Music: An Appreciation

10th Edition
by Roger Kamien

Part IV
The Baroque Period
1600-1750

2011 © McGraw-Hill Higher Education

The Baroque Period
Time Line
• Shakespeare: Hamlet-1600
• Cervantes: Don Quixote-1605
• Jamestown founded-1607
• Galileo: Earth orbits Sun-1610
• King James Bible-1611
• Newton: Principia Mathematica-1687
• Witchcraft trials in Salem, Mass.-1692
• Defoe: Robinson Crusoe-1719
• Swift: Gulliver’s Travels-1726
 The Baroque Style
• Time of flamboyant lifestyle
• Baroque style “fills the space”
• Visual Art
• Implies motion

• Busy
• Architecture
• Elaborate
• Change in approach to science
• Experiment-based, not just observation
• Inventions and improvements result
Ch. 1 - Baroque Music
 Two giants of Baroque composition
 Johann Sebastian Bach (period ends w/ Bach’s death)
 George Frideric Handel
 Other noted composers
 Claudio Monteverdi
 Henry Purcell
 Arcangelo Corelli
 Antonio Vivaldi
 Period divided into three phases
• Early: • Middle: • Late:
1600-1640 1640-1680 1680-1750
favored homophonic major & minor dominant chord
scales to the tonic
texture
Characteristics of Baroque Music
• Unity of Mood
• Expresses one mood throughout piece

• Rhythm
• Rhythmic patterns are repeated throughout
• Provides compelling drive & energy
• Melody
• Opening melody heard again and again
• Continuous expanding of melodic sequence

• Dynamics
• Volumes are constant with abrupt changes –
terraced dynamics
Characteristics of Baroque Music
• Texture
• Late Baroque mostly polyphonic
• Extensive use of imitation
• Chords and the Basso Continuo
• Chords meshed with the melodic line
• Bass part served as foundation of the harmony
• Basso Continuo: accompaniment played by
keyboard instrument following numbers which
specifies the chords – similar to modern jazz & pop
“fake book” notation
• Words and Music
• Text painting/word painting continues
• Words frequently emphasized by extension
through many rapid notes
The Baroque Orchestra
• Based on violin family of instruments
• Small by modern standards
• Varying instrumentation
• Strings, woodwinds, brass, & percussion
• Nucleus was basso continuo unit
• Composers specified instrumentation
• Tone color was subordinate to melody,
rhythm, & harmony
• Composers obtained beautiful effects from
specific tone colors
Baroque Forms
• Instrumental music frequently made up of
movements
Movement: a piece that sounds complete in itself,
but is part of a larger composition

• Performed with pause between movements

• Unity of mood within individual movements
• Movements often contrast with each other
• Common basic forms:
• Ternary • ABA
• Binary • AB • ABB
• AAB • AABB
Ch. 2 - Music in Baroque Society
• Music written to order
• New music, not old-fashioned, was desired

• Courts:
• Music indicated affluence

• Court Music Director

• Good prestige, pay, and other benefits
• Still considered a skilled servant
• Some aristocrats were musicians

• Church music was very elaborate

• Most people heard music only in church

• Some, though few, public opera houses

• Music careers taught by apprenticeship

• Orphanages taught music as a trade
Ch. 3 - The Concerto Grosso
and Ritornello Form
Concerto Grosso
• For small group of soloists and orchestra
• Multi-movement work
• Usually 3 movements
• Fast
• Slow (usually quieter)
• Fast (sometimes dance-like)
Ritornello
• Frequently used in 1st & last movements of
concerto grosso

• Theme repeatedly presented in fragments

• Contrast between solo sections and tutti

Listening
Brandenberg Concerto No. 5 in D major
by Johann Sebastian Bach
For string orchestra and group of soloists
Soloists: flute, violin, and harpsichord
First movement
Ritornello form
Listening Outline: p. 129
Basic Set, CD 2:4
Brief Set, CD 2:1
Ch. 4 - The Fugue
• Cornerstone of Baroque music
• Polyphonic composition based on one main theme

• Vocal or instrumental
• Subject
• Main theme
• Presented initially in imitation
• Each voice enters after previous voice
has completed presenting the subject
Listening
Organ Fugue in G Minor
by J. S. Bach
Note individual voice entry on same melody
(subject)

Listening Outline: p. 133

Basic Set, CD 2:17
Brief Set, CD 2:06
Ch. 5 - The Elements of Opera
• Drama sung to orchestral accompaniment
• Text in opera is called libretto
• Music is written by a composer
• Libretto is written by a librettist
• Opera can be serious, comic, or both
• Two primary types of solo songs:
• Recitative: presents plot material
• Aria: expresses emotion—usually a “show-off”
vehicle for the singer
• Other types: duet, trio, quartet, quintet, etc.
• Three or more singers make up an ensemble
• Chorus: groups of actors playing crowd parts
• The prompter—gives cues to singers
• The orchestra pit – sunken area in front of
stage
• Prelude or overture - instrumentals that open
opera acts
• Modern questions concerning text in opera
• Translation of text and effects upon text painting

• Supertitles-projection of text above the stage

Ch. 6 - Opera in the Baroque Era
• Result of musical discussions of the Camerata in Florence

• 1st known opera: Euridice (Peri-1600)

• Orfeo (Monteverdi-1607)
• 1st large scale (great) opera
• Opera composed for court ceremonies
• Display of magnificence and grandeur
• Patrons compared to ancient heroes
• 1st public opera house 1637 in Venice
• Rise of virtuoso singer—chief was castrato
• Secco vs accompanied recitative
Ch. 7 - Claudio Monteverdi
• Italian, early Baroque composer

• Wrote first great operatic work, Orfeo

• Worked last 30 years at St. Mark’s in

Venice
• Composed both sacred music and
secular music for the aristocracy

• Only 3 of his 12 operas still exist

Listening

Tu se’ morta from Orfeo by Monteverdi

Note: Homophonic texture
Use of text painting

Vocal Music Guide: p. 142

Basic Set, CD 2:20
Brief Set, CD 2:09
Ch. 8 - Henry Purcell
• English composer (1659-1695)
• Highly regarded, held court positions
• Buried beneath the organ in
Westminster Abbey
• Dido and Aeneas

Ground Bass
• Repeated musical idea in bass
• Variation form—melodies above change
• Also called basso ostinato
Listening
Dido’s Lament from Dido and Aeneas by Purcell

Note: Recitative followed by aria

Aria makes use of ground bass

Vocal Music Guide: p. 144

Basic Set, CD 2:21
Brief Set, CD 2:10
Ch. 9 - The Baroque Sonata
• Instrumental work
• Multi-movement piece for one to eight
instruments
• Trio sonata
• Three melodic lines: basso continuo and two
above
• Written as three parts, but performed by four
players
• Sonata da chiesa—church sonata
(dignified)
• Sonata du camera—chamber sonata
(more dance-like, intended for court
performance)
Ch. 10 - Arcangelo Corelli
Trio Sonata in A Minor, Op.3 No. 10
by Arcangelo Corelli
For 2 violins and basso continuo
Basic Set, CD 2:23 and 2:24 - p. 146

Note: Polyphonic texture

Multi movement work
Contrast between
movements
Ch. 11 - Antonio Vivaldi
• Late Baroque Italian composer
• Il prete rosso (the red priest)
• Taught music at girls orphanage in
Venice
• Girls performed at mass hidden behind
screen
• Wrote sacred and secular vocal and
instrumental music
• Famous as a virtuoso violinist &
composer
 Listening
La Primavera (Spring), Op. 8, No. 1, from
The Four Seasons (1725) by Vivaldi
Listening Outline: p. 148
Basic Set, CD 2:25 Brief Set, CD 2:12

Concerto for violin and string orchestra

Note: Polyphonic texture & ritornello form
Baroque program music
Descriptive effects (trills for bird
songs, string tremolos for thunder)
Ch. 12 - Johann Sebastian Bach
• German, late Baroque composer
• Organist and violinist
• Deeply religious (Lutheran)
• Worked in sacred and secular positions
• Weimar/Cothen/Leipzig
• Large family
• Known during lifetime as keyboardist
• Wrote in every form except opera
• Recognized for technical mastery
• Highpoint of polyphony combined w/ harmony
• All music majors study Bach’s compositions
• He is the model for learning to write music
Listening
Prelude and Fugue in C Minor, from The Well-
Tempered Clavier, Book I by Bach

Listening Outline: p. 154

Basic Set: CD 2:33

Ornamental passage in the style of improvisation

Concludes with bright C major harmony
Pedal point
Ch. 13 - The Baroque Suite
• Instrumental, multi-movement work
• Written for listening, but based upon dance
• Movements usually in binary form—AABB
• Often began with a non-dance overture
• French overture—2 sections
• 1st slow, dignified
• 2nd faster, often beginning as a fugue
• Forerunner of forms used in the next period
Listening

Suite No. 3 in D Major (~1730)

by J. S. Bach, 2nd, 4th, & 5th mvts.
Basic Set, CD 2:41 Brief Set, CD 2:21
Listening Outline p. 161

Note: Extensive polyphony

Contrast of dance forms and
tempo in various movements
Ch. 14 - The Chorale and
Church Cantata
• Lutheran church service was social event
of the week
• Lasted 4 hours with 1 hour sermon
• Music was major part of worship service
• Congregation participated in singing chorales
• Chorale: hymn tune w/ German text
• Cantata
• Multi-movement church work for chorus, soloists,
and orchestra
• Vernacular religious text
• Resembled opera in its use of choruses,
recitatives, arias, and duets
Listening
Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (Awake,
A Voice Is Calling Us)
by J. S. Bach (1731), Movements 1, 4, & 7
Vocal Music Guides: pp. 164 - 168
Basic Set, CD 2:47
Brief Set, CD 2:23

Note: Vernacular (German) text

Chorale tune basis
Polyphonic until chorale in movement 7
Movement 7—provides for
congregation to join in
Ch. 15 - The Oratorio
• Like opera:
• Large-scale work for chorus, soloists,
and orchestra
• Contains arias, recitatives, ensembles
• Unlike opera:
• No acting, scenery, or costumes
• Based upon biblical stories
• Not intended for religious services
• Commonly performed today in both
churches and concert halls
Ch. 16 - George Frederic Handel
• Born in Germany—same year as Bach
• Not from musical family
• Father wanted him to be a lawyer
• Studied music in Germany, then to Italy
to study opera, finally England to work
• Became England’s most important
composer
• Wrote many operas in London
• Had own opera company
• Worked as composer, performer, & impresario
• Buried in Westminster Abbey
Listening
From The Messiah by G. F. Handel
(1741)
Ev’ry Valley Shall Be Exalted
Vocal Music Guide: p. 174 Basic Set, CD 305
Brief Set, CD 2:27
For unto Us a Child Is Born
Vocal Music Guide: p. 175 Basic Set, CD 3:06
Hallelujah Chorus
Vocal Music Guide: p. 177 Basic Set, CD 3:09
Brief Set, CD
2:39