The Baroque Era Essays

Answer: Baroque culture grew out of an effort by the Catholic Church in order to attract more followers. Architecture was important because it was used by kings in order to enhance their images to try to appear glorious. The baroque architecture was the dominate style of absolutism, it was a dramatic and emotional style. The royal palace was a favorite architectural expression of absolute power. Peter the Great wanted his form of baroque architecture to be in the form of a city. Therefore a new city was created by peasants.

2. What was going historically during this era?  What was life like? The Baroque was a period of absolute monarchs. The monarchs had total control over every aspect of their realms: the economy, the books, the style of art, and even life and death. Louis XIV became the model and he set the stage for many things going on during this period. In many parts of Europe, a strict social hierarchy, rigid laws, and elaborate codes of dress and manners characterized life. There were no major wars. There were knew technological developments that led to scientists and philosophers open up to new ideas and a new way of thinking rather

The cantata was typically sung in a church service, and could be a single movement or multiple movements. Cantatas were sung by a soloist orchestra, like the Italian opera: “Cantatas were used to denote small and large scale works, ranging from a solo singer with basso continuo to a large ensemble of soloists, chorus, and instruments.”2 Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre was a composer who published a group of sacred cantatas, one titled Judith: “Judith is performed largely by one singer with basso continuo. A violin joins in for instrumental sections called symphonies and as part of an accompanied recitative.”2 The cantatas of the Lutheran church were much more sacred than Italian cantatas. Johann Sebastian Bach wrote most cantatas for the Lutheran church. The texts of Bach’s cantatas included biblical passages, a chorale text, and poetic interpretation. Bach explored a variety of instrumental and vocal elements in his cantatas: “Bach’s cantatas embody many different forms and traditions, including motet-like movements for chorus, chorale harmonization, virtuosic solos and duets, with additional solo

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 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 Baroque period has played a great role in many aspects of the society in different countries, but most significantly in religion, politics, and socioeconomic.

•Figured Bass—a system of numbers placed under the music—was developed to indicate clearly the harmonies that should be played with each note indicated in the bass line. The figured bass was typically realized—performed—by the harpsichord.

The oratorio and cantata of the eighteenth century were both linked, unlike opera, to religious themes. Although intended for very different uses and circumstances of performance, all three genres contained musical commalities. Not surprisingly, the three genres would

The term sonata was used during the Early Baroque to denote musical works to be played instead of sung (cantata). Sonatas were usually played by a small

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

First, in the baroque period vocal and instrumental music had the same importance, this allowed that the composers had a wide range in composition types. Some composers chosen more vocally style and others preferred the instrumental style, which generated an amount of balance in composition during this period. In addition, instruments were created with specific features to perform the baroque music, they presented a sound and form characteristic, they were built to sound full and rich, but in small-type-sized, mainly strings instruments. The bow and the technique to play this kind of music required a careful and distinct method which caused that its texture and timbre were unique and special for that era. The most representative instruments of baroque period were organ and harpsichord, however, in most of the compositions of this period strings, woodwinds and brass instruments were also used by the compositors, and these instruments were important for the baroque orchestra. Some instruments used in the baroque period were: violin, viola da gamba, lute, violoncello, oboe, bassoon and trumpet. Moreover, baroque orchestra was characterized as small number of instrumentalists, and it was form mainly by strings instruments with a few woodwinds and brass, which gave the colorful contrast in the orchestra, this was called chamber orchestra. On

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.