The Baroque Period

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Notes de leçon

When the Baroque period was

  • The Baroque period runs from about 1600 to about 1750.
  • It is usually said to end with the death of J. S. Bach in 1750.
  • Landmarks: Monteverdi's Orfeo (1607), Corelli's death (1713), Bach's Brandenburg Concertos (1721), Vivaldi's The Four Seasons (1725).
  • The word 'baroque' came from a term for a misshapen pearl and began as an insult about over-decoration.
  • Composers were employees, writing to order for a court, a city or a church.

Basso continuo

  • The continuo is the single most reliable clue that music is Baroque.
  • It is a team of at least two players, never one instrument.
  • One plays the chords: harpsichord, organ, lute or theorbo.
  • One plays the bass line itself: cello, bass viol, bassoon or double bass.
  • The chords are not written out. The player reads a bass line with numbers underneath, called figured bass, and improvises the harmony from it.
  • When the continuo disappears from orchestral music around 1750, the Baroque period is over.

Terraced dynamics and ornamentation

  • Baroque dynamics change in sudden blocks, not gradually. This is called terraced dynamics.
  • The clearest version is the echo effect: a loud phrase immediately repeated quietly.
  • The cause is the instrument. A harpsichord plucks its strings, so pressing a key harder does not make it louder.
  • Expression came from decoration instead: trills, mordents, appoggiaturas and turns.
  • Performers added their own ornaments too, especially on repeats.
  • A gradual crescendo belongs to the Classical period that follows, not to this one.

Texture: thinking in lines

  • Baroque composers think horizontally, in melodic lines rather than chords with a tune on top.
  • Counterpoint (polyphony) is two or more melodic lines of equal importance sounding together.
  • Imitation is one line announcing an idea and another copying it a moment later.
  • Sequence is a melodic or harmonic shape repeated immediately, higher or lower.
  • Suspension is a note held across a chord change so it clashes, then falls to resolve.
  • Ground bass repeats a short bass pattern while the upper parts vary; a walking bass moves in steady even notes.
  • Sequence and suspension are devices, not ornaments. This distinction is worth marks.

The solo concerto and ritornello form

  • A solo concerto sets one soloist, usually a violinist, against the orchestra and continuo.
  • It has three movements in the order fast, slow, fast.
  • The outer movements normally use ritornello form; the slow movement is a lyrical song.
  • Ritornello means 'little return'. The tutti plays the recurring theme; the soloist plays the episodes between.
  • Each return is usually in a different key and is often shortened or fragmented.
  • The final ritornello returns in the home key to close the movement.
  • To identify it by ear: are many players sounding or one, and is this theme one I have heard before?

Programme music: The Four Seasons

  • Programme music is instrumental music that depicts a story, scene or idea.
  • Vivaldi published The Four Seasons in 1725, each concerto printed alongside a sonnet describing its season.
  • In 'Spring', solo violins imitate birdsong, flowing quavers suggest a brook, and a storm follows.
  • The storm is made from ordinary musical means: minor tonality, tremolo, rushing scales, low register and sudden loud dynamics.
  • In a written answer, name the device and then its effect. Saying only that it 'sounds like a storm' earns nothing.

The concerto grosso

  • A concerto grosso sets a small group of soloists against the full ensemble.
  • The small solo group is the concertino; the full ensemble is the ripieno, also called the tutti.
  • The continuo plays with both groups throughout.
  • The groups alternate, answering one another, and also combine: the concertino usually joins the tutti rather than resting.
  • Corelli's concertino is two violins and a cello, so the contrast is one of number rather than colour.
  • Bach varies the line-up in every Brandenburg Concerto; No. 2 uses trumpet, recorder, oboe and violin at once.
  • Both concerto types use ritornello form, so form cannot tell them apart. Count the soloists in the episodes.

Bach and Corelli

  • Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713) was an Italian violinist working in Rome; his music is built on sequences, suspension chains and clear tonal harmony.
  • A trio sonata has three written lines but four players: two melody instruments plus a continuo of two.
  • Sonata da chiesa is a four-movement church sonata, slow-fast-slow-fast; sonata da camera is a set of dances.
  • Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) was a German organist, employed at Kothen and then as Cantor in Leipzig.
  • A fugue grows from one subject: the first voice states it, the next answers a fifth higher, and further voices enter while the others continue.
  • A chorale harmonisation is the opposite texture: a hymn tune set in four parts, all voices moving together.
  • Bach's music was largely unperformed until Mendelssohn revived the St Matthew Passion in 1829.

Writing about what you hear

  • Work through the elements in a fixed order: instrumentation, texture, dynamics, rhythm, melody, harmony and tonality, structure.
  • Say what you heard, then name it: 'the loud opening is echoed quietly - terraced dynamics'.
  • The mark in brackets tells you how many separate points to make. Four marks means four points, not one point written four ways.
  • A term used wrongly earns nothing. If the word will not come, describe precisely what you heard instead.
  • 'Compare' means every point must address both extracts, not one and then the other.

Diapos

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Questions d'entraînement

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  1. 1.Complete the sentence about the dates of the Baroque period.

    Easy

    The Baroque period runs from about ____ to about ____.

  2. 2.Which pair of instruments would form a typical basso continuo?

    Medium
    • ATwo violins
    • BHarpsichord and cello
    • CFlute and oboe
    • DTrumpet and drum

  3. 3.What name is given to a bass line written with numbers underneath it, from which the continuo player improvises the chords?

    Medium

  4. 4.A harpsichordist can make a gradual crescendo by pressing the keys harder.

    Easy

    True or false?

  5. 5.Which of these is NOT an ornament?

    Medium
    • ATrill
    • BMordent
    • CSequence
    • DAppoggiatura

  6. 6.Select ALL the instruments you would expect to find in a Baroque orchestra.

    Medium
    • AHarpsichord
    • BClarinet
    • CViolin
    • DSaxophone
    • EOboe
    • FNatural trumpet

  7. 7.Match each Baroque term to its definition.

    Easy
    • Basso continuo
    • Terraced dynamics
    • Ornament
    • Counterpoint
    • Two or more melodic lines of equal importance sounding together
    • A chord instrument and a bass instrument accompanying together
    • A small decoration added to a melody note
    • Volume changing in sudden blocks rather than gradually

  8. 8.In counterpoint, one melodic line is more important than the others.

    Easy

    True or false?

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