Early Baroque Music (1600-1710 AD)

Early Baroque Music (1600-1710 AD)

1. Baroque Asthetic

   • Massive Scale
   • Grandiose Themes
   • Overabundance of small, decorative details
   • Vigorous Energy
   • Emphasis on emotions
     • Humoural view of body/mind relationship
     • Often to the point of exaggeration and distortion

2. Basso Continuo

   • Constant throughout era
   • Purpose
     • To establish a strong bass and make the harmony explicit
   • A small ensemble of at least two instruments
     • Provide a foundation for the melody or melodies above
     • One instrument plays chord progression
       • Harpsichord, organ, large lute
         • Play base with the left hand and improvise with the right hand
     • Another sustaining instrument plays the base line
       • Doubles lowest note
       • Cello, viola de gamba,bassoon

3. Early Style

   • Melody
     • Less stepwise movement than Renaissance
     • Larger leaps
       • Wider range and chromaticism reflect influence of virtuosic solo singing
     • Melodic patterns are idiomatic to particular instruments
     • Introduction to melodic sequence
   • Harmony
     • Stable, diatonic chords played by basso continuo support melody
     • Clearly defined chord progressions begin to develop
     • Tonality is reduced to major and minor keys
   • Rhythm
     • Relaxed, flexible rhythms of the Renaissance transformed into often motoric, driving rhythms
   • Colour
     • Musical timbre becomes enormously varied
       • Traditional instruments are perfected
         • Harpsichord, violin, oboe
       • New combinations of voices and instruments are explored
       • Orchestration/instrumentation becomes more explicit and fixed at the compositional stage
     • Symphony orchestra begins to take shape
     • Sudden shifts in dynamics (terraced dynamics) reflect dramatic quality of Baroque music
   • Texture
     • Chordal, homophonic texture predominates
     • Top and bottom lines are strongest
     • Basso continuo supports melody
   • Form
     • Basso ostinato
       • Repeated base line
     • Ritornello form emerges in the concerto grosso
     • Binary form regulates most movements of the sonata and orchestral suite

4. Opera

   • Literally means "work"
   • A dramatic work in which the actors sing some or all of their parts
   • Usually makes use of elaborate sets and costumes
   • Emerged in northern Italy
     • An attempt to recreate the style of ancient Greek drama
     • First promoted by a group of humanist thinkers
       • Florentine Camerata
     • Florence, Mantva, Venice
   • Libretto
     • Text
       • Little Book
     • Usually based on a story drawn from history and mythology of ancient Greece and Rome
   • Stile Rappresentativo
     • "The representational style"
     • Usually Monody
       • Expressive and flexible style of solo singing for the stage
         • In imitation of ancient Greek theatrical singing
     • Allowed singer to move imperceptibly from one mood to another
     • Soon transformed into two different and contrasting vocal styles
       • Recitative
         • Expresses the drama's action
         • Italian for "something recited"
         • Musically heightened speech
         • Attempts to mirror natural oral delivery
         • Often consists of rapidly repeating notes followed by one or two long notes at the end of phrases
         • Secco Recitative
           • Italian for "dry"
           • Accompanied only by basso continuo
       • Aria
         • Used to express the character's emotion that results from the preceding portion of the drama
         • More passionate, expansive and tuneful
         • Clear Meter
         • Regular Rhythms
         • Vocal melismas instead of rapid-fire delivery
         • Self-contained, independent musical unit
         • Accompanied by basso continuo and part or all of the orchestra
     • Arioso
       • A passage of vocal music sung in a manner halfway between aria and recitative
       • More faithful to the original style of stile rappresentativo than aria or recitiative
   • Fully Dramatized
   • Repeated base line provides a solid foundation
     • Common feature of the Baroque
     • Often used to symbolize grief
       • Lament Base
   • Allegorical

5. Chamber Contata

   • Performed in homes or small auditoriums
   • Secular vocal genre for solo voice with instrumental accompaniment
     • 8-15 minutes
   • Composed in contrasting scetions
     • Recitative/Aria
   • Amorous Topics
     • Ancient history or mythology
   • "mini opera"