Power point 11: Early Baroque Music

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

2. The Doctrine of the Affections
• a piece of music should express one particular
emotion

3. Stile Antico vs. Stile Moderno

4. Stile Antico
• also called prima
prattica
• vocal polyphony
• music over text
• Josquin, di Lasso,
Palestrina, Willaert

5. Stile Moderno
• also called seconda prattica
• effective expression of text
• allowed for breaking of rules
• Gesualdo, Rore, Caccini,
Monteverdi
• affections
• voices and instruments
• monody: solo melody with
basso continuo
accompaniment
• tonality
• rhythm
(metered/unmetered)
• notation (barlines, time
signatures)

6. Florentine Camerata
• 1570s and 1580s; meetings
of powerful, intellectual,
musical people in Florence @
Count Bardi’s palace.
• Giulio Caccini, Vincenzo
Galilei (Galileo’s father)
• planned to revive Greek
opera
• stile rappresentativo—text
setting with solo melody
which approximated natural
speech inflection (recitative)
• ex. Caccini’s Amarilli, mia bella
Florence, Italy
Theatre of Dionysus, Athens, Greece

7. Giulio Caccini (1551-1618)
• Italian composer,
teacher, singer,
instrumentalist
• Le nuove musiche
– monody
– madrigals and arias
• aria—strophic; high-
voice melody with
figured bass
accompaniment
• madrigal
– Amarilli, mia bella
– Vedro ‘l mio sol
– preface contained
advice on elaboration

8. Opera
An opera is a sung drama with accompaniment.
Opera combines several art forms, including:

9. Visual Art

10. Literature
A libretto is the text of an opera.

11. Theatre
Like actors in a play,
singers represent
specific characters.
Opera developed
from the
intermedio, a
musical interlude
performed
between the acts of
a play.

12. Dance

13. Vocal Music
Opera singers are virtuoso singers.

14. Instrumental Music

15. Opera is expensive. Early operas were
performed at courts. Public performances
came at the end of the 17th century.

16. Early Baroque Opera
1600-1650

17. • Dafne—1st opera, by Peri
– Italian
– only libretto (by Rinuccini) is extant
– important as model for later operas:
• 1. prologue: character who tells
audience central theme of opera
• 2. story from classic mythology
• 3. pastoral scenes, characters
• 4. moving prayer sung by main
character, answered through deus ex
machina
– cupid shoots Apollo w/arrow; Apollo falls
in love w/Dafne
– Dafne prays she will escape him; Dafne is
turned into a laurel tree
• 5. solo song
• 6. choral singing at end
• L’Euridice—Peri/Caccini, text by
Rinuccini
– Nel pur ardor, aria
– Per quel vago boschetto, recitative
Jacopo Peri (1561-1633)

18. Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)
• Italian composer
important in several
genres, including:

19. Sacred Music
• teens, early 20s
– stile antico
• 1590s—1st decade of 1600s:
– worked at Gonzaga court
in Mantua
– stile antico and stile
moderno
• 1613—to Venice, St. Mark’s
maestro di cappella
– after death of Gabrieli,
wrote similar polychoral
works
St. Mark’s Basilica, Venice, Italy
Cathedral, Cremona, Italy
Vincenzo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, Italy

20. Madrigals
• Early Madrigals in the Renaissance Style
(1580s and 90s)
• 5th book (1605)
– seconda prattica, solo melody w/figured
bass
– Artusi conflict
– Cruda Amarilli
• 8th book (1638)
– Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda
• stile concitato—agitated style
– tremolo/pizzicato
– represents warlike action
• over 20 min. long
• accompanied recitative
• arioso (recit passage is in aria style)
Giovanni Artusi
Monteverdi

21. Opera
• L’Orfeo (1607, published 1609)
– 1st great opera
– Vi ricorda o boschi ombrosi, aria/canzonetta
– Mira, deh mira Orfeo, song
– Ahi, caso acerbo, dialogue in recitative; Tu se’ morta, rectitative; Ahi,
caso acerbo, choral madrigal
• L’incoronazione di Poppea (1642)
– smaller ensembles
– Act I, scene III

22. What’s so great about Orfeo?
Many operas after Orfeo use many of
the same techniques:
• text/plot drawn from classical antiquity/ancient
history; noble/divine figures, moral lesson
• 5 acts, each w/song by Orfeo, commentary by
choir
• soloists accompanied by continuo
• large group of diverse instruments
• contrasting styles—duets, dances, madrigals,
ballettos
• special effects

23. aria
strophic dance songs
simple rhyme schemes
regular metrical schemes (ex.—8 syllables)
emotional response to recitative
2 types include:
strophic variation—muse at opening; Orfeo in
act III
dance-like arias
recitative
7-11 syllable lines
no regular rhyme scheme
elements of seconda prattica:
dissonance
modulation (ex. messenger informs of
Euridice’s death—E major to g minor)
chorus—comments on scene
townspeople, etc.
instrumental passages
ritornello—played before a stanza; same
music before each stanza
sinfonia—other instrumental music
functions:
1. introduce scene—sets tone
2. introduce opera (overture)
3. accompany stage action
4. accompany changes of scene
4 types of
music in Orfeo

24. Opera in the Middle 1600s
Venice
•public performances of opera
•older features:
–classical story
•newer features
–castrato
–3 acts
–chorus and dance eliminated
–more arias
–combine serious and comedic
–ex. Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione
di Poppea (1643)
Rome
• clearly defined recitatives and arias
• castrati
– females prohibited from singing, castrated males sang female roles
Francesco Cavalli (1602-1676)
•leading composer of Venetian opera, mid-
17th c.
•Monteverdi’s student
•organist @ St. Mark’s
•33 operas, including Giasone (Jason and the
Golden Fleece)
•lament over ostinato bass
Antonio Cesti (1623-1669)
•Cavalli’s rival
•Oronteo
•E che si fa, recitative
•Intorno all’ idol mio, aria
Italian opera became popular throughout Europe:

25. Early 17th Century
Church Music and Chamber Music

26. • arias, madrigals,
motets, cantatas
• was not allowed to be
an opera composer or
church musician
• music for private
gatherings
• cantata
– secular vocal music for
solo voice
– serious setting of Italian
poetry
– like opera scene with
no staging
– recit-arioso-aria
– Lagrime mie
Barbara Strozzi (1619-1677)

27. • born in Rome
• choir director
• wrote oratorios and cantatas
• oratorio (also called “concertato motets” or “dialogus”)
– dramatic work on a sacred subject/biblical stories
– sung during Lent
– voice/continuo
– 5 or 6 soloists—soloists also perform together as
choir
– 10 to 30 minutes long
– not staged
– not part of a church service
– sung in an oratory
• structure in Italy used for quasi-religious
services
• held several hundred people.
• used to present sacred music outside of service
– Latin
– castrati
– Histoire di Jephte
• recitative: Plorate colles
• Chorus: Plorate filii Israel
– (the first oratorio was written by Emilio de Cavalieri)
Giacomo Carissimi
(1605-1674)

28. Heinrich Schütz
(1585-1672)
• most important German composer of 17th century
• organist
• wrote 1st German opera
• Sacred concertos (also called “Symphoniae Sacrae”)
– polychoral
– written in the concertato style
• concertato: voices and instruments
together
• specific instrumentation
– in German
– O lieber Herre Gott
– Saul, was verwolgst du mich
• passion: a setting of the crucifixion
• studied w/Gabrieli, heard Monteverdi’s music
– stile antico aspects of Gabrieli’s music:
• polychoral
– stile moderno aspects of Monteverdi’s music:
• dissonance
• voices and instruments together