1. Music of the Baroque Period
( )

2. Baroque Historical Highlights
Age of Absolutism; Kings and Queens are all-powerful
Known for extreme decadence and extravagance of aristocracy (e.g. Louis XIV and his palace of Versailles)
Church Splits in Two; Europe split into Catholic countries (Italy, France, Spain) and Protestant countries (England, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden)

3. The Palace at Versailles

4. The Royal Chapel, Hall of Mirrors & Royal Coach

5. The King’s Bedroom, Marie Antoinette’s Room, The Opera House

6. “Baroque” Defined
Baroque means exaggerated or over-ornamented; these adjectives relate to music and visual arts
Baroque period, era in the history of the Western arts roughly coinciding with the 17th century. Its earliest manifestations, which occurred in Italy, date from the latter decades of the 16th century, while in some regions, notably Germany and colonial South America, certain of its culminating achievements did not occur until the 18th century. The work that distinguishes the Baroque period is stylistically complex, even contradictory. In general, however, the desire to evoke emotional states by appealing to the senses, often in dramatic ways, underlies its manifestations. Some of the qualities most frequently associated with the Baroque are grandeur, sensuous richness, drama, vitality, movement, tension, emotional exuberance, and a tendency to blur distinctions between the various arts.
A term used in the literature of the arts with both historical and critical meanings and as both an adjective and a noun. The word has a long, complex and controversial history (it possibly derived from a Portuguese word for a misshapen pearl, and until the late 19th century it was used mainly as a synonym for `absurd' or `grotesque'), but in English it is now current with three principal meanings.

7. Bernini, Baldacchino (altar canopy) of St
Bernini, Baldacchino (altar canopy) of St. Peters Gilt bronze, Height approx. 100 ft.

8. Ecstacy of St. Teresa
Bernini

10. Triumph of the Barberini by Pietro Da Cortona

11. Baroque Artistic Highlights
Emphasis on DRAMA (extreme and heightened emotion) in music and visual arts
Caravaggio’s paintings show this emphasis on DRAMA

12. Judith Beheading Holofernes
Artemisia Gentilleschi - Student of Caravaggio
c. 1598; Oil on canvas, 56 3/4 x 76 3/4 in; Galleria Nazionale dell'Arte Antica, Rome

13. CARAVAGGIO, Michelangelo Merisi da The Crucifixion of Saint Peter Oil on canvas 90 1/2 x 70 in. Cerasi Chapel, Santa Maria del Popola, Rome

14. Baroque Musical Highlights
Birth of OPERA - theatrical presentations with music and elaborate stage spectacle
New focus on instrumental music and instrumental accompaniment to voices
New emphasis on chords and use of BASSO CONTINUO

15. Baroque Music Style Characteristics
Timbre
new emphasis on instrumental music & instrumental accompaniment to voices
Rhythm
beat is emphasized; lots of forward motion
Melody
elaborate, ornamented, continuously expanding, long and winding
Form
one main theme repeated over and over
Dynamics
sudden changes from loud to soft and soft to loud called terraced dynamics
Texture
more rapid changes in texture (homophony, imitative polyphony) throughout a single movement or piece of music
Harmony
new emphasis on chords; orchestra mainly consists of strings and basso continuo (bass melody instrument like cello or bassoon + chord generating instrument harpsichord, organ, or lute)
Mood
the same mood throughout movement; this heightened emotional state called affect (vocal music is exception; vocal music has many changes of mood, but closely follows text)

16. Baroque Music Genres Vocal Music Genres Instrumental Music Genres
Opera
Oratorio
Cantata
Instrumental Music Genres
Chamber Music
Concerto Grosso

17. Opera Sung theatrical work Staged with costumes and sets
Example: HENRY PURCELL "Dido's Lament" from Dido and Aeneas CD#1/69-70

18. Henry Purcell

19. HENRY PURCELL "Dido's Lament" from Dido and Aeneas
Aria vs. Recitative

20. Aria Song for solo voice with orchestral accompaniment
usually expressing an emotional state through its outpouring of melody
found in operas, oratorios, and cantatas

21. Recitative
Vocal line in opera, oratorio, or cantata that imitates the rhythms and pitch fluctuations of speech, often serving to lead into an aria

22. Libretto Librettist Text of an opera
Dramatist who writes the libretto, or text, or an opera

23. HENRY PURCELL "Dido's Lament" from Dido and Aeneas
Listen for Basso continuo in Recitative

24. Basso Continuo (‘continuous bass’)
Baroque accompaniment made up of a bass part usually played by two instruments:
A keyboard (or other chord-making instrument, such as a lute or organ), and
A low melodic instrument (such as cello or a basson)

25. HENRY PURCELL "Dido's Lament" from Dido and Aeneas
Aria built on Ground bass

26. Ground Bass (basso ostinato)
A repeating bass line
This one has dark-sounding harmony and is descending in pitch
Variation form in which a musical idea in the bass is repeated over and over while the melodies above it constantly change
Common in Baroque music

27. Dido’s Lament from Dido and Aeneas
Dido sings:
Thy hand, Belinda, darkness shades me,
On thy bosom let me rest;
More I would be death invades me;
Death is now a welcome guest.

28. Dido’s Lament from Dido and Aeneas
When I am laid, am laid in earth, may my wrongs create
No trouble in thy breast.
Remember me! But ah! Forget my fate.

29. Oratorio Like opera, but unstaged Uses a religious story
Example: GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL’s Messiah
"Hallelujah" CD#2/11-16
"Ev'ry Valley Shall Be Exalted" CD#2/10

30. George
Frideric
Handel

31. G.F. Handel’s “Ev’ry Valley Shall Be Exalted” from The Messiah
Listen for
Terraced dynamics
Emphasis of beat
Ornamented melody
Continuous affect
Word painting

32. Terraced Dynamics
Abrupt alternation between loud and soft dynamic levels
Characteristic of Baroque Music
Not found in Medieval or Renaissance Music

33. Affections /Affect p.95 of text
The expression of one basic mood in Baroque music
Specific rhythms or melodic patterns were associated with specific moods
Not characteristic of OPERA, but found in oratorio and cantatas

34. G.F. Handel’s “Ev’ry Valley Shall Be Exalted” from The Messiah
(text painting highlighted in blue and purple)
Ev’ry valley shall be exalted, and ev’ry mountain and hill made low,
The crooked straight, and the rough places plain.

35. GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL’s "Hallelujah” Chorus from Messiah
Listen for
Changes in texture
Hymn-like Homophony
Imitative Polyphony
Pedal Point
Emphasis of beat

36. Cantata Like opera, but unstaged, with religious text
Performed ONLY in churches
Examples: J.S. BACH Cantata No. 140: Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (Sleepers Awake) Mvt. 4 [Tenor Chorale] CD#1/71-73 & Mvt. 7 [Chorale] CD#1/74-75

37. Chorale
Hymn tune sung to a German religious text

38. Johann
Sebastian
Bach

39. J.S. BACH Cantata No. 140: Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (Sleepers Awake)
Mvt. 7 [Chorale]
Listen for
Hymn-like homophony
Complete and incomplete cadences
Mvt. 4 [Tenor Chorale]
Listen for
Ornamented melody
Continuous affect

40. Chamber Music
Uses a small group of musicians, with one player to a part
Meant for smaller, more intimate performance venues
Includes music for solo instruments
J.S. Bach’s Organ Fugue in G Minor “The Little”

41. Fugue
Polyphonic composition based on one main theme, or subject

42. J.S. BACH Organ Fugue in G Minor (The "Little")
Fugue form (features imitative polyphony)
Subject (Main Theme) stated in different “voices” during Exposition
Exposition followed by alternating Episodes (non-imitative) and Subject Entries (imitative)
Countersubject - countermelody that accompanies Subject in Exposition & Subject Entries
Picardy Third

44. Concerto Grosso
Composition for several instrumental soloists and small orchestra
common in late Baroque music

45. Concerto Grosso
Ritornello form - Ritornello (a homphonic or polyphonic block of music) alternating with Episodes (contrasting melodic, softer dynamics, virtuosic scales and arpeggios)
Tutti vs. Soli groups

46. Tutti
In Italian, “all”
The full orchestra, or a large group of musicians contrasted with a smaller group
Often heard in Baroque music

47. Solo, Soli In Italian, “one” or “ones”
The individual instrument or vocalist featured or a small group of individual musicianss contrasted with a larger group
Often heard in Baroque music

48. Antonio
Vivaldi

49. Examples of Baroque Concerto Grosso
J.S. Bach
Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D Major
Movement 1
Antonio Vivaldi
Concerto for Violin and String Orchestra, Op. 8, No. 1, La Primavera [Spring]
from The Four Seasons

50. Bach Brandenburg Soli - EPISODE Tutti group - RITORNELLO Flute Violin
Harpsichord
Tutti group - RITORNELLO
Full orchestra - string and basso continuo