IB HL Music: Important Musical Composition Styles

IB HL Music: Important Musical Composition Styles

1. Overtures

   • French
     • SF (Binary)
       • Slow: homophonic, pompous, dotted rhythms
       • Fast: fugal section
   • Italian
     • FSF
       • Often a prominent trumpet part

2. Concerto

   • Solo Concerto
     • Solo instrument + accompanying instrumental group
       • Allegro-Adagio-Allegro (FSF)
     • Vivaldi
   • Concerto Grosso
     • Concertino (small group of instruments)
     • ripieno (larger group of instruments)
     • Arcangelo Corelli
     • Often used ritornello form
   • Late Baroque Concerto
     • Bach: Brandenburg Concerto

3. Baroque Suite

   • Binary Form or Ternary Form
   • allemande
     • courante
       • sarabande
         • gigue
           • jig in a lively 6/8 or 6/4
         • stately dance in triple meter
       • Triple meter, moderate tempo
     • quadruple meter, moderate tempo
   • minuet, gavotte, bourree, passepied, hornpipe between sarabande and gigue
   • Often opened with an overture
   • Either binary or ternary for each piece

4. Sonatas

   • Sonata da camera (chamber sonata)
     • Group of stylised dances
   • Sonata da chiesa (church sonata)
     • More serious in tone + more contrapuntal
     • SFSF
   • 1-6/8 instruments
   • Trio Sonata
     • two violins, cellist/bassoonist + harpsichordist

5. Symphony

   • 1st Movement
     • Sonata Allegro Form
       • Fast tempo
   • 2nd Movement
     • Theme and Variations or ABA form (ternary)
       • Slow tempo
   • 3rd Movement
     • Minuet in Trio or Scherzo in Trio
       • Medium-Fast tempo
   • 4th Movement
     • Rondo or Sonata Rondo Form
       • Fast

6. Sonata Form

   • Exposition
     • First theme in tonic
     • Bridge (Dominant or Relative minor)
     • Second theme in bridge key
     • Closing theme with cadence in contrasting key
     • Often exposition repeated for emphasis
   • Development
     • Modulation to different keys
     • Transitions back to tonic at end
   • Recapitulation
     • First theme in tonic
     • Bridge (usually tonic)
     • Second theme in tonic
     • Closing theme in tonic
     • Coda in tonic

7. Cantatas

   • Secular
     • Based on poetry
     • Barbara Strozzi
   • Sacred
     • Mostly written by J.S. Bach for Lutheran services
       • Annual cycle = 60 cantatas
         • Four or five cycles, but only 200 cantatas survive
     • Unified by chorale (hymn tune) sung in four-part harmony