The Baroque Period

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Lesson notes

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.

Slides

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Practice questions

Free preview — 8 of 34 questions. Sign up to see them all.

1.Complete the sentence about the dates of the Baroque period.
Easy
The Baroque period runs from about ____ to about ____.
2.Which pair of instruments would form a typical basso continuo?
Medium
- ATwo violins
- BHarpsichord and cello
- CFlute and oboe
- DTrumpet and drum
3.What name is given to a bass line written with numbers underneath it, from which the continuo player improvises the chords?
Medium
4.A harpsichordist can make a gradual crescendo by pressing the keys harder.
Easy
True or false?
5.Which of these is NOT an ornament?
Medium
- ATrill
- BMordent
- CSequence
- DAppoggiatura
6.Select ALL the instruments you would expect to find in a Baroque orchestra.
Medium
- AHarpsichord
- BClarinet
- CViolin
- DSaxophone
- EOboe
- FNatural trumpet
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.In counterpoint, one melodic line is more important than the others.
Easy
True or false?

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