Influence of Baroque Music to Classical Music

Baroque era was where the most important turn in music took place with its unique arts and its controversial styles to music in its time.

The Baroque Era started in 1600 and lasted till 1750. Some of the famous composers from the Baroque Era include Monteverdi, Vivaldi, Handel, and JS Bach. Music in Baroque society became amusement for aristocrats, modern orchestra began to evolve, and the idea of opera are beginning to develop. In many Baroque pieces the use of a Basso Continuo, which is played by two instruments typically a keyboard and a member of the strings family was found in many pieces during this time. The Baroque period can be characterized with clear and distinct meter, repeated rhythmic patterns, homophonic texture, and terraced dynamics. The Baroque is also classified by its distinct genres including Fugue, Solo Concerto, and Cantata. The Ritornello form being introduced had an impact on Baroque music because it is outlined using harmonic progressions, key modulations, and motives from the main theme in order to give character to a piece.

In Baroque, chords become significant in themselves, due to the emphasis on the Bass Voice.

Music during the Baroque period was diverse and composers began to rebel against the styles that were popular during the Renaissance. In the Baroque era music was driven by the text and the emotions behind it. Vocal and sacred music developed greatly during the Baroque period. During the mid-17th century the Italian phenomenon opera dominated most of the theatres in Europe. Sacred music was deeply influenced by the opera, contributing to the development of the oratorio and cantata genre. The opera, oratorio, and cantata contain musical similarities; among all three genres they feature recitative, soloist orchestras, and duet arias.

Music of the baroque period was considered very complex and similar to the other forms of art of this time. Additional brass, woodwind and string instruments had been created to add additional depth to the works of this time. Composers of this time attempted to give voices to their works and invoke emotions. The works were created to tell a story.

The musical style of the renaissance can be noted in the vocal forms by smoothly gliding melodies. This became regarded as the golden age of cappella style, which is music without instrumental accompaniment. Polyphony in renaissance style was based on continuous imitation. This offered many possibilities such as cantus firmus.

•In the late Baroque, polyphony, as a result of counterpoint, was used in all sorts of compositions, especially the fugue.

Renaissance and Baroque composers were faced with the task of creating complex pieces that express both human emotion and ideas. While this is primarily one of the main purposes of all forms of music itself, including genres today, in the 15th through 18th centuries, this was largely done through the musical composition of a piece rather than the lyrics. Composers utilized several different techniques in order to portray to the listener the purpose and meaning of the piece. Renaissance composers were focused on furthering the texts in music, fully developing the lyrics Therefore, the use of word painting, the musical representation of a literal word, phrase, or poetic image, is clearly seen in many pieces. Baroque music, with the

The music of the Renaissance known as prima practica was very stiff, and in many ways too arranged and structured for the new modern style of the Baroque. Seconda practica, the new Baroque style was a vehicle of spontaneous improvisation and artistic expression, but it failed to displace the prima practica for quite some time. Some composers used both styles of practica; prima practica was used in church music and seconda practica was used in secular vocal music. Monteverdi, the composer who defined prima and seconda practica is known for using the seconda practica in his compositions. He believed that seconda practica with its unconventional dissonances, and unanticipated harmonies, was a more affecting and emotional style. In Baroque composition one of the most important creations established early on was the concept of contrast in volume and tempo. The use of harsh dissonances and unusual harmonies ties back in with the Theory of Affections. In the Baroque era one of the most important establishments was the concept of contrast. This contrast was seen in musical dynamics (loud and soft), instrumental and vocal range (high and low), and in tempos (fast and slow).

The years between 1600 and 1750 were full of contradiction, change, and conflict in Europe. The future would be shaped by the far reaching consequences of war. These conflicts pitted mainly the northern countries (Belgium, Germany, England, Sweden) against the Catholic kingdoms of the south (France, Spain, Austria), and further accentuated the pre-existing cultural differences between Northern and Southern Europe. However, tremendous scientific, philosophical, and artistic accomplishments that constitute the practical foundation of modern civilization flourished side by side with continual warfare, political instability, and religious fervor, bordering on fanaticism. Some of the most

Music during the Baroque era was regarded as a powerful form of communication that could invoke any emotion in the audience members. This philosophical belief was derived from a revival of the ideas of the Greco-Roman culture. As a result of these ideas, composers believed that they could also affect their listeners through the power of melody, harmony, rhythm, and stylistic details. The emphasis on communication was reflected in the major styles and components that were used throughout Baroque compositions. Baroque music is characterized by the composers’ attention to detail, such as contrast in dynamics, ornamentation, and the emphasis on bass line. These characteristics of the Baroque era of music are reflected in Antonio Vivaldi’s compositions. Known as one of the most popular pieces in Baroque repertoire, Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons reveals how composers of the Baroque period used different techniques, such as ritornello and contrast, to invoke emotion through the powerful communication of music. The Four Seasons perfectly represents the Baroque period because of Vivaldi 's style, techniques, and theme.

Baroque music is characterized through contrasts as dramatic elements, monody and the advent of the basso continuo, and different instrumental sounds. Contrast is an essential feature in the production of baroque arrangements. The alternations between bold and flamboyant and soft, solo and ensemble, different instruments and timbres all constitute a key portion in various baroque compositions. Composers similarly created more precise instrumental arrangements regularly stipulating the instruments on a musical piece that ought to be executed instead of allowing the performing musician to select.

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 “first practice” was just the style of vocal polyphony that was established in writing by Zarlino. The “second practice” was just Claudio Monteverdi’s way of being adventurous. He said that the first practice was music that the text prevailed, and that the second practice the text overpowered the music. In Monteverdi’s cruda amarilli he demonstrates the use of his second practice. Since Monteverdi used this second practice Composers start to see instrumental music as a different medium from vocal music and because of this they started to see them separately as two components, now borrow vocal idioms in instrumental writing, and vice versa. While trying to express the affections in man, they wanted to bring about the arousal of emotions like excitement, broadness, being a hero, and wonder. While doing this they also focused on a new idea of basso continuo which was a concentration of the bass where the chord was structured on the bass, and later the inversions became known as figured bass. With this new bass a new contrapuntal system was used where the melodic lines now had to fit into the pattern of chords set up by the continuo.