Baroque  Scientific Discovery Galileo Newton  Giant Composers J. S. Bach Handel

Baroque: Three Periods  early: opera homophonic texture  middle: instrumental music  late: polyphony

Characteristics of Baroque Music  Unity of Mood: a piece usually expresses one mood  Rhythm: patterns are repeated through out the beat is emphasized  Melody: repeated

Baroque Dynamics  Terraced Dynamics: alternation between loud and soft dynamics organ and harpsichord could not crescendo

Basso Continuo  Common type of accompaniment  Bass line with improvised chords cello or bassoon on bass harpsichord or organ on harmony

Basso continuo

The Baroque Orchestra  small (10 to 40 players)  basso continuo and violin family strings  brass, woodwinds and percussion used occasionally  tone color was subordinate to the melody, rhythm or harmony

The Baroque Orchestra

Baroque Forms  movements: a piece that sounds fairly complete and independent but is part of a larger composition.

Music in Baroque Society  Music written to order: demand for new music.  Main source of diversion in the courts of the aristocracy.  Music Director’s job Pay and prestige were high compositions were performed Still a servant of the patron

Music in Baroque Society  Church musicians earned less than the court and lower status supplemented with weddings and funerals  Town musicians  Opera houses

The Elements of Opera  opera: a drama in which some or all of the lines are sung to an orchestral accompaniment  libretto: the text of the opera  librettist: the one who writes the libretto  overture or prelude: the orchestral introduction to an opera

Opera Singing Styles  aria: a song for solo voice with orchestral accompaniment  recitative: a vocal line that imitates speech, accompanied by basso continuo  ensembles: compositions for two or more singers

Opera Origins  Florentine Camerata  Attempt to recreate the Greek tragedy singing followed the rhythm and pitch fluctuations of speech ○ homophonic: soloist and simple chordal accompaniment (basso continuo) ○ polyphony rejected because it would obscure the text

Early operas:  based on the Greek myth  Euridice by Jacopo Peri, the earliest opera that has been preserved.  Orfeo by Claudo Monteverdi, the first great opera

Early operas:  Written for nobility:  1637 first public opera house in Venice (San Cassiano)  Use of castrato male hero women's roles only in church-dominated areas

Claudio Monteverdi  b. Cremona, Italy  Court of Mantua, singer, violinist, director  Composer at St. Mark's Cathedral in Venice

The Baroque Sonata  a composition in several movements for one to eight instruments (during the early baroque)  any instrumental soloist with basso continuo  trio sonata two melodic instruments basso continuo

Antonio Vivaldi The Red Priest

Antonio Vivaldi - Life  son of violinist at St. Mark's in Venice  priest - "The Red Priest”  Violin teacher, composer, conductor at girl's orphanage  forgotten after his death  best known for his 450+ concerti and concerti grossi

The Concerto and Concerto Grosso  Concerto: piece for instrumental soloist, string orchestra, and basso continuo  Concerto Grosso: piece for instrumental soloists, string orchestra, and basso continuo

The Concerto Grosso: Performers  Soloists between two and four best paid, better players  tutti String orchestra  basso continuo harpsichord cello

The Concerto Ritornello form  Three Movements  1. fast: ritornello form: based on alternation of tutti and solo sections  2. Slow  3. fast & ritornello form

The Four Seasons  Four concerti for violin and orchestra  Summer  Fall  Winter  Spring

Listening: "La Primavera", (Spring) Movement one.  Spring has arrived, and full of joy  The birds greet it with their happy song.  The streams, swept by gentle breezes, Flow along with a sweet murmur.  Covering the sky with a black cloak, Thunder and lightning come to announce the season.  When all is quiet again, the little birds Return to their lovely song.

Spring Concerto  Three movements fast, in ritornello form slow fast

Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach ( )  b. in Eisenach, Germany long line of musicians four sons became musicians  Arnstadt: Church organist  Muhlhausen: Church organist  Weimar: Court organist/conductor  Cöthen: Court organist/conductor

The Fugue: terminology  a polyphonic composition based on one theme called a subject  written for three, four or five voices labeled SATB whether sung or played the different voices imitate the subject  Subject: the melody or theme of a fugue  theme: a short melody used to build a larger composition

The Fugue: terminology  the answer is the subject in the dominant  countersubject: a different melodic idea which always appears with the subject  episode: transitional section  stretto: close imitation.  pedal point: a single held-out tone, usually in the bass

Bach in Leipzig - duties  Cantor at St. Thomas Church music at four municipal churches rehearsed, conducted, and composed and extended work for each Sunday  Music education of 55 students at St. Thomas School  Oversaw stadtpfeiffers (Musicians’ Guild)

Bach in Leipzig - duties  director of Leipzig Collegium Musicum student organization weekly concerts at a coffeehouse  Organ performer and technician greatest organist and composer of organ fugues known for improvisation: music created at the same time as it is performed

Bach  Deeply religious (Lutheran)  20 children by two wives  Blind from cataracs  Today is Buried in St. Thomas Church  Forgotten at his death Mendelssohn, 1829, St. Matthew Passion

Bach - Church Cantatas  most of his vocal music if sacred  No difference between sacred and secular forms  used operatic forms such as aria and recitative in sacred cantatas Italian Concerto French Suite  All genres except opera

The Chorale and Church Cantata  chorale: hymn tune sung to a religious text  chorale prelude: a short composition played by the organist and based on a hymn tune  cantata: for chorus, vocal soloists, organ and small orchestra

Cantata  written for chorus, vocal soloists, organ and small orchestra.  text from the Bible or familiar hymns  used to reinforce the sermon  half-hour  included choruses, recitatives, arias, and duets. (all are also found in opera)  Bach composed about 295 cantatas

Cantata No. 140: Mvt. 4, the tenor chorale  uses ritornello form  contrast of string ritornello and slow chorale melody

Bach - St. Thomas Church

George Friderick Handel

George Frideric Handel  b. Halle, Germany (one month before Bach)  Hamburg: opera  Italy  Elector Georg Ludwig of Hanover

Handel in London  favorite of Queen Anne  Royal Academy of Music - Italian Operas  English Oratorios after failure of Italian Opera  Blind - from cataracs  Buried in Westminster Abbey

Handel - Music  Instrumental suites organ concerti concerti grossi  Vocal Music 39 Italian operas Oratorios (mostly in English)

The Oratorio  a large-scale composition for chorus, vocal soloists, and orchestra  uses choruses, arias, duets, recitatives, and orchestral interludes chorus acts as commentary  last approximately 2 hours

The Oratorio  set to a narrative text  no acting or scenery  most are biblical  originally performed in prayer halls called oratorios

Handel - Oratorios  generally Old Testament  for the paying public, not church  have plots, but no scenery or acting  chorus is the focus

Messiah - Three Acts  Christmas "Ev'ry Valley Shall Be Exalted" ○ aria for tenor ○ use of word painting “For unto Us a Child Is Born” ○ Rondo form ○ borrowed from an Italian duet "No, I will not trust you, blind love, cruel Beauty! You are too treacherous, too charming a deity!” ○ little difference between sacred and secular styles ○ no copyright laws

Easter  Hallelujah Chorus Homophony Monophony Polyphony Chorale Fugue Pedal

Pentecost  “I know my Redeemer liveth”  over 50 selections

Handel - Perennially popular Westminster