Baroque Music

Main Currents in Baroque Music

Baroque Music

• The transition to the Baroque brought about a shift from several independent lines (polyphony) to one in which a melody stood out (homophony).

• Monody: originated in vocal music around the year 1600 and was a new style featuring solo song with instrumental accompaniment

• Monody focused on text and its emotional power

Baroque Music

• Figured bass: shorthand notation for harmony–Chords created through improvisation

• Basso continuo: bass part, performed by 2 instruments–Chordal instrument (harpsichord, organ or

lute)– and bass instrument (cello or bassoon)

Baroque Music

• Camerata- group of people (writers, artists, and musicians) engage in discussion about “the new music”.

• Members of Camerata were aristocratic humanists who aimed to resurrect the musical-dramatic art of ancient Greece.

• Music must heighten the emotional power of the text.

• Camerata gave the path to more advance form Opera.

Baroque Music

• Establishment of the major-minor tonality system was the outcome of this simpler style and less complex harmonies and was the most significant change in all of music history.

Baroque Music

– Equal temperament: a new tuning system that mathematically equalized the distance between adjacent tones–Made it possible to play in every major and

minor key without experiencing unpleasant sounds– J.S. Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier (2

vols.) each contains 24 preludes and fugues, one in every possible key