Baroque Period

1600-1750
 Introduction
• Human emotions
• Basso continuocreations such as opera, sonata, concerto
• Clubs in Italian cities: camerata
• Model: symposia from antiquity (people met in a house of
a patron and talked)

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 Camerata Fiorentina

• Founded in 1582
• Most important gathering
• Goal: revive ancient drama
• Drama: singing, instruments, actingall lost
• Invent smth. new: took the term that was already known in ancient
timesMonody (actor sang an aria)
• Monos: alone & ode: singing
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 Basso continuo

• Melody with a bass note and the bass note was harmonized
• Numbers below the bass note
• Determined the chord progression in Baroque musical compositions

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 Important Composers

Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) Antonio Vivaldi (ca. 1678-1741)

• One of the first opera composers • Known for the development of
• Transition of musical style from the concerto form and the opera
Renaissance to Baroque period as a genre
• Over 40 operas

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 Important composers

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) Georg Friedrich Händel (1685-1759)

• Most significant Baroque composer • Kapellmeister to the English King
• Church musician“Thomaskantor“ • Opera impresario
in Leipzig • Composed concerts, but best
• Composed in nearly all known for his operas and oratorios
contemporary musical genres of his
time
• Toccata in D minor:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ho9rZjlsyYY

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 The Opera (Genre)

• THE courtly form of entertainment for a long time.

• Venice: Tron built the first public opera house in 1637
• Consisted of loges sold to rich people that supported the theatre
• The opera: social function, food and drinks were served
• Spectacle and commedia dell'arte (comedy & mythology) ordinary people
bought tickets
• Fires were very commondestroyed the music
• Opera was always produced for the present
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 Baroque Opera

• L’Arianna (1608) by C. Monteverdi

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iY1jBk50ok

• Ariodante (1735) by G.F. Händel

• Volate, amori
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSR-SgY-5T0

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 L‘Orfeo (1607)

• One of the earliest operas in the history of music

• Inspiration from the ancient myth of Orpheus and Eurydice
• Orpheus because one needed a reason why the actors in the opera sing
and not speak
• Music: rather boring
• Text: Italian
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjpFi9bn1do
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 Opera Seria

• =serious opera (Neapolitan opera)

• sequence of recitatives and da capo arias
• Not really an "opera"

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 Church Music

• Sacred counterpart to opera: oratorio

• Cantata: high point with Bach in the Protestant church
• Mass: important in the Baroque era

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 Castrati singers

• The church in Rome: problem with women

• Letter by apostle Paul to the Corinthians, "Let the woman be silent in the
church!" women were not allowed to sing in the opera either
• Only a few castrati became rich and famous
• The best and most famous castrato: “Farinelli”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3fzhMnGs5E
• Very virtuosiccompetitive arias, between the castrato and the trumpeter of the
orchestra.
• A new form that would allow the singer to show his virtuosityda capo aria It
was played over and over again until one gave up. 12
 Matthäuspassion

• The term "Passion" refers to the musical setting of the story of Jesus'
suffering, as told by one of the four Evangelists (Matthew, Mark,
Luke, John).
• Typically performed by vocal soloists, choir, and orchestra
• Musical forms: arias, recitatives, and chorals
• St. Matthew Passion: "O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden“
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9yp-sVrOjo

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 Instrumental Music

• With the transition to the Baroque period  several genres of stand-alone

instrumental music emerged, including sonatas, suites, and concertos
• Instrument-makers improved existing instruments and invented new ones
• Some became "extinct" today, but they are still used for the authentic
performance of Baroque music
• Baroque trumpets and horns did not have valves, so they could only
produce "natural tones" on them

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 Concerto Grosso

• Multi-movement instrumental work: an orchestra (Tutti) and a small

group of soloists (Concertino)
• Johann Sebastian Bach's instrumental music: Six Brandenburg
Concertos, dedicated to Margrave Christian Ludwig of Brandenburg
(1677-1734)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tr_uYEQkrs

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 Die vier Jahreszeiten (The Four Seasons)

• Antonio Vivaldi
• 1725
• Masterpieces of program music
• Musical portrayal of the changing seasons
• Four violin concertos, each with three movements
• Each concerto preceded by a sonnet-like poem in a 14-line structure
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3nSvIiBNFo
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