Enjoyment of Music, Essential Listening Edition, 3rd Edition Prelude 3 Introduction for Part 3-The Baroque Era

1. THE ENJOYMENT OF MUSIC
ESSENTIAL LISTENING
EDITION
by
Kristine Forney
Andrew Dell’Antonio
Joseph Machlis
THIRD EDITION
Lecture Slides

2. Part 3
The Baroque Era

3. Part 3
The Baroque Era

4. The Baroque Era: Overview
Time Period (1600-1750)
• The period between the Renaissance and the Classical
Era
• “Baroque” (irregular pearl)--extravagant and bizarre
qualities of the music--harmonies, textures, and forms
more free and unpredictable than those of either the
Renaissance or Classical Eras
• Music had energy and motion, ornamentation and
extremes.
– Expression of feelings (affect) became important; one
feeling per movement = doctrine of affections
– Represented passions through music
• Architecture--very ornate

5. Baroque Art and Culture
The Baroque Era (1600–1750)
• Turbulent change in
politics, science, arts
• Religious wars
• Exploration of the New
World
• Rise of middle-class
culture
• Music making centered in
the home, church, and
universities

6. Judith Slaying Holofernes
Gentileschi

7. The Baroque Era: Overview
• National pride was illustrated in cultural, political, and economic
terms. Finest music = highest power
– Rulers/aristocracy proved their value by elaborate festivals, music,
art, architecture.
• King George I of England
• Louis XIV of France
• Churches also illustrated their importance with elaborate music and
architecture.
– Many of the compositions of this period were written for the
churches--both Catholic and Protestant.
– Height of church music-80% is religious
– Music conveyed spiritual teachings, as did sacred architecture.

8. Louis XIV’s Palace at Versailles

9. Baroque Music: General
• Whereas in the Renaissance, most church
music was performed without
accompaniment (i.e., a cappella), in the
Baroque, many instruments were used to
accompany liturgical music.
• Gabrieli pioneered the use of different
instruments in various parts of the church--
called “antiphonal” style

10. A Musical Interlude
• By the Dutch
painter Jan
Verkolje (~1674)
• Depicts a
passionate
musician reaching
for his female
companion, who
is holding a viol.

11. Historical Events that Influenced
Baroque Period
• Gutenberg’s movable type (1453) led to
printed music (1501) Ottaviano Petrucci
– Printed music allowed musical compositions to be
performed by many different individuals and
ensembles in a variety of places.
– Printed music allows us to know much more about
music after this time.

12. Characteristics of Baroque Style
Music
• General: heavy, grand, expansive
• Performance Media: chamber orchestra,
chorus plus chamber orchestra, chamber
ensembles (vocal and instrumental), organ,
harpsichord
• Rhythm: steady beats, running bass, regular
meters of 2, 3, 4, and 6 beats, tempo of piece
stays same throughout except for slowing near
end

13. Characteristics of Baroque Style
Music
• Melody: using major and minor scales, ornamentation,
sequences, and imitation, first real use of chromaticism,
continuous, fortspinnung, repetition elaborate and
ornamental, rapidious notes
• Harmony: strong harmonic movement; sequences of
harmony and recurring cadences; major and minor harmonies
used
 Dynamic Expression: contrasting (sudden drops and
increases: called “terraced dynamics”); echo imitation used;
no gradual increases or decreases in loudness (crescendo or
diminuendo), lack of detail in scores-composers under
pressure to produce a lot of music in a short amount of time

14. Characteristics of Baroque Style
Music: Overview
• Texture: mainly polyphonic; thick texture with 1 or more
melodies in high parts and contrapuntal melodies in
lower parts; continuous bass line; occasional contrasting
homophonic sections to add interest
• Unity of mood: One piece captures one mood, only
exception is vocal music, (changes of text change the
mood of the music)
• Primary Forms: concerto, concerto grosso, suite, oratorio,
cantata, opera; trio sonata and other sonatas for
instruments; keyboard prelude, fugue, and toccata

15. The Florentine Camarata
• A group of composers who met to
share musical ideas and techniques
– Vincenzo Galilei
– Giulio Caccini
• Wrote treatises on composing
• Jacopo Peri-L’Euridice, first
opera(1600)
– Written for wedding of King Henri
IV & Marie de’Medici
– First to use stile recitative(solo
over simple chords or continuo)
for clarity of text

16. Characteristics of the Baroque Period
• Main instrument-
Harpsichord
• Tuning-based on the
Pythagorean comma
• Equal Temperament-on
keyboard instruments
• System of intervals tuned
off-key to keep distance
between half-steps equal,
still used today

17. Main Currents in Baroque Music
• Rococo design

18. Axis of Awesome
• Four Chord Song (language – LOL)
• All you need is four chords to make a song!! 

19. Main Currents in Baroque Music
• Figured bass
• Chords created
through
improvisation
• Basso continuo
• Major-minor
tonality

20. The Circle of Fifths

21. The Basso Continuo
• Chords and the Basso Continuo
– Chords became more important, by-products of the
motion of melodic lines
– Many composed melody to fit particular chord
progression
– Gave more prominence to bass line-foundation of
harmony
– Result-most characteristic feature-basso continuo
– Played usually by two instruments-harpsichord or
organ and low instrument like cello or bassoon
– Figured bass-bass part written with numbers indicated
chord structure, musical shorthand, saved time &
paper
– Performers needed improvisational skills
– Continuo provided continual flow of notes

22. Figured Bass

23. New Musical Ideas
• Stile antico
• First
Practice(Renaissance
Ideal)
• Music dominates
text
• Stile moderno
• Second practice
• Text dominates
music
• Involves wider range
of emotion
expressed and
greater intensityStyle differ for specific
occasions:
Church, chamber, theater

24. Characteristics of the Baroque Period
• Words & Music
– Word painting still used
– Emphasizing words by
writing rapid notes for
one syllable, also to
display singers’
virtuosity
– Individual words and
phrases repeated

25. The Doctrine of Affections
• Union of text and music
• One mood, or affection, per movement or piece
• Devised by the philosophies of several theorists
• A musical means to express generic states of
the soul
• Grief, rage, excitement, grandeur, etc.
• Vocabulary of motives devised which relate to
rhetorical speech
• To excite “the affections”

26. Instruments
• Instruments of all types
continue to improve,
great technical
improvements
• Amati-Guarneri
Stradivarius-makes
ultimate violin
• Composers challenge
performers
– Scarlatti
– Vivaldi

27. The Baroque Era: Overview
• Operas were first performed in private theaters in the courts of the
nobility and royalty.
• Public opera houses started in Venice, Italy, in 1637; by 1700 the public
craved opera, and it was big business.
• Oratorios--operas without costumes and staging; created for
performance in church or in an opera house during LENT--a penitential
season.
• This was the beginning of the importance of virtuoso performers--
singers and instrumentalists of extremely high technical and musical skill.
– Castrati--men who were castrated as boys so that their voices would
not change; they sounded like women with voices that had a great
deal of power.

28. by
Kristine Forney
Andrew Dell’Antonio
Joseph Machlis
Lecture Slides
THIRD EDITION
THE ENJOYMENT OF MUSIC
ESSENTIAL LISTENING EDITION
http://wwnorton.com/web/enjoyess2