handout of baroque music

8/13/2019 Handout of Baroque Music

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BAROQUE NOTES:

I. Sociocultural influences on Music

-derived from the Portuguese word barroco, meaning an irregularly shaped

pearl; first used as a term of scorn for works of art, particularly architecture, producedfrom the end of the !th century to the middle of the "thc

-applies to a long period of history and to such diverse countries as Italy,

#rance, $ngland, an the vast territories that came under %ermanic influence-all the arts are combined in the opera, or dramma per musica

-whole of &aro'ue movement had its inception in Italy as a part of the

(ounter-)eformation.

-Struggle between )oman (atholics and Protestants over religious issues, political power, and the ownership of land brought about the *+ ears ar/widening

the cultural and musical differences between ).(. and Protestants. 01orthern2 chorale

tradition; Southern2 Italian style3

-)oman (atholicism regained political influence-rise of absolute monarchies and the unification of national states played

an important part in the creation of national styles, because the monarchs and princeswere among the most important patrons of a lavish musical life

-spectacular forms such as the opera and intimate music for salon and

chapel-worldwide intensive coloni4ation during the 5th and "th centuries gave

rise to a wealthy merchant class/.provided a suitable climate for the establishment of a

commercial theater and its musical production, the opera 06enice very popular3

-Scholarly in'uiry; the success of scientific e7amination in these fieldsinfluenced musicians to apply methods of science to problems of music, and led to a

systematic development of the techni'ues and materials of musical art 0art of the fugue,well-tempered tuning3-8octrine of affections, a philosophical position that assumed that the

arousal and sustaining of feelings and affections was the primary purpose of music. 9his

e7pected that a consistent emotion be evoked and sustained throughout a movement orcomposition. :s the doctrine was practiced, numerous musical formulas were devised

for the evocation of particular emotions. It was a calculated and planned emotional

music

-!++-5+ usually referred to as <baro'ue,= a term adopted about + years agofrom the field of art history.

-More recently, some musicians and musicologists have ob>ected to the use of this

term, not without reason, as well as to the use of the terms <classical= and <romantic= forlater periods. Still, nobody seems to be able to do without some kind of chronological

terminology for styles

-<&aro'ue= simply as a general name for a musical style-In actual fact, most of the baro'ue music heard today dates from 5++-5+, late

period. &ach and ?andel were the greatest composers of this period, and among the very

good composers were :lessandro Scarlatti and :ntonio 6ivaldi in Italy, #rancois



(ouperin and @ean Philippe )ameau in #rance, 8omenico Scarlatti in Spain, and %eorg

Philipp 9elemann in %ermany.

II. #unction of Music

-:lthough a great deal of religious music was written for purely liturgical purposes, especially for the Autheran church, an increasing amount of religious music for

instruments was used for nonliturgical purposes

-nonliturgical music used for preludes, postludes for marriage ceremonies,installation of civil or religious officials etc.

-substantial portion of this music was instrumental 0household of the

aristocracy3

-In the large wealthy courts, ballet and opera were first performed asspecial entertainment for princes and courtiers. 9he opera soon developed into a very

popular form of public entertainment

-9he oratorio was the religious counterpart of the opera/ but it found

success as a public choral concert-festive occasions 0secular cantata3

-no institutional organi4ation for teaching the musical arts. oung boyswho showed interest and talent either were taught by their own musical fathers or

relatives or were attached to the household of a composer-performer

-Instruction in performance and composition was restricted to the aspiringmusician and to the household so to the aristocracy and wealthy burghers

-Its fascination with the theater. &oth the spoken theater and the opera

took great strides in the 5th century, and their impact on peoples minds can be compared

to that of the movies and television in the B+th century; kingsC 'ueensC e7travagant setting -9heatricality is a key to the emotional world of baro'ue art, whether in

music, the visual arts, or poetry. In baro'ue paintings people tend to be posed in stage-

like attitudes. :rchitectural interiors, and even the formal gardens of the time, look likestage sets

-9heatrical emotion has the virtues of great intensity, clarity, and focus; it

has to, or it would not reach its audience. 9he actor analy4es the emotion he is re'uiredto depict, shapes it and probably e7aggerates it, and then methodically pro>ects it by

means of his acting techni'ue and craft

-how the intensities and sensationalisms of &aro'ue destroyed a finer

tradition, that of )enaissance vocal and consort music, supplanted the friendly discourseof democratic e'uals with a new, dictatorial art, hectoring and demagogic in style

-: purified (atholicism, and a little later an impregnable Protestantism,

both looked to music to dramati4e their glory and their faith-9he &aro'ue (omposer, by dramati4ing magnificence, wrote the music

of 5th and "th century absolutism

-&aro'ue style spread across $urope through something like an apostolicsuccession

-9he orchestral and general instrumental repertory of the 5 th and "th

centuries found enthusiastic players in the Italian academia and in the collegia musica of

%erman-speaking $urope which began to spring up in the ! th century. 9he academias of



Italy were intellectual organi4ations whose attitude to the arts was as much scholarly and,

in the "th century sense of the term, <scientific,= or aesthetic. 9he collegia musica and

music clubs of %erman, :ustria and Swit4erland were gatherings of musicians whowanted to play together

-&ishop #ullers note that when music is suppressed in church it makes its

presence felt elsewhere could, however, have been prompted by developments inDwinglian and (alvinist Swit4erland. 9he banishment or e7treme restrictions of

liturgical music led to the formation of musical societies which at first simply performed

the music that was no longer heard in church

III. Style and Performance Practice

-#or the first time in the history of western $uropean music, two stylesflourished side by side2 . the )enaissance style, the stile antico or prima prattica, which

carried over into the &aro'ue period; and B. the new &aro'ue style itself, often called

stile moderno.

-(haracteristics 0homophonic, stile concertato-composer used instrumentaland vocal forces in compositions that were harmonic or contrapuntal in style. 9he style

includes planned contrasts of instruments or voices against one another either as soloistsor as groups, stile concitato-or e7cited style, was a practice in which music illustrated the

words or moods of the dramatic action. 9he use of tremolo in the strings of the orchestra

or rapidly sung syllables to a repeated note by the voice is typical-Ence these composers got hold of a musical idea, they never let go. :

prime fact about baro'ue music is its thorough, systematic, even rigorous 'uality

-9he harmonic mass effects made by large orchestral groups in the

&aro'ue period were a medium through which the composer and performer haranguedtheir audience

-&aro'ue music e7ploited not only the principle of monody and its

harmonically motivated accompaniment but also a new principle of construction bycontrast. 9hese new principles led to musical structures of great strength and power, and

they forged a connection with religion, both (atholic and Protestant, because of the status

they give to a te7t. 9he monodic stilo recitative was developed as a means of declaiminga te7t, its contours decided by the need to pro>ect words clearly to the listeners. 9he

arioso style which grew from recitative was motivated by the same declamatory principle

but enriched by the need to intensify the emotional power of the words. ?omophonic

passages in block harmony were e'ually considerate to words, and in this respect at least,though its vivid colour and dramatic intensity were not 'ualities dear to the (atholic

authorities, it came closer to the principles of the (atholic reformers than did the old

music which, with its homogeneity of te7ture and its avoidance of drama andsensationalism, was innately devotional

-Multi-choral writing and the intense e7pressiveness at which the &aro'ue

style aimed were disastrous to the Aiturgy, which evolved into a musical form rather thanan e7pression of the mind and devotion of the church

-9he point of a 5th or "th century musicians life is that when music was

wanted, he wrote it, and the regular meetings of music societies meant that a vast amount

of music was consumed



a. Formal organization

Fcontrapuntal development of thematic material continued to be

used in works that were wholly or partially contrapuntalGfugue

Fhomophonic forms, particularly in instrumental music, generallydepended upon simple statement and contrast of melodic material 0variation principle3

F:s in the )enaissance, te7t continues to dominate vocal musical

forms, but in different ways. In the new recitative the te7t was declared in an almosttheatrical style thought by them to replicate vocal delivery in the %reek 9heatre

Festablishment of the ma>or and minor tonalities led to distinct

phrase and period construction in formal design 0se'uencing techni'ue3

Fsingle-mindedness was the baro'ue composers basic attitude-asingle musical idea, or theme continues throughout the piece with scarcely a moments

letup; where he did work to achieve contrast was between musical pieces, not within

them

b. Melody

Fvaries from the declamatory style of the recitative to the

e7tremely florid style of the late &aro'ue arias and instrumental melodies

Fe7tended melodic rangeC vocal displayC e7tended instrumentalrange

Fin homophonic music, melody was essentially one of balanced

phrase and period, usually in four or eight measures. :lthough the upper melodic line

was dominant, there e7isted a kind of polarity between the melody and the bass line,which was in itself a melodically conceived

F:s with )enaissance music, scores rarely were marked with loud

and soft indications 0f and p3, and once a dynamic was chosen or set, it continued at aboutthe same level for the whole section-sometimes even for the whole composition; gradual

buildups from soft to loud, and the like were not used

Fterraced dynamics2 two different dynamic levels were set up inalternation, one after the other

Fcomple72 composers like to push melodies to the very limits of

ornateness and density; visual comple7ity as well

Ffre'uent use of se'uence in several pitch levels; most effectivemeans of forward movement

c. Rhythm

Frapid change of harmony made for a driving harmonic rhythm,

the movement given to music by changes in harmonyF$7cept for recitative, repeated metrical units became the standard

in &aro'ue music. 9empos were more constant, in part because of the importance of the

moving basso continuo, which gave certain driving, almost motoric, feeling to both

instrumental and choral works written in contrapuntal style



Fshows up most obviously in its regularity of rhythm; a single

rhythm or closely similar rhythms may continue to be heard throughout a whole piece or

a ma>or section of a piece; the meter nearly always stands out, emphasi4ed by certaininstruments playing in a clear decisive way

d. Harmony

Fyielded to the ma>or-minor system of tonal relationships

Fthe chordal nature of harmony was reflected in a system ofnumbers placed under the notes of the bass line, called <figured bass.= 9he harmonic

figurations of the bass line, suggesting rapid changes of harmony, especially in the works

of the late &aro'ue

F(hromaticism and dissonance were freely employed fore7pressive proposes. 9empered tuning of keyboard instruments was introduced an made

possible the chromatic changes that were necessary for e7tended modulations

Fa clear harmonic framework of a tonal nature had to come as the

starting point. It is this clear harmonic framework that we hear, essentially, as the featurethat distinguishes between baro'ue and !th century polyphony

Fthe central importance of harmony appears in the universal practice of figured bass, or basso continuo; these continuo chords are the solid framework

against which the contrapuntal lines of baro'ue music trace their intricate airy patterns

e. Texture

Fhomophonic te7tures began to predominate in vocal and

instrumental formsFthe tendency in purely homophonic forms to include contrapuntal

techni'ues and the harmonic richness of contrapuntal forms tended to make the te7ture of

most &aro'ue music rather thick and opa'ueFstandard te7ture is polyphonic or contrapuntal

f. Instrumentation and Tone color

Fmany of the instruments were forerunners of modern instruments

Fwrote for the possibilities and limitations of specific instruments

Fsonata 0whose name again belies the instrumentation3 consisted ofthree instruments2 a melody in instrument, and bass and keyboard instruments which

comprised the continuo

Flast Period in which improvisation was a definite re'uisite ofevery performer. ..e7pected

FSigns and symbols were increasingly used to designate particular

ornaments in the &aro'ue. Performers were e7pected to improvise ornamentation eventhough it was not marked by the composer. :lthough some of the signs were in common

usage, many of them took on the personal meaning of the composers or schools to which

they belonged. 9his has given rise to many differences of interpretation in the works of



the &aro'ue. 9empo designations such as allegro, andante, and grave were also introduce

but bore imprecise meanings

Falmost all composers were recogni4ed as virtuoso performers aswell

Frecorder, the bright baro'ue organ, the ever-present harpsichord,

and the festive orchestra featuring high trumpets and drums

handout of baroque music

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