Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Early Baroque Music (1600-1710 AD)
- Baroque Asthetic
- Massive Scale
- Grandiose Themes
- Overabundance of small, decorative details
- Vigorous Energy
- Emphasis on emotions
- Humoural view of body/mind relationship
- Often to the point of exaggeration and distortion
- Basso Continuo
- Constant throughout era
- Purpose
- To establish a strong bass and make the harmony explicit
- A small ensemble of at least two instruments
- Provide a foundation for the melody or melodies above
- One instrument plays chord progression
- Harpsichord, organ, large lute
- Play base with the left hand and improvise with the right hand
- Another sustaining instrument plays the base line
- Doubles lowest note
- Cello, viola de gamba,bassoon
- Early Style
- Melody
- Less stepwise movement than Renaissance
- Larger leaps
- Wider range and chromaticism reflect influence of virtuosic solo singing
- Melodic patterns are idiomatic to particular instruments
- Introduction to melodic sequence
- Harmony
- Stable, diatonic chords played by basso continuo support melody
- Clearly defined chord progressions begin to develop
- Tonality is reduced to major and minor keys
- Rhythm
- Relaxed, flexible rhythms of the Renaissance transformed into often motoric, driving rhythms
- Colour
- Musical timbre becomes enormously varied
- Traditional instruments are perfected
- Harpsichord, violin, oboe
- New combinations of voices and instruments are explored
- Orchestration/instrumentation becomes more explicit and fixed at the compositional stage
- Symphony orchestra begins to take shape
- Sudden shifts in dynamics (terraced dynamics) reflect dramatic quality of Baroque music
- Texture
- Chordal, homophonic texture predominates
- Top and bottom lines are strongest
- Basso continuo supports melody
- Form
- Basso ostinato
- Repeated base line
- Ritornello form emerges in the concerto grosso
- Binary form regulates most movements of the sonata and orchestral suite
- Opera
- Literally means "work"
- A dramatic work in which the actors sing some or all of their parts
- Usually makes use of elaborate sets and costumes
- Emerged in northern Italy
- An attempt to recreate the style of ancient Greek drama
- First promoted by a group of humanist thinkers
- Florentine Camerata
- Florence, Mantva, Venice
- Libretto
- Text
- Little Book
- Usually based on a story drawn from history and mythology of
ancient Greece and Rome
- Stile Rappresentativo
- "The representational style"
- Usually Monody
- Expressive and flexible style of solo singing for the stage
- In imitation of ancient Greek theatrical singing
- Allowed singer to move imperceptibly from one mood to another
- Soon transformed into two different and contrasting vocal styles
- Recitative
- Expresses the drama's action
- Italian for "something recited"
- Musically heightened speech
- Attempts to mirror natural oral delivery
- Often consists of rapidly
repeating notes followed by
one or two long notes at
the end of phrases
- Secco Recitative
- Italian for "dry"
- Accompanied only by basso continuo
- Aria
- Used to express the character's emotion that
results from the preceding portion of the drama
- More passionate, expansive and tuneful
- Clear Meter
- Regular Rhythms
- Vocal melismas instead of rapid-fire delivery
- Self-contained, independent musical unit
- Accompanied by basso continuo and part or all of the orchestra
- Arioso
- A passage of vocal music sung in a manner halfway between aria and recitative
- More faithful to the original style of stile rappresentativo than aria or recitiative
- Fully Dramatized
- Repeated base line provides a solid foundation
- Common feature of the Baroque
- Often used to symbolize grief
- Lament Base
- Allegorical
- Chamber Contata
- Performed in homes or small auditoriums
- Secular vocal genre for solo voice with instrumental accompaniment
- 8-15 minutes
- Composed in contrasting scetions
- Recitative/Aria
- Amorous Topics
- Ancient history or mythology
- "mini opera"