Download In modern day, music from the baroque era can be heard all over

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Jacob Kemlock
Professor Snyder
Humanities 101
2 April 2015
Baroque Music
The history of music is extremely broad and includes numerous periods such as
Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Modern. Each musical period
contributed to the music which is produced and performed today. The Baroque musical period
gave performers the freedom in improvising the greater part of the expression as he or she goes
along, and even quite a substantial part of the notes. The music created during the baroque era as
well as the performances are still to this day contributing the expansion as well as the
development of music and performances worldwide.
The baroque musical period is a style of Western art music composed approximately
from 1600 to 1750. This era followed the renaissance, and was followed in turn by the Classical
era. The word Baroque is derived from the Portuguese barraco, or “oddly shaped pearl.” A
notable development of the baroque period is the development of counterpoint. Counterpoint
describes two or more independent lines of music played simultaneously, in other words "note
against note.” This was also a period in which harmonic complexity grew alongside emphasis on
contrast (Baroque Music 2014).
A major philosophical belief current in the baroque musical period comes from the
Renaissance interests in ideas from ancient Greece and Rome. The belief of the Greeks and
Romans was that music had a powerful tool of communication and could arouse any emotion in
its listeners. Because of the revival of these ideas, composers and musicians became
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increasingly aware of music’s true power and potential. As a result of the ideas of theses
composer’s beliefs, it cultivated them to think their compositions could have a similar effect if
they emulated ancient music. As a French humanist scholar Artus Thomas described a
performance in the late sixteenth century
I have ofttimes heard it said of Sieur Claudin Le Jeune (who has, without wishing to
slight anyone, far surpassed the musicians of ages past in his understanding of these
matters) that he had sung an air (which he had composed in parts)…and that when this air
was rehearsed at a private concert it caused a gentleman there to put hand to arms and
begin swearing out loud, so that it seemed impossible to prevent him from attacking
someone: whereupon Claudin began singing another air…which rendered the gentleman
as calm as before. This has been confirmed to me since by several who were there. Such
is the power and force of melody, rhythm and harmony over the mind. (quoted in
Baroque Music 2014)
During the baroque musical period, new interests in music started to rise around different
sounds and tones in music. Along with the emphasis on a single melody and bass line came the
practice of basso continuo, method of musical notation in which the melody and bass line are
written out and the harmonic filler indicated in a type of shorthand. Because basso continuo, or
thorough bass, remained standard practice until the end of the baroque period, the era is
sometimes known as the “age of the thorough bass.”
Each generation of music is defined by different genres, styles, and performances.
Although forms from earlier eras continued, such as the motet or particular dances, an interest in
music as a form of rhetoric sparked the development of new genres, particularly in the area of
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vocal music. Many of the forms associated with the baroque era come directly out of this new
dramatic impulse, particularly opera, the oratorio, and the cantata.
In the later years of the sixteenth century, there was a group of musicians conducted
experiments in Florence, Italy, with a new method of composing dramatic vocal music,
reproducing their ideas on that of ancient Greek theater. The intention of the new found ideas of
the musicians was to better connect and be more undeviating with the audience, as the complex
polyphony of the Renaissance could often be incomprehensible during performances, and
obscure the text being sung. Instead, musicians set a single melodic line against a basic chordal
accompaniment, and with this notion of homophony, a new era of music began (Music History
102).
The Florentine Camerata called this new form of the opera. The first performances of
opera were private affairs, composed for mostly Italian courts. Then, in 1637, the first opera
house was opened in Venice, Italy. Opera became a commercial industry. This genre gave
musicians throughout history the opportunity to try out new ideas and new techniques of
composition (Music History 102).
The first surviving opera was Jacob Peri’s Dafne, which was based on libretto by Ottavio
Rinuccini and performed in Florence in 1598; the earliest opera still performed today is Claudio
Monteverdi’s Orfeo (1607). The first opera’s subjects derive from Greek myth, reflecting the
genre’s close alliance with attempts to recreate the drama and music from of ancient cultures.
These performances were solely performed in aristocratic circles for invited guests (Baroque
Music 2014).
The oratorio is defined as the extended musical drama with text based on religious
subject matter, intended for performance without scenery, costume or action. The word oratorio
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originally meant prayer hall, a building located adjacent to a church that was designed as a place
for religious experiences distinct from the liturgy. The oratorio as a distinct musical genre
emerged amidst the excellent acoustics of these spaces in the early 1600s, although there are late
sixteenth century precedents of the oratorio in the motet and madrigal repertoire.
The oratorio grew popular in other countries such as Germany. In Protestant Germany,
composed music at that time for the Lutheran church gradually merged with elements of
oratorio. A few of the famous composers associated with oratorio are Giocomo Carissimi,
Alessandro Scarlatti, and Antonio Vivaldi. Famous composers outside of Italy include the works
of George Frideric Handel, who popularized the genre in London. Works that are still being
played and performed today include Messiah, Israel in Egypt and Judas Maccabeus.
In addition to opera and oratorio, another genre of music during the baroque period was
cantata. Cantata was an extended piece consisting of a succession of recitatives and set pieces
such as arias, duets, and choruses. Cantata originated in early 17th century Italy, beginning as a
secular work composed for solo voices and basso continuo. Performances at this time were
mostly meant for private social gatherings, as were most early performances of opera and
oratorio. Many of the first works performed were published, proposing the musicians were
professional and armatures equally.
By the middle of the century cantatas were being published less frequently, suggesting
performances were being progressively more done by professionals. Cantatas began
incorporating the da capo aria and often had orchestral accompaniments by the end of the 17th
century. There were many major Italian composers of the cantata genre. They include Lugi
Rossi, Antonio Cesti, and Alessandro Stradella. Then in the first half of the 18th century,
composers included Alessandro Scarlatti, Handel, Benedetto Marcello, and Johann Adolf Hasse.
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During the last fifteen to twenty years, after being ignored for decades, baroque music
has become increasingly popular. Scholars, musicians, composers, and performers have spent
innumerable hours trying to understand now music might may sounded like to audiences in the
17th and 18th century. Although musicians and composers alike will never be able to recreate a
performance precisely, the work of these musicians has brought to light countless differences
between baroque and modern ensembles.
Many of the well known personalities from the first part of the baroque era resided in
Italy, including Monteverdi, Corelli, and Vivaldi. By the mid 18th century, focus shifted to
German composers. The majority of the forms identified with baroque music originated in Italy,
including the cantata, oratorio, concerto, sonata, oratorio, and opera. Although a vital role in the
development of the period was played by Italy, new concepts of what it meant to be a nation
increased the imperative of a national style. The differences between nations music resided in the
way the music was composed, but also in the convention of performance; particularly was the
contrast between Italy and France. Even though certain countries may seem to claim a larger
piece of our experience of baroque music today, every nation had a role. As musicians and
composers traveled all of Europe and heard each other’s music, the new conventions they
encountered made subtle impressions on them.
In modern day, it is typical to attend performances or concerts. During the baroque era, a
public gathering or concert was very rare. The majority of famous baroque performances were
performed in churches for a service, or as a part of a private concert or celebration in a wealthy
patron. During the baroque period, public performances and concerts became more common
particularly in the arts of opera and oratorio, and our modern concert began to coalesce in many
European cities. The advent of the public concert made the growing middle class an important
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source of income for musicians. By the end of the baroque, this social subset had become a
musical patron almost as powerful as the church or court.
By the middle of the eighteenth century, the baroque idea of music was under attack.
During this time, music had an incredible power to express even the most difficult concepts, but
only in the most “natural form.” As Johann Adolph Schiebe said of J.S. Bach in 1737:
This great man would be the admiration of whole nations if he made more amenity, if he
did not take away the natural element in his pieces by giving them a turgid and confused
style, and if he did not darken their beauty by an excess of art. Since he judges according
to his own fingers, his pieces are extremely difficult to play; for he demands that singers
and instrumentalists should be able to do with their throats and instruments whatever he
can play on the clavier, but this is impossible… Turgidity has led [him] from the natural
to the artificial, and from the lofty to the somber; and…one admires the onerous labor
and uncommon effort—which, however, are vainly employed, since they conflict with
Nature. (quoted by Baroque Music 2014)
Schiebes insistence on clarity and easer of performance hints at a major change in
musical athletics. Throughout his diatribe, the final arbiter of taste is not Plato or Aristotle, but
ultimately the listeners and performers themselves. There was a new emphasis on direct melodic
expression and clear musical architecture points the way to the classical period, the age of
Mozart and Haydn.
In modern day, music from the baroque era can be heard all over despite ending 250
years ago. Some of the most admirable and well known composers of that time can be heard in
concert hall as they are performed regularly. Many of the genres performed today such as the
opera, oratorio and cantata are genres from the baroque musical period. The likes of Ralph
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Vaughn Williams, Igor Stravinsky and Benjamin Britten perform the works of the baroque era to
pay their respects. The free movement between solo and jazz group is sometimes compared to
jazz group. The spirit of the baroque, an unwavering belief in the power of music to touch
people’s lives, changed music history forever.
In conclusion, the music created during the baroque era as well as the performances are
still to this day contributing the expansion as well as the development of music and performances
worldwide. The baroque music period helped shape all of the music from the eighteen hundreds
to now. Although now every part of music created during that period may have survived until
now, pieces of the music composed by the best musicians of that time are still being incorporated
into music being constructed now.
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Work Cited
“About the Baroque Period” Music Baroque 2014-15. n.d. Web. 30 March 2015.
Baroque Music.com. Web. 30 March 2015
Buelow, George. A History of Baroque Music. 2004. Print.
Doningtown, Robert. Baroque Music, Style and Performance: A Handbook. 1982. Print.
“Music History 102: a Guide to Western Composers and their music” Robert Sherrane. n.d. Web.
30 March, 2015.