Baroque - Music

• 1600 - 1750
• Strong Monarchy and Church
• Michealangelo & Rembrandt - art is more fantasy

Portuguese Pearl - elaborate luxury

Continuous Bass - usually cello or harpsichord

Duple Time

Triple Time

Triple Time

Compound Time

Independent line w/numbers for improvised chordal harmony

2 part form - AB - each section repeated

2 part form (the 2nd ends w/return to 1st)

• 3 part form - ABA -
• A: Statement / B: Contrast / C: Repitition

repeated melody in the bass

script of opera

music notes in stair steps

melody and accompanying harmony

2 or more melodic lines

• One Emotion conveyed by music
• Joy, anger, love, fear

• Aristocrats who resurrected musical and dramatic arts from Ancient Greece.
• Ciccini, Peri & Galilei (Galileo's father) created 1st operas and Monody(1 person singing w/accompaniment

collection of songs by Caccini - more dissonence and freedom

solo singer w/accompaniment

Monteverdi introduced - rapid repeated notes

after harpsichord - more expressive and unique devices

generic for all keyboards

Plucked strings

A Mighty Fortress is Our God

Cantata

• 8 movements in arch like structure
• 1. Chorus: choral fugue
• 2. Duet: Soprano & Bass Soloist
• 3. Recitative & Arioso: Bass Solo
• 4: Aria: Soprano Solo
• 5. Chorus: Unison Chorale
• 6. Recitative & Arioso: Tenor Solo
• 7. Duet: Alto & Tenor Soloist
• 8. Chorus: 4 part chorale

1715 - revised in 1744

Martin Luther

Saloma Franck

• SATB soloists & chorus
• Strings continuo and oboe

Choral Fugue

D Major

4/4 Time

Allegro

• Bach starts w/ well known melody(Chorale) familiar to the Lutheran congregation.
• Each phrase is a fugal exposition (repeating subject)
• Word painting - dissonance w/"dreadful plans"

Polyphonic composition where one musical line imitates another at a fixed distance throughout

Short recurring passage

Duet for Soprano & Bass

D Major

4/4 Time

Allegro

• Soprano and Bass
• Oboe, Violins, violos, continuo

• Bass begins w/florid counter melody with long melismas(1 syllable w/many notes).
• Oboe plays w/soprano
• Unison strings play w/agitated 16th notes figure throughout

Unison Chorus

D Major

6/8 Time

Allegro

• Strings and Oboes play melodic figure
• Trumpets add grand effect

Chorale

D Major

4/4 Time

Moderato

All singing harmony - united voices and instruments

Concerto Grosso

1721 by Bach to the Margrave of Brandenburg

1 in set of 6

• string orchestra and continuo
• violin, oboe, recorder and trumpet

F Major

Allegro

2/4 Time

Ritonello Form

• played Tutti/dominated entire work
• motive 1 & 3 - built around outline of tonic triad
• motive 2 & 4 - scale type movement
• Bright and cheerful
• Fortspinnung - spinning forward

small group in concerto grosso

Full orchestra

Opening passage repeated throughout

George Frederic Handel

Orchestral Suite

1717

22 movements in 3 Suites

• Baroque orchestra
• Strings, trumpets, horns, oboes

D major

4/4 Time

ABA (loose)

• Regal Trumpets start w/violins
• Horns w/Timpani answer
• Regal Stmosphere w/use of Brass instruments

D Major

3/2 Time

ABA (ternary)

• Dance w/syncopation and trills
• Energetic & Majestic triple metre country dance
• Instruments anser each other B Minor (relative minor)

Dominico Scarlatti

Exercises for Harpsichord (500 pieces)

Harpsichord Sonata

Early 18th century

D Major

3/8 Time

Courtly dance tempo - not too quick

Homophonic

Rounded Binary

• Opening melody repeated - created symetrical phrase
• Harmonic texture based on Tonic(D), Subdominant(G) and Dominant(A)
• Running passages, repeated notes
• Modulated to Dominant(A)

• Surpising dissonces
• Briefly to D Minor
• Fast Jumps and Quick Trills

Sonata in D major K430 Scarlatti opening melody

Cantata no. 80 Oboe Main Theme

Brandenburg Concerto no. 2 - Ritonello Theme

• Water Music Suite in D Major
• Allegro
• Hornpipe

• The New Music
• by Caccini

Claudio Monteverdi

1642

Opera

Giovanni Busenello

Prologue introduces us to Fortuna(Fortune), Virtu(Virtue) and Amore(Love). They argue and Love proclaims itself the winner. Roman Emperor Nero plans to kill his wife Ottavia so he can marry his mistress Poppea and crown her. Psychological drama

• Nero - Castrato - Emperor of Rome
• Poppea - Soprano - Nero's mistress
• Ottavia - Mezzo Soprano - Nero's wife
• Seneca - Bass - Nero's adviser
• Chorus of Consuls & Tribunes - tenors and basses

• 2 part writing - imitative style
• Recitative like passages
• Vocal tremolo on imperial

Jubilent interlude by orchestra - changing scenes

• Sung by Nero and Poppea
• Tender mood
• ABBA form

• Ground Bass - 4 note descending line
• Imitation between 2 voices exchanging endearments(I adore you-I embrace you-I desire you)
• Word painting - dissonance on Moro(I die) Peno(I suffer)

• Free Bass
• more harmonic variety
• Quick short motives exchanged imitatively

• Agitated Style - tremolo and pizzicato
• Monteverdi

Lyrical song for solo voice w/orchestral accompainment

• Speech like style of singing
• Only Continuo accompainment

Henry Purcell

Opera

1689

Nahum Tate

• Brutus of Alba (by Nahum Tate)
• Aeneid (epic poem by ancient Roman poet Virgil)

• Aeneas(Trojan Prince) is shipwrecked on shore of Carthage
• Dido is Queen - they fall in love
• Aeneas is destined to be the founder of Rome - he leaves
• Dido kills herself in final scene as his ship departs

Recitative Secco

C Minor

• Word painting
• descending vocal line - death and grief
• Melisma - darkness
• Chromaticism on Death

Aria

G Minor

3/2 Time

• Ground bass - 5 measure pattern/repeated 11 times
• Word painting - melisma on "laid in earth"
• "remember me" on repeated note motive

With Drooping Wings

• 4 part chorus softens the death scene
• word painting -descending lines w/Drooping wings
• 2 note melodic sigh on "soft"

• Didos Lament
• Thy Hand Belinda
• Recitative

• Dido - When I Am Laid in Earth
• Aria

• Coronation of Poppea
• Coronation Scene
• Consuls and Tribunes

• Coronation of Poppea
• Sinfonia - Interlude

• Coronation of Poppea
• Pur ti miro - I Adore You