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Chapter 7: Introduction to Baroque Art and Music

Chapter 7: Introduction to Baroque Art and Music. The Baroque Era (1600-1750). First appeared in Italy Baroque : Excessive ornamentation in the visual arts and a rough, bold instrumental sound in music Energetic detail G randiose, flamboyant Drama created through contrast.

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Chapter 7: Introduction to Baroque Art and Music

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  1. Chapter 7: Introduction to Baroque Art and Music

  2. The Baroque Era (1600-1750) • First appeared in Italy • Baroque: Excessive ornamentation in the visual arts and a rough, bold instrumental sound in music • Energetic detail • Grandiose, flamboyant • Drama created through contrast

  3. Baroque Architecture and Music • Construction on the grandest scale • Saint Peter’s in Rome • Space filled with abundant, even excessive, decoration

  4. Baroque Music • Grandiose music composed for such vast spaces • Compositions for “colossal” forces • Baroque orchestra of King Louis XIV sometimes had as many as 80+ players • Some sacred choral works required 24, 48, or even 53 separate lines or parts • Love of energetic detail within a large-scale composition • Highly ornamental melody above a solid chordal foundation • Abundance of melodic flourishes

  5. Arcangelo Corelli – Sonata for Violin and Basso Continuo, Opus 5, No.1 • Bass provides the structural support while the violin adds elaborate decoration above

  6. Baroque Painting and Music • Large and colorful paintings • Overtly dramatic • Drama created by means of contrast • Pure shock created by presenting gruesome events from history or myth in a dramatic way • Music also highly dramatic • Doctrine of the Affections: • Different musical moods could and should be used to influence the emotions (affections) of the listener • Drama of the stage joined with music to create Opera

  7. Characteristics of Baroque Music • Remarkable variety of musical style • Introduction of many new musical genres: • Opera, cantata, oratorio, sonata, concerto, and suite • Two elements remain constant • Expressive, sometimes extravagant melody • Strong supporting bass

  8. Expressive Melody • Use of soloist to communicate raw individual emotion • All voices not created equal • Emphasis on the highest and lowest sounding lines • Middle lines fill out the texture S --------------------------------------------------------- A --------------------------------------------------------- T --------------------------------------------------------- B ---------------------------------------------------------

  9. Monody: “Solo song” • Solo singer supported by a bass line and a few accompanying instruments • More elaborate, showy, style of singing • Music reinforces the text

  10. Rock-Solid Harmony • Provides strong harmonic framework for elaborate melodies • Basso continuo (continual bass): A small ensemble of at least two instrumentalists who provide a foundation for the melody heard above • Usually a low string instrument and a harpsichord • Figured bass: Numerical shorthand places below the bass line • Basis for improvised chords

  11. Elements of Baroque Music -Melody • Two different melodic styles • Somewhat mechanical instrumental style, full of figural repetitions • More dramatic, virtuosic style of singing marked by flourished and melismas • Melody expands lavishly over long musical spans, not short symmetrical phrases

  12. Elements of Baroque Music -Harmony • Chord progressions that we hear today originated in the Baroque • Music built around stock chord progressions • (I-VI-IV-V-I) • Melody unfolds while the chord progressions repeat • Modern “two-key” system: Major and Minor

  13. Elements of Baroque Music -Rhythm • Uniformity rather than flexibility • Meter and certain rhythmic patterns are established at the beginning and continue to the end • Strong recurring beat (groove) • Rhythmic clarity and drive • Rhythmically propulsive

  14. Elements of Baroque Music -Texture • Homophony: Basso continuo provides a wholly chordal framework • Many 17th-century composers rebelled against the predominantly polyphonic, imitative texture of the Renaissance • Hostility to Polyphony gradually diminished • Polyphony: Counterpoint • New genre of the Fugue • Bach and Handel

  15. Elements of Baroque Music -Dynamics • Early 17th-century, composers began to write dynamics in their music • Use of two basic terms: piano(soft) and forte(loud) • Sudden contrasts of dynamics rather than gradual crescendos and diminuendos • Terraced dynamics: Shifting of volume suddenly from one level to another • Similar to contrasts between major and minor

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