Baroque 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 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.

Accordingly, the composers can start imagining about the inspiration the work of music has done as well as the starting point of the artwork. Throughout the Baroque era, the composers of the music earned a living through just writing the songs and were fortunate to be included in the payroll thus perform the religious and political works that they were presented with during the time. The needs of the institution in which the work was done dictated entirely which type of music that would be written by the composers. When the Baroque music has been fully used will dictate the way the history of the music can be perceived by the people and how gently they would be used to influence the belief of the majority of the people and how important they are to the society.

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.

The Classical and the 19th century Romantic Period were eras where many of the most famous composers and compositions that we know today were born. The Classical Period brought forth big name composers like Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, CP Bach, and Ludwig van Beethoven. The 19th century Romantic Period was characterized by composers like Franz Schubert, Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, and Edvard Grieg. But, what really were these artistic periods? What makes them different from each other? And how did the Classical Period inevitably end and influence the beginning of the Romantic Period? Here we will not only cite in depth research of both the Classical and the 19th Century Romantic Period, but also pull direct characteristics of the classical period from Beethoven’s “Zärtliche

The term Baroque has been widely acknowledged as a period in Western European Art Music lasting for 150 years from early 17th to mid-18th century. The word itself is originated from barroco in Portuguese meaning “oddly shaped pearl”, which best describes the visual and details of the buildings existed during that period. Its flamboyant and ornate details of the building is what causes ornamentations and harpsichords to become an essential element of Baroque music. Bach, ornamentation, and harpsichord are few of the most recognisable elements of Western Art music during the Baroque period. Nonetheless, we all came to a second realisation that the Baroque era lasted for more than 150 years, meaning that it has its own remarkable history and

The Music of the classical and Romantic era is a period of time where it shows the development and different styles of music. This can be shown through the manipulation of musical elements, (dynamics, pitch, tempo, rhythm, texture, meter, tonality, structure, melody, harmony, instrument) while contrasting them, but it can also be shown through the composers of the music, the size of the orchestra, musical directions, emotional content, and non-musical developments through that period of time.

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”).

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.

The three most well-known, and arguably most important, musical eras in western civilizations would be the; medieval, Renaissance and Baroque time periods. With the basics of music with Gregorian chant and organum from the medieval era to the newfound polyphony texture from the Renaissance and the equal temperament and major-minor tonality of the baroque era; Each time period brings a part of the foundation that most past, present, and future music is and will be based on. While it may seem that these three eras or completely different, they do contain several underlying similarities.