The word Baroque derives from the Italian word barocco, meaning bizarre.Music before the Baroque period was very primitative in sense that there wasn’t much melody and harmony. The Baroque period of music however; is the complete opposite. Baroque music contains several different aspects of music including polyphony, a broad understanding of melodic and harmonic ideas and also a classy/ crisp sound.
Several of the composers that came out of the Baroque period are known by people today. Not only do they live on in history, but their music lives on as well. People still study Bach, Vivaldi, and Handel’s works through transcribed notations that have either been lost and found, or documented and re- transcribed into modern notation.
Opera was also a new aspect/ genre of the Baroque period. “[Baroque opera was] Written initially to celebrate specific events (usually royal or vice-regal) this rôle was taken over by the serenata and the developing larger cantata forms and the operas became entities in themselves, drawing large audiences at the many theatres which appeared, creating an almost 'popular culture' with the Europe-wide distribution of new works, and importantly for the later development of singing, creating a need for virtuoso performers which was fulfilled by singers like Farinelli, La Romanina, Bordoni, Cuzzoni, Senesino, Cafarelli, Carestini and those who followed.”
Claudio Monteverdi’s opera L'Orfeo became a landmark which demonstrated the array of effects and techniques that were associated with this new school, called seconda pratica, to distinguish it from the older style or prima pratica. Monteverdi was a master of both, producing precisely styled madrigals that extended the forms of Luca Marenzio and Giaches de Wert. But it is his pieces in the new style which became the most influential. These included features which are recognizable even to the end of the baroque period, including use of idiomatic writing, virtuoso flourishes, and the use of new techniques.
Quick Facts/ Information about the Baroque period:
· AABB was the essential song form of the Baroque period.
Basso continuo - a kind of continuous accompaniment notated with a new music notation system, figured bass, usually for a sustaining bass instrument and a keyboard instrument
· Monody - music for one melodic voice with accompaniment, characteristic of the early 17th century, especially in Italy
· Homophony - music with one melodic voice and rhythmically similar accompaniment (this and monody are contrasted with the typical Renaissance texture, polyphony)
· Text over music - intelligible text with instrumental accompaniment not overpowering the voice
· Vocal soloists
· Dramatic musical expression
· Dramatic musical forms like opera, dramma per musica
· Clear and linear melody
· Notes inégales, a technique of playing pairs of notes of equal written length (typically eighth notes) with a "swung" rhythm, alternating longer and shorter values in pairs, the degree of inequality varying according to context. Particularly characteristic of French performance practice.
· The aria
· The ritornello aria (repeated short instrumental interruptions of vocal passages)
· The concertato style (contrast in sound between orchestra and solo-instruments or small groups of instruments)
· Precise instrumental scoring (in the Renaissance, exact instrumentation for ensemble playing was rarely indicated)
· Idiomatic instrumental writing: better use of the unique properties of each type of musical instrument
· Virtuosic instrumental and vocal writing, with appreciation for virtuosity as such
· Development to modern Western tonality (major and minor scales)
· Cadenza- an extended virtuosic section for the soloist usually near the end of a movement of a concerto.
Genres from the Baroque Period:
