Baroque

1
Baroque

• 1600 to 1750
• Baroque was coined in 1750 as a derogatory term
  (meaning deformed pearl)
• Filled Space
• Italy was the most influential country for the
  entire period

2
The two practices

• Giovanni Maria Artusi criticized Monteverdi's
  works especially Cruda Amarilli because of
  Monteverdi's unconventional approach to
  counterpoint
• Monteverdi characterized Zarlino's style as prima
  pratica and his own as seconda pratica
• In Monteverdi's seconda pratica, Zarlino's rules
  could be broken in the interest of text expression

3
Cruda Amarilli (NAWM 53)

• Monteverdi
• Madrigal
• violates Zarlinos rules
• for the sake of expressing the text

4
Characteristics of Baroque Music

• Rhythm
• very regular or very free
• Texture
• firm bass and florid treble, with unobtrusive
  harmony

5
Basso Continuo

• notated treble and bass lines with numbers
  (figures) above the bass line (figured bass) to
  guide the person filling in the chords
• The bass line was played by a sustaining
  instrument, such as bass viola da gamba,
  violoncello, bassoon
• Chords were played (realized) on keyboard or lute

6
Harmony

• Dissonances helped direct the harmonic
  progressions toward cadences
• Major-minor tonalities developed
• Rameau's Treatise on Harmony, 1722, codified the
  harmonic system

7
Early Opera

• Intermedi, or intermezzi
• pastoral, allegorical, or mythological interludes
  
• staged between acts of a play
• Madrigal Comedies

8
The Florentine Camerata

• early 1570s onward
• Count Giovanni Bardi
• Florence, Italy

9
The Earliest Operas

• Ottavio Rinuccini (1562621), a poet, and Jacopo
  Peri (15611633), a composer, collaborated on
  all-sung works
• Dafne, produced in Florence in 1598. Only
  fragments survive
• L'Euridice was set by Peri and also by Giulio
  Caccini both settings were published

10
Peri's Euridice (NAWM 52)

• Optional
• monody
• Prologue (NAWM 52a), was modeled on the strophic
  aria

11
Monteverdi's L'Orfeo (1607)

• First great opera
• based on Greek Mythology
• Recitative Tu se morta
• Basso Continuo
• Word Painting

12
Opera in Venice

• Teatro San Cassiano
• 1637
• First Public Opera House

13
Venice vs. Florence

• Florence the text is the master of the music.
• Venice the libretto merely supports the musical
  structure.

14
Concertato Medium

• Italian concertare, to reach agreement
• mingling of voices with instruments that are
  playing independent parts

15
St. Mark's Cathedral

• the most prestigious place for a musician to work
• Divided choirs (cori spezzati)
• Giovanni Gabrieli

16
In ecclesiis (NAWM 58)

• Giovanni Gabrieli
• Grand Concerto
• cori spezzati
• specified instruments

17
Giacomo Carissimi (16051674)

• Latin oratorios

18
Heinrich Schütz (15851672)

• greatest German composer of the mid-seventeenth
  century
• Studied in Venice with Giovanni Gabrieli
• 161772, worked at the chapel of the elector of
  Saxony in Dresden
• His only surviving compositions were sacred

19
NAWM 62, Saul, was verfolgst du mich

• Schutz
• Grand concerto for six solo voices, two
  four-voice choirs, and two violins with basso
  continuo (and possibly with instruments doubling
  the choruses)
• rests
• Echo effect between soloists and chorus
• Contrasting forces

20
Instrumental Music
21
Variations on a given melody or bass

• partita
• passacaglia
• chaconne

22
Pieces in improvisatory style for solo keyboard
or lute

• Toccata

23
Sonata

• any composition for instruments
• The typical combination was two treble parts
  (usually violin) with basso continuo, usually
  called trio sonatas

24
agréments

• ornamentation

25
Johann Jakob Froberger

• French suite
• allemande, courante, sarabande, gigue

26
The toccata

• Frescobaldi
• Example NAWM 65, Toccata No. 3
• Harpsichord