Music History

Classical Music – The Baroque Era

Lecture Notes

  1. Baroque Era
  1. What does ‘baroque’ mean?
  1. Originally used as a term of disapproval.
  2. Was first applied to music in the 18th century
  3. Today, it is applied to this time period and recognizes this era for its technical mastery and musical grandeur
  1. 1600 – 1750
  1. Historical Perspective
  1. Time of absolute monarchs
  1. Had total control over every aspect of life in their country
  2. Model for this was Louis XIV of France – very opulent and lavish lifestyle
  3. Not all countries had monarchs – Italy had church
  1. Society
  1. Strict and formal manners
  2. Elaborate dress code
  3. Social hierarchy (class system) in place
  1. Period of peace and stability for much of Europe during this time (few wars), but time of political repression
  1. Taxation without representation
  2. Social inequities
  3. No middle class
  1. Growth of the 13 colonies and founding of the United States
  1. Boston Tea Party – 1773
  2. Declaration of Independence – 1776
  1. Growth in science and technology
  1. Sir Issac Newton
  1. British scientist
  2. Principle of gravity, development of calculus
  1. Galileo
  1. Italian scientist and mathematician
  2. Developments in astronomy and the telescope
  1. Art and Architecture
  1. Most impressive building of this period was the palace of Versailles
  1. Built by Louis XVI – “Sun King” – of France
  2. More than one thousand rooms
  3. Trees, gardens, landscapes extending for miles
  4. Best example of monarchs wealth and lavish lifestyle
  1. Many important structures built during this time
  1. Trevi fountain in Rome
  2. Castles and palaces for monarchy were built all over Europe
  3. Churches and cathedrals were constructed all over Europe
  1. Rembrandt
  1. Dutch painter
  2. Famous for paintings
  1. Characteristics of Baroque Music
  1. This time period is shorter than the Renaissance and only a fraction of the time of the middle ages
  2. Music from this time period is commonly heard on the radio and in performance today - this is not true of the previous time periods
  3. Development of opera
  1. Secular
  2. Large scale work for voices and instruments
  3. Elaborate stage machinery to create special effects
  4. Costumes
  5. Sets
  6. Acting
  7. Includes recitative and arias
  8. Almost always in Italian
  9. Stories from mythology and history
  1. Development of oratorio
  1. Sacred
  2. Large scale work for voices and instruments
  3. No special effects, costumes, sets or acting
  4. Includes recitative and arias
  5. Sung in the native language of the composer/people
  6. Story comes from the Bible
  7. Passion – oratorio that deals specifically with the crucifixion of Jesus
  1. Chorale
  1. Sacred
  2. Developed out of the Protestant Reformation
  3. Part of church service that everyone sang in their native language
  4. Frequently it was a melody that everyone was familiar with
  5. Today, we call these hymns
  1. Explosion in instrumental music
  1. Development of many new forms of music
  2. Beginning of the orchestra
  3. Began with family of string instruments
  4. Included common wind instruments of the day (recorder, oboe, bassoon, trombone, horn)
  5. Not standard instrumentation – composers used what they had
  6. This was due in part to advances in the art of instrument making and technology
  7. Led to the first famous “virtuoso” instrumentalists in music history
  8. Concerto
  9. solo instrument with orchestral accompaniment
  10. three movements – fast/slow/fast
  11. larger composition meant for performance in a large space
  12. Sonata
  13. solo instrument with keyboard accompaniment
  14. keyboard instrument at this time is always the harpsichord – the piano did not exist
  15. three movements – fast/slow/fast
  16. considered chamber music, meant for performance on a smaller scale
  1. Composers of the Baroque
  1. Claudio Monteverdi
  1. Italian
  2. 1567 – 1643
  3. Composer at St. Mark’s Cathedral in Venice
  4. Prima practicavsSecondaPractica
  5. Prima Practica – harmony is ruler of the music; this was considered an old-fashioned approach to music composition
  6. SecondaPractica – text is the ruler of the music; this was considered to be a more modern approach to music composition; evolved out of text painting
  7. Monteverdi was a believer in SecondaPractica
  8. Monteverdi is the composer of one of the first great operas in the history of classical music
  9. Orfeo
  10. 1607 – same year as founding of Jamestown settlement in Virginia
  11. Based on Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice
  12. Synopsis: Orpheus and Eurydice are in love. Shepherd and nymphs dance together in honor of their love. Suddenly a messenger comes and tells that Eurydice has been bitten by a snake and is dead. Orpheus is devastates and decides to travel to the underworld and bring Eurydice back to life. The king of the underworld is very moved by him and allows this to happen on one condition. Once the king of the underworld releases Eurydice, Orpheus cannot look back at her until the end of their journey from the underworld. Orpheus becomes anxious and tries to steal a glance at her and then she is one forever.
  13. Monteverdi uses a variety of musical forms in this piece, including madrigals, dances and instrumental sections of the work
  1. Recitative and aria
  2. Recitative
  3. Spoken/sung section devised to imitate speech
  4. Generally tells the story of the opera
  5. Solo singer with keyboard accompaniment
  6. Aria
  7. Sung section, very lyrical
  8. Very expressive, used to explore emotional account of situation in the story
  9. Solo singer with orchestral accompaniment
  10. Tend to be the “singable” part of the opera, reason people go to the opera
  11. A recitative almost always precedes an aria
  1. Henry Purcell
  2. English
  3. 1659 – 1695
  4. Was the organist at Westminster Abbey in London; he is buried there in the floor near the organ
  5. Composed large amounts of vocal and instrumental music
  1. Sacred music for job at the church, including chorales/hymns and scared songs
  2. Secular songs
  3. Instrumental music for organ and orchestra
  4. Dido and Aneas
  1. 1689
  2. Considered one of the great early operas in music history
  3. Based on poem Aeneid by Virgil (epic poem from antiquity)
  4. Synopsis: Tells the story of the love affair between Dido, the queen of Carthage and Aneas, a mythical Trojan warrior. The opera ends with Aneas’ departure to the underworld after Dido’s death.
  5. Three acts with recitatives, arias, chorus, dance and instrumental sections
  6. Lasts only 1 hour
  1. Antonio Vivaldi
  1. Italian
  2. 1678 – 1741
  3. Father was a violinist at St. Mark’s Cathedral in Venice; Vivaldi also trained as a violinist and was a virtuoso player
  4. Originally trained for the priesthood; because of his red hair, he was nicknamed “the red priest”
  5. Illness prevented him from becoming a priest, so he took a job at a school for orphaned girls
  1. Composed many pieces for the girls
  2. Vivaldi and the orphans frequently performed concerts and people traveled from all over Europe to hear them
  3. In addition to the vocal music that he composed for the girls, he also wrote numerous sonatas and small chamber pieces for them
  1. Vivaldi is most famous for his composition The Four Seasons
  1. Set of 4 violin concertos
  2. At the beginning of each concerto, Vivaldi composed a poem describing the season; he incorporated these thoughts into his music, a form of text painting
  3. Published in 1725 when Vivaldi was 47 years old
  4. Follows a standard Baroque form of fast/slow/fast
  1. Johann Sebastian Bach
  1. German
  2. 1685 – 1750 – he is such an important composer from this time that his death marks the end of the Baroque period
  3. Spent his whole life and career in one small part of Germany
  4. Did not view himself as an artist, rather a hardworking craftsman; composed music to fulfill a job
  5. Got his first job as a church organist
  6. At the age of 23, married and found a better paying job in a court for a duke (Weimar, Germany)
  1. First, he served there as an organist, then as the orchestra director
  2. Stayed here for 9 years
  3. Denied the position of music director (Kapellmeister), so he decided to leave
  4. The duke was so angry that Bach went to jail for a month
  1. Found a new position at a nearby court (Cothen, Germany)
  1. The prince that ruled the court was young, unmarried and an amateur musician
  2. He made Bach the music director for his court and spent quite a bit of money on his music program
  3. The prince married and his new wife did not like his support of the arts, so the prince’s support of Bach’s work dwindled
  4. Bach began to look for a new job
  1. In 1720, Bach’s wife passed away
  1. Bach was 35
  2. The following year, Bach married Anna Magdelena
  3. She was a singer that was employed part time in the prince’s court
  1. Bach looks to Leipzig, Germany for work
  1. Town of approximately 30,000 people
  2. Had 2 universities, 2 theatres, a cathedral and 3 smaller churches
  3. He was applying to be the music director and would oversee the music in all of these areas
  1. Bach applied for the position of Kapellmeister
  1. Responsibilities for this position included:
  2. Head of the music school
  3. Maintain instrument inventory in Leipzig
  4. Compose new music for Sunday services each week
  5. Prepare choirs for church services
  1. The town council interviewed 3 applicants for the position
  1. 1st choice – Teleman; famous composer of the Baroque era, turned down the position
  2. 2nd choice – he couldn’t leave his current position
  3. 3rd choice – Bach
  1. Bach accepted the position in 1732
  1. He was 38 years old
  2. He remained there for the rest of his life
  1. Bach was a modest, humble man that loved music and saw it as a means to support his family, instruct people and glorify God.
  1. At the end of many of his works, he wrote a personal message – ‘SDG’
  2. Soli Deo Gloria – Latin, “For the Gloria of God Alone”
  1. Had 20 children between his 2 wives
  1. 13 died in infancy
  2. 4 became famous composers/musicians
  1. Extremely prolific composer
  1. Composed over 200 chorales
  2. Over 100 sacred songs
  3. 8 motets
  4. St. Matthew Passion and St. John Passion
  5. Christmas Oratorio
  6. Mass
  7. 14 concertos for harpsichord and orchestra
  8. Hundreds of pieces for organ, including preludes and fugues
  9. Hundreds of pieces for solo keyboard, including The Well Tempered Clavier
  10. Numerous sonatas for flute/violin and harpsichord
  11. 6 Brandenberg concertos
  1. In addition to his numerous compositions, Bach made several important contributions to music history
  1. He composed in every form of the day except for opera
  2. Master of music theory
  3. Developed form of the fugue
  1. Prelude and Fugue
  1. Two part form, very strict
  2. Prelude – short introduction to piece, free form, sometimes sounds improvised
  3. Fugue – strict form, uses a theme (called a subject) that occurs in all voices or musical lines before developing into different ideas

S subject

A subject

T subject

B subject

  1. George Frederick Handel
  1. German or British?
  2. 1685 – 1759
  3. Born in Halle Germany
  4. Family was not musical, wanted Handel to study law
  5. His family did allow Handel to study music at the local church
  6. Handel went to law school for one year and then left to go to Hamburg, Germany – the center of German opera t this time
  7. Because all of the operas were in Italian, Handel decided to travel to Italy to study opera; there, at the age of 21, he was a huge success
  8. After 3 years in Italy, Handel was appointed to a position as Kapellmeister in Hanover, Germany
  1. Well paid, prestigious position
  2. While there, Handel was invited to travel to London
  3. Handel’s employer granted him a short leave in 1712
  4. Handel never returned to Germany and spent the rest of his life in England (nearly 40 years)
  1. Handel made many important contacts in London and became a favorite composer and companion of the queen
  1. When the queen passed away, her husband became the king of England
  2. This king was from the Court of Hanover, the same court where Handel had abandoned his position
  3. Handel and the king became friends, mainly because of their German roots
  1. Handel never married and lived a very full life
  1. Made and lost lots of money
  2. Had a great sense of humor, life of the party
  3. Enjoyed food and drink
  1. Handel became blind towards the end of his life
  2. Died in 1759
  1. Over 3000 people came to his funeral
  2. He is buried in Westminster Abbey
  3. Had become a British citizen
  1. Compositions
  1. Handel is remembered mostly as a composer of opera (42) and oratorio (29)
  2. His first and most successful piece was Messiah in 1741.
  3. Handel’s oratorios were extremely popular in London during his lifetime; he frequently played the organ in the theatre during intermissions
  4. Handel also composed numerous smaller pieces, including sonatas for flute/violin and harpsichord and several organ concertos

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