Transcript Baroque 1600-1750 - La Salle University

Baroque 1600-1750
Instrumental Music
6 Features of Baroque Music
• 1. terraced dynamics – dynamics change
suddenly
• 2. unity of mood – a movement will stay in
one mood only
• 3. continuous melody – the melody continues
to unfold and keep going. Hard to find a
cadence (resting place)
• 4. continuous and driving rhythm – a rhythm
pattern is usually repeated throughout, and
builds momentum
6 Features of Baroque Music
• 5. chords and the basso continuo –
strong bass line played by two players
(harpsichord/organ and cello). Chord
progression, a set of tones that all
belong to the same key
• 6. polyphonic texture – more than one
melody is usually going on at the same
time
Instrumental Music
• Sona - having to do with “sound” i.e.,
not vocal music
• Movement – a part of a work, sounds
complete in itself with a beginning
middle and end. Think of it like a
chapter in a book
Vivaldi Spring
• Solo Concerto - multi-movement work
for orchestra and a soloist – features
cadenza
• Usually 3 movements Fast Slow Fast
• Cadenza - the part in a concerto where
the orchestra stops playing and the
soloist is featured.
Vivaldi Spring (cont.)
• Program music – music that has an
extra-musical idea to go along with it. It
might be a story, an idea, a picture, or a
text.
Toccata and Fugue
• Prelude – a short musical work which “sets
up” a larger work (Toccata in book)
• Fugue – 1. a method of composition using
polyphonic texture and based on a single
melody called a subject. 2. a work that is
written using the fugue method (think of it in
the same way that rap has two meanings – to
rhyme, and a type of song that features the
rap method)
• Suite – a group of dances, usually all
are in binary form (AABB)
• Passacaglia – a work that is built on an
unchanging bass line that is repeated
throughout
• Canon – a rule, or a work that is built on
a rule.