BAROQUE STYLE - A.D. 1600-1750

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Musical Characteristics

  • Vast increase in importance of secular art music
  • Use of absolute music
  • Basso continuo is one of the characteristic sounds
  • Homophonic styles (greatly responsible for vertical analysis)
  • Concept of major/minor tonalities emerges
  • Polyphonic texture is prominent and common
  • Tendency to monothematic compositions
  • Melodic phrases often not clearly defined - tendency toward continuous motion, employing weakened cadences through which the melodic line moves with little or no hesitation
  • Elaborate decoration of melodies (ornaments) is prevalent
  • Sequence becomes common and is used considerably
  • Functional harmony develops
  • Authentic cadences replaced modal cadences
  • Chromaticism played a more prominent role
  • Systematic modulation became commonplace
  • Chord structure and progressions important
  • Basic triads and inversions are most common, but 7th chords also used (9th, 11th and 13th chords are virtually nonexistent)
  • Metric beats are usually very strict in tempo with a minimum variance except for some cadential ritard, rallentando and occasional accelerando
  • Emphasis on continuity of flow, repetition of rhythmic patterns and prominence of the metric pulse
  • Ensemble size is usually quite small (choirs of 12-25 not uncommon)
  • Increase in importance of instrumental music
  • Instrumental groups also abbreviated in number
  • Inclination to contrast large sounds against small sounds (concerto grosso)
  • Dynamics used to create contrasts
  • Terraced dynamics are an integral part and vital to interpretation
  • Improvisation played a very important role in performances
  • A revolt against Renaissance polyphony by the Camerata which instigated monody, recitative and opera
  • 1631 - professional female singers appear for the first time on the English stage in the production of Chloridia, a court masque produced by Ben Johnson and indigo Jones

Rococo (1690-1760)

  • French style (also called style galant)
  • Light texture
  • Elaborate, ornamented melody
  • Periodic phrasing with frequent cadences
  • Simple harmony
  • Free treatment of dissonances
  • Kept some Baroque traits
    • Motivic play
    • Linear bass lines
  • Used a reduced scale performance
    • Chamber ensembles
    • Lute
    • Harpsichord
    • Opéra-ballet works

Pre-Classical (1740-1770)

  • Transition period from Baroque to Classical
  • No clear distinctions can be drawn between Baroque, Pre-Classical and early Classical music
  • Some composers often wrote in all three styles
  • Many musicologists now prefer to use the term early Classical when referring to this time period

Genre and Forms

  • Service
  • Plain-chant Musical
  • Anthem
  • Chorale Prelude
  • Fugue
  • Suite
  • Toccata
  • Cantata
  • Variation
  • Motet
  • Chorale
  • Lied
  • Mass
  • Aria
  • Passion
    • Oratorio
    • Chorale
  • Opera
    • Serious Opera
    • Comic Opera (first appeared in 1639)
    • opera-masque
  • Masque (mask)
  • Monody
  • Oratorio
  • Baroque Sonata
  • Baroque Concerto

Theorists, Treatises and Collections

  • Michael Praetorius (1571-1621) Syntagma musicum (1614,1618)
  • 1609-1619 - Fitzwilliam Virginal Book
    • manuscripts copied by Francis Tregian
    • contains nearly 300 works for virginal
    • composed between 1562-1612 by principal English composers
  • Bartolommeo Cristofori (1655-1730) invented the piano (1709)
  • Johann Fux (1660-1741) Gradus ad Parnassum (1725)
  • François Couperin (1668-1733) L'Art de toucher le clavecin (1716)
  • Friedrich Erhardt Niedt (d. ca 1716) Musikalische Handleitung (1700, 1706)
  • Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764) Traité de l'harmonie (1722)
  • Guiseppe Tartini (1692-1770) Trattato di Musica (1754)

Composers and Major Works

  • Guilo Caccini (1546-1618)
    • Euridice (1600) the first surviving opera (the first was Jacapo Peri's Dafne produced in 1598)
    • Le Nuove Musiche (1602)
  • Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)
    • L'Orfeo (1607) opera
    • L'incoronazione di Poppea (1642)
  • Michael Praetorius (1571-1621)
    • Musae Sioniae (1605-1610)
    • "Nun Komm der Heiden Heiland"
  • Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625)
  • Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643)
  • Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672)
    • Dafne (1627) opera
    • Psalmen Davids (1619)
    • Kleine geistliche Konzerte (1636, 1639)
  • Johann Schein (1586-1630)
  • Francesca Caccini (1587 - d. ca 1640)
    • considered the first female composer of modern history and the first female composer of operas
    • La Liberazione di Ruggiero (1625) opera
  • Samuel Scheidt (1587-1654)
  • Giocomo Carissimi (1605-1674)
    • Baltazar oratorio
    • Jephte oratorio
  • Henry Lawes (1596-1662) Coelum Britannicum (1634) masque
  • Virgilio Mazzocchi (ca 1597-1646) Chi soffre, speri (1639) comic opera
  • Parthenia (1611) first published collection for solo keyboard
  • Marco Marazzoli (ca 1602-1662) Chi soffre, speri (1639) collaborated with Mazzocchi
  • Johann Froberger (1616-1667)
  • Matthew Locke (ca 1620-1677) Psyche (1675) first surviving English opera
  • Jean Baptiste Lully (1632-1687)
  • Dietrich Buxtehude (ca 1637-1707)
  • Marc-Antoine Charpentier (ca 1645-1704)
  • Pelham Humfrey (1647-1674) Club Anthem (ca 1660)
  • Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713) Trio Sonatas (1681)
  • Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706)
    • Durch Adams Fall motet
    • Magnificat
    • Canon
  • Henry Purcell (ca 1659-1695)
    • Dido and Aeneas (1689) opera
    • "O Give Thanks" (psalm 106)
    • "Hear My Prayer, O Lord"
  • Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725) Il Tigrane (1715) opera
  • François Couperin (1668-1733)
    • Concerts royaux (1714-1715)
    • Pièces de Clavecin (1713)
  • Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)
    • Over 400 concertos
    • Gloria
    • The Four Seasons (1726)
  • George Philipp Telemann (1681-1767)
  • Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
    • Brandenburg Concertos (1721)
    • Goldberg Variations (1742)
    • The Musical Offering (1747)
    • Jesu meine Freude chorale
    • St. Matthew Passion oratorio passion
    • JESU, JOY OF MAN's DESIRING
  • Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757)
  • George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)
    • Water Music (1717)
    • Chandos Anthems (1717-1718)
    • Coronation Anthems (1727)
    • Alcina (1735) opera featuring dancer Marie Salle
    • Messiah (1742)
    • Royal Fireworks Music (1749)
    • Messiah (1742) oratorio
  • Giovanni Battista Sammartini (1701-1775)
  • Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (1710-1784)
  • Giovanni Pergolesi (1710-1736) La serva Padrona (1752)
  • Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714-1787)
    • Orfeo (1762) opera
    • Alceste (1767) opera
    • Don Juan (1761) ballet
  • Johann Wenzel Anton Stamitz (1717-1757)
  • The Beggar's Opera (1728) John Gaye, lyricist and John Pepusch, music
  • La Serva Padrona (1733) comic opera, from Battista Pergolesi's serious opera Il Prigionier Superbo, wows Europe with its humorous story and enchanting music
  • Johann Christian Bach (1735-1782) Orione (1764) opera

Hymnology

  • Martin Rinkhart (1586-1649) "Now Thank We All Our God"
  • Johann Crüger (1598-1622)
    • "Praxis Pietatis Melica" (1644)
    • NUN DANKET
    • JESU MEINE FREUDE
  • Paul Gerhardt (1607-1676) "Jesus, Thy Boundless Love to Me"
  • John Playford (1623-1686)
    • Introduction to the Skill of Musick (1654)
    • Psalm and Hymns (1671)
    • The Whole Book of Psalms (1677)
  • John Bunyan (1628-1688)
    • Pilgrim's Progress (1684)
    • "He Who Would Valient Be"
  • Benjamen Keach (1640-1704) Spiritual Melody (1691)
  • 1640 - Bay Psalm Book
  • Joachim Neander (1650-1680)
    • "Praise to the Lord, the Almighty"
    • NEANDER
    • ARNSBERG
  • 1651 - New England Psalm Book (Dunster and Lyon)
  • Erdmann Neumeister (1671-1756) "Christ Receiveth Sinful Men"
  • Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
    • Horae Lyricae (1705)
    • Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1707, 1709)
    • The Psalms of David Imitated (1719)
    • "Alas and Did My Savior Bleed"
    • "When  Survey the Wondrous Cross"
    • "Joy to the World!"
    • "Come, We that Love the Lord"
  • 1696 - The Whole Book of Psalms "New Version" by Tate and Brady
  • Count Nicolaus von Zinzendorf (1700-1760)
    • "Christian Hearts, in Love United"
    • "Jesus, Still Lead On"
  • John Wesley (1703-1791)
    • Founder of Methodist hymnody
    • Hymns and Sacred Poems (1739)
  • Charles Wesley (1707-1788)
    • "Christ the Lord is Risen Today"
    • "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing"
    • "Jesus, Lover of My Soul"
    • "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling"
    • "O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing"
  • George Whitefield (1714-1770)
  • Edward Perronet (1726-1792) "All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name"
  • 1735 - Das Gesangbuch (Mennonite Herrnhut)

Wesleyan Collections

  • Charlestown Collection (1737)
  • A Collection of Psalms and Hymns (1738)
  • Hymns and Sacred Poems (1739)
  • A Collection of Tunes, Set to Music (1742)

American Collections

  • Psalterium Americanum (Mather, 1718)
  • Introduction to Singing of Psalm Tunes (Tufts, 1721)
  • Grounds and Rules of Music Explained (Walters, 1721, 1723)
  • Psalms (reprint of Watts by Benjamin Franklin, 1729)
  • Hymns and Spiritual Songs (reprint of Watts, 1739)
  • Charlestown Collection (Wesley, 1737)
  • Ausbund (1742)

Last Updated: Saturday, February 14, 2009