3. BAROQUE

1600 - 1750

TIMELINE

The word Baroque comes from the Portuguese word

barocco, which literally means a deformed pearl. It

describes a very ornamented style of European art

from around 1600 to 1750. Painters, sculptors, architects

and musicians made their art very elaborate. Baroque

style was well suited to the aristocracy’s power and

wealth.

MUSICAL CONTEXTS

New rulers are created and used music to

show their power and wealth. The Church used

it to glorify God and to inspire the faithful in

religious ceremonies. The creation of theatres

enabled the development of opera.

THE FUNCTION OF MUSIC

Composers were hired as chapel teachers or as court

musicians. They composed works for specific events,

which were likely to be performed just once in the

musician’s lifetime. The virtuoso performer appeared – a

singer or instrumentalist whose exceptional skills were

greatly admired by their audiences.

THE MUSICIAN’S ROLE

How to recognise Baroque music

❑The concertante style, which is characterised by contrasts between

sections with all instruments playing, and other sections with a soloist

and orchestral accompaniment.

❑A mechanical rhythm with a regular beat, ordered accents, and

repetitive rhythmic patterns.

❑Long melodies with a lot of ornamentation.

❑Texture based on accompanied melodies and counterpoint.

❑Harmony based on a melody with a “figure bass”, which generates

chords.

❑The most important instruments are violins and keyboard

instruments (organ and clavichord).

Pachelbel – Canon in D Major

Handel – Messiah (overture). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4tS3UQ082Q

Vivaldi – Four Seassons (spring). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3nSvIiBNFo

Abinoni – Adagio. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn1gcjuhlhg

Harmony is the relationship between notes when they

sound simultaneously. The Baroque period saw the

creation of the harmonic system on which western music is

based.

THE LANGUAGE OF MUSIC

The key is how certain notes in a diatonic scale relate to

the defining note ot that scale, which is called the tonic of

that key.

Mode refers to the nature of a scale according to the

distribution of tones and semitones between degrees on

the scale. The mode can be “major” or “minor”.

Chords are several notes that sound simultaneously.

They are formed by playing intervals of a third and a fifth.

Chords can be consonant (produce a pleasant sensation)

or dissonant (sound more unstable).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PffQKTeOUQ

The basso continuo or “figure bass” is a form of Baroque

accompaniment where the main part is accompanied by a

bass instrument. The bass line is a low Melody that

generates a chordal accompaniment in the mid-range

parts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTGVOvTv0zE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8XzG53YT8Y

The great Baroque composers such as Bach, Handel and

Vivaldi wrote religious music that was performed in religious

services. In Catholic Europe, composers continued to write

Masses and motets, while chorales and cantatas were still

composed for Lutheran church services. Cantatas were very

similar to oratorios but much shorter. Chorales were

accompanied by an organ.

Religious vocal

music

The oratorio was a dramatic musical form with a religious

theme. Unlike opera, oratorios were not works for the stage,

so the singers did not “act” their parts. They were performed

by soloists, a choir, an orchestra and a narrator.

A passion is a kind of oratorio, with a text that tells the story

of Jesus’s suffering and death. Bach wrote the St John

Passion and the St Matthew Passion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6K7-cl7Ynf0

The Baroque era saw the birth of opera: a complex musical

event where the action is presented through the voices of

soloists and chorus, with an orchestral accompaniment. It

brings together poetry, dance, drama, stage design and music.

Secular vocal

music

The first opera, Euridice, was composed by Peri in 1600, but

the first one to have survived is written form was Orpheus by

Monteverdi (1607).

There are two main kinds of Baroque opera: opera seria (written in

italian) with plots that were inspired by mythological and heroic themes;

and opera buffa (in the language of the country where it was

performed), with plots reflecting everyday life.

Normally, an opera is divided into three acts, with the following

elements:

• Overture: an instrumental piece of music played by the orchestra

before the opera begins.

• Recitative: fragments in which singers sing very clearly (almost like

speaking), accompanied by a harpsichord.

• Aria: melodic fragments in which the singing is more expressive.

• Instrumental passages.

• Chorus, performed by a group of singers.

The libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an

opera. The first operas were performed in the palaces or homes of

wealthy noblemen, but, as they became more popular, public theatres

were built to allow more people to see the show (by buying a ticket).

As the Church didn’t allow women to sing, the highest voices were

performed by the castrati, young men castrated when they were boys

to preserve the high pitch of their voices. One famous castrati was

Farinelli, who worked at King Philip II’s court for several years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU681o8BlZs

INSTRUMENTS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSBtXsOM4eU

INSTRUMENTAL GENRES

A sonata is an instrumental composition for one, two or three instruments.

The sonata had three or four movements that contrasted in tempo and

texture. The tempo of the movements followed a slow-fast-slow-fast plan.

A suite is a composition based on several dance pieces, usually with

contrasting tempos. Some of the most common movements were

courante, gigue, allemande, sarabande.

A concerto is a musical piece for orchestra and soloist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fj3TJ61VoY0

INSTRUMENTAL GENRES

Toccata and prelude were short musical pieces, usually for

keyboard instruments, used as an introduction of a bigger piece,

normally a fugue. They were composed to show the abilities of the

performer, and they usually have sections in which the musician

improvised with their instrument.

A fugue is a complex polyphonic composition based on the

development of two motives in different voices.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g43CLS-XpnI

Antonio Vivaldi

Antonio Lucio Vivaldi was an Italian

Baroque musical composer, virtuoso

violinist, teacher, and priest. He

composed many instrumental

concertos, for the violin and a variety

of other instruments, as well as sacred

choral works and more than forty

operas. His best-known work is a

series of violin concertos known as the

Four Seasons.

Georg Friedrich Händel

Baroque composer George Frideric

Handel was born in Germany, although

he lived in England. He produced several

operas like Solomon, with the Sinfonia

that opens act 3 ("The Arrival of the

Queen of Sheba") featuring at the 2012

London Olympics opening ceremony.

When Italian operas fell out of fashion,

he started composing oratorios,

including his most famous, Messiah.

Handel died in London and his funeral

was attended by 3,000 people.

Johann Sebastian Bach

Born in Germany, Johann Sebastian

Bach had a prestigious musical lineage

and took on various organist positions

creating famous compositions like the

"Brandenburg Concertos" and "The Well-

Tempered Clavier." Bach also created

oratorios. The most famous of which is

"Passion according to St. Matthew”.

Today, he is considered one of the

greatest Western composers of all time.