Power point 15: Late Baroque Music in Germany

1. Music in the Baroque Era: Part V
1600-1750

2. The Late Baroque Era
in Germany
1700-1750
German composers incorporated German,
French, and Italian elements in their
compositions.

3. Dietrich Buxtehude
(ca. 1637—1707)
• organist
• organ works
– based on chorales
• chorale preludes (short)
• chorale fantasias (long)
– not based on chorales
• praeludium—like
Frescobaldi toccatas
– Praeludium in E major
• influenced Bach

4. Georg Philipp Telemann
(1681-1767)
• worked throughout Germany
and Poland as an ensemble
director and opera director
• extremely prolific
– operas
– solo and trio sonatas
– quartets (3 solo instruments
plus continuo)
• Quartet for flute, oboe, violin,
and continuo from Tafelmusik
– concertos
– overtures
– cantatas
– orchestral suites
– concertos
– sacred works

5. George Frederick Handel (1685-1759)
• 1703—Hamburg—Italian operas
• 1706—Italy—Italian operas
• 1710—London
– Italian operas until 1741
• Giulio Cesare
– English oratorios (1732—1752)
• Saul
• Messiah
• blind 1752
• Works
– opera—opera seria
• Arias—ritornello Form
• combined Italian and German styles
– Italian--tuneful, singable music
– German—chromatic harmony,
counterpoint
– large ensemble
• orchestra: Water Music
• wind band: Music for the Royal
Fireworks

6. Johann Sebastian
Bach

7. Bach’s life

8. • born in 1685 in
Eisenach—musical
town, musical family
• in his lifetime, known
only in Germany—
never left Germany
Eisenach, Germany

9. • lived in Arnstadt, 1703-
1707
• church organist
– organ music
– concertato vocal music
– studied w/Buxtehude
Arnstadt, Germany

10. • lived in Weimar,
1708-1717
• organist @ ducal
chapel
– court chamber music
• concertmeister 1714
– cantatas
– organ works
– harpsichord pieces
– instrumental
ensemble works;
concertos
Weimar, Germany

11. • lived in Cöthen,
1717-1723
• court
Kapellmeister
– solo keyboard
works
– instrumental
ensemble works
– secular cantatas
Cöthen, Germany

12. • lived in Leipzig from 1723
• cantor of St. Thomas School, dir. of
music in city’s 5 main churches
– cantatas (sacred and secular)
– oratorios
– passions
• St. Matthew Passion
• published earlier works
• 1729-1741—Director of Leipzig
Collegium Musicum
– public concerts
• instrumental music
• secular cantatas
– Goldberg Variations
– Art of Fugue
– Musical Offering
– B minor Mass
Leipzig, Germany

13. Bach’s works

14. Keyboard
• Organ virtuoso
– organ works—same types as
Buxtehude.
• Praeludium becomes prelude and fugue
(separate works)
– Toccata and Fugue in d minor
– Prelude and Fugue in a minor, BWV 543
• Chorale Prelude on Durch Adams Fall
• unspecified keyboard works
– 2 & 3 part inventions
– Well-Tempered Clavier—preludes and
fugues in all 24 major and minor keys
– English & French Suites, Partitas
• French dances
• German and Italian stylistic elements
• Italian Concerto style

15. Orchestra
• overture—orchestral suite in
French style
• instrumental concerto
• solo concerto
– studied Vivaldi’s concertos
– Brandenburg concertos
• #5--1st keyboard harpsichord concerto
• # 3--3 violins, 3 violas, 3 cellos, continuo
• # 2--F major, fast-slow-fast, ritornello
form
– Corelli-style concerto grosso (ripieno not
necessary)

16. Cantatas
• one or more solo singers and instruments
• all parts sung by men (falsettists)
• one to a part
• chorale cantata—texts and music derived from a chorale
– open with chorale fantasy
– arias and recitatives in the middle
– 4-part chorale at end
• sacred cantatas
– organized around church calendar—one for each Sunday and
church holiday
– Cantata no. 62
– Cantata no. 147
• different from Italian secular cantata:
– in German
– several singers
– sacred

17. Bach’s compositional style
• church musician, but also composed secular
music (little difference)
• counterpoint
• sometimes highly dissonant, chromatic harmony