Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 Mvmt 3

Key words

1) Instrumentation and Sonority 2) Structure 3) Tonality 4) Harmony 5) Rhythm, Metre and Tempo 6) Melody 7) Texture

At the top of your Bach Score write each on in each of your 7 colours

LOs: To develop my knowledge and understanding of music history; to identify characteristics aurally; to expand my knowledge and use of subject-specific vocabulary.

The Baroque Period : 1600-1750 (approx). From the birth of opera and oratorio to the

death of J.S.Bach

Baroque: derived from a Portugese word, barocco, meaning an irregularly-shaped pearl or piece of jewellery. Associated with the highly ornamented style of architecture and art of

the 17th century.

Main composers: Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, Corelli, Scarlatti, Monteverdi, Purcell, Rameau

Patronage/Contexts

LOs: To develop my knowledge and understanding of music history; to identify characteristics aurally; to expand my knowledge and use of subject-specific vocabulary.

The Baroque Features - Ornamented melodic lines

- Creation of Major/ Minor Music - Use of Diatonic chords (I, II, IV, V, VI) to compose

- Basso Contunio - New musical textures of Monophonic, homophonic &

polyphonic - Musical devices such as Pedals, Sequences and

Suspension - Concerto Grosso: Concerto for more than one soloist

J.S. Bach

• 1685-1750, German (spent whole life there) • Orphaned aged 10 • Was a Kapellmeister (choir master) in courts when

he wrote the Brandenburg Concertos. • Later became an organist in Leipzig, Germany • Had 20 children, some of whom later became

composers

Background information

• Concerto Grosso composed between 1711 & 1720 – Has a concertino and ripieno – Dialoguing Has instruments ‘in dialogue’, playing

one after the other, swapping ideas – Antiphony (call & response), two different groups

• Dedication to the Margrave of Brandenburg

Instrumentation

Solo Flute

Solo Violin

Ripieno Viola

Ripieno Violin

Concertino Ripieno

Harpsicord, Double bass & Cello= Basso

Continuo

Baroque Flute- an older version of the modern flute made of

wood

Instrumentation • Concerto Grosso • Use of a Continuo (continuous bass) Harpsichordist - At times soloist - Directs the Ensemble - At times part of the continuo - ‘Realises’ figured bass -Musical short hand to show the chord.

Tells you how many notes

above to play

Instrumental techniques • Figured bass- in Cembalo Concertato part

(harpsicord)

• No dynamics are in the music- instead there are

terraced dynamics- louder when more instrumentalists are playing.

• Melodic decoration- Trills (tr) and slurs

Task - Annotate your

score with the examples here

- Challenge: Can you find your

own examples?

Structure- Ternary Form

Section A

Bars 1- 78

Section B

Bars 79- 232

Section A

Bars 233-310

• Task- can you label the different sections on your score? • Challenge- identify the internal structure of each section

Tonality Section A

Bars 1- 78

D Major

(brief moments of A major)

Section B

Bars 79 - 147 B minor

(relative minor)

Section A

Bars 233-310

D Major (brief moments of A

major) Bar 148 - 163 A major

Bars 163- 232 B minor again

2#s (sharps) F# & C#

This music is Diatonic (stays in a key, not dissonant/ clashing)

Texture

• Polyphonic/ Contrapuntal (baroque device)

• Begins in a Fugal Style- each instrument imitating the same theme (bars 1- 34)

Many Sounds

Task - Annotate your score with the

examples below - Challenge: Can you find your

own examples?

Texture (continued) • While the ripieno play the flute and violin

sometimes play in unison (e.g. bar 33 &34)

• Start Section B (Bar 79) there is a tonic pedal in the bass ( bars 79-83 and 90- 95)

Key at bar 79= B minor First degree of the scale= Tonic

Therefore a repeated B= Tonic pedal

Task - Annotate your score with the

examples below - Challenge: Can you find your

own examples?

Melody

• Much of the music is in conjunct (stepwise) style (e.g. bar 2), though there are leaps (e.g. fourths in bar 1).

• Often the conjunct music is extended to scalic runs, especially in the harpsichord part.

• There is a rising sequence at bar 137 (same short phrase repeated several times, going up one note each time).

• There are occasional ornaments, with trills (e.g. bar 19) in the harpsichord part.

• There are appoggiaturas in the main middle section theme when it returns in A major (e.g. bar 148).

Task - Annotate your score with the

examples below - Challenge: Can you find your

own examples?

Harmony • The harmony uses the standard chords of the time (i.e.

predominantly chords I, IV and V, with occasional use of II and VI), including dominant sevenths in various inversions.

• The harmony is functional (mainly uses chord I, IV and V). • The harmony uses mainly root position and first inversion

chords.

• Perfect cadences announce the ends of sections (eg bar 77-

78). • Suspensions are used occasionally (i.e. 9–8 suspension at

bar 130).

Root (block) chord

1st Inversion (flipped) chord

Dominant 7th= chord V7

Task - Annotate your score with the

examples below - Challenge: Can you find your

own examples?

Tempo, metre and rhythm

The metre is 2/4, duple time – two beats to the bar • The music could also be notated in 6/8

compound time. It is essentially a Baroque gigue (a dance in compound duple time).

• It uses triplets and dotted rhythm throughout. • The harpsichord part in particular has many

semiquaver runs.

Triplet Dotted Rhythm

Task - Identify triplets, dotted rhythms and

semiquaver runs on your score - Challenge: can you find homorhythm?

Test time!

Grade boundaries

14: level 8 12-13: level 7 11-10: level 6 9: level 5 8-7: level 4 6-5: level 3 4-3: level 2 2-0: level 1

GCSE questions 1) Find two examples of different musical textures in the movement. Write a bar

number followed by the single word describing the texture: monophonic, homophonic or polyphonic.

2) Describe the difference in sound between the harpsichord and the piano. 3) In what way is the flute phrase at bar 79 a variant of the opening theme? Name

both a similarity of rhythm and a similarity of interval. 4) Listen to the opening theme (bars 1-2). How many times can you hear/ identify it

in the movement? 5) Apart from playing the written notes, the harpsichordist was important in other

ways. Briefly describe one other role of this instrument.

Challenge 1) Explain how this piece demonstrates some of the key features of the Baroque

style 2) In the 20th Century Sir Michael Tippett wrote a Concerto for Double String

Orchestra. Listen to the opening movement and compare it to this Bach Baroque movement. Can you identify some similarities and differences?