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.