Baroque Music Analysis

Transitioning from the Renaissance Era to Baroque Era introduced a new approach musical styles, such as concerto and sonata. Coming from the Portuguese term barroco, or “oddly shaped pearl”, the Baroque Era was heavily influenced with the Catholic Church from the early 1600s to the 1700s. The Renaissance Era focuses on the exploration, discovery and rebirth; on the contrary, the Baroque Era focuses on the Catholic Church and its exaggerated expressions. The Baroque Era came out with European Western compositions that most of us are familiar with today, such as Pachelbel’s Canon and Vivaldi’s Four Season. Along with the eras well known compositions, the Baroque Era also included well known composers like Vivaldi and Handel. However, J.S. Bach is perhaps the greatest composer of all times during the Baroque Era with famous pieces such as Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, Mass in B Minor and Brandenburg Concerto.

•The use of the basso continuo, also known as thoroughbass, is a bass line running

Performance Practice of Baroque Vocal Technique When approaching a performance, accomplished musicians often consider the historical context from which a piece originates. They most often think of such considerations in the application of that context as it pertains to early music that is, the Baroque era or earlier. For any era, such historical considerations are called performance practice, and may include the use of vibrato, ornamentation, dynamic levels, tempi, instrumental timbres, performance setting, and balance. Vibrato and ornamentation are two important areas of consideration that vocalists must explore when aiming to give an authentically Baroque performance.

5. What texture did What is a sonata?  What are the different types? A multimovement form for one or more solo instruments accompanied by a basso continuo. The different types were Sonata da camera (concert performance) and Sonata da chiesa (church performance)

I. Definition of Baroque Era A. Can mean different things 1. Bizarre 2. Flamboyant 3. Elaborately Ornamented. 4. Historians meaning a. Used to indicate the particular style in all different forms of art. B. Known as “the age of absolutism” 1. Royals abuse power 2. Throws Bach into jail for asking to leave the job C. Shaping of the world 1. Newton 2. Galileo II. Baroque era music and phases A. Famous composers of the time 1. Johann The Baroque era began in the year 1600, at the end of the Renaissance period (Kamien 99). The word Baroque has had several different meanings. Back in its time, the word Baroque has meant: Bizarre, Flamboyant, and Elaborately ornamented. Historians, however, used this word to indicate the particular style in all different forms of art that fills space; which includes canvas, stone, or sound (Kamien 99). The Baroque Period is also known as “the age of absolutism” because so many different rulers of the time used and abused their royal power to control their subjects. For example, in Germany, the duke of Weimar imprisoned the famous Johann Sebastian Bach into prison for a month just because Bach asked to leave his job as the Duke’s musician (Kamien 99). This era in time was also home to scientific discoveries by Newton and Galileo. The Baroque era has shaped the world, as they knew it, to what the people of the twenty-first century all know and love.

Baroque Music The word Baroque was derived from the word barroco, which is used to mean the period in which western region widely used music especially in the nineteenth century to express how the European artist practiced the art. When the historical happenings of the music in well explored, the critics who applied the musical knowledge made it look strange and majorly sounded exaggerated. Furthermore, ornamentals were initially used during the era of Bash and Handel. After the brand of music had shed the connotations that were derogatory, baroques became one of the mot simplest and convenient in the brand and one of the richest term, which in the diverse period was included the musical history.

The Classical time period, which spanned a length of seventy years, from 1750 to 1820, was very different in nature from its predecessor, the Baroque time period. The Baroque era featured works that were ornamentally elaborate, where the artists and composers centered their works on a big, bold style that was dramatic in its composition. Artists and composers transferred strong feelings of tension and emotion into their works and it was common for there to be some type of action or movement happening within the work. Those who lived in the Classical time period, valued simplicity and wanted to return to the ideals of the Greeks. Therefore, the Classical time period is characterized by clear structural clarity, simplicity, smoothness, and symmetry. However, though the works took a step back from the grand movement of the Baroque era, the composers and artists of the Classical time period did lay out a tuneful and elegant style in their music and art. Out of the Classical era came many renowned artists and composers, two of those whom are artist Sir Thomas Lawrence and composer Ludwig van Beethoven (“NYU”).

The Baroque and Classical periods are where we see the emergence of renowned composers like Handel, Bach, Vivaldi, Mozart and Beethoven. The music from these famous composers are some of the world’s most recognizable and beautiful classics of all time. Music of these eras are still being used in many of today’s movies and commercials. Musical characteristics developed from these eras are still used and heard presently in popular music.

In the early Middle Ages, the human voice, God's creation within us, had been regarded in the sacred realm as being the only instruments we needed. The church considered the use of instruments as profane. There was no musical notation as songs were passed along from person to person by rote memorization. In the secular world, instruments were used at times by jongleurs, trouveres, and minnesingers. Some of those early instruments include the "vielle, harp, psaltery, flute, shawm, bagpipe, and drums (Thomas et al.). " Those instruments were most likely used in an accompaniment capacity, but since musical notation in the secular world was not really happening during this period, not a lot of concrete information is really known about instrumental

Zadok the Priest is a piece by George Frideric Handel from the Baroque Era, and Missa Papae Marcelli "Gloria" is a piece by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina from the Renaissance Era.Baroque music broke away from the harshness of the Medieval and early Renaissance style with new emphasis on the use of vocal and instruments. Many musical forms were born out of this era including opera. Some composers of this time were Tomaso Albinoni ,Antonio Vivaldi, Johann David Heinichen,George Frideric Handel, Domenico Scarlatti , and Johann Sebastian Bach.The church was the most important place where Baroque and Renaissance were playing as a serve in the church . There are many changes happened between the renaissance and baroque period : The first crucial distinction is the texture the shift from the imitative polyphony in the renaissance era to treble-bass polarity,monody and the development of basso continuo . The second crucial distinction is the tone of the baroque music was of development of tonal architecture and formal principles; baroque, binary, ternary, fugue, etc. while the form of renaissance music was much of the systematic point imitation and Cantus Firmus structures.The third crucial distinction is the Baroque musical genres include both vocals and instrumentals, with the only difference being they were quite larger in number of categories than those of in the renaissance era . The fourth crucial distinction is Renaissance music consisted of smooth regular flow of

The scientific revolution is traditionally considered to be framed between 1543—the year of On the revolutions of the heavenly spheres by Nicolaus

The Baroque Period The Baroque Period (1600-1750) was mainly a period of newly discovered ideas. From major new innovations in science, to vivid changes in geography, people were exploring more of the world around them. The music of the baroque period was just as extreme as the new changes. Newly recognized composers such as Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, and Monteverdi were writing entirely new musical ideas and giving a chance for new voices to be heard that were normally not thought of sounds. Their musical legacy is still recognized today, and is a treasured discovery of outstanding compositions being reiterated with every performance of them.

At this time last year, I would have considered all music before the 20th century to be classical. However, after taking a Dual Credit Music Appreciation course, I realized that “old” music cannot simply be grouped into a single category. There are so many differences that I had no idea existed. Throughout the years, music has changed and evolved, meeting the needs of listeners and performers. Different composers have been catalysts in this change as they have developed new styles and genres. Even though the classical period is directly subsequent of the baroque period, baroque and classical music have countless different qualities and characteristics.

Baroque Music In 1600 a new style of music began to evolve, this form of music was

Baroque Period, during which a few of the greatest composers on this planet were born, brought classical music onto a whole new level. The word “Baroque”, which came from the Portuguese for “the imperfect pearl”, implies strange, extravagant and overblown. Toccata, fugue, chorale, ortario, and the concerto Grosso, all of these special musical forms were created and represent this period. The six main characteristics: increased emotional expression, contrast, use of basso continuo, continued harmonic development, use of ornament, and the emphasis of improvisation, molded the unique style of music of the Baroque period.