1. Main Currents in Baroque Music

2. Baroque Music
The transition to the Baroque brought about a shift from several independent lines (polyphony) to one in which a melody stood out (homophony).
Monody: originated in vocal music around the year 1600 and was a new style featuring solo song with instrumental accompaniment
Monody focused on text and its emotional power

3. Baroque Music Figured bass: shorthand notation for harmony
Chords created through improvisation
Basso continuo: bass part, performed by 2 instruments
Chordal instrument (harpsichord, organ or lute)
and bass instrument (cello or bassoon)

4. Baroque Music
Camerata- group of people (writers, artists, and musicians) engage in discussion about “the new music”.
Members of Camerata were aristocratic humanists who aimed to resurrect the musical-dramatic art of ancient Greece.
Music must heighten the emotional power of the text.
Camerata gave the path to more advance form Opera.

5. Baroque Music
Establishment of the major-minor tonality system was the outcome of this simpler style and less complex harmonies and was the most significant change in all of music history.

6. Baroque Music
Equal temperament: a new tuning system that mathematically equalized the distance between adjacent tones
Made it possible to play in every major and minor key without experiencing unpleasant sounds
J.S. Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier (2 vols.) each contains 24 preludes and fugues, one in every possible key