Transcript Chapter 6: Late Baroque Music – Bach and Handel

Chapter 10:
The Late Baroque: Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
• Career:
– Weimer (1708-1717), organist
– Cöthen (1717-1723), court composer, conductor
– Leipzig (1723-1750), cantor
• Reputation
– Renowned as an organ virtuoso
– Most famous for cantatas and fugues
– Greatest composer of counterpoint
Fugue
• A composition with three or more parts, vocal or
instrumental
• Begins with successive statements of the subject
• Continues with alternations of subject and episodes
• Subject: Theme; primary musical idea
• Exposition: Opening section where each voice presents the
subject
• Episode: Free sections where the subject is not heard in its
entirety
Organ Fugue in G Minor (c. 1710)
• Written while Bach was court organist and chamber
musician for the duke of Weimar
• Four voices: soprano, alto, tenor, bass
• Subject conveys a sense of gathering momentum
• Use of a pedal point: a note, usually in the bass, that
is sustained while harmonies change around it
Bach’s Orchestral Music
• At Cöthen, Bach turned his attention from organ music
for the church to instrumental music for the court
• Wrote the bulk of his orchestral scores
• Prince of Cöthen had assemble an “all-star” orchestra
The Brandenburg Concertos (1715-1721)
• Presented to prospective employer Margrave Christian
Ludwig of Brandenburg
• Set of concerto grossi
• Brandenburg Concerto No. 5
– Concertino of solo violin, flute, harpsichord
– Separation between tutti and concerto not so distinct
– Ritornello has many characteristics of late Baroque
melody
– Use of cadenza: a showy passage for soloist alone toward
the end of a movement in a concerto
– Expanded length
The Church Cantata
• 1723, Bach assumed the position of cantor of Saint
Thomas’s Church and choir school in Leipzig
– Job was to organize music for the four principal churches
of the city, play organ at weddings and funerals, teach the
boys in the choir
– Compose new music each Sunday and for religious
holidays
• Church cantata: Multimovement scared work including
arias, ariosos, and recitatives, performed by vocal
soloists, chorus, and a small accompanying orchestra
– Musical soul of the Lutheran Sunday service
– Bach wrote almost 300 cantatas, about 200 survive today
– Bach would conduct from the keyboard
Wacht auf, ruft uns die Stimme
(Awake, A Voice is Calling, 1731)
• Written for the Sunday before Advent
• Text from the Gospel of Matthew
• Based on a traditional chorale of the Lutheran church
– Chorale: A spiritual melody or religious folk song of the
Lutheran church
• Seven movements
1
2
Chorus Recitative
chorale
1st stanza
3
4
5
6
7
Aria
(duet)
Chorus
chorale
2nd
stanza
Recitative
Aria
(duet)
Chorus
chorale
1st
stanza
Bach’s Later Keyboard Works
• The Well-Tempered Clavier (1720-1742)
– Reflects newer tuning system in which all half steps
were equidistant in pitch
– Two sets of 24 Preludes and Fugues, one in each of the
12 major and 12 minor keys
– Prelude: A short preparatory piece that sets a mood and
serves as a technical warm-up before the fugue
• The Art of Fugue (1742-1750)
– An encyclopedic treatment of all known contrapuntal
procedures
– 19 canons and fugues
– Final fugue subject derived from his name: Bb-A-C-B
– Bach’s final musical work, left incomplete