Western Music History: Baroque Opera, Forms, and Styles

PRIMA vs. SECONDA PRATTICA

Musical beauty and decorum (prima) vs. text-painting and rhetorical expression (seconda)

CAMERATA

Learned society in Florence that proposed the idea of opera

MONODY

Solo recitative in early opera

BASSO CONTINUO

The foundation of Baroque style, a bass line with improvised chords

RITORNELLO

A repeating instrumental section that frames the solo

STROPHIC ARIA

Multiple verses with the same music

PUBLIC OPERA

First public opera house opens in Venice in 1637

CHARACTER OF VENETIAN OPERA

1) Mixture of serious and comic elements; 2) Stage machinery; 3) Greater sense of drama

EARLY CANTATA

A secular Italian work for solo voice(s) and continuo, consisting of recitatives, ariosos, and arias

FIGURED BASS

Bass line with numbers to show chord inversions

LAMENTO BASS

A repeating bass line that descends from 1 to 5, often chromatically

ARIOSO

Vocal writing midway between recitative and a fully-formed aria

ST. MARK'S CATHEDRAL, VENICE

Unique architectural design, with opposing balconies, gives rise to polychoral style

POLYCHORAL STYLE

Use of antiphonal choirs

CANZONA

Instrumental genre derived from the French chanson

FRESCOBALDI'S THREE MAIN TYPES OF COMPOSITION

1. Toccatas (free expressive pieces); 2. Learned contrapuntal pieces (ricercars, fantasias, capriccios, canzonas); 3. Variations (partitas)

STILE ANTICO

Conservative church style, largely established by Frescobaldi. Alla breve, 'white note' style, often contrapuntal

RICERCARE

Learned imitative piece, like a fugue

TOCCATA

Free improvisatory piece, with an unpredictable and fantastic form

DANCE SUITE

Four standard dances: allemande, courante, sarabande, gigue ('A Common Suite in Germany')

SARABANDE

The only slow dance, in triple meter with accented second beat, expressive and serious

GIGUE

Quick triple meter or compound time, often fugal

ABSOLUTISM

The concentration of all power in the king, administered through a central bureaucracy

VERSAILLES

Louis XIV's palace outside Paris, where he staged his political power for the gathered nobility

TRAGÉDIE EN MUSIQUE

French serious opera invented by Lully, featuring chorus, ballet, and spectacle

FRENCH OVERTURE

Slow march with double-dotted rhythms, followed by a quick gigue. Accompanied the entrance of the king

DIVERTISSEMENTS

Extravagant choral and ballet spectacles in each act

AGRÉMENTS

Ornaments added to harpsichord music

BINARY FORM

Two repeating halves, the first usually modulates

TRIO SONATA

A genre, and texture, with two high voices above a basso continuo

SONATA DA CHIESA

A trio sonata with four movements (slow-fast-slow-fast)

SONATA DA CAMERA

A trio sonata in the form of a suite of dances

CONCERTO GROSSO

A concerto for a large ensemble and small group of soloists (like Bach's Bradenburg concertos)

CORELLI AND TONALITY

Corelli's works established modern tonality based on the circle of fifths