Download Chapter 9 Key Terms Late Baroque Timeline Age of Science Art and

Chapter 9
Prelude:
The Late Baroque Period
Late Baroque Timeline
Key Terms
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Baroque
Absolutism
Harmonic rhythm
Basic orchestra
Festive orchestra
Sequence
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Ornamentation
Ritornello
Continuo
Figured bass
Affects
Age of Absolutism
• Decreasing power of church
• Rise of absolute monarchs (Louis XIV)
• Pomp and splendor (Versailles)
Age of Science
• Development of scientific methods
and technology
• New theories about the natural
world
• Advent of empiricism
Art and Absolutism
• Royal patronage of arts
– Courts throughout Europe imitated France
– Rules vied with each other through art
• Art’s political function
– To reflect and symbolize the majesty of the
state
– To stupefy with its grandeur
The Music of Absolutism
A Golden Age of Theater
• Music required for court life
• Baroque obsession with emotional
extremes
• All arts take on a dramatic quality
– To pay homage to nobles
– To play for ceremonies
– To entertain at banquets and balls
– Theater: Shakespeare, Corneille,
Racine
– Art: Tiepolo, Guercino, Rembrandt
– Music: invention of opera
• Opera closely associated with courts
– Expensive, spectacular entertainment
– Allegorical tributes to noble patrons
Science’s Impact on the Arts
• Painting
– Scientific observation
Detail and perspective
– Optics
Attention to light
• Architecture
– Symmetry and geometry
Grandeur and scale of
Versailles
– Regulation of nature
Formal gardens
• Theater
– Mathematics and machinery
designs
Bibiena’s set
Musical Life in the Late
Baroque Period
• Composer as artisan
– Producing a made-to-order craft for
patrons
– Music often anonymous in character
• Three main institutions for music
– Church
– Court
– Opera house
Science’s Impact on Music
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Scales tempered more precisely
More systematic use of harmony
New regularity in rhythm
Orderly formal schemes
Emotions (affects) analyzed and
classified
Church Composers
• Composed or improvised new music for
worship
• Played and led performances
• Provided elaborate works for special
occasions
• Trained choirboys
• Responded to increasing desire for
keyboard, chamber, even orchestral works
Court Composers
• Employee of the court, producing
music to order
• Had to be prolific
• Enjoyed secure existence
• Could travel and encounter new
trends
Opera House Musicians
• Supported by the public (paid
admission)
• Solo singers were the stars
• Composers wrote and rewrote
music to show off singers’ talents
• Composers often conducted their
operas from the harpsichord
Style Features of
Late Baroque Music
• Extravagance
– Large-scale works for large ensembles
– Intense, dramatic emotional expression
• Control
– Thorough, methodical expression
– Extracting maximum effect from material
– Uniting many elements to depict a single
emotion
Rhythm
• Highly regular, determined motion
• Distinctive rhythms against a steady
beat
– Freer rhythms in upper voices
– Walking bass
• Steady harmonic rhythm
Dynamics
• Rarely indicated; usually steady
• Dramatic contrast preferred
– Either loud or soft (f or p)
– Change at end of entire section, if at
all
• Performers still created subtle
nuances
Tone Color
• New interest in sonority
– Distinctive Baroque sounds and
instruments
– Idiomatic writing—taking advantage of
unique color of each instrument
• Flexibility
– Works “for violin or oboe or flute”
– Rewriting earlier works for different
performing forces
Basic Baroque Orchestra
A string orchestra with continuo
Melody
• Tends toward complexity and difficulty
– Extended range
– Variety of rhythmic note values
– Intricate, unpredictable twists and turns
– Irregular phrase lengths
• Frequent use of sequence for forward
motion
Texture
• Standard Baroque texture is polyphonic
– Sometimes homophonic texture, for
contrast only
• Dense orchestral works use many
moving contrapuntal lines
• Simple works for solo and continuo still
feel contrapuntal (active bass)
Festive Baroque Orchestra
Adds brass, woodwinds, and percussion
Ornamentation
• Addition of fast notes, motives, or
effects to a melody
– Cadenzas; chording continuo instruments
• Improvised during performance
– Sometimes written down to guide lesser
performers
– Even simple tunes lavishly ornamented
The Continuo
• Provides framework and support for
melody and polyphony
– Bass line played by cello or bass viol
– Chords played by keyboard or plucked
strings
• Creates “polarized” texture
• Often written as figured bass
Playing the Continuo
• Bass line played with left hand
• Chords improvised with right hand
• Chords “realized” in simple or complex
manner, according to ability
Baroque Musical Form
• More standardized formal patterns
– Fugue, ritornello, dance form, etc.
– Easier to compose on demand for patrons
• Patterns filled in orderly, logical manner
– Entire fugues constructed from single theme
– Often symmetrical ordering of movements
• Meant to sustain rich musical experience
over long time span
Emotional Expression
• Powerful yet impersonal
• Baroque composers thought music
should
– Mirror a wide range of emotions
(affects)
– Depict those emotions consistently
– Take on a theatrical quality
Affects
• Scientists studied and classified
emotions
• Composers catalogued musical
elements for each “affect”
– Keys: D minor = Serious; E minor =
Pathos, etc.
– Melodic and rhythmic figures
– Instrumental and vocal types and genres