1. Music: An Appreciation by Roger Kamien
Part IV
The Baroque Period
2011 © McGraw-Hill Higher Education

2. The Baroque Period
General Characteristics
"Baroque" as Term and Period
The word baroque (from a Portuguese word for an irregularly shaped pearl) was first used to describe art regarded as bizarre or exaggerated.
Later, it was used by art historians in a more positive way to describe the flamboyant decorative and expressive tendencies of 17th- and early-18th-century art and architecture.
Music historians now use it for the period of about 1600 to 1750, which includes a variety of musical styles that share some general conventions and ideals.

3. Baroque Building, Lecce, Italy
Baroque Building, Lecce, Italy

4. Italy remained the most influential region, with important centers at Florence, Rome, Venice, and Naples.
Literature and art flourished throughout Europe in the Baroque period, from the poetry of Milton to the paintings of Rembrandt. New developments in philosophy and science were particularly spectacular, with Bacon, Descartes, Galileo, Kepler, Newton, and others who helped lay the foundations of modern thought.
New Musical Idioms
Musicians at the turn of the 17th century sought to give expression to a wider range of emotions and ideas than before. Their search for new methods involved considerable experimentation and led to the codification of a new musical language by the middle of the century.

5. The Baroque Period
Idiomatic Writing
Renaissance polyphony might be sung or played by various combinations of voices and instruments, but the growing importance of soloists led 17th-century composers to write with a specific medium in mind. As a result, distinctive idiomatic styles developed for the voice, violin family, viol family, wind instruments, keyboard, and other instruments.
The Basic Affections
Baroque composers sought to write music that was expressive of the states of the soul. These are not the emotions of the composer (or anyone else), but generalized states of feeling. One basic affection per movement.

6. The Baroque Period
Rhythm
Baroque and later composers thought in terms of strong and weak beats grouped in measures. On the other hand, free and irregular rhythms were used in vocal recitative and instrumental preludes and toccatas. Some standard forms paired a relatively free section with a strictly metered section. such as a recitative and aria or a toccata and fugue.

7. The Baroque Period
The Basso Continuo
Renaissance polyphony used a texture of equal voices, but in Baroque music the melody and bass were the two essential lines. In the system of notation called thoroughbass or basso continuo, the accompaniment was not fully written out; instead, continuo instruments such as harpsichord, organ, or lute would play the notated bass line and fill in the appropriate chords above it.

8. The Baroque Period
Major-Minor Tonalities
These and other developments led by last third of the 17th century to tonality, or the major-minor system, which replaced the older system of modes.

9. The Baroque Period
Church Modes
Dorian – D to D on the white keys of the piano
Phygian – E to E on the white keys of the piano
Lydian – F-F on the white keys of the piano
Mixolydian – G to G on the white keys of the piano
Four hypo-modes
Hypodorian
Hypophrygian
Hypolydian
Hypomixolydian
Ionian (major) C-C on the white keys of the piano
Aeolian (natural minor) A-A on the white keys of the piano

10. The Baroque Period
Opera
An opera is a staged drama set to continuous music. The first operas were written around 1600, but many earlier forms of theater used music, including Greek tragedies, liturgical dramas, religious plays, and Renaissance theater.

11. The Baroque Period
Greek Tragedy as a Model for Opera
The ancient Greek tragedies were a model for the dramatically effective theater Renaissance dramatists sought to achieve. Some felt that only the choruses of Greek tragedy were sung, but Girolamo Mei ( ), a Florentine scholar, argued that the tragedies were sung throughout. This set the stage for the invention of opera.

12. The Baroque Period
The Earliest Operas
The first opera was L'Euridice (1600) by Ottaviano Rinuccini ( ) and singer-composer Jacopo Peri
The Recitative Style
In recitative style, Peri sought to imitate speech by allowing the natural rhythms of speech to determine the rhythm of the melodic line.

13. Florentine Camerata
were a group of humanists, musicians, poets and intellectuals in late Renaissance Florence.
A revival of the Greek dramatic style, this led to the development of the recitative style and the development of the opera.

14. The Elements of Opera Drama sung to orchestral accompaniment
Text in opera is called libretto
Music is written by a composer
Libretto is written by a librettist
Opera can be serious, comic, or both
Two primary types of solo songs:
Recitative: presents plot material
Aria: expresses emotion—usually a “show-off” vehicle for the singer
Other types: duet, trio, quartet, quintet, etc.
Three or more singers make up an ensemble

15. Opera in the Baroque Era
Result of musical discussions of the Camerata in Florence
1st known opera: Euridice (Peri-1600)
Orfeo (Monteverdi-1607)
1st large scale (great) opera
Opera composed for court ceremonies
Display of magnificence and grandeur
Patrons compared to ancient heroes
1st public opera house 1637 in Venice
Rise of virtuoso singer—chief was castrato
Secco vs accompanied recitative

16. The Baroque Period
Claudio Monteverdi
Monteverdi's opera L'Orfeo (Mantua, 1607), to a libretto by Alessandro Striggio, is on the same subject as Peri's Euridice and also uses contrasting styles. The recitative is more continuous and tonally organized; there are more airs and madrigals; repeating ritornellos and choruses create large-scale form; and the orchestra is large and varied. Most of Monteverdi's next opera, Arianna (1608), is lost, but Arianna's widely admired lament survives.

17. PROLOGUE The spirit of music invites the audience to listen to the story of Orpheus (Orfeo), whose music could tame wild animals and conquer the underworld. ACT I In the fields of Thrace the marriage of Orpheus and Eurydice (Euridice) is being celebrated. Orpheus sings a song of love and praise. The nymphs and shepherds share in his joy as they accompany him to the temple. ACT II Orpheus sings to the woods, but his mood of celebration is ended by the arrival of Sylvia, who tells him of Eurydice's death from a snake bite. He is overcome with grief, but resolves to bring Eurydice back from Hades.

18. ACT III Orpheus is led by Hope (Speranza) to the gates of Hell, where she leaves him. At the River Styx he sings to the boatman Charon, who pities him but does not let him cross. After more singing from Orpheus, Charon falls into a deep sleep. Orpheus takes the oars and crosses the river. ACT IV In Hades, Proserpine who has heard Orpheus's music, begs her husband Pluto to allow him to return to earth with Eurydice. Pluto agrees on condition that Orpheus leads her out of the underworld without once looking back. On their journey home, Orpheus begins to doubt that Eurydice is behind him and, hearing a sound, he turns back and Eurydice vanishes before his eyes. Orpheus continues alone, accompanied by the lamentations of the chorus. ACT V In the fields of Thrace, Orpheus pours forth his grief, but is answered only by Echo. He vows to renounce women. His father, Apollo, descends from the skies in order to console him. Together they ascend to the heavens, where Orpheus will once again see Eurydice in the sun and the stars.

19. The Baroque Period
Venetian Opera
Opera was introduced to Venice in 1637 in a public theater; this marked the first time opera was staged for a paying public. Venice was ideal for opera, with many visitors during Carnival season (from the day after Christmas to the day before Lent), wealthy backers, and a steady audience.
By the mid-17th century Italian opera was characterized by a focus on solo singing, with little ensemble or instrumental music; a separation of recitative and aria; and the use of distinctive types of aria. The most prominent vocal style was the bel canto (beautiful singing) idiom of smooth diatonic lines and easy rhythms.

20. The Early Baroque Period
Vocal Chamber Music
Strophic Forms and Bass Patterns
Most secular vocal music was chamber music. Chamber works also used monody and basso continuo.
The Concertato Medium
The 17th-century concerto brought together contrasting sounds into a harmonious whole, in what is called the concertato medium. A concertato madrigal uses instruments as well as voices; a sacred concerto likewise combines a vocal setting of a sacred text with parts for instruments; and an instrumental concerto pits groups of instruments against each other, usually soloists against a larger group. Monteverdi's later books of madrigals include a number of concertato madrigals.

21. The Baroque Period
Genres of Vocal Solo Music
Monodies were very popular in early-17th-century Italy and were published in large number. The cantata (a "sung" piece) was a work for solo voice and continuo; early cantatas often used atrophic variations, and later ones, such as those by Barbara Strozzi (1619-after 1664), alternated recitatives and arias, like an operatic scene. Composers outside Italy absorbed Italian influences but also worked in native forms like the French air de court Music: NAWM 60
A. Social Conditions in Venice
In the 16th century, Venice was an independent city-state, a major trading center, and the second most important city in Italy (after Rome). St. Mark's Church was one of the centers of Venetian music and pageantry, and some of the best composers of the time served as choirmaster (including Willaert, Rore, and Zarlino) or organist (including Andrea Gabrieli and Giovanni Cabrieli, cat ). Venetian music was often homophonic, richly textured, and varied in sonority.

22. Genres of Catholic Church Music
The Baroque Period
Genres of Catholic Church Music
The Grand Concerto. A grand concerto was a large work for singers and instruments, often arranged in two or more separate choirs.
The Oratorio
An oratorio is a sacred drama like an opera, sung throughout with recitatives, arias, ensembles, and instrumental preludes and ritornellos, but performed without staging or costumes in a church hall called an "oratorio," from which the musical genre took its name around the middle of the 17th century. Oratorios often featured a narrator, and the chorus was much more prominent than in opera.

23. Baroque Music Two giants of Baroque composition Other noted composers
Johann Sebastian Bach (period ends w/ Bach’s death)
George Frideric Handel
Other noted composers
Claudio Monteverdi
Henry Purcell
Arcangelo Corelli
Antonio Vivaldi
Period divided into three phases
Early:
favored homophonic
texture
Late:
dominant chord
to the tonic
Middle:
major & minor
scales

24. Characteristics of Baroque Music
Unity of Mood – Basic Affection
Expresses one mood throughout piece
Rhythm
Rhythmic patterns are repeated throughout
Provides compelling drive & energy
Melody
Opening melody heard again and again
Continuous expanding of melodic sequence
Dynamics
Volumes are constant with abrupt changes – terraced dynamics

25. Characteristics of Baroque Music
Texture
Late Baroque mostly polyphonic
Extensive use of imitation
Chords and the Basso Continuo
Chords meshed with the melodic line
Bass part served as foundation of the harmony
Basso Continuo: accompaniment played by keyboard instrument following numbers which specifies the chords – similar to modern jazz & pop “fake book” notation
Words and Music
Text painting/word painting continues
Words frequently emphasized by extension through many rapid notes

26. The Baroque Orchestra Based on violin family of instruments
Small by modern standards
Varying instrumentation
Strings, woodwinds, brass, & percussion
Nucleus was basso continuo unit
Composers specified instrumentation
Tone color was subordinate to melody, rhythm, & harmony
Composers obtained beautiful effects from specific tone colors

27. Baroque Forms Instrumental music frequently made up of movements
Movement: a piece that sounds complete in itself,
but is part of a larger composition
Performed with pause between movements
Unity of mood within individual movements
Movements often contrast with each other

28. Music in Baroque Society
Music written to order
New music, not old-fashioned, was desired
Courts:
Music indicated affluence
Court Music Director
Good prestige, pay, and other benefits
Still considered a skilled servant

29. Some aristocrats were musicians
Church music was very elaborate
Most people heard music only in church
Some, though few, public opera houses
Music careers taught by apprenticeship
Orphanages taught music as a trade

30. The Concerto Grosso and Ritornello Form
For small group of soloists and orchestra
Multi-movement work
Usually 3 movements
Fast
Slow (usually quieter)
Fast (sometimes dance-like)

31. Ritornello Frequently used in 1st & last movements of concerto grosso
Theme repeatedly presented in fragments
Contrast between solo sections and tutti

32. Listening
Brandenberg Concerto No. 5 in D major by Johann Sebastian Bach
For string orchestra and group of soloists
Soloists: flute, violin, and harpsichord
First movement
Ritornello form
Listening Outline: p. 129
Basic Set, CD 2:4
Brief Set, CD 2:1

33. The Fugue Cornerstone of Baroque music
Polyphonic composition based on one main theme
Vocal or instrumental
Subject
Main theme
Presented initially in imitation
Each voice enters after previous voice has completed presenting the subject

34. Listening Organ Fugue in G Minor by J. S. Bach
Note individual voice entry on same melody (subject)
Listening Outline: p. 133
Basic Set, CD 2:17
Brief Set, CD 2:06

35. Ch. 8 - Henry Purcell Ground Bass English composer (1659-1695)
Highly regarded, held court positions
Buried beneath the organ in Westminster Abbey
Dido and Aeneas
Ground Bass
Repeated musical idea in bass
Variation form—melodies above change
Also called basso ostinato

36. The Baroque Sonata Instrumental work
Multi-movement piece for one to eight instruments
Trio sonata
Three melodic lines: basso continuo and two above
Written as three parts, but performed by four players
Sonata da chiesa—church sonata (dignified)
Sonata du camera—chamber sonata (more dance-like, intended for court performance)

37. Ch. 10 - Arcangelo Corelli Trio Sonata in A Minor, Op.3 No. 10
by Arcangelo Corelli
For 2 violins and basso continuo
Basic Set, CD 2:23 and 2:24 - p. 146
Note: Polyphonic texture
Multi movement work
Contrast between movements

38. Antonio Vivaldi Late Baroque Italian composer
Il prete rosso (the red priest)
Taught music at girls orphanage in Venice
Girls performed at mass hidden behind screen
Wrote sacred and secular vocal and instrumental music
Famous as a virtuoso violinist & composer

39. Listening
La Primavera (Spring), Op. 8, No. 1, from The Four Seasons (1725) by Vivaldi
Listening Outline: p. 148
Basic Set, CD 2:25 Brief Set, CD 2:12
Concerto for violin and string orchestra
Note: Polyphonic texture & ritornello form
Baroque program music
Descriptive effects (trills for bird songs, string tremolos for thunder)

40. Ch. 12 - Johann Sebastian Bach
German, late Baroque composer
Organist and violinist
Deeply religious (Lutheran)
Worked in sacred and secular positions
Weimar/Cothen/Leipzig
Large family
Known during lifetime as keyboardist
Wrote in every form except opera
Recognized for technical mastery
Highpoint of polyphony combined w/ harmony
All music majors study Bach’s compositions
He is the model for learning to write music

41. Listening
Prelude and Fugue in C Minor, from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I by Bach
Listening Outline: p. 154
Basic Set: CD 2:33
Ornamental passage in the style of improvisation
Concludes with bright C major harmony
Pedal point

42. Ch. 13 - The Baroque Suite Instrumental, multi-movement work
Written for listening, but based upon dance
Movements usually in binary form—AABB
Often began with a non-dance overture
French overture—2 sections
1st slow, dignified
2nd faster, often beginning as a fugue
Forerunner of forms used in the next period

43. The Chorale and Church Cantata
Lutheran church service was social event of the week
Lasted 4 hours with 1 hour sermon
Music was major part of worship service
Congregation participated in singing chorales
Chorale: hymn tune w/ German text
Cantata
Multi-movement church work for chorus, soloists, and orchestra
Vernacular religious text
Resembled opera in its use of choruses, recitatives, arias, and duets

44. Listening
Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (Awake, A Voice Is Calling Us)
by J. S. Bach (1731), Movements 1, 4, & 7
Vocal Music Guides: pp
Basic Set, CD 2:47
Brief Set, CD 2:23
Note: Vernacular (German) text
Chorale tune basis
Polyphonic until chorale in movement 7
Movement 7—provides for congregation to join in

45. The Oratorio Like opera: Unlike opera:
Large-scale work for chorus, soloists, and orchestra
Contains arias, recitatives, ensembles
Unlike opera:
No acting, scenery, or costumes
Based upon biblical stories
Not intended for religious services
Commonly performed today in both churches and concert halls

46. Ch. 16 - George Frederic Handel
Born in Germany—same year as Bach
Not from musical family
Father wanted him to be a lawyer
Studied music in Germany, then to Italy to study opera, finally England to work
Became England’s most important composer
Wrote many operas in London
Had own opera company
Worked as composer, performer, & impresario
Buried in Westminster Abbey

47. Listening From The Messiah by G. F. Handel (1741)
Ev’ry Valley Shall Be Exalted
Vocal Music Guide: p. 174 Basic Set, CD 305
Brief Set, CD 2:27
For unto Us a Child Is Born
Vocal Music Guide: p. 175 Basic Set, CD 3:06
Hallelujah Chorus
Vocal Music Guide: p Basic Set, CD 3:09
Brief Set, CD 2:39