Part B

Late Baroque Music:

Bach and Handel
LESSON 4
Fadi Kallab - PFA211
Introduction
• Two imposing figures of music during the late Baroque
period (1710–1750): Johann Sebastian Bach and George
Frideric Handel.
• The late Baroque is not of musical innovation, but of
consolidation and refinement. Neither Bach nor Handel
invented any new forms, styles, or genres; instead, they
gave greater weight, length, and polish to those established
by their musical predecessors, such as Monteverdi and
Vivaldi.
• The late Baroque music (around 1725) witnessed a flood of
new counterpoint and reaches its apex in the rigorously
contrapuntal works of Johann Sebastian Bach.
• Composers reintroduced polyphony to add richness to
musical texture
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750)
• From roughly 1600 to 1800, nearly 100 musicians
with the name of Bach worked in central
Germany: the name was a brand!
• J. S. Bach was self-taught. To learn his craft, he
studied, copied, and arranged the compositions of
Vivaldi, Pachelbel, and even Palestrina.
• He also learned to play the organ, in part by
emulating others, once traveling on foot a 645 km
round trip to hear a great performer, and
eventually became the most renowned organ
virtuoso in Germany.
• Of all instruments, the (pipe) organ is the most
suitable for playing polyphonic counterpoint due
to its separate keyboards for the hands and an
additional one for the feet which gives it the Example 1
capacity to play several lines simultaneously.
Organ Fugue in G minor (c. 1710)
• It is a polyphonic musical form that originated in the Baroque
era. The word “fugue” comes from Latin (fuga) and means
“flight” alluding to a theme that “flies away” from one voice
to another. (Ex. Fugue in G min.)
• A fugue usually has three to five “voices.” These may be actual
human voices (soprano, alto, tenor, and bass of a choir) or
lines played by a group of instruments, or even by a solo
instrument like the piano, guitar, or organ (which have the
capacity to play several “voices” simultaneously).
• The theme (main melody) is called Subject and moves from
one voice to another without being imitated exactly in the
other voices but rather progresses in free counterpoint.
• The Exposition ends once all voices of the fugue have entered
with the subject, there follows a section of free counterpoint
called the Episode. In an episode the subject is not heard in its
entirety, only brief allusions to it.
• Whereas the subject is firmly in a key, an episode modulates
from one key to another.
• An example of a typical formal plan of the fugue

• Bach composed his G minor organ fugue while working as a court organist for the Duke of
Weimar. This fugue has four voices (we’ll call them soprano, alto, tenor, and bass for
convenience purposes) and it begins with a statement of the subject in the soprano.

Example 2
• The subject conveys a sense of gathering
momentum: it starts moderately with quarter
notes and then seems to gain speed as eighth
notes and finally sixteenth notes are
introduced.

• In a fugue the voices need not appear in any

particular order; here Bach simply decided to
have them enter in succession from top to
bottom.

• Once all voices are in, the exposition is over,

and the alternation of episodes and subject
statements begins.
The Church Cantata
• In 1723 Bach moved to the German city of
Leipzig to assume the coveted position of
cantor of Saint Thomas’s church and choir
school and stayed there until his death at
the age of 65 in 1750.
• In addition to his many responsibilities as
stipulated by the contract, he had to
compose new music for the church each
Sunday and every religious holiday and
wrote nearly 300 cantatas. In doing so, he
brought an important genre of music, the
church cantata, to the highest point of its
development.
• The church cantata is a multimovement
sacred work, lasting twenty to thirty
minutes, which included recitatives, arias,
and choruses, all accompanied by a small
orchestra.
 • Composed in 1731 for the Sunday before Advent (thus five Sundays before
Christmas) based on the Gospel of Matthew (25:1–13) which speaks of a
bridegroom (Christ) who is arriving to meet the ten virgins (the Christian
Wachet auf, community) thus inviting the faithful to be spiritually ready for the coming
ruft uns die of Christ at Christmas.
• The cantata is set in 7 movements and based on a Chorale which is a
Stimme spiritual melody of the Lutheran church (in this case Philipp Nicolai).
(Awake, a Voice Is Chorales were intended to be easy to remember and sing. Some are
Calling, 1731) centuries old (Gregorian chant), some are composed in the 16th century
(Martin Luther for example), and some were initially popular songs.
• Notice the formal symmetry across all seven movements of the cantata.
The chorale is sung three times to three different stanzas of text, and these
presentations come at the beginning, middle, and end of the work.
Between statements of the chorale tune are linked pairs of recitative and
aria.
 A

The most common structure for a chorale tune is AAB. This chorale contains seven
musical phrases unfolding in the following way: A (1, 2, 3) A (1, 2, 3) B (4–7, 3 to round
out the melody).
• 1st Movement (Excerpt)

Example 3

• 4th Movement (Excerpt)

Example 4
(15’19’’ until 19’42”)

• In the 4th movement, the text of the chorale speaks of the meeting
of Christ and the five virgins (true believers); they enter the banquet
hall to share the Lord’s Supper.

• For this spiritual vision, Bach constructs a musical tapestry for chorus
and orchestra. The main thread is the chorale tune which Bach places
in long notes in the tenor voice of his choir. The tenors represent the
watchmen of Jerusalem (Leipzig) calling on the people to awaken.
 • Around the chorale tune Bach weaves a second melody. Here again, we see a late-Baroque melody
that starts haltingly but gathers speed and force as it moves ever forward.

• All the violins and violas play in unison symbolizing the unifying love of Christ for his people.
• Beneath both this melody and the chorale tune the bass plays a walking bass (one that moves in equal
note values step by step to neighboring pitches). The walking bass in this movement enhances the
meaning of the text, underscoring the steady approach of the Lord.

• This movement was one of Bach’s own favorites and the only cantata movement that he
published (all the rest of his Leipzig cantata music was left in handwritten scores,
generally deemed worthless, immediately after his death).
• In the last movement of his cantatas, Bach often ends with a simple four-voice setting of
the chorale tune. The seventh and final movement of Wachet auf is typical of Bach’s
approach. Here he assigns the chorale tune to the soprano (top) part and supports it with
homophonic chords suggesting a simple setting.

Example 4b
(26’43’’)

• In this final movement of the cantata the members of Bach’s congregation joined in the
singing of the chorale tune. Martin Luther had ordained that the community should not
merely witness but also participate in communal worship.
Recap. of Baroque Music
Renaissance Music (1450 – 1600)
• Chant inspired
• Imitative Polyphony
• Predominantly vocal
• Performed mostly A Cappella
• Genres: The 3 M’s: Mass – Motet - Madrigal

Baroque Music (1600 – 1750)

• Genres: Concerto Grosso – Fugue – Opera – Cantata – Oratorio
• Can be both homophonic and polyphonic (J. S. Bach)
• Predominantly instrumental
• Violin becomes the leading instrument
• Strong bass line set by Basso Continuo which the Harpsichord is part of
• A single “ethos” (once a mood is set for a piece it does not change) (Ex: Bach
Violin Concerto in A minor)
George Frideric Handel (1685–1759)
• Bach and Handel were born in the same year, 1685, in
small towns in central Germany. Handel was born in the
town of Halle, Germany, and died in London.
• Handel traveled the world—from Rome, to Venice, to
Hamburg, to Amsterdam, to London, to Dublin.
• His father demanded that he become a lawyer, young
Handel managed to cultivate his interest in music,
sometimes secretly in the attic!
• In 1710, London (the largest and richest city in Europe
then) becomes the site of his musical activity and the
place where he wins fame and fortune.
• Handel frequently composed festival music to entertain
the court or provide a “soundtrack” for its events. For
these occasions, Handel produced Concerti Grossi as well
as music such as Water Music (1717), Music for the Royal
Fireworks (1749), and the Coronation Service (1727) for
King George II and Queen Caroline, parts of which have
been used at the coronation of every English monarch
since then.
 Handel and Opera
• Handel emigrated from Germany to England in 1710 to make money producing Italian opera.
• With the rare exception of a work such as Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas there was no opera in London at this
time.
• London audiences, he reasoned, were daily growing wealthier and more cosmopolitan, and would
welcome the “high art” of imported Italian opera!
• Guaranteeing himself a healthy share of the profits, Handel formed an opera company, the Royal
Academy of Music, for which he served as composer, director, and producer.
• The type of Italian opera Handel produced in London is called opera seria (literally, “serious—as opposed
to comic—opera”), a style that then dominated the operatic stage throughout continental Europe.
• In three long acts, opera seria chronicled the triumphs and tragedies of kings and queens, or gods and
goddesses, thus appealing to society’s nobility.
• He presented his first opera, Rinaldo (1711) at the Queen’s Theater and Giulio Cesare (Julius Caesar,
1724), a recasting of the story of Caesar’s conquest of the army of Egypt and Cleopatra’s romantic
conquest of Caesar.
• In Handel’s day, the leading male roles in opera seria were sung by castrati (castrated males with the
vocal range of a female). Baroque audiences associated high social standing on stage with a high voice,
male or female. The role of Rinaldo was originally sung by an alto castrato.
• Opera is a risky business, and in 1728 Handel’s Royal Academy of Music went bankrupt, a victim of the
exorbitant fees paid to the star singers and the fickle tastes of English theatergoers. Handel continued to
write operas into the early 1740s, but he turned his attention increasingly to a musical genre less
financially volatile than opera: oratorio. (Handel the Businessman)
The Da Capo Aria Form
• An aria in ternary form (ABA) first appeared in the works of Handel and Bach during the
Baroque period and was further developed in the 17th and 18th centuries.
• The B section was characterized by a key change, usually to minor.
• Typically, in the score of a da capo aria, the third section is not written out but the
instruction da capo (from the head/beginning) is given instead. The repeat of the A section is
performed with the solo ornamented.
Opera Rinaldo’s plot:
General Goffredo and the mighty knight Rinaldo, who are at war with Argante, the king of Jerusalem,
and his mistress, the wicked enchantress Armida. Goffredo promises that his daughter Almirena will
marry Rinaldo once they achieve victory. But when Armida kidnaps Almirena, our heroes embark on a
quest to find a magician who will help them rescue Almirena and defeat Armida and her followers.
Eventually, with the power of magic, everything sorts itself out. Goffredo and Rinaldo defeat their
enemies, and the lovers are reunited.
• In Lascia ch'io pianga (let me weep), the abducted Almirena, who is the love of Rinaldo's life,
sings of her poignant fate in the enchanted garden of Armida.

Example 5
Handel and the Oratorio
• An oratorio is literally “something sung in an
oratory,” an oratory being a hall or chapel used
specifically for prayer and sometimes prayer
with music.

• By the time it reached Handel’s hands, the

oratorio had become close to an unstaged
opera with a religious subject.
Oratorio San Francesco Saverio del Caravita - Rome
Similarities and Differences between Opera and Oratorio
Similarities Differences
• Performed in theater. • The oratorio treats a spiritual subject.
• The oratorio is performed in a church, a concert hall, or a
• In three acts/parts theater, but it makes no use of acting, staging, or
and preceded by an costumes.
overture. • The oratorio is sung in English (not Italian).
• The plots in an oratorio are taken from sacred scripture
• Composed primarily (not ancient history or myth).
of recitatives and • The voices in an oratorio are less operatic (less virtuosic).
arias. • The chorus plays a larger role in the oratorio and serves
as a narrator but more often functions as the voice of the
• Long duration: 2 to 3 people commenting on the action.
hours. • Appeals to the upper-middle-class audience.
 The Benefits of Composing Oratorios Rather than Operas
• Handel could do away with the irascible and expensive castrati and prima donnas.

• Handel no longer had to pay for elaborate sets and costumes.

• Handel could draw on the longstanding English love of choral music, a tradition that
extended well back into the Middle Ages.

• Handel could exploit a new, untapped market—the faithful of the Puritan, Methodist, and
growing evangelical sects in England, who had viewed the pleasures of foreign opera with
distrust and even contempt.

• The oratorio was sung in English, contributing further to the genre’s appeal to a large
segment of English society.
Oratorio: Messiah
• In 1741, Handel had the opportunity to write and perform an
entire season of music (1741 – 1742) in Dublin. He rounded up
some music and some instruments and wrote some music, new
and specific for Dublin.
• Handel wrote the Messiah in just three weeks in September of
1741. But the work wasn't performed until April of 1742
because Handel was waiting for the solemn week of Holy Week
(right before Easter) which he thought was an appropriate time
of year to perform Messiah.
• The local newspapers praised the rehearsals saying that this
oratorio “far surpasses anything of that Nature, which has been
performed in this or any other Kingdom.”
• It became so successful that ladies were urged not to wear
hoop skirts and gentlemen were admonished to leave their
swords at home. In this way, Handel squeezed seven
hundred “paying customers” into a hall with benches
usually seating only six hundred.
• With this success in Dublin, Handel took the oratorio
Messiah back to London, made minor alterations, and
performed it in Covent Garden Theater.
• In 1750, he offered Messiah again, this time in the chapel
of the Foundling Hospital an orphanage in London, and
again there was much popular acclaim for Handel, as well
as profit for charity.
• Messiah tells the story of the life of Christ. It is divided
into three parts (instead of three acts): (I) the prophecy of
His coming and His Incarnation, (II) His Passion and
Resurrection, and (III) reflections on the Christian victory
over death.
• There is neither plot action nor “characters” in the
dramatic sense, nor are there costumes or staging. The
drama is experienced in the mind of the listener.
• So moved was King George II when he first heard the The Foundling Hospital in the 18th century
great opening chords of the Hallelujah chorus, the story
goes, that he rose to his feet in admiration. thereby
establishing the tradition of the audience standing for the
“Hallelujah” chorus—for no one sat while the king stood!
• Listening: Amen chorus (Part 3 - last chorus)

Example 6
(start 3’43”)

• Toward the end of his life, he occupied a

prestigious house in the center of London; bought
paintings, including a Rembrandt; and, on his
death, left an estate of nearly £20,000—roughly
the equivalent of $5 million today.

• More than three thousand attended his funeral in

Westminster Abbey on April 20, 1759, and a
sculpture of the composer holding an aria from
Messiah was erected above his grave and is still
there.