MSC 1801 - Appreciation of Music: The Baroque Period Study Guide

Vocabulary flashcards covering musical terms, genres, techniques, and prominent composers of the Baroque Period.

Baroque

Term applied in retrospect to the time period 1600-1750, demonstrated by excessive extravagance and derived from a Portuguese word that means "misshapen pearl."

Opera

Large scale music drama that combines poetry, acting, scenery, and costumes with singing and instrumental music; features secular stories from antiquity and mythology.

Oratorio

Large scale dramatic genre originating in the Baroque period, based on a text of religious or serious character, performed by solo voices, chorus, and orchestra; similar to opera without scenery, costumes, or action.

Virtuoso

A performer who is remarkably skilled.

Castrato

Male singer who was castrated in boyhood to preserve his soprano or alto vocal register.

Basso Continuo

Bass line provided by bass or harpsichord that provides the harmonic foundation for a melody.

Recitative

Speechlike declamations of the text designed to be sung but to emphasize and imitate the natural inflections of speech.

Chamber Music

Music written for a small group of performers, usually 4-12.

Concerto

A genre that generally featured either a solo instrument or a small group of soloists set against a larger ensemble; typically composed in 3 movements.

Ritornello

Short, recurring instrumental passage found in the Baroque aria and concerto.

Program Music

Instrumental music endowed with literary or pictorial associations, especially popular in the nineteenth century.

Fugue

A contrapuntal composition in which a single theme pervades the entire fabric, entering one voice and then in another.

Fugue Subject

The main idea or theme of a fugue.

Imitative Counterpoint

Melodic idea presented in one voice or part and then restated in another, each part continuing as others enter.

Fugue Episodes

Interludes in a fugue where the subject is not present.

Modulate

To change keys.

Cantata

A multimovement genre for voices and instruments with a lyric or dramatic religious text, designed for use in the Lutheran church service.

Da Capo Aria

Lyric song in ternary (A-B-A) form.

Libretto

The text or script of an opera.

Magnificat

The concluding and climactic part of the evening office of Vespers (prayers) that is in praise of the Virgin Mary.

Overture

An introductory movement performed by the orchestra, as in an opera or oratorio, often presenting melodies from music to come.

Lining Out

A worship practice prevalent in Calvinist congregations of England and America, in which a leader sings each line of a psalm or hymn, and the congregation repeats it, often singing variants of the melody as the spirit moves them.

Toccata

Virtuoso composition, generally for organ or harpsichord, in a free rhapsodic style; in the Baroque era, it often served as the introduction to a fugue.

Chorale

Hymn for the Lutheran service intended to be sung by the congregation that often had simple but memorable melodies and text written as German poetry.

Exposition

Opening section of a fugue, in which all voices successively present the subject.

Natural Instruments

Instruments without valves that could not play in all keys.

Dido and Aeneas

Henry Purcell's 1689 opera based on an episode in Virgil's Aeneid.

Chiara Margarita Cozzolani

Italian Benedictine nun (1602-1676) at St. Radegunda who composed Magnificats, Vespers, and motets, and had her works published and circulated beyond the convent.

Johann Sebastian Bach

German composer and master organist (1685-1750) who was the culminating figure of the Baroque period; composer of Lutheran cantatas, The Well Tempered Clavier, The Art of Fugue, and Brandenburg Concertos.

Henry Purcell

English composer, singer, and organist who assimilated Italian operatic style and French music; composer of the opera Dido and Aeneas.

George Fredrich Handel

German-born composer (1685-1759) buried in Westminster Abbey who built his career composing Italian-style operas and later invented the English oratorio, including Messiah.

William Billings

Self-taught American composer (1746-1800) who taught at Boston singing schools and published The New England Psalm Singer with a front engraved by Paul Revere.

Antonio Vivaldi

Italian virtuoso violinist, ordained priest nicknamed "The Red Priest" (1678-1741), and "Father of the concerto" who taught at a girls' orphanage in Venice and composed over 500 concertos.