Music Characteristics of Baroque Period

1. Music Characteristics of Baroque Period

2. Stile Antico • Universal polyphonic style of the 16th century • Reserved for sacred music

3. Stile Moderno • Nuove musiche – with emphasis on solo voice, polarity of the melody and bass line, and interest in expressive harmony • Secular usage

4. New Vocal Forms • Opera • Oratorio • Cantata

5. Instrumental Music • Sonata • Concerto • Overture

7. Claudio Monteverdi • First great composer of the “new” music • Followed in Italy by Alessandro Scarlatti and Giovanni Pergolesi

8. Giovanni Pergolesi

9. Instrumental Tradition • Aracangelo Corelli • Antonio Vivaldi • Giuseppe Tartini

11. France Masters of Baroque Music were: • Jean-Baptiste Lully - Major composer of Opera • Jean Philippe Rameau

13. Germans • George Frideric hande; • Johann Sebastian Bach • Heinrich Schütz • Dietrich Buxtehude • Georg Philipp Telemann

14. Literature • Giambattista Marino (Italy) • Luis de Góngora (Spain) • Martin Opitz (Germany)

15. English Metaphysical Poetry • Allied with Baroque literature • Most notably of John Donne’s

16. elements

17. Rhythm • Rhythmic organization in triple patterns underlying all polyphonic music of late 12th and 13th centuries • Begun in two-part organa of Notre-Dame school in Paris • Culminated in multilingual motets of the 13th century • Latter forms feature two or three rhythmic modes simultaneously in different parts

18. System of Rhythmic Modes It is this system that facilitated the temporal coordination of polyphonic parts

19. Melody • Successive repetition of melodic ideas showing the highness and lowness of pitch level • MELODIC RESOURCES • Theme – melody not necessarily complete in itself except when designed for a set of variations - recognizable as a pregnant phrase or clause - Fugue subject (theme); expositions and episodes of a sonata (group)

20. Melody 2. Figures or motives – small fragments of a theme - Grouped into new melodies in the ‘development’ of a sonata - Fugue: carry on the music when subject and countersubject are silent 3. Sequence – figure or group of chords is repeated at different levels of pitch

21. Melody 4. Ornaments or graces (small melodic devices) – used to embellish a melody - present in most European music - essential to Indian, Arabic, Japanese and other non-Western music • Modes or Melody types – complex formulaic structures with which melodies are built

22. Texture • Polyphonic style – different voices are heard as separate entities and rhytmically independent of each other • Counterpoint – combination of simultaneous lines of melody; sometimes equated with polyphony • Polyphony refers to multipart textures animated by the dynamic interplay of usually closely related, complementary parts.

23. Timbre • Monody – its development is necessary precondition for most expensive performance • Continuo instruments – included the lute, theorbo, harp, harpsichord, and organ (17th century) • (18th century) – more standardized: bass line would be realized on a keyboard instrument and reinforced by monophonic bass instrument • Continuo player- could also control rhythm and tempo to suit particular conditions

24. Dynamics • Elector of the Palatine at Mannheim – famous ensemble that set a pattern followed by orchestras in Europe (standard size: 25 ; dramatic effects and orchestral devices) • Hastened the decline of the improvised thorough bass by writing out harmonic filler parts for violas • Haydn – in 1791, associated with Johann Peter Salomon; conducted his London symphonies

25. Harmony • Rise of professional vocal virtuoso in the last quarter of 16th century • GiulioCaccini and Jacopo Peri (Italians) • Monteverdi – nine successive books of madrigal document the changes in style from music composed for four to six essentially equal voices to music in which the interest lay primarily at the extremes of the texture • Basso continuo – technical underpinning for new monodic style; improvising chords above a single line of music

26. Form • Concerto Grosso– principal orchestral music • Characterized by contrast between a small group of soloists and the full orchestra • Titles of early concerti grossi reflected their performance locales such as concerto dachiesa(chuch concerto) and conertoda camera (chamber concerto) • Flourished as secular court music • Trio sonata – typical instrumentation for concertino • Two violins and continuo – prevalent genre of chamber music

27. Form • 1700 (Arcangelo Corelli) – number of movements varied • Giuseppe Torelli & Antonio Vivaldi – committed to solo concerto, adopted a three-movement pattern of fast-slow-fast • Ritornello structure – used often by fast movements in which a recurrent section alternates with episodes, or contrasting sections • 1750 (Handel) – Opus 6 (1740) concerto grosso was eclipsed by solo concerto

28. Fugue • “fuga” – Latin; means flight • Musical composition in which a melodic theme is systematically subjected to melodic imitation • Contrapuntal – interwoven melodies (texture) • Fugato – a passage employing fugal techniques within another form • Number of parts or voices are at least two but most commonly four, usually constant throughout the piece