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Informative Essay On Baroque Music

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Oddly-shaped pearl. Not a name most would associate automatically with music. Yet oddly-shaped pearl is exactly where the word baroque comes from. Baroque is derived from the Portuguese word barroco. This meaning is almost a foretelling of the unique music style of this period. Ranging from 1600 to 1750, a new style emerged. This one unlike the Renaissance period prior. The oddly-shaped pearl stormed Europe with musical style, instruments, composers, and life. First to have a new period of music, the ebb and flow of the sound had to be different. For the first time in music history, there was contrast in the dynamics and pitches. Terrace dynamics became a popular way for composers to embrace the new style. Certain sections of the piece would …show more content…

Composers wrote for their employers. The Catholic Church supported and employer quite a few of the baroque composers. Music has always been an important part in services. Baroque music tends to be religious in nature due to this fact. Before the baroque period, church and celebrations in the home of wealthy music patrons were the only places to hear music. During the baroque period, composers would perform publically. This led to the middle class actually hearing music for entertainment for the first time. Music became a form of entertainment all people wanted to be at. The music changed from only sacred and in church to a normality in the secular life of the people. After this period, composers wrote music for the common people to play and instruments are seen in homes. The baroque period set all of this off. The oddly-shaped pearl had quite an impact on Europe with its musical style, instruments, composers, and life. The impact still resonates today with our complex dynamics and solo/ensemble groups both chorally and symphonically. How the period got its nickname, however, is a story to be told. Whether historians choose to call the period an oddly-shaped pearl or just the baroque period the uniqueness still resonates. No other period has had as much effect as that of the baroque period of

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