The Classical Period Of The Baroque Era

The Classical period of music has also been called the “Rococo” period. The Classical time period was between the 18th and 19th centuries. Spanning the years of 1750-1820. The transition from the Baroque period to the Classical took the music from polyphonic to homophonic where even though it seems like that would make the music less complex we look at a whole different type of complexity. The music typically contained two different melodies and a contrast in sections. This made the chords in the music much more defined and the tonal part of the music became more defined. The Classical period had a significant influence on several aspects of music. Chamber music had a sonata form. This means it had an exposition, a transition, and a recapitulation. Composition in the Classical time was mainly dominated by eclecticism which made the music more diverse. Concerto was driven at first by the Italians. They started the idea of the solo concerto. Orchestration was mainly developed during this musical time period. This is partly due to some of the most talented musicians that lived during this time. They did a lot of work in making the orchestra mainly string instruments. Some of these being the violin, viola, cello, and the contrabass, just to name a few. All of these things had a great influence in the way the music made the transition from the Baroque period to the Classical period.

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.

Music is constantly changing. The Baroque period (1600-1750) and the Classical period (1750-1820) have both differences and similarities in elements such as form, texture, and dynamics. I will be comparing the first movement of Spring from the Four Seasons composed by Antonio Vivaldi and the first movement of Symphony No. 5 in C minor by Ludwig van Beethoven. I will construct a stylistic comparison of the two compositions and their musical stylings with regard to the periods of music of which they belong.

The era known as the Baroque period includes the seventeenth and most of the eighteenth centuries in Europe. The Baroque style was a style in which the art and artists of the time focused upon details and intricate designs. Their art often appeals to the mind by way of the heart. During this time the portraits began to portray modern life, and artists turned their backs on classical tradition. Much of the art shows great energy and feeling, and a dramatic use of light, scale, and balance (Preble 302). Buildings were more elaborate and ornately decorated. These works of art created history and altered the progress of Western Civilization. Architecture such as the palace of Versailles, and artists like

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 scientific revolution is traditionally considered to be framed between 1543—the year of On the revolutions of the heavenly spheres by Nicolaus

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

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.

This essay looks at the time in history beginning in the 1400’s to the mid-1700’s which we identify in art history as The Renaissance, Baroque, and Rococo periods. Focusing on the influence new scientific knowledge had in the art produced during this time with specific examples from each period and artists of the time.

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”).

The classical music period extends from 1740 to 1810, which includes the music of Haydn, Mozart, and the first period of Beethoven. The classical period of music combined harmony, melody, rhythm, and orchestration more effectively than earlier periods of music. With the natural evolution of music slowly changing with the culture, the baroque era had ended. That era had left a structure, articulation and periodic phrasing of music which would shape classical music.

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.