Late Baroque Vocal Choral Music

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Late Baroque Vocal (Choral) Music
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Developments to Opera

• Baroque opera, with its intense emotions and
  larger than life characters, virtuoso singers,
  dances and extravagant set design was the
  quintessential baroque spectacle.
• The most popular musical past time of the era
  (similar to that of a super bowl half-time show,
  or an extravagant rock concert).
  
• Opera houses were independent businesses that
  could support itself by selling season
  subscriptions, this is common place today, but at
  that time, it was a radical shift in music as a
  business.
• Opera stars, singers in particular, lead lives
  that would reflect what rock stars have today,
  being in the public eye, touring from major city
  to major city.

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Opera Seria

• Characters in Baroque operas were frequently in
  the heroes and divinities of classical Greek and
  Rome. (for example, both the Monteverdi and the
  Purcell operas discussed in the last section
  offer a good example of this fascination).
• Late Baroque Opera procedures had evolved into a
  genre called opera seria or serious Opera.
  
• Plots drew on dramatic, often tragic tales from
  classical history and mythology.
  
• Frequently however, a god descending in a machine
  would intervene at the last minute to conjure up
  a happy ending.
  
• These ancient stories provided precisely the
  intrigues, life-and-death struggles, and
  emotional extremes that audiences demanded.
  

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Musical Elements of Opera Seria

• Recitative and Aria became standardized.
• Recitative dialogue, aria-soliloquy (out of the
  action to express emotion)
  
• Arias were lengthy and extremely virtuosic
  played much favour with the audience. (The Da
  Capo Aria most prominent)
  
• A rigid alternation between aria and recit became
  common, in fact, the aria became the make or
  break element of the success of the opera.
  

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Terms Associated with Opera

• Librettist - The person who writes the text by
  which the opera is composed.
  
• Secco Recitative Dry recitative little
  accompaniment (harpsichord only)
  
• Accompanied Recitative Recitative that has more
  accompaniment, and may or may not be somewhat
  metrical
  
• Da Capo Aria the standard form of the Aria in
  Baroque opera (and Oratorio as well, which we
  will get to in a few minutes). Basically, its
  in A B A form, with much ornamentation in the
  repeat of section A.

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Baroque Choral Music

• Although Baroque sacred music takes on many
  forms, two broad generalizations can be made
  
• Baroque sacred music borrows heavily from baroque
  operatic techniques and procedures.
  
• Many Baroque sacred works include a choir and
  give it a more prominent role than in baroque
  opera.
  

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Oratorio

• The Churchs answer to Opera.
• All the same elements of Opera appear in
  Oratorio, with one very notable exception NO
  staging or acting and NO costumes or sets.
  
• Libretto is based on scripture.

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Other Genres of Baroque Choral Music

• Passions,
• Church Cantata
• Mass
• Motet
• Canticles