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Music
History
Baroque
1600-1750
MAIN CONCEPTS
•ornamentation
•prima prattica
•secunda prattica
•affectations
VOCABULARY
•figured bass
(basso continuo)
•improvisation
•extended works
The Baroque
The Renaissance period, with its explosion
of the arts, was followed by a period of
music identified as the Baroque. Baroque
translates to “irregular shape.” The term is
not just used to describe the musical period,
but is also synonymous with the art and
music identified with this period comes from
Europe.
Baroque music falls into three
main areas of performance:
church, concert, and
theatre. In addition, Baroque
composers began to write
music for specific instruments
or voices, rather than music
that could be performed by
any combination of voices and
instruments. Written music
began to be written and heard
in distinct measures, with definite patterns of
strong and weak beats.
Baroque music can be classified in two
distinctly different styles, known as the
prima prattica (first “practice”) and secunda
prattica (second “practice”). In the prima
prattica, the music dominated the text, but in
secunda prattica, text had a higher priority
than the music.
Composers also began to embrace the
concept of writing music that reflected the
affections, or states of the soul/emotions.
In Baroque art and architecture, forms were
sometimes distorted to reflect the passionate
intensity of the artist (thus the naming of
this period); Baroque music did the same,
embracing the performer as artist and
improviser.
X
The compositional technique of basso
continuo, or figured bass, was prevalent
during the Baroque. The composer would write
out a melody line and the bass line, but the rest
of the harmony was not written in. Performers
were expected to fill in the rest of the
harmony based on the figures;
therefore, improvisation
and ornamentation by the
performers was expected, in
which performers elaborated on
the notated scores by adding
trills, turns and accidentals.
There is much discussion
between music theorists and
historians as to the “correct”
interpretation for baroque
music, because performance
practice was not necessarily
standardized or recorded during this time.
Many instruments reached their pinnacles
of development during the Baroque period,
especially string instruments made by master
violin builders such as Stradivari and Stainer.
Much Baroque keyboard music was written to
feature the harpsichord and the organ, leading
the way to the development of the pianoforte,
which would prevail in the Classical period.
Extended forms with multiple movements or
sections were common, the most common
being the concerto grosso, canon, fugue,
suite and sonata.
While the presence and popularity of
instrumental music continued to grow, vocal
music found new popularity in a new venue:
opera. Extended vocal works with multiple
movements were also introduced, including the
oratorio, passion, and cantata.
Notable Historical Events
•1607 English settlers arrive in Chesapeake
Bay
•1618-1648: Thirty Years’ War
•1666: Great Fire of London
•1687: Sir Isaac Newton summarized
his discoveries in terrestrial and celestial
mechanics in Philosophiae naturalis principia
mathematica
Georg Friedrich Handel
(1685-1759)
Handel was a German-born
Baroque composer who spent
most of his life living and
working in England. Handel
is famous for his operas,
oratorios and concerti grossi. Works: Messiah;
Water Music; Music for the Royal Fireworks.
•1709: Bartolomeo Cristofori invents the
piano.
Henry Purcell
(ca. 1659-1695)
Purcell has often been called
England’s finest native
composer, known best for
his vocal and keyboard
compositions. Works:
Dido and Aeneas, In these
delightful pleasant groves.
Period Artists & Writers
Alessandro Scarlatti
(1660-1725)
Italian composer Scarlatti
was especially famous for
his operas and chamber
cantatas. He is considered
the founder of the Neapolitan
school of opera. Works: Già
il sole dal Gange, O cessate di piagarmi, St.
Cecilia Mass.
•Milton: Paradise Lost (1667)
•Rembrandt: Nightwatch
•Bernini: Ecstasy of St. Teresa
•Cervantes: Don Quixote
Notable Composers
Johann Sebastian Bach
(1685-1750)
Bach was a prolific German
composer and organist,
writing sacred and secular
works for choir, orchestra,
and solo instruments.
Works: Brandenburg Concertos; Mass in B
Minor; St. Matthew Passion; The Art of the
Fugue.
Antonio Vivaldi
(1678-1741)
As well as being a composer,
Vivaldi was a Venetian priest
and a famous virtuoso violinist
as well as being a music
teacher. Works: The Four
Seasons, Gloria.
POPULAR
MUSICAL FORMS
INSTRUMENTAL
•canon
•fugue
•concerto
•suite
•sonata
VOCAL
•opera
•oratorio
•passion
•cantata