1. The Baroque Time Period

2. “Baroque” means “decorated”

3. Sections begin to be developed in music (slow/fast, soft/loud).
Characteristics
Secular and Instrumental music become much more important. It is the first period in which instrumental music was AS important as vocal music.
Sections begin to be developed in music (slow/fast, soft/loud).

4. In polyphonic music (Renaissance), all the voice parts were equally important. Now (Baroque), one voice (usually the highest part--the soprano) is given the melody while the lower parts harmonize. So, the soprano voice became the most important.

5. Other new musical forms included cantatas and oratorios, multi-movement vocal works with instrumental accompaniment. Oratorios were more likely to be sacred, and were frequently based on verses from the Bible. Cantatas could be sacred or secular. Neither used staging, scenery, or costumes.

6. Opera also developed during this time, which is a play (usually secular) set to music and staged.
In the Renaissance, instruments accompanying singers usually doubled the voices (played the same parts). In Baroque, they are given their own parts.

7. The orchestra becomes defined
The orchestra becomes defined. But early in Baroque, an “orchestra” was likely to be whatever musicians were available at the time. Eventually, composers began to specify which instruments would play which parts. This began the development of the modern orchestra.

8. Music is written for expression and enjoyment rather than for a purpose.

9. Composer #1
Antonio Vivaldi
From Italy; died in Austria

10. Antonio Vivaldi Lived from 1678 to 1741
Ordained as a priest at the age of 25, but never served the church in a religious capacity

11. Antonio Vivaldi
Began composing sonatas for keyboard instruments around 1705

12. Antonio Vivaldi
Played the violin in opera orchestras, and composed several operas . This was strange because priests were not supposed to compose music for non-church related activities.

13. Antonio Vivaldi
Served as orchestra conductor at St. Mark’s Cathedral in Venice, Italy for 27 years.

14. Antonio Vivaldi
His music, including operas, were well known throughout Europe, and were more popular in Holland , France , and England , than in Italy In 1734, one of his operas was banned in Italy because he was a priest .

15. Antonio Vivaldi
At age he moved to Vienna, Austria hoping to receive an offer as a court musician , or composer. He received no offers and died in Vienna.

16. Antonio Vivaldi
He claims to have written operas, but musical scholars have found scores for only
He was sometimes referred to as the red priest because of his bright red hair .

17. Antonio Vivaldi
He wrote over concertos; over 230 are for violin and string orchestra.
He popularized the cello and the string bass as solo instruments by composing concertos for both.

18. Antonio Vivaldi
He wrote over concertos; over 230 are for violin and string orchestra.
He popularized the cello and the string bass as solo instruments by composing concertos for both.

19. Antonio Vivaldi Listening Selection: “Spring” from The Four Seasons
This is the first four of a series of twelve concertos for solo violin and string orchestra. The other movements are Summer , Fall , and Winter .

20. Antonio Vivaldi
This kind of music is known as program music: the musical representation of an idea , or the musical suggestion of a mood (the music represents the seasons of the year).

21. Antonio Vivaldi
Write what this music brings to mind….a picture, a mood or emotion.

23. Antonio Vivaldi
If you were to use this music in a movie scene, describe the scene:

24. Composer #2
George Frideric
Handel
From Germany;
Live from

25. George Frideric Handel
His father wanted him to be a lawyer.
He entered the University of Halle in Germany to study law.

26. George Frideric Handel
While in school, he played the organ at a nearby cathedral.
His father died during his first year, so he left school and joined an opera orchestra in Hamburg as a violinist. There he began composing his first opera.

27. George Frideric Handel
Most of his early operas and oratorios had Italian texts and were first performed in Italy.
At age 25 he went to England and began writing with English texts.

28. George Frideric Handel
At age 35, he was named artistic director of a new opera company, the Royal Academy of Music. During the next seven years, he wrote 14 operas for this group, and several oratorios.

29. George Frideric Handel
They went bankrupt in 1928, so he opened his own opera company and wrote 13 more operas.
In 1737, this company failed. Handel lost everything and suffered a stroke. He never totally regained his health.

30. George Frideric Handel
But in 1742 he wrote his most famous oratorio, Messiah. It was an immediate success.
Handel wrote his first vocal music in German, his first operas and Italian, and his most famous oratorios in English. No other composer of vocal music has successfully written vocal music in so many languages.

31. Listening Selection: “Hallelujah” from The Messiah
He set this text to music in less than a month, which may be the greatest compositional feat in the history of music.

32. Listening Selection: “Hallelujah” from The Messiah
He stated, “I think I did see all heaven before me and the great God Himself!”
At the first London performance, King George II was so excited by the words, “For the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth” that he stood up. When the king rose, so did the entire audience. That tradition has followed this work for over 200 years.

34. and just for fun…

36. Johann S. Bach Composer #3 From Germany; Live from 1685-1750
(almost identical to Handel!)

37. Johann S. Bach Both of Bach’s parents died before he turned 10.
Bach went to live with his older brother, a church organist, who taught him to play harpsichord and organ.

38. Johann S. Bach
He was a church musician virtually his entire life, beginning as a boy soprano in a church choir, then a violinist in a church orchestra.
He first began to compose music at age 18.

39. Johann S. Bach
He married at 22 and was soon appointed the court organist and violinist to the Duke of Weimar, where he was able to study all styles of music and develop his composing skills.

40. Johann S. Bach
At age 32, the Prince of Cothen hired Bach as his court choirmaster. There he had more time to compose hundreds of works for clavier, strings, instrumental ensembles of all sizes, solos, duets, trios, and concertos.

41. Johann S. Bach
His wife, Maria, died suddenly in 1720, and a year later he married Anna Wulken, a fine singer.
He moved to Leipzig, Germany, and became choirmaster at a private choir school. He wasn’t really happy there, but took the job so his children could go to school there.

42. Johann S. Bach
As a court musician, professional musicians performed his music. Now they were performed by student and amateur musicians. His pay was less and his living conditions were sub-standard. Nevertheless, he remained at the choir school for the rest of his life.

43. Johann S. Bach He wrote all musical styles except opera.
Bach had 20 children, several of whom became composers.
Although he wrote thousands of pieces of music, less than a dozen were published during his lifetime.

44. Toccata & Fugue in D Minor
Listening Selection:
Toccata & Fugue in D Minor

45. A toccata is a composition for a keyboard instrument in a free style.
A fugue is a very structured work – begins with a melody (sometimes called a subject or theme).
The theme is then heard many more times while other melodies are played at the same time, always harmonizing with the original theme. Bach defined a Fugue as a conversation between two or more voices, talking about the same subject in different ways, but in the end always uniting in a final harmonious chord. The fugue was the basis of much of Bach’s music.

46. Bach was probably the great organist of his time
Bach was probably the great organist of his time. During his life, it experienced a revolution in technology. Bach was not only a virtuoso organist, but an organ mechanic as well. He would travel and supervise construction of an organ, then give a concert.

47. You’ll first hear the Toccata
You’ll first hear the Toccata. Listen for when the Fugue begins (you’ll know—it will begin to sound steady instead of “free.”

48. Toccata and Fugue in D Minor
Pipe Organ

50. Toccata and Fugue in D Minor
Glass Harp

52. Toccata and Fugue in D Minor
Electric Guitar

54. Toccata and Fugue in D Minor
Bar Graph

56. Toccata and Fugue in D Minor
Giant Keyboard

58. Toccata and Fugue in D Minor
and just for fun…
Toccata and Fugue in D Minor
Droopy & Butch

60. Another Baroque composer:
Johann Pachelbel
From Germany
Lived from
Organist, Composer, Music Teacher

61. One of his students was Johann Christoph Bach, the elder brother of Johann S. Bach.

62. Canon in D Famous composition by Pachelbel:
You’ve probably heard it – where?