MUAR 211 Week 4 January 29 - February 2, 2018

Baroque Continued 29/01/18

Baroque Paintings, etc.
▪ All about light
→ Often see a candle
▪ Age of exploration
→ Often have maps
▪ Domestic music making
→ Still mostly for the upper class, but there are starting to be concerts for the public
→ Most women made music at home, but with operas, some women can now do it
professionally
▪ Most work by women composers is lost because it wasn’t celebrated
→ Women and men were usually separated in the court
▪ If a piece has two lines: melody and base, the base part can be played by multiple people
(basso continuo)

Large Scale Instrumental Genres: Two Types of Concerto and the Baroque Dance Suite
▪ Concerto Grosso: written during the baroque period and in the 20th century, but not in
between
→ In the 20th century, they were trying to imitate the baroque period

▪ Concerto Grosso or Solo: any kind of concerto involves an instrumental soloist with
orchestra
→ Solo: 1 soloist
→ Grosso: more than one soloist
→ Orchestra often just strings and not very big
→ No conductor: they either followed the soloist, first violin or harpsichord
→ Most concertos have 3 movements
- Typical first movement: Allegro (meaning fast)
→ Soloists and piano music usually memorized, while the orchestra looks at sheet
music
→ Ritornello form: most simple form
- ritornello part returns, played by the orchestra
- In between, solo plays
→ No piece is called solo concerto or concerto grosso, it always specifies the
instrument
- Ex: “Violin Concerto”
→ Different from Sonatas: instrumental soloist with only basso continuo

▪ Dance Suite
→ Suite = multi-movement
→ Dance suite = the movements are dances
→ Instrumental work
MUAR 211 Week 4 January 29 - February 2, 2018

→ No ensemble designation
- Can have a suite for one instrument, a handful of instruments, or an entire
orchestra

Small-Scale Instrumental Genres (Chamber Music)

▪ Chamber music is not a genre
▪ Sonata: two part music, no matter how many people are playing it
→ For instrumental soloist with basso continuo
- Basso continuo could be one instrument (probably harpsichord because it
can play chords and notes at the same time), or could be multiple
instruments (harpsichord, lute, etc.)
→ Solo sonata: for lute or harpsichord only
- Or for soloist + basso continuo
→ Trio sonata: 3 parts
- Basso continuo
- 2 soloists

Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) – The “Red Priest”

▪ Worked in the Music School of the Pieta
→ Took in orphans, boys and girls kept separately
→ Boys had to leave at 14 years old and become apprentices
→ Women could stay as long as they wanted, and they were trained as musicians
- Now have orchestras of women
▪ Composed The Four Seasons

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 – 1750): End of Baroque 31/01/18

▪ Lutheran composer, not suitable for catholics
▪ Wrote depending on who he was working for, it was just his job
▪ Born into a family of musicians
▪ Became an organist
▪ Worked at a secular court, where he wrote the Brandenburg Concerto

▪ Ex: Brandenburg Concerto No.4 in G major

→ Strings + soloists + harpsichord playing the basso continuo (improvising)
→ Violins mostly playing the same part
→ Ensemble: solo violin, 2 solo recorders, and orchestra
→ Form: ritornello (first movement)
- All baroque concertos start with ritornello
→ Texture: homophonic (as is most baroque music, like opera and concertos)
- Baroque music is very texturally complex
MUAR 211 Week 4 January 29 - February 2, 2018

▪ Ex: Cello Suite No. 2 in D Minor, Gigue

→ Dance (Gigue)
→ Duple beat, triple subdivisions of each beat (6/8)
→ Has a pickup: an important short note before the down beat (down beat on ‘one’)
→ Texture: homophonic, but kind of not?  this question won’t be asked, it’s too
complicated
- Cellos can play two notes at the same time, but that will always be a held
note
→ Genre: gigue and cello suite are both genres
- genre of this particular movement: gigue
- genre of piece as a whole: suite
→ Ensemble: cello

Fugues
▪ Contrapultal: polyphony
▪ Fugues are imitative polyphony
▪ Writing a fugue is a big technical exercise, because the melody has to sound good with
itself in many different ways
▪ Most of Bach’s music wasn’t published, he just had to do it for work then move on to the
next piece
→ Now that we’ve studied his music, we know how impressive he was
▪ Fugue isn’t really a genre, it’s more of a procedure
▪ Fugues can often be for sacred purposes

Sacred Contata
▪ Sacred genre
▪ Happened in german Lutheran churches
▪ Have choruses, arias, recitatives, etc.
→ Have what you’d expect in an opera
▪ Text is in the vernacular language (German)
→ Not everyone can understand the religion
▪ Have to know ensemble types for the different movements (tenor aria, SATB quartet,
chorale)
▪ Small choir, vocal soloists, an orchestra and an organ 02/02/18

▪ Ex: Contata BWV 4, Christ lag in Todes Banden

→ Performed at Easter
→ Don’t need to name the movements, but you have to know the subgenre and
ensemble of each movement
→ 1. Sinfonia
- Performed by 15+ people on stage, but there are only five parts
MUAR 211 Week 4 January 29 - February 2, 2018

→ 4. Tenor aria for tenor, obligato violin, basso continuo

- Song (vocal work with accompaniment)  aria
• Strong beat, starts repeating text, accompanied song
- Prominent violin part  obligato: must be played
- Ensemble: tenor, violin, basso continuo

→ 5. SATB quartet with basso continuo

- Ensemble: SATB quartet and basso continuo

→ 8. Harmonized chorale for chorus, orchestra and congregation

- All playing same music at same time  homorhythm

Chorale (Lutheran Chorale)

▪ Hymn/chorale: sacred, vernacular, repeated music  strophic form
→ Strophic form: text of music chances, but music doesn’t
▪ Homorhythmic
▪ Simple rhythms
▪ This is all so that it’s easy to sing
▪ 3 types of movements: tenor aria, SATB quartet with continuo, choral with orchestra

George Frederic Handel (1685 – 1759)

▪ Handel’s music still survives, because he died right before people started listening to old
music
▪ German composer who was one of the best Italian opera composers
▪ Invented the English oratorio
→ For English audience
→ Made lots of money in England, then went bankrupt twice doing Italian opera after
it wasn’t really popular in England anymore

▪ Oratorio: Secular, but on biblical topics

→ Didn’t have to be about roman/green topics
→ Has libretto with plots and characters
→ No acting, scenery or costumes
- It would’ve been offensive if people pretended to be the biblical characters
→ Ex: “Hallelujah” chorus from the Messiah
- Very famous, but not required to know
→ Ex: “There were shepherds” (soprano recitative) and “Glory to God” (chorus)