Chapter 7 The Early Baroque Period

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Chapter 7The Early Baroque Period

• The Rise of Instrumental Music

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Key Terms

• Dance
• Stylized dances
• Suites
• Movements
• Virtuosity
• Fugue
• Variations

• Registrations
• Toccata
• Canzona
• Balletto
• Corrente
• Passacaglia
• Chromaticism

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The Rise of Instrumental Music

• Vocal music was Renaissance ideal instrumental
  music lagged behind
• Though it didnt catch up with opera,
  instrumental music became much more important in
  Baroque era
• Many new instrumental genres created
• Three sources of inspiration for instrumental
  composers
• Dance, virtuosity, vocal music

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Dance

• Dance had always been popular
• Ballet was an integral part of new genres such as
  opera, especially in France
• Dances from popular operas were compiled in dance
  suites for orchestra
• Composers also wrote dances (often stylized)
  suites for lute, harpsichord, chamber ensembles
• The rhythms of favorite dances came to permeate
  all genres, even church music

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Virtuosity

• Virtuoso instrumentalists always existed
• Due to low status of instrumental music
• They improvised their music (played by ear)
• Their music was rarely written down
• In late Renaissance and early Baroque, composers
  began to write it down
• Written works did not capture complexity of
  virtuoso improvisation
• Performers came to use written music as a guide
  for (often ornate) improvisation

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Vocal Music

• Baroque vocal music abandoned vocal ensemble
  music in favor of solo singers
• Imitative polyphony of older motets madrigals
  moved to instrumental medium
• Imitative instrumental genres were written mostly
  for keyboard (organ harpsichord)
• Often associated with church music
• Fugue is the most famous genre to emerge from
  these practices

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Vocal Music (2)

• Vocal music also provided a large body of
  well-known tunes, sacred and secular
• Instrumental performers would often improvise on
  these tunes
• Instrumental composers began to write sets of
  variations on these tunes

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Girolamo Frescobaldi(1583-1643)

• Leading organ virtuoso of early Baroque
• Worked in Florence Rome (at St. Peters)
• Famous performer, composer, teacher
• Known for expressiveness extravagance of his
  improvising his compositions
• His favored genres included
• Toccatas, canzonas, stylized dances suites, and
  sets of variations on vocal melodies

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St Peters in Rome
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Some Instrumental Works

• Toccatas
• Free-form pieces that capture the spirit of
  improvised performances
• Canzonas
• Rigorously organized works emphasizing imitative
  textureancestor of the fugue
• Stylized dances
• Short binary form works, often in suites
• Sets of variations
• Based on vocal melodies or harmonic patterns

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Frescobaldi, Suite (1a)

• Canzona
• An imitative keyboard work modeled after
  Renaissance chanson.
• First section uses a single motive imitatively

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Frescobaldi, Suite (1b)

• Canzona (cont.)
• The second, contrasting section introduces a new
  motive for imitation
• Sections tend to end with strong cadences

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Frescobaldi, Suite (2)

• Balletto and Corrente
• Pairing slower and faster dances was a common
  practice (cf. pavane galliard)
• Both dances use binary form, homophonic texture,
  same key, very similar bass lines
• In other respects the dances differgood examples
  of inner vs. outer form
• Balletto uses duple meter, slow tempo
• Corrente uses triple meter, faster tempo

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Frescobaldi, Suite (3a)

• Passacaglia
• A set of variations on a brief series of chords
  (and their accompanying bass line)
• Originated in Spain as an improvised bridge
  between verses of a song
• Frescobaldi may have been the first to turn it
  into a variation form
• Similar to ground bass works, but the bass line
  is repeated less strictly

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Frescobaldi, Suite (3b)

• Frescobaldis Passacaglia
• Based on a four-measure harmonic pattern that
  ends (inconclusively) on the dominant
• At times he inverts or omits the ground bass
• Eighteen variations over this simple pattern
• Frescobaldi creates endless variety through
  changing rhythms and chromaticism
• In a surprise move, the last five variations are
  more sober, switching to minor mode