)

Johannes Kepler

Planetary orbits are elliptical rather than circular

Galileo

saw mountains on the moon, and moons on Jupiter

Copernicus

In 1543 said planets orbit around the sun

Characteristics of Baroque music

Distorted style (Differs from the Renaissance desire to sound beautiful

-Less neat phrasing

-Harmonies don’t always line up

Affect; Predominant emotion of a text or musical work

Dissonance more common

Ancient Greece

Wrote about the power of music

Many Baroque composers wrote about Orpheus

Desire to return to ancient Greek customs and culture

Bach and Handel were born at the same time, what was the main difference between them?

Handel: Sunshine and Rainbows

Bach: Doom and Despair

Florentine Camerata

Like a book club but bigger

-Group of wealthy musicians, poets, and intellectuals

-influence lasted a long time

Stile rappresentativo

Representative style

-Music should represent speech

-How to focus more on text without deferring to the past

Monody

Solo voice supported by basso continuo

Homophonic

Principal melodic line with supportive accompaniment

Seconda Prattica

Second practice

-Speech focused with rhythm and tone coming after

Prima prattica

First practice/ ars perfecta

Jacopo Peri and Guillio Caccini

Seconda Prattica

Sfogava con le stelle

Seconda Prattica

-Probably written by Peri or Caccini

-Single voice part with Basso continuo

-Homophonic

-Sung as speech

Opera

Combination of music and choreography

-Intricate sets

-Secular

-Dramatic

Peri’s La Dafne

Considered the first opera

What was the earliest surviving opera?

Eurodice by Caccini/ Peri

Subtle madrigalism

Flat keys for sweetness

The Messenger Scene

Opera scene

Text painting

Many castrated men

Madrigal comedies

Polyphonic madrigals loosely connected through plot and characters (existed alongside operas as a more lighthearted form of entertainment

What were the two types of music for Opera

Monody and Recitative

Recitative

Speech singing, syllabic declamation, emphasis of projection of text rather than on melody

Emilio de’ Cavalieri

-Roman aristocrat

-Rappresentatione di Anima e di Corpo

-A member of the Florentine Camerata

-Wanted to take credit for creating opera as a genre

Corpo

Orpheus opera

one of the earliest dramatic works set entirely with music

Sacred, later called oratorio

Featured recitative

Orfeo

Another Orpheus opera

First opera by Monteverdi

Alessandro Striggio- Librettist

-Canzonetta

Potential Bonus

-Trumpet valves were not invented yet

-They drilled holes into the trumpet to play this

-Crooks: different sized pipes to play in a different key

St. Marks

Huge cathedral (Where dynamics were invented (only piano and forte))

Why were many operas only performed once?

People bought operas and owned the sheet music and there was not many copies so they were never performed again.

L’incoronazione di Poppea

Later opera by Monteverdi

-Libretto by Francesco Busenello

-Has comic relief in it

Pur ti Miro

-2 voices with Basso Continuo

-Miro played by castrato

-Dissonances

Basso Continuo

A bass line with a figured bass underneath to provide harmonic structure

Characteristics of Baroque Style

-Coexistence of old and new

-Polyphony still exists (Prima prattica)

-Shift from modal to tonal music (Major and Minor new trend)

-Beginning of roman numeral analysis

-Greater rhythmic freedom bc music was made to mimic speech

-Increased virtuosity (Mastering of music)

-Differentiation of vocal and instrumental music

Program music

Instrumental music connected to a story or idea (e.g. Vivaldi’s four seasons)

What was the national style of Italy?

A hub for opera

What was the national style of Germany?

A hub for instrumental music

Claudio Monteverdi

-Italian

-Wrote madrigals & operas & sacred music

Concertato madrigal

Instrumental parts independent of voice parts (not super popular)

Cruda Amarilli

Written by Monteverdi

-Italian Madrigal

Heinrich Schutz (1585-1672)

-Among the first of a long line of brilliant German composers

-Prima prattica (ars perfecta)

-Wrote the first German opera (Dafne) (It wasn’t very successful)

German Opera

Struggled during the 17th and 18th centuries

-Some Composers wrote it in other languages

-There weren’t many because the language is harsh and clumsy

What language did Mozart write Opera in?

Italian

Saul, was verfolgst du mich

German Opera (Also a motet)

-Very short text

-Sacred

-Text Emphasis (Text Painting)

Opera in Spain

-Music and drama was frowned upon

Music in England

Masque (Kinda like opera but not)

-Poetry, songs, scenery, dance, and instrumental music

-First opera in england: The siege of rhodes

-Lots of different composers

-Pasticcio: hodgepodge

-Massive failure

French Opera

-Was pretty successful

-French music during this time was much different

-The king had to approve of all music

-Opera had a harder time getting started because it had to succeed politically first

Tragedie Lyrique

-To preserve as much of the spoken drama as possible despite music’s presence

-Utilized an Overture: Instrumental intro to an opera

-Allegorical prologue

-Always flattered the King

-Gives context to recent events

Jean-Baptiste Lully

-Born Giovanni Lulli (Italian)

-Charmer

-Wrote comedie-ballet and tragedie lyrique

Structure of Tragedie Lyrique

-Five acts of entirely sung drama

-Divided into different scenes

-Divertissements (interludes) for dancing

*Would interrupt the opera for some fun (eventually becomes symphony)

-Instrumental music prominent

Symphonies

Any music for large instrumental ensemble

Atys

Opera by Lully

-The fourth tragedie lyrique that Lully and his librettist, Phillipe Quinault wrote

Attis is the God of vegetation and Cybele, the earth goddess is in love with them

-2 Endings

-She causes him to castrate himself in a frenzy

-She causes him to kill another goddess and stab himself in a frenzy

Armide- Overture

Slightly swung for a more regal sound

Jean-Philippe Rameau

-Composer and keyboardist

-Did not write stage works until about age 50

Castor et Pollux

Opera by Rameau

-Rameau insisted that he had taken the operas of Lully as his model

-Critics called it intricate and “unnatural” particularly in its rich harmonies

Oratorio

Genre of Vocal Music

-Term means Italian prayer hall

-Similar to opera in musical elements (recitatives, arias, choruses, etc.)

Performed without staging or costumes

Roman Catholic Church Influence Opera

They did not like how much influence opera was having so they banned it during Advent and Lent. The Oratorio was the Catholic Church’s response to opera.

Giacomo Carissimi (1605-74)

Chief composer of oratorios

-Priest who served as organist at Hungarian College in Rome

Jephte

-Oratorio by Carissimi

-Based on the book of Judges

-Israelite commander Jephte vows that if God grants him victory over the Ammonites, he will sacrifice the first person to greet him upon his return

-That happens to be his daughter

What is the difference between opera and oratorio?

Opera is secular, oratorio is sacred

Why did Handel become famous for oratorios?

• London audiences grew dissatisfied with Italian opera

• Farinelli refused to sing for him (Contributed to his operas not being as successful)

• Israel in Egypt, Saul, and Messiah

What was Handel notoriously bad at?

Writing his own melodies, so he often stole them

-He stole a melody from Alessandro Stradella for his oratorio, Isreal in Egypt

Johann Mattheson

Borrowing is permissible, but one must return the object borrowed with interest

Who wrote a non sacred oratorio?

Billie Joel