Music History 3

aka basso ostinato (obstinate bass)

type of variation form in which a bassline, or harmonic pattern (see Chaconne) is repeated as the basis of a piece underneath variations.

Examples: Basso continuo part from Pachelbel's Canon in D, Military 5/4 rhythm in Gustav Holst's "Mars" from The Planets, Ostinato in the Confutatis movement of Mozart's Requiem

group of humanists, musicians, poets and intellectuals in late Renaissance Florence who gathered to to discuss and guide trends in the arts, especially music and drama.

apex of influence for the Camerata was between 1577 and 1582

• criticized overuse of polyphony at the expense of the sung text's intelligibility. Intigued by ancient descriptions of the emotional and moral effect of ancient Greek tragedy and comedy,
• which they presumed to be sung as a single line to a simple instrumental accompaniment, the Camerata proposed creating a new kind of music. Instead of trying to make the clearest polyphony they attempt to bring music closer to that of classical times.

musical style which developed from these early experiments was called monody, development of musical drama- opera.

Bardi, Galilei, Caccini

intermezzo- in the Italian Renaissance, was a theatrical performance or spectacle with music and often dance which was performed between the acts of a play.

predecessor to opera

• Intermedi were written and performed from the late 15th century through the 17th century, although the peak of development of the genre was in the late 16th century. After 1600 the form merged with opera, for the
• most part, though intermedi continued to be used in non-musical plays in certain settings (for example in academies), and also continued to be performed between the acts of operas.

collection of monodies and songs for solo voice and basso continuo by the composer Giulio Caccini, published in Florence in July 1602.

one of the earliest and most significant examples of music written in the early baroque style of the seconda pratica. It contains 12 madrigals and 10 arias.

• 1. single solo line without accompaniment or
• 2. solo vocal style distinguished by having a single melodic line and instrumental accompaniment.

term is specifically applied to Italian song of the early 17th century, particularly the period from about 1600 to 1640

developed out of an attempt by the Florentine Camerata in the 1580s to restore ancient Greek ideas of melody and declamation

one solo voice sings a melodic part, usually with considerable ornamentation, over a rhythmically independent bass line.

Caccini, Peri and Monteverdi

2nd stage Madrigal 1550's

Palestrina and Willaert

literally "second practice" in dev. of madrigal, is the counterpart to prima pratica and is more commonly referred to as Stile moderno.

1580's chromatic dissonance of Gesualdo and Monteverdi

style in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms of ordinary speech. The mostly syllabic recitativo secco ("dry", accompanied only by continuo) is at one end of a spectrum through recitativo accompagnato (using orchestra), the more melismatic arioso, and finally the full blown aria or ensemble, where the pulse is entirely governed by the music.

recurring passage for orchestra in the first or final movement of a solo concerto or aria (also in works for chorus).

• In ritornello form, the tutti opens with a theme called the ritornello (refrain). This theme, always played by the tutti, returns in different keys throughout the movement. However, it usually returns in incomplete fragments. It was favoured by composers such as Bach, Vivaldi, Telemann and Handel and was used frequently in concertos, chamber works and vocal and choral pieces, though most
• prominently in the solo concerto where it created a ‘tutti-solo-tutti-solo-tutti’ pattern, with the ritornello being the ‘tutti’ section. At the end of the movement, the entire ritornello
• returns in the home key.

When the classical music era started, the ritornello form was altered to resemble sonata form, though it later transformed to become rondo form.

The final section of the fourteenth century madrigal was also called the ritornello and the ritornello technique was employed by Giovanni Gabrieli in his 16th century motets. The instrumental interludes that occurred during operas in the early Baroque were also termed "ritornellos."

from Latin and Italian sonare, "to sound" literally means a piece played as opposed to a piece sung.

• Origins 1590's- Gabrielli at St. Marks
• Early- Corelli, Torelli, Vivaldi 4 movments (de chiesa and de camera)- solo sonatas, trio sonatas or ensemble sonatas

Pre-Classical (1720-1750)-Scarlatti, CPE Bach. Dev. of Keyboard sonata

Vienese Classical Keyboard (1770-1790)- Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven (3 movements)

Beethoven Sontas 1790,s- earl, middle and late (4 movements)

Romantic (1800's)- Schubert, Weber, Mendelssohn

20th Century- Debussy, Scriabin, Ives, Bartok, Stravinsky, Cage, Carter

musical work is a composition usually in three parts or movements, in which (usually) one solo instrument (for instance, a piano or violin) is accompanied by an orchestra.

• 1600 dev. from the grand concerto or Gabrielli
• 1660 Instrumental concerto arose (usually for string or wind instrument) Corelli and Torelli
• 1710 Ritornello form with Vivaldi
• 1770 Classical Concerto- Piano- JC and CPE Bach, Mozart, Beethoven
• 1800's Romantic- Experiments with form- Mendellsohn, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov
• 1900 Twentieth Century- Bartok, Schoenberg, Sibelius- genre fades after 1945

type of art music that attempts to render people musically an extra-musical narrative. The narrative itself might be offered to the audience in the form of program notes, inviting imaginative correlations with the music. The paradigm example is Hector Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique, which relates a drug-induced series of morbid fantasies concerning the unrequited love of a sensitive poet involving murder, execution, and the torments of Hell. The genre culminates in the symphonic works of Richard Strauss that include narrations of the adventures of Don Quijote, Till Eulenspiegel, the composer's domestic life, and an interpretation of Nietzsche's philosophy of the Superman. Following Strauss, the genre declined and new works with explicitly narrative content are rare. Nevertheless the genre continues to exert an influence on film music, especially where this draws upon the techniques of late romantic music.

(abstract music) is a term used to describe music that is not explicitly "about" anything, non-representational or non-objective. In contrast with program music, absolute music has no words and no references to stories or images or any other kind of extramusical idea. Often used to refer to Romantic works of 1800's.

expressive melody, usually, but not always, performed by a singer. The term is now used almost exclusively to describe a self-contained piece for one voice usually with orchestral accompaniment. Perhaps the most common context for arias is opera, although there are many arias that form movements of oratorios and cantatas.

1700's dev. da capo aria (ABA form), later through-composed

ex: O mio babbino caro from Gianni Schicchi, Puccini, Habenera from Carmen by Bizet

is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir.

JS Bach most prolific uses

a man with a singing voice equivalent to soprano, mezzo-soprano or contralto produced by castration before puberty to prevent voice from changing.

emerged in 1550's and reached highest popularity in 1730-1750's as stars of opera (esp. the new da capo aria)

musical form widely used in the Baroque period. It is in three parts: the first is slow, often with over-dotted (i.e. exaggerated dotted rhythms, not strict double-dotting), the second is quick and fugal, and the first part returns at the end.

dev. by Lully. Used to open his operas.

later used in Bach orchestral Suites, Handel's Messiah Overture, Bach Goldberg Variations

genre of French opera introduced by Jean-Baptiste Lully and used by his followers until the second half of the eighteenth century. Operas in this genre are usually based on stories from Classical mythology or the Italian romantic epics of Tasso and Ariosto.

standard tragédie en musique has five acts and includes French overture style Overture dev. by Lully

ex: Armide (1686) by Lully

noble and "serious" style of Italian opera that predominated in Europe from the 1710s to circa 1770. Reaction against opera buffa. Subjects are moral and historical.

dev. the da capo aria as primary form

Scarlatti, Handel, Gluck (Orfeo et Euridice) and Mozart

large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists.

little or no interaction between the characters, and no props or elaborate costumes

texts tend to be sacred

ex: Handel's Messiah, Haydn's Creation , and Mendellsohn's Elijah

(derived from Italian: "stubborn", compare English: obstinate) is a motif or phrase which is persistently repeated in the same musical voice. An ostinato is always a succession of equal sounds. Each note always has the same weight in an ostinato. The repeating idea may be a rhythmic pattern, part of a tune, or a complete melody.

• examples: Basso continuo part from Pachelbel's Canon in D
• Military 5/4 rhythm in Gustav Holst's "Mars" from The Planets
• Ostinato in the Confutatis movement of Mozart's Requiem and Bolero

In music, Galant was a term referring to a style, principally occurring in the third quarter of the 18th century, which featured a return to classical simplicity after the complexity of the late Baroque era. This meant (in some implementations) simpler music, with less ornamentation, decreased use of polyphony (with increased importance on the melody), musical phrases of regular length, a reduced harmonic vocabulary (principally emphasizing tonic and dominant), and a less important bass line. It was, in many ways, a reaction against the showy Baroque style. Probably the most famous composer in the Galant style was Johann Stamitz.

18th century style which developed as Baroque artists gave up their symmetry and became increasingly more ornate, florid, and playful.

The Galante Style was the equivalent of Rococo in music history, too, between Baroque and Classical

sentimentalism

Empfindsamer styl was a style of composition developed in 1700's in Germany featuring sudden changes in mood. Contrasted the Baroque "Doctrine of Affections" that had only one affect or emotion per composition or movement.

CPE Bach, WF Bach, Quantz

a kind of broken chord or arpeggiated accompanimnet popular in the classical and early romantic periods

named for Dominico Alberti

notes of the chord presented low-highest-middle-highest

used by Mozart in left hand of many piano sonatas