Baroque Music And The Renaissance Era

The Baroque period began around the 1600’s until around the 1750’s. The Baroque era of music was one of the most revolutionary periods in music history. This era saw the development of functional tonality, brought new instrumental playing techniques and more elaborate and complex compositions. Baroque music was complex, tonal, and had clear common patterns of chords. This era also featured many well-known composers, such as Bach, Handel, and Vivaldi. This era also brought about developments in musical terms and concepts which are still used in today’s music.

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.

The Baroque period can be described by many events including the American Revolution. However, what distinguishes the period is the work or art that was done during that time. The Baroque was a period of a particular artistic style that exaggerated emotions. The art of that time produced grandeur, drama, tension, and exuberance. The forms of art included painting, sculpture, architecture, theatre, and music. The style began in Italy, and it eventually spread to other parts of Europe . Nonetheless, it was mostly practiced in Rome. The baroque style of art made popular by the Roman Catholic Church. The church employed the style during the Protestant Reformation to stop the religious group from spreading their reach. There was a deliberate intention

The Baroque Era and the Classical Era are two critical time periods in observing music. Some of the most famous composers have written pieces that are popular in the world today. The two periods share many similar characteristics, however new genres and forms developed throughout each period because of new ideas and knowledge spreading. My personal favorite is the Baroque period because of the abundance of new musical knowledge that was introduced, particularly in Vivaldi’s famous piece La Primavera, Concerto for Violin and String Orchestra, Op. 8, No. 1, I.

The Baroque period stretched across half of European history. It began shortly before 1600 and ended with the death of Bach in 1750. During this time, there were change and

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”).

Claudio Monteverdi, who is considered an originator of opera who composed the earliest example of the genre called Orfeo. Based on ancient Greek mythology, which was the initial intention of opera, Orfeo is a drama about the mythical Greek god Orpheus. To rescue his bride Euridice, he goes down to Hades. In the prologue of Orfeo which is “Del mio Permesso amato”, the Greek muse La Música sets the stage for the drama. At first hearing La Música sing, her melodic voice captures my ears and attention, like letting me know to “listen up”. As was Monteverdi’s intention, I can hear how the harmony is the same while the melody changes throughout. The melismatic singing that accentuates certain words emphasize the importance of setting the mood of the opera (Wright, 6-3c).

•The creation of the baroque style—an art style full of emotion, flamboyancy, symbolism, vigor, and subtlety—largely as a product of the Catholic Church patronage of the arts

The Baroque period is the timeframe at which we can closely identify with todays society. It was a period of great discoveries and taking huge steps as mankind to get us where we are today. While discussing where we are in todays society, one would have to bring up the people that laid the foundation of modern music, art, and science. From the songs we sing, art we interact with, and the science we use in discovery, they all trace back to one of the most important time frames in history. There is not a single piece of music, art, or science that you could not relate to this time period.

“Baroque was born in Italy, and later adopted in France, Germany, Netherlands, and Spain. The word "baroque" was first applied to the art of period from the late 1500s to the late 1700s, by critics in the late nineteen century. Baroque covers a wide range of styles and artists.

The Baroque time period was a time of artistic style extravagant motion and clear, simply interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, excitement, and magnificence in sculpture, painting, architecture, literature, dance, theater, and music. Opera is an arrangement in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining libretto (text) and musical score, typically in a theatrical setting. Opera came out of the baroque period of people wanting to make music that was more expressive. A group of people in Italy decided that a single line of melody with simple accompaniment would be much more expressive than words. This caused the creation of recitatives, which early operas consisted entirely of. This also caused arias, duets, and

Music has been categorized over time in different periods, each of which have their own characteristics, composers and music style. Two of those important periods were baroque and romantic, which had left an important musical legacy though history. The baroque was the period from about 1600 to 1750. It was called one of the best periods of the music history, because there was a huge change from the style of composition from antique and renaissance music which achieved great expectations about this music. Furthermore, Baroque music was written by great composers such as Bach, Handel, Rameau and Vivaldi who were the most representative composers of the period. In addition, Baroque music was characterized

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.

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

The baroque period of music commenced in the year 1600 and ended around 1750 (Fuller – “Baroque”). Its texture was mainly polyphonic (Fuller – “Classical”). Polyphonic means that two or more different melodies are played simultaneously (McComb). This provides an energetic rhythm, long melodies, and many ornaments. The most famous composers of this time period were Vivaldi, Corelli, Monteverdi, Purcell, Handel, J.S. Bach, and Couperin. Many new styles of music were introduced, such as operas, sonatas, oratorios, suites, fugues, and concertos. Orchestras began to develop, but it was not until the classical period when orchestral music was perfected (Fuller – “Baroque”).