EARLY BAROQUE OPERA Origins of the Baroque

The “first practice” The “first practice” is the older, established, tradition of Renaissance music, and is mainly polyphonic in nature. Polyphony—several musical lines or voices that sound simultaneously but move independently. The art of counterpoint continues to develop during the Baroque era and remains important well into the 19 th -c.

The “second practice” The “second practice” used vocal music as its standard. Inventors of this second practice helped shape opera into an art form, and the appearance of this art form marks the beginning of the Baroque period. Music of the “second practice” is monodic. It consists of a single melodic line against a complementary accompaniment (called basso continuo.) Texture—homophonic This accompaniment does not compete with the text, but enhances the emotional expression of the text.

Stile recitativo The word “recitative” derives from the same root word as “recite”. This style of singing lies somewhere between singing and speaking. Allows words to be projected with special clarity.

Claudio Monteverdi Monteverdi ( ) An innovator, his career straddled the Renaissance and the Baroque Era. He composed in both the old and new styles. Director of music at St. Mark’s in Venice. (Italy was the center of the musical world during the Renaissance) LA Tu se’ morta from Orpheus (1607)

Henry Purcell Purcell ( ) Opera: “Dido and Aeneas” Aeneas is from Troy. Dido is the windowed Queen of Carthage (Tunisia). Typical of opera, this is a story of ill-fated love. Dido and Aeneas was composed in Opera was not popular in England. Eventually, Italian opera achieved some popularity. Dido is the one of the first operas written in English.