François Couperin

L’art de toucher le clavecin

Questions of ornamentation Is the ornament diatonic, or does it require an accidental? Does it precede the main note or fall on the beat? Is it fast or slow? If slow, what proportion of the main note does the ornament require? Does the stress lie more on the ornament or the main note?

Antonio Vivaldi Venetian composer Holy Orders in his early twenties.

Antonio Vivaldi ( ) il prete rosso - “The Red Priest” Girls’ orphanage in Venice Composer in one of four of the most important music schools of Italy (and Europe)

Vivaldi’s Musical Style Vivaldi is credited for helping to free instrumental style from vocal style. Each piece is used as a teaching tool to create virtuosity in the players of the orphanage and music school. Vivaldi boasted that he could write a concerto faster than the copyist could copy it!

Vivaldi’s Musical Style Rapid scale patterns Arpeggio: the outlining of a chord’s root, third, fifth and octave. Change of register. High Low Tessitura: range of an instrument Creating contrasting timbres by blending different instruments together. (sonority)

The Four Seasons: Spring La Primavera: The Spring Programmatic Concerto: Program Music: Music that is inspired by prose, poetry, painting, or a scene or event in the mind of the composer.

The Four Seasons: Spring Program: the actual thought, poetry, or prose. La Primavera describes with music a poem from The Contest Between Harmony and Inspiration… attributed to the composer.

Spring – Concerto in E Major Allegro Springtime is upon us. The birds celebrate her return with festive song, and murmuring streams are softly caressed by the breezes. Thunderstorms, those heralds of Spring, roar, casting their dark mantle over heaven, Then they die away to silence, and the birds take up their charming songs once more. Largo On the flower-strewn meadow, with leafy branches rustling overhead, the goat-herd sleeps, his faithful dog beside him. Allegro Led by the festive sound of rustic bagpipes, nymphs and shepherds lightly dance beneath the brilliant canopy of spring.

La Primavera: First movement Joyful spring has arrived (the Spring theme: Ritornello) The birds greet it with their cheerful song. And the brooks in the gentle breezes. Flow with a sweet murmur. The sky is covered with a black mantle, and thunder and lightening announces a storm When they fall silent, the birds take up again their melodious song.

Ritornello form R 1 S 1 R 2 S 2 R 3 S 3 R 4 S 4 R 5 S 5 R 6 Song of birds Murmuring streams How is S 2 NOT consistent w/ the form? Thunder lightning Song of birds Vivaldi’s Concerto, Mvt 1

Compositions Over 500 concertos 46 operas sinfonias 73 sonatas chamber music sacred music

Jean-Philippe Rameau ( ) Foremost French musician of 18th century

Rameau: Music Theory

Treatise on Harmony (1722) Coined the terms tonic, dominant and subdominant harmonic progression through falling 5 th (or rising 4 th ) chords maintain their identity regardless of inversion (harmony is based on root progression, regardless of lowest note)

Rameau: Music Theory the chord is the primal element in music a chord maintains its identity in all inversions basse fondamentale or root progression Triadic relationships: tonic, dominant, etc. Hierarchial function of triads Pivot chord modulation

Rameau - theory II 3. Triadic relationships - tonic, domininant, etc. 4. Hierarchial function of triads 5. Pivot chord modulation

Hippolyte et Aricie (1733) music almost programmatic (rough sea, high winds “Ah! faut-il” tragédie lyrique monologue

Exposed to greatness Alexandre-Jean-Joseph Le Riche de la Poupliniere (a rich tax collector) became Rameau’s patron Poupliniere’s gatherings included Voltaire, Rousseau, and Casanova

Rameau and Voltaire

Lullistes versus Ramistes Rameau: “subverter of the good old French opera tradition of Lully” more expressive, dramatic (due to more chromatic harmonies) innovative orchestration (more winds) increase in homophonic sections (Classical period is right around the corner)