Baroque (1600 - 1750)

Genre

• Opera

• Gregorian Chant

• Organum

• Canon (round)

• Lute song

• Madrigal

• Motet

• Mass Requiem

• Continued secularization (post reformation)

• Growing emphasis on science and reason

• Middle class population increased

• Intricate art, highly decorated art and architecture due to emphasis on expression

Musical Developments of the Baroque

• Birth and rise of opera

• Flowering of instrumental music

• Beginnings of concert performance

Performance Contexts

• Middle Ages/Renaissance

  • Church

  • Court

• Baroque

  • Church

  • Court

  • Concert/Theater

Musical Style Traits

• Solidification of tonality (major and minor)

• Presence of basso continuo

Basso continuo: continuous bass. One of more plucked instruments (harpsichord, lute, theorbo) and one brewer instrument (viola de gamba - precursor of the cello).

• Emphasis on melody and bass - homophonic texture

• Increased emphasis on theatrically and virtuosity

• Dynamics have a greater importance

• New musical forms (ritornello and fugue)

Tonic (I): The first note of the scale and the tonal center. Dominant (V): The fifth note of the scale A common tonal pattern in western music is the tonic-dominant-tonic pattern or the I-V-I pattern

Opera

• Drama - tells a story with words and music

• Sung - no spoken words in an opera

• Libretto - the text of an opera

• Staged - acted with costumes and set pieces

• Originated from italy

• Earliest operas

  • 1585 - dafne by jacopo peri

  • 1600 - euridice by jacopo peri

  • 1607 - l’orfeo by monteverdi

  • carrying interest of roman mythology into opera

Henry Purcell (1659 - 1695)

Dido and Aeneas (1689)

• Draws on English dramatic traditions

• Musical influences from italian solo singing and venetian lament, as well as english choral tradition

• Based on two lovers, the man has to leave the woman to go establish a kingdom. The woman dies of despair (happens to women often in opera)

• Free meter

• Minimal accompaniment

• First known performance at a school

• Plot centers on Virgil’s Aeneid and Aeneas’ journey from Troy to Rome

• Dido’s Lament - Recitative Text

  • Thy hand, Belinda; darkness shades me

    On thy bosom, let me rest:

    More I would, but Death invades me:

    Death is now a welcome guest.

• Dido’s Lament - Aria Text

  • When I am laid in earth,

    May my wrongs create

    No trouble in thy breast;

    (repeated)

    Remember me,

    but ah forget my fate.

    (repeated, ornamented)

  • Built on a recurring bass-line (basso ostinato or ground bass)

  • Chromatic descending line signals a lament

Chromatic: characterized by half step motion

Their Land Brought Forth Frogs (George Fredric Handel - 1739)

• From Israel in Egypt

George Frederic Handel (1685 - 1759)

• Germany

• Italy

• England

Messiah (1741)

• Oratorio

• Life of christ divided into 3 parts

  • I - Birth of Christ

  • II - Passion of Christ

  • III - Christ’s glorification in heaven

• Hallelujah

• There were shepherds abiding

  • Parts of a Baroque dramatic vocal work

  • Recitative

  • Aria

  • Chorus

Recitative Simple recitative: Also called secco or dry recitative, accompanied by continuo, usually unmetered. Accompanied recitative: Accompanied by orchestra, can be metered.

• Recitative, both simple and accompanied

• Chorus: variety of textures, dynamics, timbre

Historiography: The study of the writing of history.

• Messiah lovers may be surprised to learn that the work was not meant for Christmas but for Lent, and that the “Hallelujah” chorus was designed not to honor the birth or resurrection of Jesus but to celebrate the destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple in A.D. 70. For most Christians in Handel’s day, this horrible event was construed as divine retribution on Judaism for its failure to accept Jesus as God’s promised Messiah.

Royal African Company: Shipped more enslaved Africans to the Americans than any other company.

Oratorio

• Storytelling through music

• Originated in Italy

• usually sacred stores

• Shared elements with opera but has more choruses

• No acting, costumes or scenery

The Harpsichord

• Predecessor of the piano

• Strings inside are plucked

• Associated with bass continuo

• Also could be a solo instrument

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750)

• Born in Eisenach

• Lived and worked within 200km of his birthplace

• Leipzig 1723 - 1750

• St. Thomas Lutheran Church

Fugue in C minor

• Well-tempered clavier

• Set of preludes and fugues in all 24 keys

• Book 1-1722

Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B Minor, large scale form

• Overture

• Rondo

• Sarabande

• Bourre I and II

• Polonaise

• Menuet

• Badinerie (plaything)

Binary Form: Form divided into two sections.

Double Concerto in D Minor

• Genre: Concerto

• Form: Ritornello

• Bach

• Multi-movement

• Fast-slow-fast

• Movement I - Vivace (fast and lively)

• Opening ritornello

• Solos

  • With ritornello motives

• Center ritornello

• solos

  • with ritornello motives

• Closing ritornello

• Ritornello form with fugal processes

Concerto: Work for one or more instrumental soloists with orchestra.

Ritornello: A section which returns several times and serves as a point fo structural reference. Almost always appears at the beginning and the end. Common for baroque concertos. Ritornello is played by the ensemble, and episodes are played by the soloists.

Fugue

One-movement work in imitative counterpoint, where the theme is stated in each voice as a series of subjects and answers. A work (or a process) in which a themes is stated in each

voices as a series of subjects and answers

Parts of a fugue:

• Subject: Main melodic material

• Answer: Subject repeated at a different pitch level

• Episode: Passages without subject or answer. Often include motives derived from the fugue.

• While the second voice is played the answer, the first fills in with a counterpoint.

• Counterpoint: A pleasing and technically intermingling

• A fugue then continues in a series of episodes (parts without the theme) with entrances of the subject/answer.

• Fugue exposition: The first section of the fugue where the main theme is played in all of the voices.

• Continuation: Subject and answer as well as episodes

• Cadence: The ending of the fugue

Fugue texture: polyphonic

Fugue form: fugal subject, continuation, cadence

• Popular in the baroque

• Imitative form

Imitation: Repetition of a motive or a melodic fragment in another voice

Dance Suite

• Instrumental genre

• Could be soloist, group of instruments or an orchestra

• Multi-movement

• Dance-based movements

• Contrast in tempo and character

• Minute, sarabande, Gigue

Minute: slow, stately dance in triple time Sarabande: a slow, stately dance with 3 beats in a bar (3/4 time or Simple Triple). Gigue: a fast dance typically in compound meter and binary form.

Lutheran Chorales

• Spiritual Melodies

• Compositions in german as it was vernacular at the time

• Some new compositions, some derived from chant melodies or popular song

Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott (A mighty fortress is our god)

• Chorale

Cantata: Genre of vocal composition originating in the Baroque, sacred or secular, for soloist or chorus.

• Tells a sacred story with music and singing

• Smaller in scale than an oratorio

• Shorter

• Smaller number of performers

• Often based on a chorale

Cantata no. 80, Ein feste Burg is unser Gott

• Johann Sebastian Bach (wrote 300 cantatas)

• Texture: Polyphonic

• Uses chorale tune

Baroque Genres

• Oratorio (sacred stories but still theatrical)

• Opera (vocal genre)

• Cantata (scaled down oratorio)

• Fugue (open, polyphonic form, harpsichord fugue)

• Mass

• Chorale (mighty fortresses are god - religious song in vernacular - protestant reformation in germany, allows people to have a more personal relationship with god)

• Dance Suite (stylized dances, multiple movements, varying tempo)

• Concerto