Baroque Music

Opera was the new musical form of the Baroque period and it was very expressive of the baroque cultural values. By then end of the operatic form was stylized into a recipe, including improbable plots, small motivations for the characters, and magical transformations, which were signs of opera's baroque nature. Oppress united drama, dance, elaborate stage mechanisms, and scenery with music. Johann Sebastian Bach was one artist whose greatest legacy was religious music.His works re distinguished by their inventiveness and complete mastery of major and minor tonality. George Frederic Handel was renowned for his Italian-style operas. He had a brilliant way in which music allows the singers to show their virtuosity. Yes, Opera was the new musical form of the Baroque period; it originated from Italy in the late sixteenth century by a group of Florentine musicians and poets who had ties with the aristocrats. However, let us not forget that if it was not for the four trends that gave he musi c of this time period its distinctive qualities.One in which was the creation of the major and minor tonality which was prefigured by Joaquin des Perez. That was the rise of modern music. The second was the mixing of the genres, which was well known in the literature and the arts made its way into baroque music. In addition, the third thing was the expressiveness in the music in the late 1 sass; it became more magnified and was used in emotions in the text of the music that may not have been eared. And lastly was the age of virtuosos, master musicians, especially singers, who would perform with great technical skill and vivid personal style, and of a growing variety of musical instruments. † That brings us back to Opera; this musical form brings all the mentioned trends together, became the ultimate symbol of the age. Claudio Monteverdi was the first great composer of opera; he composed Refer (1607) about a legendary ancient Greek poet-musician named Orpheus. It incorporated r am, dance elaborate stage mechanisms and painted scenery with music (410).Monteverdi was known for expanding the dramatic appeal by taking each of the five acts and ending them with a powerful chorus. He took the use of aural symbols and music phrases to intensify events. Jean-Baptists Lully was the founder of French opera but he was actually Italian. He would later become a French citizen and serve as Louse's court composer. French opera under Lully's direction would become more dignified and full of choruses and would add ballet and French text. Baroque Music The name Baroque, which is a French word from the Portuguese’s barroco, originally used in architectural design in Europe specifically in Italy having a deformed style as an irregularly shaped pearl. In music, it is known for its inconsistencies that the twentieth century historians later used the term baroque as an identification of the Early Classical Period in music.Instrumental music using piano or clavier (a German word for keyboard), violin, harpsichord and other string instruments ruled the Baroque Era of Western European Art Music between the years 1600 to 1750. Characteristics and Forms Although Temperley argues that â€Å"Baroque music was written largely for monarchs, aristocrats, and authoritarian church leaders† (par 9), the soulful melody and dramatically arrangement of any musical piece created during this era captured the hearts of the religious and nonreligious groups.Furthermore, as Kisser said â€Å"the middle class formed too in this era† (par 1). Generally, baroque music has the counterpoint and contrast as the main ingredients. Its characteristic is designed to be emotional in nature having a more rigid formal design with modern tones and experimental rhythm using the combination of a firm and repeatedly strong bass line with florid treble as composers aimed to communicate with contemporary music in accordance to their affectionate behavior. Musical forms are not stiff to instrumental music alone.Along with suite, fugue, partita, canzona, sinfonia, fantasia, ricercar, toccata, chaccone, sonata, concerto and concerto grasso, which the orchestra is composed mainly of different musical instruments to create a smooth polyphony sound, the use of vocal music with the form of cantata, monody, anthem, passion, masque, chorale prelude, oratorio and opera started to emerge and soon became in-demand. The incorporation of ballet dancing and theatrical arts is also introduced, and the public appreciated it as such. The Era of Baroq ue Music 1600-1630 (Early Baroque)The death of Renaissance period segued into the Early Baroque Music in the year 1600. It started when the Florentine Camerata decided to reinvent the conventional polyphonic sound from complex arrangements to basic accompaniment and simple melodies. As a result, counterpoint musical compositions began rising. The initiative to use chords instead of notes created tonality, and harmony is then expressed. As Baroque genre is starting to emerge, Protestantism also appears elsewhere in Italy. Experimentation in arts and music becomes powerful in reviving Catholicism.Instrumentation and lively orchestral music was one of its products. However, when public grew tired listening over purely musical instruments, another innovation come out. The use of music and text is demonstrated in Orfeo, the first ever opera composed by Claudio Monteverdi with the use of singer actors and music combined. 1630-1680 (Middle or Classic Baroque) Due to the patronage in Baroqu e genre, availability of orchestral instruments increased. Playwright artists gave vast contributions and became popular as well as opera and other theatrical drama, dances such as ballet, and vocal music genre.Most of their themes were excerpted from the rhetorical approach of Greek and Roman in arts and music. Formal teaching of art lessons specifically music started in Middle Baroque to give focus more on music and harmony. Counterpoint compositions turned out to be more systematic and well-arranged. However, the attractiveness of theatrical genre did not give concerto and concerto grasso a hindrance to be accepted. Instead, music in this era is more appreciated by the public. Some of the endless masterpieces created during the Classic Baroque survived until today like George Friedrich Handel’s Hallelujah and Johann Pachelbel’s Canon in D.1680-1750 (Late Baroque) The declination of Baroque period began in the year 1680 and ended in the year 1750. Germany in this tim e adopted Italy’s artful tradition that they developed later on putting German touch. Music here was high-priced due to the demand of royal courts and members of the aristocracy. European art-music started to be respected by other neighboring continents like the United States of America. Knowledge and scientific discoveries as well as art and music were given utmost attention where composers and musicians are treated patrons even by the secular and religious members.Before the Baroque period moved to classical era, another significant innovation in music has been made available, and two composition styles were observed. These are called â€Å"the homophonic dominated by vertical considerations and the polyphonic dominated by imitation and contrapuntal considerations†. (Wikipedia par 69) Composers and Musicians of Baroque Era Further studies of Thornburgh and Logan said, â€Å"Baroque musicians were not concerned with expressing their own feelings and emotions, rather they sought to describe with objectivity, feelings and emotions which were distinct from what they actually felt†.(par 21) Here are some of the most admired, influential and well-appreciated composers, playwright artists, and musicians during this era. Italy: Monteverdi, Frescobaldi, Corelli, Vivaldi, Domenico and Scarlatti France: Corneille, Racine, Moliere, Couperin, Lully, Charpenter, and Rameau Germany: Praetorius, Scheidt, Schutz, Telemann, Pachelbel, Handel and Bach England: Purcell, Donne and Milton R E F E R E N C E S Baroque Music. Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia. 11 Nov. 2007 < http://en. wikipedia. or g/wiki/Baroque_music>Bukofzer, Manfred. Music of the Bartoque Era. New York: Norton Company Inc. , 1947 Kisser, Brandon. A Brief History of Music: The Baroque Era Part I. Sept. 2007. Newsvine. Com. 12 Nov. 2007 Temperley, Nicholas. Baroque Artists of Champaign-Urbana: Baroque Music. 11 Nov. 2007 < http://www. baroqueartists. org/guide. asp> Thornburgh, Elaine and Log an, Jack, Ph. D. Baroque Music Part One. 12 Nov. 2007 Baroque Music According to Craig Wright, â€Å"â€Å"baroque† is the term used to describe the art, architecture, dance and music of the period 1600 to 1750 (Wright, 97). † The sound has been described as â€Å"rough, bold [and] instrumental† (Ibid). Originally, the term â€Å"baroque† was pejorative (Ibid). One of the main traits of baroque art and architecture, that extends itself to the music of the period, is massiveness. Everything in baroque society was larger than life. Grandiose was also a term that was used to define the music of the period.With this grandiosity was also an attention to detail that showed itself in â€Å"vigorous, pulsating rhythms with strong, regular beats and many smaller subdivisions (Ibid). † During the baroque period, there was much development and innovation in the field of music. During this time, three musical forms developed and reached their zenith, the Baroque Opera, Concerto Grosso, and the Cantata. These three forms were be st represented by Claudio Monteverdi, Antonio Vivaldi, and Johann Sebastian Bach. The first form that came to innovation was the Baroque Opera. This was best exemplified by the operas of Claudio Monteverdi.One of his operas was The Coronation of Poppea. In it, you hear the swelling melodies and subtle undertones that define baroque music. Though it is one of Monteverdi’s last compositions, many critics view it as one of his best, sowing the seeds for all future Italian opera. Tim Smith of the Baltimore Sun notes that â€Å"[t]his is a pinnacle of early baroque style (Smith, 2009). † Craig Wright states that Monteverdi and other composers of early opera used a particular style to convey heightened passions. It was a â€Å"new, more expressive and flexible style of solo singing for the stage called stile rappresentativo (Wright, 107).† This form allowed the singer to move from one mood to another without alerting the viewer to the subtle changes in mood. This was a key component of baroque music, as one of the key aims of baroque is to create emotion in the listener and to give a sense of grandness to the vocal production. Eventually, â€Å"stile rappresentativo would soon be transformed into two different and contrasting types of vocal writing, recitative and aria (Ibid). † The second form of baroque music that emerged during this time period was concerto grosso.According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, concerto grosso was â€Å"characterized by a contrast between a small group of soloists and the full orchestra (Britannica, 2009). It flourished eventually as secular music for the royal court (Ibid). Britannica says that the typical â€Å"instrumentation†¦was that of the trio sonata (Ibid). † It consisted of two violins, a bass string instrument and a harmonizing instrument like a harpsichord. â€Å"Wind instruments were also common (Ibid). † The number of movements for the concerto varied depending on the compose r. Some had three movements, others had four.The fast movements â€Å"often used a ritornello structure, in which a recurrent section, or ritornello, alternates with episodes, or contrasting sections played by soloists (Ibid). † The composer best known for this form was Antonio Vivaldi. Vivaldi’s greatest concertos are the series known as the Four Seasons. More than 150 recordings have been made of the Four Seasons alone. In his works, you can hear the melodies and subtleties that make up baroque music. The final form of music that was developed during this time was the cantata. The cantata was a form first used by the Italians, and was later adopted by Johann Sebastian Bach.Though Bach never called them cantatas, they were considered such due to their structure. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Bach rejected calling his works cantatas because that connoted secular music, and if there was something that Bach was not, it was secular. When one listens to Bachâ⠂¬â„¢s music, one can hear the massiveness of the sound that is obviously designed for a church and for a multi-voiced orchestra. Under Bach, â€Å"the music of the Baroque reaches its greatest glory (Wright, 127). † He was a great virtuoso on the organ, studying his craft by listening to others and even traveling hundreds of miles just to hear a performance.He was a composer of church music, and later became a court conductor. One of Bach’s greatest known cantatas is a seven-movement work known as Awake, a Voice is Calling. It is a more formalized structure, with movements one, four, and seven being choruses, movements two and five being recitatives and movements three and six aria duets. This piece is a chorale piece, which is a spiritual melody or religious folk song (Ibid). The Baroque period, while a young period in musical history is full of new and innovative developments.The opera, the concerto grasso, and the cantata are all innovative developments in music th at show us how our rich musical history developed and changed over the hundreds of years that we have been maintaining our musical heritage. We need to embrace and encourage our musical growth and musical challenges so we may continue to grow as a culture and as a society. Works Cited â€Å"Cantata. † Encyclopedia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopedia Britannica. Web. 18 Apr 2009. . â€Å"Concerto Grosso. † Encyclopedia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopedia Britannica. Web. 18 Apr 2009.. Smith, Tim. â€Å"Opera Vivente tackles timeless ‘Coronation of Poppea'. † Baltimore Sun 09 Mar 2009 Web. 18 Apr 2009. . Wright, Craig. Listening to Music. Second Edition. St. Paul: West Publishing, 1996. Print. Josquin Desprez was a giant of Renaissance music. According to Craig Wright, he was the greatest composer of the Renaissance or any age. He was born on the border between modern France and Belgium and died in the same region.He was attracted to Italy for the same reason many oth er composers were attracted to the region—professional and monetary gain (Wright, 86). He worked consistently as a singer at the cathedral of Milan, the chapel of a cardinal in Rome, the Sistine Chapel of the pope, and in the chapel of the Duke of Ferrara. According to Wright, he â€Å"possessed a temperamental, egotistical spirit typical of many artists of the Renaissance: He composed only when he, not his patron wished; he demanded a salary twice that of composers only slightly less gifted; and he would break into a rage when singers tried to tamper with the notes he had written (86).† One patron threatened to throw him in prison if he did not stop composing for outside clients, yet he was recognized for his genius. He was praised by contemporary humanists of the time, and he was a favorite of Martin Luther, who said in essence, that Josquin mastered the notes; the notes did not master him (Ibid). â€Å"Josquin wrote more than twenty settings of the Ordinary of the Mass and a large number of French chansons (Ibid). † According to Wright, he especially excelled in a form called the motet.A motet is a composition written for a choir, setting a Latin text on a sacred subject. It was intended to be sung in a church or chapel or at home in a private devotion. Most were sung a capella, which literally means â€Å"in the chapel (Ibid). † This means that they were performed by voice alone, without any instrumentals. Instruments other than the organ were not allowed in churches during the Renaissance (Ibid). This clean, a capella sound accounted for the â€Å"often serene quality of the sound of Renaissance sacred music (Ibid).† Wright states that the Renaissance is often called â€Å"the golden age of a capella singing (Ibid). † It is in this setting that Josquin wrote Mille Regretz, a beautiful a capella piece that brings male and female voices together in harmony. The male and female voices play off each other, pulling the listener into the music and the gentle harmonies that are displayed. Josquin’s talent is evident, as the music has clean lines and tones, and the notes are precise and well-toned to blend together flawlessly.The first voices you hear are the male and female voices in harmony, and then it seems as if the female voice takes over, but there is a subtle bass to the tones, then the men dominate the piece while the women play a supporting role. Next the men and women are in harmony together, blending and rising their voices in a slightly mournful tune reminiscent of the Ave Maria. This piece speaks very well to the time period in which it was written.Mille Regretz means â€Å"A Thousand Regrets† in Italian, and it would seem as though this religious piece plays to the penance one would have to pay for their sins. There is a great emphasis placed on the polyphonic nature of the tones, and the multitonalism that results from the blending of the voices; all characteristic of R enaissance religious music. This piece probably represents Josquin at his height, as a power player in the courts and chapels of Italy. Listening to this piece, there is no reason to doubt his standing as one of the premier composers of his day, and this piece attests to it.This has the a capella quality that was desirous in Renaissance music, and there are few voices involved, which means that it was most likely meant for a small chapel and not for a grand cathedral. Josquin accomplished his goal of creating peaceful, religious music that soothes the soul and easily defined the time period in which it was popular. Then there is the quality of imitation involved. Josquin used this technique often. Imitation is a process â€Å"whereby one or more voices duplicate in turn the notes of a melody (Ibid).† You can clearly hear the imitation by the male and female voices as they move through the piece. In Josquin’s imitative writing, all the voices have a chance to equally pr esent the melodic material and all are of equal importance (Ibid). You can also clearly hear the â€Å"point-counterpoint† pattern in the singing that is common when the voices are working together to compliment each other. The sound produced would, on paper, appear to be discordant, but is far from such, as the â€Å"point-counterpoint† creates a harmony that belies what is placed on the paper.The voices work smoothly together to create a cohesive whole, so the piece comes together as a masterwork. Josquin’s work was a sublime effort despite his temperamental soul. Though he may have been tormented by having to achieve perfection, his works show he did just that. We can look at his music and clearly see the liturgical future that music took. He was a pioneer in sacred music, and his contributions must continue to be appreciated for how it speaks to us and our musical future. Works Cited Wright, Craig. Listening to Music. Second Edition. St. Paul: West Publishin g, 1996. Print.