The Baroque Period and Musical Innovations

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering key terms, concepts, styles, and tuning developments of the Baroque period from the lecture transcript.

Baroque

A French term originally used negatively to describe something overly ornamented, flamboyant, or in bad taste; later reinterpreted to characterize the ornate, dramatic, and expressive quality of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century art and music.

Late Baroque Phase

The period from 1690 to 1750 in which instrumental music became as important as vocal music, the major-minor tonal system was formally adopted, and composers like Vivaldi, Handel, Bach, and Telemann produced their most famous works.

Age of Absolutism

The political era in Europe where monarchs exercised total power over subjects, surrounding themselves with luxury, architecture, and magnificent art to project royal authority.

Florentine Camerata

A group of intellectuals in Florence, which included the father of Galileo Galilei, who sought to recreate ancient drama and were instrumental in the invention and development of opera.

Affections

Specific stable emotional states—such as sadness, joy, anger, love, fear, excitement, and wonder—that Baroque composers sought to express with a consistent unity of mood throughout an entire piece or movement.

Continuity of Rhythm

A primary Baroque characteristic where rhythmic patterns introduced at the beginning are maintained throughout the piece, producing a continuous driving beat and energy known as motor rhythm.

Melodic Sequence

The repetition of a melodic motif or idea at successively higher or lower pitch levels, leading to melodies that continuously expand and unwind.

Terraced Dynamics

Sudden shifts between loud and soft volume levels and echo effects without gradual dynamic transitions, often resulting from the non-touch-sensitive stops and keyboards of the harpsichord.

Basso Continuo

An accompaniment ensemble featuring a chord-playing instrument (such as an organ, harpsichord, or lute) paired with a low sustaining instrument (such as a cello or bassoon) providing the harmonic foundation underneath melody lines.

Figured Bass

A musical shorthand consisting of numbers and accidentals placed above a single bass line, indicating chords to be improvised when harmonies are not in root position, designed to save scarce paper.

Realization

The act of a performer improvising the harmonies and inner chords from a figured bass line during performance, making the musician an active co-creator of the work.

Equal Temperament

A revolutionary tuning system that eliminated 7 of the natural 19 microtonal subdivisions between octaves to establish 12 evenly spaced, standardized notes, allowing keyboard instruments to play in tune in all keys and modulate freely.

The Well-Tempered Clavier

A landmark collection of two books of keyboard pieces composed by J. S. Bach around 1722, demonstrating the viability of equal temperament by writing pieces in all 12 major and minor standardized keys.

Concerto

A musical form stemming from the concertato style that highlights contrasting tone colors by pitting a small body of soloists against a larger ensemble.

Baroque Orchestra

A variable, small chamber ensemble predominantly built around the adaptable violin family, often comprising roughly 10 players, with wind and brass instruments added depending on the dramatic occasion.