Baroque musical period

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Music : The Baroque period - Musical facts of that age

1600-1750

• Major and Minor scales. (Music before this style period was not based on Major and Minor Scales)

• Polyphonic approaches to composition: 2 or more melodies combined.

• Harmony – results from the combination of different melodies.

•However, harmonic direction is important (as it is in most of the later style periods): Cadences show pausing/stopping

points.

• Mood – consistent. Pieces usually didn’t have more than one mood (for example: one piece might be only fast and another only

slow)

• Terraced dynamics – a sudden shift from one dynamic level to another. (they didn’t use crescendos and decrescendos)

• Also, dynamics were not indicated in the music.

• Rhythm – emphasis on consistent/driving beat

• Melody – elaborate and not easy to remember

• melodic sequence – successive repetition of a musical idea at higher or lower pitch levels.

• ornamentation – a decorative element that adds expression or charm to a melodic line (such as a trill)

• Range – the harpsichord was the most important keyboard instrument. Nearly all baroque music that is played on the piano today

was originally played on the harpsichord. The harpsichord has far fewer keys than today’s piano.

• Instrumental music begins to become far more important during this style period.

• Forms: Binary form is very important. Also, the fugue originates during this style period and is a very important method of

composition.

• Genres:

• Suites – actually “dance suites” (these are collections of different dances)

• Dances – “minuets”, “gavottes”, and other types of dance pieces were composed by themselves or as a part of a suite.

• Fugues – highly polyphonic compositions based upon a “subject”. This formed the main idea of the entire piece.

• Improvised-sounding pieces – preludes, toccatas – these were very “free”; they had no set form and they sounded “made up”.

Example of a piece from the Baroque Style Period:

Invention #8 in F Major; by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

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Music : Baroque period - Musical facts of the age Questions