1. Prelude The boundary dates for the Baroque era are 1600 and 1750. These dates are only approximations. Unifying characteristics – Conventions for organizing music – Common ideas about how music should sound – Belief that music should move the listener

2. Prelude Musicians in 1600 deliberately cultivated new music. New idioms: basso continuo, monody, recitative New styles: unprepared dissonances, focus on solo voice or instrument New genres: opera

3. Prelude Italy dominated musical fashion. By 1750, the musical language was Italian. Florence hosted innovations that led to opera. Rome influenced sacred music and was briefly a center of opera. Venice and Naples cultivated opera. Composers at Saint Mark’s in Venice influenced choral and instrumental music.

4. CHARACTERISTICS OF BAROQUE MUSIC

5. Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) Believed dissonant rules could be broken for dramatic effect. Cruda Amarilli uses unprepared dissonances to express words, such as cruda (“cruel”) and ahi lasso (“alas”)

6. Monteverdi, Cruda Amarilli

7. Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) Debate – Artusi, a student of Zarlino, criticized Cruda Amarilli. – He cited examples of unprepared dissonance without referring to the text. – Monteverdi’s brother defended the second practice (seconda pratica), in which music had to serve the text.

8. Rhythm Music was either free or metric; often the two were contrasted. Speechlike rhythms were used for recitative and improvisatory instrumental works. Rhythms were used to arouse affections. Barlines, suggesting strong and weak beats, became common.

9. Texture Polarity between bass and melody Basso continuo (or thorough bass) – The music was notated with the melody and the bass line. – Figures added to bass notes indicated chords other than root position. – A cello, bassoon, or viola da gamba played the bass line. – Keyboard or plucked instruments (such as the chitarrone) played both bass and chords.

10. Harmony A variety of intervals were tolerated. Conventions governed the treatment of dissonances. Chromaticism was incorporated into an orderly scheme.

11. Opera Drama sung to continuous or nearly continuous music Staged with scenery, costumes, and action Composed to a libretto (It: “little book”), a play written in rhymed and unrhymed verse The quintessential art form of the age, it was the most common path to fame and fortune for composers and performers.

12. Opera The association of music and drama has a long history. – The choruses and lyric speeches in Greek plays were sung. – Medieval liturgical dramas were performed with music. – Renaissance plays often incorporated songs or sung choruses.

13. The Florentine Camerata A group of scholars in Florence who discussed literature, science, and the arts. Members – Count Bardi, the host – Vincenzo Galilei (ca. 1520s–1591), theorist and composer, father of the famous astronomer – Giulio Caccini (ca. 1550–1618), a composer of the 1589 intermedi

14. The Florentine Camerata of Jacopo Corsi (1561–1602) This later camerata also discussed ancient and modern music. Significant members – Ottavio Rinuccini (1562–1621), poet – Jacopo Peri (1561–1633), composer They believed that Greek tragedies were sung in their entirety.

15. L’EURIDICE (1600)

16. Librettist and composers Rinuccini wrote the libretto. The text was set by both Peri and Caccini. – The first performance contained music from both versions. – The two published their music quickly in an attempt to be credited with the “first” opera.

17. Story Based on the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice A happy ending was added. The story demonstrates music’s power to move the emotions. Orfeo persuades the underworld to restore Euridice to life through song.

18. Music Caccini’s setting is melodious and lyrical. Peri’s is better suited to drama. – He varied the musical style according to the situation. – The melodies resembled speech.

19. Music Recitative – Created for dialogue portions of the drama – Peri sought to bridge Greek ideas of pitch in speech and intervallic (diastematic) pitch in song. – The basso continuo sustains a chord as the singer moves between pitches that are consonant and dissonant against it. – Consonances occur on all stressed syllables. – Recitative sounds spontaneous and speechlike.

20. L’ORFEO (1607)

21. Claudio Monteverdi Inspired by these early operas, he composed Orfeo within the decade. It became the first opera to achieve a permanent place in the repertory. Based on a libretto by Striggio, it tells the same story as Euridice. Monteverdi mirrored the variety of musical styles of the earlier works. The recitative style is derived from Peri.

22. Distinctive qualities Recitatives achieve more continuity and a longer line. Greater variety through solo airs, duets, choruses, and dances Ritornellos, recurring instrumental sections, help organize the music.

23. OPERA IN ROME AND VENICE

24. Opera in Rome and Venice Rome became the center for opera in the 1620s. The range of topics expanded to include epics, saints’ lives, and comedy. Important figures – Giulio Rospigliosi (later Pope Clement IX) was the most prolific librettist. – Stefano Landi (1587–1639) composed Sant’ Alessio (1632) on a libretto by Rospigliosi.

25. Opera in Rome and Venice Stage effects were spectacular, e.g., flames consuming devils. Recitative and aria became more clearly defined. – Recitative became more speech-like. – Arias became melodious and were usually strophic.

26. Opera in Rome and Venice Castrati – Men who had been castrated before puberty sang treble parts in church because women were not permitted to sing in church. – In Rome, women were not permitted on stage; castrati sang treble roles. – Later, castrati sang outside of Italy but only in male roles.

27. Venice Public opera houses – Teatro San Cassiano opened as the first public opera house in 1637. – By the end of the century, there were nine stages devoted to opera. Visitors who celebrated carnival season from December 26 through Lent attended operas in public theaters.

28. Monteverdi Monteverdi moved to Venice in 1613, becoming maestro di cappella at Saint Mark’s. While in his seventies, he composed three new operas, two of which have survived. – Il ritorno d’Ulisse (The Return of Ulysses, 1640) is based on Homer’s Odyssey. – L’Incoronazione di Poppea (The Coronation of Poppea, 1642) is based on a historical subject: Roman Emperor Nero’s second marriage.

29. Italian opera characteristics The basic qualities of Italian opera would be unchanged for two hundred years. – Concentration on solo singing – Separation of recitative and aria – Distinctive styles and forms for arias Music was no longer the servant of poetry. Interest focused on the visual elements, arias, and star performers.

30. Sacred music Catholic music from southern Europe developed new genres. – Sacred vocal concerto – Oratorio Lutheran church music spread through northern Europe. Instrumental music found a place in religious circles.

31. Influences Changes in intellectual and artistic realms influenced music. – Musicians expanded their vocabulary to meet new expressive needs. – Composers poured more intense and varied emotions into their works. – By midcentury, harmony, tone color, and form had created a common musical language.

32. Cantata New genre of vocal chamber music, originally meaning “piece to be sung” (from Italian, cantare) Characteristics (mid-seventeenth century) – A secular composition on a lyrical or dramatic text – Usually for solo voice and continuo – Contains several sections of recitative and aria Main composers: Rossi, Carissimi, and Barbara Strozzi

33. Oratorio A religious dramatic music incorporating narrative, dialogue and commentary – Performed during Lent – Called “oratorio” because they were most often performed in the prayer hall (oratorio). – Developed in Rome in the seventeenth century – Early librettos were in Latin or Italian.

34. Oratorio Differences from opera – Seldom staged – Used a narrator called a storicus (storyteller) or testo (text) – The chorus took on different roles and functions. Giacomo Carissimi (1605–1674) was the leading composer of Latin oratorios.

35. Oratorio Jephte (ca. 1648) by Carissimi – Biblical text from Judges 11:29–40 with some paraphrasing and added material – Jephthe promises God that he will sacrifice whatever creature first greets him on his return home if God will help him defeat the Ammonites. – His only daughter is the first to greet him. – After a dialogue, she sings a lament followed by a responding chorus.