1. Music of the Baroque Period
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2. Baroque Historical Highlights
Age of Absolutism; Kings and Queens are all-powerful
Known for extreme decadence and extravagance of aristocracy (e.g. Louis XIV and his palace of Versailles)
Church Splits in Two; Europe split into Catholic countries (Italy, France, Spain) and Protestant countries (England, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden)

3. The Palace at Versailles

4. The King’s Bedroom, The Opera House

5. “Baroque” Defined
Baroque means exaggerated or over-ornamented; these adjectives relate to music and visual arts
Baroque period, era in the history of the Western arts roughly coinciding with the 17th century. Its earliest manifestations, which occurred in Italy, date from the latter decades of the 16th century, while in some regions, notably Germany and colonial South America, certain of its culminating achievements did not occur until the 18th century. The work that distinguishes the Baroque period is stylistically complex, even contradictory. In general, however, the desire to evoke emotional states by appealing to the senses, often in dramatic ways, underlies its manifestations. Some of the qualities most frequently associated with the Baroque are grandeur, sensuous richness, drama, vitality, movement, tension, emotional exuberance, and a tendency to blur distinctions between the various arts.
A term used in the literature of the arts with both historical and critical meanings and as both an adjective and a noun. The word has a long, complex and controversial history (it possibly derived from a Portuguese word for a misshapen pearl, and until the late 19th century it was used mainly as a synonym for `absurd' or `grotesque'), but in English it is now current with three principal meanings.

6. Triumph of the Barberini by Pietro Da Cortona

7. Baroque Artistic Highlights
Emphasis on DRAMA (extreme and heightened emotion) in music and visual arts
Paintings by Artemisia Gentilleschi show this emphasis on DRAMA

8. Baroque Musical Highlights
Birth of OPERA - theatrical presentations with music and elaborate stage spectacle
New focus on instrumental music and instrumental accompaniment to voices
New emphasis on chords and use of BASSO CONTINUO
Examples:
Henry Purcell ”Dido’s Lament " from Dido and Aeneas
Claudio Monteverdi “Tu se’ morta” from Orfeo

9. Basso Continuo
Baroque accompaniment made up of a bass part usually played by two instruments
A keyboard (or other chord-generating instrument such as the lute, organ, or harpsichord)
Plus a low melodic instrument (such as the cello or bassoon)

10. Baroque Music Genres Vocal Music Genres Instrumental Music Genres
Opera
Oratorio
Cantata
Instrumental Music Genres
Chamber Music
Concerto Grosso

11. Opera Sung theatrical work with orchestral accompaniment
Vocal soloists and chorus
Staged with costumes and sets
Example: HENRY PURCELL "Dido's Lament" from Dido and Aeneas CD#1/69-70

12. Recitative
Vocal line in a opera, oratorio, or cantata that imitates the rhythms and pitch fluctuations of speech, often serving to lead into an aria
Recitative often gets across mostly plot information in the opera, while the Aria communicates the character’s emotions

13. Aria
Song for solo voice with orchestral accompaniment, usually expressing an emotional state through its outpouring of melody; found in operas, oratorios, and cantatas

14. HENRY PURCELL "Dido's Lament" from Dido and Aeneas
Aria vs. Recitative
Listen for Basso continuo in Recitative
Aria built on Ground bass - a repeating bass line (dark-sounding harmony, descending in pitch)
Listen also for affect of ground bass

15. Affect
The one basic mood that usually lasts throughout a single movement or piece of a Baroque composition
Emotional states expressed in music were called “affections”
Exceptions can be found in some vocal music where the affect may change if the character’s emotional changes within an aria or recitative

16. Thy hand, Belinda, darkness shades me, On thy bosom let me rest;
Recitative
Thy hand, Belinda, darkness shades me,
On thy bosom let me rest;
More I would bet Death invades me;
Death is now a welcome guest.
Dido tells Belinda to leave her alone, so that she can commit suicide
Aria
When I am laid, am laid in earth,
may my wrongs create
No trouble, no trouble in thy breast.
Remember me! But ah! Forget my fate.
Dido tells us how she feels about committing suicide

17. Oratorio
Like opera - [Sung theatrical work with orchestral accompaniment for vocal soloists and chorus] , but unstaged [without acting, scenery, or costumes]
Uses a religious story
Example: GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL’s Messiah
"Hallelujah" CD#2/11-16
"Ev'ry Valley Shall Be Exalted" CD#2/10

18. GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL’s Messiah
"Hallelujah"
Listen for
Changes in texture
Hymn-like Homophony
Imitative Polyphony
Pedal Point
Emphasis of beat

19. GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL’s Messiah
"Ev'ry Valley Shall Be Exalted"
Listen for
Terraced dynamics
Emphasis of beat
Ornamented melody
Continuous affect
Word painting

20. Terraced Dynamics
Abrupt alternation between loud and soft dynamic levels; characteristic of Baroque music

21. Ev’ry valley shall be exalted, And ev’ry mountain and hill made low,
Extremely ornamented melody
Ev’ry valley
Ev’ry valley shall be exalted,
And ev’ry mountain and hill made low,
The crooked straight,
And the rough places plain.
Word Painting

22. Cantata Like opera, but unstaged,
Usually with religious text & mostly performed in churches
The church cantata for the Lutheran service in Germany during the baroque period often includes chorales
Chorales are hymn tunes set to a German religious text
Example: J.S. BACH Cantata No. 140: Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (Sleepers Awake) Mvt. 4 [Tenor Chorale] CD#1/71-73 & Mvt. 7 [Chorale] CD#1/74-75

23. J.S. BACH Cantata No. 140: Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (Sleepers Awake)
Mvt. 4 [Tenor Chorale]
Listen for
Extremely ornamented melody
Continuous affect
Mvt. 7 [Chorale]
Listen for
Hymn-like homophony
Complete and incomplete cadences

24. Chamber Music
Uses a small group of musicians, with one player to a part
Meant for smaller, more intimate performance venues
Includes music for solo instruments
J.S. Bach’s Organ Fugue in G Minor “The Little”

25. J.S. BACH Organ Fugue in G Minor (The "Little")
Fugue - polyphonic composition based on one main theme called a subject
Subject (Main Theme) stated in different “voices” during Exposition (imitative)
Exposition followed by alternating Episodes (non-imitative) and Subject Entries (imitative)
Countersubject - countermelody that accompanies Subject in Exposition & Subject Entries
Picardy Third - major chord ending pieces in minor

26. Concerto Grosso
Composition for several instrumental soloists and small orchestra; common in late baroque music
Tutti vs. Soli groups
Tutti = “all,” the entire ensemble
Soli = a small group of featured soloists (2 or 3)
Ritornello form - Ritornello (a homophonic or polyphonic block of music) alternating with Episodes (contrasting melodic, softer dynamics, virtuosic scales and arpeggios)

27. Examples of Baroque Concerto Grosso
J.S. Bach
Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D Major
Movement 1
Antonio Vivaldi
Concerto for Violin and String Orchestra, Op. 8, No. 1, La Primavera [Spring]
from The Four Seasons

28. Baroque Music Style Characteristics
Timbre
new emphasis on instrumental music & instrumental accompaniment to voices
Rhythm
beat is emphasized; lots of forward motion
Melody
elaborate, ornamented, continuously expanding, long and winding
Form
one main theme repeated over and over
Dynamics
sudden changes from loud to soft and soft to loud called terraced dynamics
Texture
more rapid changes in texture (homophony, imitative polyphony) throughout a single movement or piece of music
Harmony
new emphasis on chords; orchestra mainly consists of strings and basso continuo (bass melody instrument like cello or bassoon + chord generating instrument harpsichord, organ, or lute)
Mood
the same mood throughout movement; this heightened emotional state called affect (vocal music is exception; vocal music has many changes of mood, but closely follows text)

29. Ecstacy of St. Teresa
Bernini

31. The Palace at Versailles

32. The Royal Chapel, Hall of Mirrors & Royal Coach

33. The Royal Chapel,

34. The King’s Bedroom, Marie Antoinette’s Room, The Opera House

35. CARAVAGGIO, Michelangelo Merisi da The Crucifixion of Saint Peter Oil on canvas 90 1/2 x 70 in. Cerasi Chapel, Santa Maria del Popola, Rome

36. Henry Purcell

37. George
Frideric
Handel

38. Antonio
Vivaldi

39. Johann
Sebastian
Bach

41. Bernini, Baldacchino (altar canopy) of St
Bernini, Baldacchino (altar canopy) of St. Peters Gilt bronze, Height approx. 100 ft.

42. Judith Beheading Holofernes
Artemisia Gentilleschi - Student of Caravaggio
c. 1598; Oil on canvas, 56 3/4 x 76 3/4 in; Galleria Nazionale dell'Arte Antica, Rome