The document discusses Baroque instruments and the Baroque dance suite. It provides details on instrument designs and materials used in the Baroque era. It then describes the typical structure of a Baroque dance suite, including common dances and forms. It highlights two notable Baroque suites: Handel's Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks. The Water Music suite included a "Hornpipe" movement, described as a lively sailors' dance written in binary form. The document also briefly mentions other Baroque suites by Jacquet de la Guerre, Couperin, and Bach.
4. • Instrument designs were improved
• Finest violins in history came from shops of
– Stradivarius
– Guarneri
– Amati
• Violin strings made of gut
• Woodwinds made of wood
• Horns and trumpets: valveless, called “natural”
• Timpani
Baroque Instruments
5. The Baroque Suite
• Dance Suites
– “Stylized” collection of dances intended for listening
rather than dancing
– Derived from various types of dances that were in
fashion
– Core Dances: Allemande(Ger), Courante(Fr),
Sarabande(Sp), Gigue(Irish)
– Other dances: Bourée, minuet, gavotte, loure,
polonaise, passepied
– Might include prelude or overture
– Customary for all to be written in the same key, faster
dances contrast with slower
– Repeated sections; embellished on repeat
– Binary form
6. Handel and the Orchestral Suite
• Water Music
• Music for the Royal Fireworks--written to celebrate
the peace treaty that ended the War of Austrian
Succession
Two notable suites by Handel
7. George Frideric Handel
Water Music
• Written for a riverboat party given by English
King George I--July 17, 1717
• The entire piece is a suite--series of dance
movements Twenty-two numbers
• Performed without continuo
• Divided into three suites
• Movement presented here:
– Hornpipe--a lively dance in triple meter, often
associated with sailors
8. Binary Form
• Two sections, each repeated
– ||: A :||: B :||
• Tonic key to related key New key ---> tonic
• A section starts in tonic and modulates; B
section starts in the new key and goes back to
the tonic key.
• Usually based on a single theme, manipulated
in various ways; little actual contrasting
material.
9. More About the Hornpipe
• Timbre: Winds vs. Strings
• Handel did not specify which instruments should
play.
– In the Hornpipe performers used a different
orchestration each time the binary form was
presented.
– Orchestration--manner in which various
instruments are assigned to musical lines
10. Other Baroque Suites
• Elizabeth Jacquet de la Guerre--Suite in D
Minor--for harpsichord
• Francois Couperin--many suites for
harpsichord
• Johann Sebastian Bach--Orchestral Suite
No. 3 in D Major (Air on a G String)
■ In the Baroque era, instruments were greatly improved and featured in several large-scale genres, including the suite (a collection of dances).
■ The Baroque suite is a group of dances, usually in the same key, with each piece in binary form (A-A-B-B) or ternary form (A-B-A).
■ Handel’s best-known orchestral suites are Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks.
“If music be the food of love, play on.” —William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
During the Baroque era, instrumental music became as important as vocal music for the first time in history.
Great virtuosos such as Bach on the organ or Vivaldi on the violin raised the technique of playing to new heights.
Early Baroque composers did not specify instrumentation. Late Baroque composers began to choose instruments according to timbre desired, and wrote the music in a way that showcased the best quality of the instrument.
Instrument designs became more precise, and the art of orchestration began to blossom.
One dramatic improvement occurred in the construction of string instruments.
Some of the finest violins ever built were from the workshops of Stradivarius, Guarneri, and Amati.
Many of these violins are still in circulation and are currently worth millions of dollars.
Handel wrote two notable orchestral suites: Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks.
Artwork: Giovanni Antonio Canal (Canaletto) (1697–1768), a royal sortie on the Thames River in London
Listening Guide 10—Handel: Water Music, Suite in D Major, II