Instrumental Music Grows Up

prelude

• growth in instrumental music just means more was being written down
• music without voices was now more often deemed worthy of preservation and dissemination in written form
• independence from vocal music
  • new instruments
  • more styles idiomatic to instruments rather than voice
  • different styles for each instrument
• became vocal music's equal in quality and quantity
• instrumental composers borrowed vocal elements and styles
• organs, double-manual harpsichords, improved wind instruments, violin family
• basic compositional procedures divide the works into five broad categories
  • variations - work that varies a preexisting melody (set of variations, partitas) or based on traditional bass line or progression (partita, chaconne, passacaglia)
  • abstract types - improvisatory works (toccatas, fantasias, preludes), continuous works (fugues), sectional works (canzonas, sonatas)
  • dance music - dances (intended for dancing) and other pieces in stylized dance rhythms (unsuited for dancing)

variations

• most popular forms were chaconne and passacaglia
  • both essentially bass or harmonic progressions rather than melodies
• appeared in france, germany, italy to designate variations over a ground bass
• progressions usually four measures long, triple meter, slow tempo
• appeared in solo keyboard music, chamber music, theatrical dance music

abstract instrumental works

improvisatory genres:

• toccata was principle improvisatory lute and keyboard genre
  • played on harpsichord or organ
• girolamo frescobaldi was the most important composer of toccatas
• succession of brief sections, each focused on a figure that is subtly varied
• each section ends with a weakened cadence to sustain movement to the end
• players can end at any appropriate cadence - music was written to be performed rather than to adhere to text

continuous genres:

• ricerare was a serious composition for organ or harpsichord in which one subject or theme is developed continuously in imitation
• early 17th century german composers started referring to a genre of serious pieces that treat one theme in continuous imitation as fugues
• keyboard fantasia was a larger imitative work with a more complex formal organization
  • sweelinck and scheidt
  • scheidt started writing out each part on a separate staff instead of using tablature
• viol consort was an english staple
  • imitative fantasia/fancy treated one or more subjects in a fugal fashion
  • ferrabosco and coprario

sectional genres:

• sonata referred to a type of composition resembling a canzona in form, scored for one or two melody instruments with basso continuo
  • imitated modern vocal style - less formal than canzonas
• venetian sonata consisted of a series of sections each based on a different subject or variant on a subject
• used at mass for intros or postludes or for significant rituals
• one of the earliest instances of dynamic markings in music
• marini
  • served as violinist at st. mark’s under monteverdi and then held various posts in italy and germany
  • wrote instrumental monody with contrasting sections full of embellishments and fancy stuff
• sonata was eventually used to refer to canzona and sonata

music for organ

• buxtehude was one of the best known composers of the late 17th century and influenced bach
  • composed organ music, sacred music, organ solos
• most organ music written for protestant churches usually served as a prelude to something else
• often chorale settings, toccatas, preludes
• buxtehude's toccatas present a series of short sections in free style that alternate with longer ones in imitative counterpoint
  • have lots of motion and climaxes
  • exuberant
  • uses deliberately irregular rhythm to simulate improvisation
• in the 18th century, the two types of section, fugal and free, grew in length and became separate movements
  • typical structure consisted of a long toccata or prelude in free style followed by a fugue
• organ chorale enhanced tune by harmony and counterpoint
  • chorale variation/partita - chorale tune served as the theme for a set of variations
  • chorale fantasia - composer fragmented the chorale melody and developed motives through imitation and ornamentation
  • chorale prelude - short work in which the entire melody is presented just once

music for lute and harpsichord

lute music:

• flourished in french court
• denis gaultier
  • la rhetorique des dieux
• all of the leading french lute composers served louis xiv and printed collections of harpsichord music
• agrements - ornaments designed to lend a charming/graceful quality and emphasize important notes while giving the melody shape and character
  • sign of refined taste
  • french composers worked out precise ways of notating them
• influenced the texture of harpsichord music using style brise (sketched in melody, bass and harmony by sounding appropriate notes at different times in different registers)

dance music:

• core of lute and keyboard repertory
• mostly intended for the enjoyment of the player and a small audience rather than dancing
• most 17th century dances were in binary form - two roughly equal sections, each repeated, going from the tonic to the dominant to the tonic
• series of stylized dances could be grouped into a suite
  • begin with a prelude in toccata style
  • allemande was moderately fast with continuous movement and style brise
  • courante has a moderate triple or compound meter
  • sarabande is a slow, dignified dance in triple meter with the emphasis on the second beat
  • gigue is a movement in fast compound meter with leaps and lively rhythms
  • gavotte is a duple meter dance with a half measure anacrusis

ensemble music

chamber music: the sonata:

• term first used to describe any instrumental piece, later for independent instrumental compositions
• early 17th century sonatas consisted of small sections differentiated by material, texture, mood, character, meter, tempo
• sections became longer and more self-contained until they were eventually separated into movements with thematic independence
• sonata da camera/chamber sonata - stylized dances with prelude
• sonata da chiesa/church sonata - abstract movements with usually at least one using dance rhythms or binary form
• two treble instruments with basso continuo
  • three part texture - called trio sonata even though it usually features 4 or more players
• corelli
  • wrote violin music instead of vocal
  • emphasized lyricism over virtuosity - no frills, two equal violin parts use suspensions and imitation to create forward momentum, walking bass with steady eighth notes
  • church trio sonatas contain four movements, slow-fast-slow-fast
  • chamber sonatas begin with a prelude followed by two or three dances
  • solo violin sonatas are divided into church and chamber but allow for more virtuosity
  • steady spinning out of a single theme
  • music marked by sense of direction
  • almost completely diatonic

music for orchestra

• french court had the first string ensemble and more spread afterwards
• most 17th and early 18th century music could be played as chamber music or orchestra
• german stadtpfeifers were town musicians who had the exclusive right to provide music in the city, proficient at many instruments, often a family business
• amateur music making was a prominent part of german social life

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