Chiara Margarita Cozzolani's Music During The Baroque Era

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.

Reality comes from creating an imagined thought - whether that thought stemmed from something that someone has seen to what someone has heard, or even felt. The composer that will be discussed throughout this essay composed Morir non può il mio cuore in 1566, this composer is none other but Maddalena Casulana. During the years in which Casulana composed music, she was always looking to present her dedications of her madrigal volumes in a way to provide a little more biographical information than most would at the time. Throughout 1560-1569, she began to publish what would ultimately become her three-volume collection of madrigals (1568; 1570; 1583) that were published the year of her death and which were the first three books of madrigals by a women composer to ever be printed (Franck, Brownstone, 1995. Page 46, 48). Casulana presented her music in a very dramatic way, she was different and unique, focusing and attracted to the topics of ones passing and perpetual dying (Sadie, 1980. Page 2). She was an Italian composer and singer who told a story through the pieces she had composed; expressing each piece in a distinct and narrative way. Maddalena Casulana contributed a great deal of music that till this day will be remembered and cherished.

This paper will compare the themes found in the paintings "Madonna and Child with St. John the Baptist and an Angel" by Domenico di Bartolomeo Ubaldini (Puligo) and "Madonna Enthroned" by Giotto. Both paintings deal with fables from the Christian faith but were executed during different periods in art. The Giotto painting was created around 1310 and the Puglio painting was executed between 1518 – 1520. Here, these two paintings have similar themes both at the extreme beginnings and endings of the Italian Renaissance, and as such they serve to present an exceptional example of the developments in art that occurred within that time. This paper shall compare

The main objective in the performance of Renaissance music is that everything done by the singer is subservient to the text. Musicians of the Renaissance were fixated on the concept of music serving the text. Composers set poems to text attempting to imitate natural speech and inflection pattern in the rhythms of the music, and wished to write the music in such a way that the words could be understood. Singers should strive toward clear diction, making sure their vowel shapes and ornamentation do not obscure the text.

The renaissance began in Italy from the 14th to the 16th century, and was followed by the baroque period which roughly was between 16th to 17th century, each revolutionized the period prior. This is perfectly represented by two very different and yet very similar artists: Sofonisba Anguissola and Artemisia Gentileschi. Though one more so paved-the-way for the other, there connection appears to have nearly materialized out of thin air, and begs the age old psychological question of nature Vs. nurture.

According to her social context, “Barbara’s function (within the Unisoni) seems to have evoked the traditional association between music-making and sexual license.” Although unfair to assume what was not chosen by Barbara, it is hard to deny that the possibility that Barbara was also a courtesan. By looking at her music, one can see, through her choice of subject, text, and love themes, that she must have been, “highly skilled in the art of love as well as music.” It was typical in this era to assume the connection between love affairs and music-making for women performers and composers, as women were, “celebrated for their physical attributes, their beauty and their voices.” It is clear that Giulio’s plan for Barbara was that she would not only be a musician and composer, but a courtesan as well.

Nanette Salomon, a very well known feminist writer, wrote the article, “Judging Artemisia: A Baroque Woman in Modern Art History.” The article opens up with a discussion about the 2001-2 exhibition of Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi: Father and Daughter Painters in Baroque Italy. The author explains that three things are unusual here: the fact that two famous artists were presented at the same time, that they were related as father and daughter, and the fact that the woman was better known than the man. Her intent in this article is to look at the effects of this trope (figure of speech) in the past and in the present.

The choice of the “Three women of Don Giovanni” can give a good understanding of the type of music which was used to create an opera in the 18th century Italy. The opera buffa was a comic opera with a funny story line and light music. Mozart wrote at different levels.

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

Many male artists during the Baroque Period were tremendously successful having received many commissions from a multitude of rich patrons. Their equally talented female counterparts were not as accepted in the male dominated society. Although equally talented, the patriarchal mentality of the times ensured a difficult road for some in the artistic world. The more prominent female artists such as Artemisia Gentileschi, Lavinia Fontana and Orsola Maddalena Caccia had the advantage of having fathers who were prodigious artists themselves and provided the training required for them to flourish as great virtuosos in their own right. I will show and explain some of their known works.

The analysis of the aria “Lascia ch'io pianga” by Haendel according to the thorough bass method, shows us how the composer refer in this piece to the typical compositional procedures of baroque music.

During the Baroque period, instrumental music was written for every conceivable size of ensemble. On the smaller side, the Baroque sonata offers one of the finest examples of chamber music. Two types of sonata are found during this period: the sonata da chiesa (church sonata), and the sonata da camera (chamber sonata). The sonata da chiesa was more somber, while the sonata da camera was, much like the suite, usually comprised of dance forms. The gigue from Corelli's Sonata for 2 violins and lute is a fine example of the sonata da camera

The Renaissance and Baroque era entailed very different characteristics, due to the Renaissance composers writing more freely and being more individual then those of the Baroque era where they followed more ‘rules’ and experimented less. This essay will show the difference in two pieces by different composers, even though they were written less than a century apart.

     This paper will compare the themes found in the paintings “Madonna and Child with St. John the Baptist and an Angel” by Domenico di Bartolomeo Ubaldini (Puligo) and “Madonna Enthroned” by Giotto. Both paintings deal with fables from the Christian faith but were executed during different periods in art. The Giotto painting was created around 1310 and the Puglio painting was executed between 1518 – 1520. Here, these two paintings have similar themes both at the extreme beginnings and endings of the Italian Renaissance, and as such they serve to present an exceptional example of the developments in art that occurred within that time. This paper shall compare

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