Baroque music and art flourished between 1600-1750. It was characterized by complexity, extravagance, and decoration. Baroque instruments included clarinets, string basses with 7 strings, oboes, piccolos, trombones, cymbals, and organs. Famous Baroque composers included Vivaldi, who wrote "The Four Seasons", Handel, known for "Water Music" and the "Hallelujah Chorus", and Bach, a master of organ and choir music. The Baroque era also saw advances in science, technology and art, with figures like Newton, Franklin, and Stradivarius making important contributions.

1. Baroque Music – 1600-1750

2. Definition 0f “Baroque”
• Characterized by extravagance, complexity, or
flamboyance
• Baroque style would be complicated,
extremely “fancy”, lots of decoration and
details, “showy”.
• Baroque music and art use this style

3. Baroque Instruments
Next you will see pictures of
Baroque instruments and after
each picture you will see videos so
that you can see and hear the
instruments in actual use.

4. Baroque Clarinet
The Clarinet gradually
evolved from being like
the recorder to being
a single reed instrument.
Next you will see one
being played.

5. Baroque String Bass
• Also known as member of “Viola da gamba”
family. (Old name for “String Family”)
• Notice that both
the bass and the
cello in the next
video have 7 strings.
Today’s instruments
have 4 strings.

6. Baroque Oboe
This is a picture of an
early oboe.
At the end of the next
video, you will see a
table full of oboes,
that shows how they
changed from the
earliest version
on the left of the
table to our
modern version on
the right of the table.

7. Baroque Piccolo
Notice that this instrument is made of wood. In the next video you will see a
picture of the composer Georg Telemann as you hear a piece he wrote for
piccolo an orchestra.

8. Baroque Slide Trombone
Next you will see a set of four trombones playing a
piece by Bach, who was one of the greatest Baroque
composers. Notice how similar this trombone is to the
modern trombone we use today.

9. Cymbals
• Cymbals were originally Turkish, and in the
Baroque era composers began to use them to
add special effects to the percussion section.

10. Baroque Painting
• Paintings used lots of details in this time.
• They often used religious stories.
• Landscapes were popular – nature scenes.
• Portraits were popular – paintings of people.
• Two important Dutch artists were Jan
Vermeer, and Rembrandt von Rijn
Vermeer on left, Rembrandt self
portrait on right.

11. Vermeer landscape
Notice all
of the details
in the buildings
and the people.
It is like a
photograph
in showing
detail.

12. Vermeer Portrait
Notice all of the
detail. You can see
the folds and
wrinkles in the
material. Her face
is 3 dimensional.
Look at the shine
on the pearl.

13. Rembrandt Portraits – full of detail

14. Religious painting by Rubens
Notice all of
the detail in
the bodies of
the people,
you can see all
of the muscle
structure.

15. Antonio Vivaldi - composer
• Composer and violinist Antonio Vivaldi was born
in Venice, Italy in 1678. After he became a priest
in 1703 he taught music at a school for girls that
had an excellent musical reputation. In his later
career he wrote operas. As a composer Vivaldi
wrote 500 concertos (pieces featuring soloist
instruments with an orchestra) in addition to
many works for the church and for the theatre.
He left Venice in 1741 in the apparent hope of
finding new patrons (supporters) in Vienna,
where he died shortly after his arrival in the city.

16. This is a
painting of
Vivaldi. In the
next video you
will see and
hear “Autumn”.
This is one
section of a set
of pieces he
wrote called
“The Four
Seasons”.

17. George Freidrich Handel - composer
• George Freidrich
Handel, 1685 - 1759,
was born in Germany
and lived and worked
in England. He was
famous for his operas,
oratorios (religious
versions of opera),
anthems (hymns) and
organ concertos.

18. Handel wrote the next piece, “Water Music”, for
a party that was held by the King of England.
The King and his guests sat on the shore of the
Thames river, and watched a parade of boats
and barges. The musicians for this piece rode on
one of the barges and played for the King as
they floated down the river.

19. The next video has one of the most famous
pieces Handel wrote called “The Hallelujah
Chorus”. This song was part of an oratorio called
“The Messiah”. “The Messiah” used orchestra,
choir and soloists to tell the story of the birth of
Jesus, through His crucifixion and resurrection.
The “Hallelujah” chorus is for the Easter part of
the story.

20. Next you will see a flashmob of the “Hallelujah
Chorus” done in a shopping mall. When this
piece is done in a formal concert, it is tradition
for the audience to stand. This is because when
it was first performed for the King of England, he
loved it so much that he stood up to show his
admiration. No one is allowed to sit when the
King stands, so the whole audience stood up
too.

21. Johann Sebastian Bach
One of the greatest
composers of all time. Bach
wrote hundreds of pieces for
organ, choir, as well as many
other instruments. He spent
most of his life as a church
organist and a choir director.
“Soli Deo Gloria” was his
theme. It means “To God be
all the glory”.

22. Bach as organist
Next is a live performance of a famous piece
Bach wrote for organ. When you watch the
organist play, notice that the keyboard under
the one he is playing is also playing along even
though he isn’t touching it. This is because
organs have a device called a “coupler” that lets
one set of keys play along with another set so
you can get more sound. Watch for his feet to
play the pedals. The pedals are set up to be like
the white and black keys of a piano.

23. Next is another major organ piece.
Bach made his living as a church musician. He
would write and perform all of the organ music
for each church service. He would also write the
music for the choirs and soloists and accompany
them as well. Sometimes people would come
to church just so they could hear “The Great
Bach” play.

24. Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring
This piece is often used at weddings today. It
was originally written for choir and organ. The
next video shows it being played on guitar by
one of the most famous classical guitar players
of the 20th century – Christopher Parkening.

25. Sheep May Safely Graze
This piece is being played on a harp. The strings
are color coded so she knows which ones to
play. This is a short version of another piece
that was originally written for choir and organ.

26. Baroque people
and inventions

27. • Benjamin Franklin
• Some of his famous
inventions are
mentioned in the
movie “National
Treasure”

28. • Telescopes were developed

29. • William Shakespeare – one of the world’s most
famous authors of plays. His plays are still performed
around the world. Some, like “Romeo and Juliet”,
have even been made into movies.

30. • This Fahrenheit Thermometer Auctioned For
$107,802 in 2012. It is around 300 years old.

31. • Sir Isaac Newton – discovered the law of
gravity

32. • Ice cream, as we know it, was invented in the
1600's by the Chef of King Charles the First of
England.
• What do you think
that chef would think
of “Wells Blue Bunny”
ice cream today?

33. • Antonio Stradivarius
• Violin maker
• Instruments that he
made sell for millions
of dollars today,
because no one has
ever been able to match
the quality of their sound.
He had a secret in
how he made them
that he never shared.