Transcript The Baroque: 1600-1750

The Baroque: 1600-1750
The Age of Musical Extravagance and
Control
Early Baroque Composers (1600-1700)
• Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) wrote sacred
works, madrigals, and opera. We will study his
opera The Coronation of Poppea later in our
opera unit. He exemplifies emotion in vocal
music.
• Giovanni Gabrieli (c. 1555-1612). His works for
double choirs, spaced at opposite sides of St.
Mark’s Cathedral (in Venice), gave remarkable
echo effects. He exemplifies Baroque grandeur
Baroque Composers you may already
recognize:
• Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)
• Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
• Georg Friedrich Handel (1685-1759)
These composers are from the late Baroque
period, 1700-1750.
The role of the Baroque composer
• Baroque composers as practical craftsmen,
not as artists “with a calling”
• Music as functional, not as art object
• The composer as an artisan with a job
3 main venues for composers:
• The Church: composers wrote and performed
their own service music for services and
ceremonies.
• The court
• The Opera house: those attached to courts,
and public opera houses.
What distinguishes Baroque music
from music of the Renaissance?
• Rhythm and meter become more definite, a direct link
from Renaissance dance music. Barlines are used for
the first time. Meter is now emphasized. Think of
Palestrina’s Gloria from the Pope Marcellus Mass and
its “floating” Renaissance rhythms.
• The Basso Continuo (see next slide) provides harmonic
foundation and bass line.
• Functional harmony is important. The chord
progression—a succession of chords moving forward in
a purposeful way—is a new development. Each chord
in a key has a role and hierarchy in the chord
progression in relation to the tonic note and chord.
The (Basso) Continuo
• Keyboard, often harpsichord, sometimes
organ or lute, plays a bass line, a melody line,
and improvises chords from a figured bass,
similar to the way a jazz or pop musician uses
a fakebook.
• The bass line is played by a low instrument,
often cello or a low wind instrument.
New Baroque Music Forms
• Opera (we will study this in Week 7)
• Fugue: the imitative polyphony of the Middle
Ages and Renaissance develops into a
systematic form with a subject which recurs in
other voices.
• The concerto and concerto grosso (slide 14)
• Theme and variations (ex. Bach’s Goldberg
Var.). See ground bass on next slide.
New Baroque Musical Forms, cont.
• Ground bass: ostinato, a repeating pattern in
the bass which has a changing melody over
top of it and harmonies which follow the bass.
• Cantata: a moderate-length work for voices
and instruments. Bach wrote cantatas.
• Oratorio: essentially an unstaged opera with
Biblical subject matter for the story. Handel’s
Messiah is an oratorio.
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
• Church musician
• Court musician
Ex. 1.) Goldberg Variation 1 (1955 and 1981) on my
faculty webpage
Ex. 2.) The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I, Prelude in C
Major, on the 3-CD set bundled with your textbook, or on
the 6-CD set on reserve in WCC library.
Ex. 3.) The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I, Fugue in C
Major, on the 3-CD set bundled with your textbook, or on
the 6-CD set on reserve in WCC library.
The Fugue
Definition (Kerman p. 131): “a polyphonic
composition for a fixed number of instrumental
lines or voices [4 or more], built upon a single
principal theme.”
Subject: The principal theme of a fugue.
Countersubject: a second, complementary subject.
Exposition: When the subject is first presented
successively in all voices.
Episode: Passages of music between the exposition
and subsequent subject entries (restatements of
the subject).
Typical Fugue Form (short)
Exposition (subject; subj.; subj.; subj.), tonic key
Episode
Subject entry, another key
Episode
Subject entry, yet another key
Longer Episode
Subject entry, return to the tonic key
Why is Bach’s WTC Fugue No. 1 in C
Major unusual?
• There are no episodes.
• The subject keeps recurring in a very
concentrated, condensed manner.
• There is no countersubject.
• Not unusual, but worth noticing: the use of
stretto, or overlapping subject entries. The
subject entries seem to interrupt one another.
The Baroque Concerto
• The entire orchestra, versus solos by a soloist
(concerto) or solo group (concerto grosso)
• This dramatic change from full group to single
performer or small group results in terraced
dynamics: abrupt shifts from loud to soft.
• The full orchestra has returning refrain
sections, known as ritornello. The form is
named for these sections: ritornello form.
Ritornello Form
Ritornello (see p. 123 Kerman)
Solo 1
Ritornello (some or all when it returns)
Solo 2
Ritornello
Solo 3
Ritornello
Solo cadenza in here somewhere; displays
virtuosity
etc….alternates solos with Rit.; ends with Rit.
Late Baroque style features
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Energetic rhythm
Functional harmony
Terraced dynamics
Complex melodies; ornamentation added
Basic Baroque orchestra: mostly strings-violins violas, cellos, basses—and continuo
• Festive Baroque orchestra: see above, plus 2
oboes, 1 bassoon, 3 trumpets, and 2 timpani.