Music of the Baroque Period

1. Music of the Baroque Period (1600-1750)

2. Baroque Historical Highlights • Age of Absolutism; Kings and Queens are all-powerful • Known for extreme decadence and extravagance of aristocracy (e.g. Louis XIV and his palace of Versailles) • Church Splits in Two; Europe split into Catholic countries (Italy, France, Spain) and Protestant countries (England, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden)

3. The Palace at Versailles

4. The Royal Chapel, Hall of Mirrors & Royal Coach

5. The King’s Bedroom, Marie Antoinette’s Room, The Opera House

6. “Baroque” Defined • Baroque means exaggerated or over-ornamented; these adjectives relate to music and visual arts

11. Baroque Artistic Highlights • Emphasis on DRAMA (extreme and heightened emotion) in music and visual arts • Caravaggio’s paintings show this emphasis on DRAMA

14. Baroque Musical Highlights • Birth of OPERA - theatrical presentations with music and elaborate stage spectacle • New focus on instrumental music and instrumental accompaniment to voices • New emphasis on chords and use of BASSO CONTINUO

15. Baroque Music Style Characteristics

16. Vocal Music Genres Opera Oratorio Cantata Instrumental Music Genres Chamber Music Concerto Grosso Baroque Music Genres

17. Opera • Sung theatrical work • Staged with costumes and sets • Example: HENRY PURCELL"Dido's Lament" from Dido and Aeneas CD#1/69-70

18. Henry Purcell

19. HENRY PURCELL"Dido's Lament" from Dido and Aeneas • Aria vs. Recitative

20. Aria • Song for solo voice with orchestral accompaniment • usually expressing an emotional state through its outpouring of melody • found in operas, oratorios, and cantatas

21. Recitative • Vocal line in opera, oratorio, or cantata that imitates the rhythms and pitch fluctuations of speech, often serving to lead into an aria

22. Libretto • Text of an opera Librettist • Dramatist who writes the libretto, or text, or an opera

23. HENRY PURCELL"Dido's Lament" from Dido and Aeneas • Listen for Basso continuo in Recitative

24. Basso Continuo (‘continuous bass’) • Baroque accompaniment made up of a bass part usually played by two instruments: • A keyboard (or other chord-making instrument, such as a lute or organ), and • A low melodic instrument (such as cello or a basson)

25. HENRY PURCELL"Dido's Lament" from Dido and Aeneas • Aria built on Ground bass

26. Ground Bass (basso ostinato) • A repeating bass line • This one has dark-sounding harmony and is descending in pitch • Variation form in which a musical idea in the bass is repeated over and over while the melodies above it constantly change • Common in Baroque music

27. Dido’s Lament from Dido and Aeneas Dido sings: Thy hand, Belinda, darkness shades me, On thy bosom let me rest; More I would be death invades me; Death is now a welcome guest.

28. Dido’s Lament from Dido and Aeneas When I am laid, am laid in earth, may my wrongs create No trouble in thy breast. Remember me! But ah! Forget my fate.

29. Oratorio • Like opera, but unstaged • Uses a religious story • Example: GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL’s Messiah • "Hallelujah" CD#2/11-16 • "Ev'ry Valley Shall Be Exalted" CD#2/10

30. George Frideric Handel

31. G.F. Handel’s “Ev’ry Valley Shall Be Exalted” from The Messiah • Listen for • Terraced dynamics • Emphasis of beat • Ornamented melody • Continuous affect • Word painting

32. Terraced Dynamics • Abrupt alternation between loud and soft dynamic levels • Characteristic of Baroque Music • Not found in Medieval or Renaissance Music

33. Affections /Affect p.95 of text • The expression of one basic mood in Baroque music • Specific rhythms or melodic patterns were associated with specific moods • Not characteristic of OPERA, but found in oratorio and cantatas

34. G.F. Handel’s “Ev’ry Valley Shall Be Exalted” from The Messiah Ev’ry valley. (text painting highlighted in blue and purple) Ev’ry valley shall be exalted, and ev’ry mountain and hill made low, The crookedstraight, and the rough places plain.

35. Listen for Changes in texture Hymn-like Homophony Imitative Polyphony Pedal Point Emphasis of beat GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL’s "Hallelujah” Chorus fromMessiah

36. Cantata • Like opera, but unstaged, with religious text • Performed ONLY in churches • Examples: J.S. BACH Cantata No. 140: Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (Sleepers Awake) Mvt. 4 [Tenor Chorale] CD#1/71-73 & Mvt. 7 [Chorale] CD#1/74-75

37. Chorale • Hymn tune sung to a German religious text

38. Johann Sebastian Bach

39. Mvt. 4 [Tenor Chorale] Listen for Ornamented melody Continuous affect Mvt. 7 [Chorale] Listen for Hymn-like homophony Complete and incomplete cadences J.S. BACH Cantata No. 140: Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (Sleepers Awake)

40. Chamber Music • Uses a small group of musicians, with one player to a part • Meant for smaller, more intimate performance venues • Includes music for solo instruments • J.S. Bach’s Organ Fugue in G Minor “The Little”

41. Fugue • Polyphonic composition based on one main theme, or subject

42. J.S. BACH Organ Fugue in G Minor (The "Little") • Fugue form (features imitative polyphony) • Subject (Main Theme) stated in different “voices” during Exposition • Exposition followed by alternating Episodes (non-imitative) and Subject Entries (imitative) • Countersubject - countermelody that accompanies Subject in Exposition & Subject Entries • Picardy Third

44. Concerto Grosso • Composition for several instrumental soloists and small orchestra • common in late Baroque music

45. Concerto Grosso • Ritornello form - Ritornello (a homphonic or polyphonic block of music) alternating with Episodes (contrasting melodic, softer dynamics, virtuosic scales and arpeggios) • Tutti vs. Soli groups

46. Tutti • In Italian, “all” • The full orchestra, or a large group of musicians contrasted with a smaller group • Often heard in Baroque music

47. Solo, Soli • In Italian, “one” or “ones” • The individual instrument or vocalist featured or a small group of individual musicianss contrasted with a larger group • Often heard in Baroque music

48. Antonio Vivaldi

49. Examples of Baroque Concerto Grosso • J.S. Bach • Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D Major • Movement 1 • Antonio Vivaldi • Concerto for Violin and String Orchestra, Op. 8, No. 1, La Primavera [Spring] • from The Four Seasons • Movement 1

50. Bach Brandenburg • Soli - EPISODE • Flute • Violin • Harpsichord • Tutti group - RITORNELLO • Full orchestra - string and basso continuo