Time Line

Shakespeare: Hamlet 1600

Cervantes: Don Quixote 1605
Jamestown founded 1607
Galileo: Earth orbits Sun 1610
King James Bible 1611
Newton: Principia Mathematica1687
Witchcraft trials in Salem, Mass. 1692
Defoe: Robinson Crusoe 1719
Swift: Gulliver’s Travels 1726
PART III—THE BAROQUE PERIOD
 The Baroque Style
Time of flamboyant lifestyle

Baroque style “fills the space”

Visual Art
– Implies motion
- Note pictures p. 93

– Busy
- Note pictures p. 94

PART III—THE BAROQUE PERIOD

 The Baroque Style
Architecture
– Elaborate
- Note picture p. 95

Change in approach to science

– Experiment-based, not just observation
– Inventions and improvements result

PART III—THE BAROQUE PERIOD

 Chapter 1: Baroque Music
Period begins with rise of opera
– Opera: a play with speaking parts sung

Period ends with death of J. S. Bach

The two giants: Bach and Handel

Other important composers:

– Claudio Monteverdi – Arcangelo Corelli
– Henry Purcell – Antonio Vivaldi

Chapter 1
Period divided into 3 phases:
– Early: 1600-1640
- Rise of opera

- Text with extreme emotion

- Homophonic to project words

Chapter 1
Period divided into 3 phases:
– Early: 1600-1640

– Middle: 1640-1680
- New musical style spreads from Italy throughout Europe

- Use of the church modes gives way to major and minor scales

- Rise of importance of instrumental music

Chapter 1
Period divided into 3 phases:
– Early: 1600-1640

– Middle: 1640-1680

– Late: 1680-1750
- Instrumental music becomes as important as vocal music

- Elaborate polyphony dominates

- Most baroque music we hear comes from the Late Baroque

Chapter 1
 Characteristics of Baroque Music
Unity of Mood
– Expresses one mood per piece
Rhythm
– Rhythmic patterns are repeated throughout
Melody
– Opening melody heard again and again
Dynamics
– Volumes constant with abrupt changes
Texture
– Late baroque mostly polyphonic
– Extensive use of imitation
Chapter 1
Chords and the Basso Continuo
– Emphasis on way chords follow each other
- Bass part considered foundation of the harmony
– Basso Continuo: bass part with numbers to represent
chord tones
- Similar to modern jazz and pop “fake book” notation

Words and Music

– Text painting/word painting continues
– Words frequently emphasized by extension through
many rapid notes

Chapter 1
 The Baroque Orchestra
Based on violin family of instruments
Small by modern standards
Varying instrumentation
– Combinations of strings, woodwinds, brass, &
percussion (tympani)

Nucleus was basso continuo unit

Composers specified instrumentation

– Timbre was subordinate to melody, rhythm, and
harmony

Chapter 1
 Baroque Forms
Instrumental music frequently made up of contrasting
movements

– Movement: a piece complete in itself, also part of a

larger whole
– Performed with pause between movements
– Unity of mood within individual movements
– Movements often contrast with each other

Chapter 1
 Chapter 10: Antonio Vivaldi
Late baroque Italian composer

Il prete rosso (the red priest)

Taught music at girls’ orphanage in Venice

– Girls performed at mass hidden behind screen

Wrote sacred and secular vocal and instrumental

music
– Best known for concerti grossi & solo concertos for violin
- Solo concerto: piece for single soloist & orchestra

Famous as a virtuoso violinist & composer

Chapter 10
 Listening Performance
Profile: Jeanne
La Primavera (Spring), Op. 8, No. 1, Lamon-violinist/
from The Four Seasons (1725) conductor
Antonio Vivaldi Listen for
First Movement: Allegro interpretation of
tempo, rhythm,
Listening Outline: p. 126 and dynamics, use
Brief Set, CD 2:1 of decorative
tones, and attempt
Concerto for violin and string orchestra to keep a familiar
piece “fresh.”

Note: Polyphonic texture & ritornello form

Baroque program music
Descriptive effects (e.g., bird songs)

Chapter 10
 Listening
Performance
La Primavera (Spring), Op. 8, No. 1, Profile: Jeanne
Lamon-violinist/
from The Four Seasons (1725) conductor
Antonio Vivaldi
Listen for
Second Movement: Largo e pianissimo interpretation of
sempre (very slow and very soft throughout) tempo, rhythm,
and dynamics, use
Listening Guide: pp. 127-129
of decorative
Brief Set, CD 2:6
tones, and attempt
to keep a familiar
Concerto for violin and string orchestra piece “fresh.”

Note: Orchestra reduced to only violins and violas

Descriptive effects (violas: “dog barking”)

Chapter 10
 Listening Performance
Profile: Jeanne
La Primavera (Spring), Op. 8, No. 1, Lamon-violinist/
from The Four Seasons (1725) conductor

Antonio Vivaldi Listen for

Third Movement: Danza pastorale interpretation of
(Pastoral Dance) tempo, rhythm,
and dynamics, use
Listening Guide: p. 129 of decorative
Brief Set, CD 2:7 tones, and attempt
to keep a familiar
Concerto for violin and string orchestra piece “fresh.”

Note: Ritornello form alternates solo and tutti sections

Descriptive effects (sustained notes in low strings to
imitate bagpipes)

Chapter 10
 Time Line

Monroe Doctrine 1823

Hugo: Hunchback of Notre Dame 1831
Dickens: Oliver Twist 1837
Dumas: The Three Musketeers 1844
Poe: The Raven 1845
Darwin: Origin of Species 1859
American Civil War 1861-1865
Twain: Huckleberry Finn 1884
Bell invents telephone 1876
PART V—THE ROMANTIC PERIOD
 Romanticism (1820-1900)
Stressed emotion, imagination, and individualism
Emotional subjectivity basis of arts
Favorite artistic topics:
– Fantasy and the supernatural
– Middle Ages/concept of chivalry and romance
- Architecture revived Gothic elements
– Nature as mirror of the human heart

Period of the Industrial Revolution

– Resulted in social and economic changes

PART V—THE ROMANTIC PERIOD

 Chapter 1: Romanticism in Music
Many important Romantic composers

Franz Schubert Bedrich Smetana

Robert Schumann Antonin Dvořák
Clara Schumann Peter Tchaikovsky
Frederic Chopin Johannes Brahms
Franz Liszt Giuseppe Verdi
Felix Mendelssohn Giacomo Puccini
Hector Berlioz Richard Wagner

Chapter 1
Continued use of classical period forms
– Much individual alteration and adjustment

Greater range of tone color, dynamics, and pitch

than in classical period

Expanded harmony—complex chords

Chapter 1
 Characteristics of Romantic Music

Individuality of Style

Composers wanted uniquely identifiable music

– Worked to find their own voice

In romantic music, it is far easier to identify

individual composers through listening

Chapter 1
 Expressive Aims and Subjects
All approaches were explored:
– Flamboyance, intimacy, unpredictability, melancholy,
rapture, longing, …

Romantic love still the focus of songs and operas

– Lovers frequently depicted as unhappy and facing
overwhelming obstacles

Dark topics draw composers

Chapter 1
 Nationalism and Exoticism
Nationalism: music with a national identity
– Uses folk songs, dances, legends, and history of a land

Exoticism: intentionally implies a foreign culture

– Makes use of melodies, rhythms, and instruments
associated with distant lands

– Frequently employed in operas with foreign settings

Chapter 1
 Program Music
Association with a story, poem, idea, or scene
– Understanding the music is enhanced through reading
the program or viewing the associated work
– Though common in the romantic, concept had been
employed for centuries previously
- E.g., La Primavera (from the Four Seasons) by Vivaldi

– Many Romantic composers were also authors

– Made possible a “union of the arts”
- Poets wanted their poetry to be musical
- Musicians wanted their music to be poetic

Chapter 1
 Expressive Tone Color
Composers tried to create unique sounds
– Blending of existing instruments
– Addition of new instruments
– Never before had timbre been so important
Enlarged orchestra allowed more instrument colors
– Classical 20-60 members vs. Romantic ~100
– Orchestration came to be regarded as an art form
- Berlioz: Treatise on Modern Instrumentation and Orchestration
(1844)
Advances in instrument design allowed more color
– Valved brass instruments could now play melodies
– Piano design improved and range was extended

Chapter 1
 Colorful Harmony

Chords built with notes not in traditional keys

– Chromatic harmony

Harmonic instability a consciously used device

– Wide use of keys

– Frequent and rapid modulation

Chapter 1
 Expanded Range of Dynamics,
Pitch, and Tempo

Dynamics ff, pp expanded to ffff and pppp

Extremely high and low pitches were added

Changes in mood frequently underlined by

(sometimes subtle) shifts in tempo
– Rubato: slight holding back or pressing forward of tempo

Chapter 1
 Forms: Miniature and Monumental
Some composers went on for hours
– Required hundreds of performers

Others’ music lasted only a few minutes

– Written for a single instrument

Composers wrote symphonies, sonatas, string

quartets, concertos, operas, and many other
classically traditional works

Chapter 1
 Chapter 10: Program Music

Instrumental music associated with a story, poem, idea, or scene

– Non-program music is called absolute music

Usually performed with written explanation of

the piece—a program

Chapter 10
In the romantic period, program music was usually
for piano or orchestra

Common types:
– Program symphony: multi-movement/orchestral

– Concert overture\: modeled on opera overture

– Symphonic poem (or tone poem): one movement,

orchestral, flexible form

– Incidental music: for use before or during a play

Chapter 10
 Chapter 12: Nationalism in
Nineteenth-Century Music
National identity grew during the romantic period
– Citizens, not mercenaries, now fought wars
– Bonds of language, history, and culture formed
- Led to unifications creating Germany and Italy
Composers deliberately gave their works distinctive
national identity
– Use of folksongs and folkdances
– Created original melodies with folk flavor
– Wrote operas and program music inspired by native
history, legends, and landscapes
Strongest impact in countries dominated by music of
Germany, Austria, Italy and France
Chapter 12
 Listening
The Moldau (1874)
Part of the cycle Ma Vlast (My Country)
Bedrich Smetana
Symphonic poem depicting the main river that flows thorough
the Bohemian (Czech) countryside

Program notes: p. 254

Listening Outline: p. 255
Brief Set, CD 3:34

Listen for: Program material and how composer

related it to the music

Chapter 12
 Chapter 11: Hector Berlioz
French composer (1803-1869)
Mid-romantic period
Wrote unconventional music
– Passionate and unpredictable
Major award for Fantastic Symphony
– Autobiographical—program note, p. 248
Worked as music critic for support
One of the first of the great conductors

Chapter 11
 Berlioz’s Music

Imaginative, innovative orchestrations

– Required huge resources

Pioneered concept of idee fixe

As a pioneer, his work was not always understood

by his listening public

Chapter 11
 Listening
Symphonie Fantastique (Fantastic Symphony)
Hector Berlioz (1830)

Fourth Movement: March to the Scaffold

Program notes: p. 248
Listening Outline: p. 249 Brief Set, CD 3:30

Listen for: Program material and how related to the

music
Returning melody for idee fixe

Chapter 11
 Listening
Symphonie Fantastique (Fantastic Symphony)
Hector Berlioz (1830)

Fifth Movement: Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath

Program notes: p. 251
Listening Guide: p. 251 Basic Set, CD 5:34

Listen for: Program material and how related to the

music
Returning melody for idee fixe

Chapter 11