Chapter 7 The Early Baroque Period

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Chapter 7The Early Baroque Period

• From Renaissance to Baroque

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Key Terms

• Baroque
• Extravagance
• Control
• Venice
• Motet

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Early Baroque Timeline
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Early Baroque Timeline
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Early Baroque Timeline
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From Renaissance to Baroque

• Early Baroque a period of rapid change
• A radical new style emerges
• Influenced by ideas of Florence Camerata
• Focus on expression of strong emotion, not mere
  text painting
• New emphasis on solo singing
• With the development of recitative, a theatrical
  style emerges
• Instrumental music dance music become
  increasingly important

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Renaissance vs. Baroque (1)

• Instruments inferior to human voice
• Vocal ensembles
• A cappella ideal, no accompaniment
• Natural, simple musical ideas

• Instrumental music equally important
• Solo voice preferred
• Voice accompanied by instruments
• Artifice and virtuosity

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Renaissance vs. Baroque (2)

• Irregular, floating rhythms
• Modal harmony
• Music for church and chamber
• Text declamation and word painting

• Clear, dance-influenced rhythms
• Functional harmony
• Music for theater, church, chamber
• Expression of emotions most important

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Music in Venice

• Major economic/cultural center, enriched by
  international trade
• A republic! Cooperative approach to government
  the arts
• Flamboyant, colorful architecture
• Venetian painters used warm, rich hues
• The Bellinis, Titian, Tintoretto
• Venetian music was equally flamboyant, warm,
  rich, and colorful

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Saint Marks

• Basilica was the center for Venetian music
• Many beautiful Byzantine mosaics
• Many balconies and two choir lofts positioned
  farther apart than usual
• Long-standing practice of using two (or more)
  choirs in alternation
• Early example of stereophonic sound!
• Frequent mixing of voices instruments
• Magnificent, extravagant sounds

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St Marks
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St Marks Inside
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Extravagance and Control

• New freedom of expression
• This newly emotional, extravagant music was
  bursting out of traditional forms, styles, and
  genres
• As composers took more freedoms, they became more
  rigorous and systematic
• Careful control yielded music that was expressive
  yet clear, meaningful, and coherent

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Giovanni Gabrieli(c. 1555-1612)

• Organist and composer at St. Marks from 1584
  until his death
• Prolific
• Instrumental works for organ and for chamber
  ensembles
• Works for two or more choirs of voices and/or
  instrumentalists
• Music mixes delicate expressive passages and
  rich, brilliant echo effects

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Gabrieli, O magnum mysterium (1)

• Two choirsseven vocal instrumental parts in
  eachwith organ accompaniment
• Still some Renaissance procedures
• Uses vocal ensembles
• New melody for each phrase of text
• Careful declamation and text painting
• Hushed awe of O magnum mysterium

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Gabrieli, O magnum mysterium (2)

• Careful declamation and text painting (cont.)
• Intimate warmth of et admirabile
• Mild dissonance of iacentem in presepio
• Celebration of alleluias

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Gabrieli, O magnum mysterium (3)

• Many Baroque features as well
• Equal treatment of voices instruments
• Clear, often dancelike rhythms
• Parallels between beginning end (clarity)
• Use of repetition sequence (intensification)

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Gabrieli, O magnum mysterium (4)

• Grand, magnificent sound of large ensemble
• Rich palette of colorsinterplay between choirs
  of voices instruments
• Use of calculated, theatrical contrasts to build
  momentum 228 to end.

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O magnum mysterium

• O magnum mysterium
• Et admirabile sacramentum
• Ut animalia viderunt Dominum natum
• Iacentem in presepio
• Alleluia, alleluia.

• O great mystery
• And wonderful sacrament
• That animals see the Lord new born
• Lying in the manger.
• Hallelujah, hallelujah.