Part III Study Guide Essay

Music during the Baroque period was diverse and composers began to rebel against the styles that were popular during the Renaissance. In the Baroque era music was driven by the text and the emotions behind it. Vocal and sacred music developed greatly during the Baroque period. During the mid-17th century the Italian phenomenon opera dominated most of the theatres in Europe. Sacred music was deeply influenced by the opera, contributing to the development of the oratorio and cantata genre. The opera, oratorio, and cantata contain musical similarities; among all three genres they feature recitative, soloist orchestras, and duet arias.

The Baroque musical period occurred throughout Europe from 1600 to 1750. The compositions during this period had certain characteristics. Some of these characteristics included unity of mood, continuity of rhythm and melody, and most compositions, in the middle to late Baroque period, included polyphonic textures (Kamien, 2011). Many musicians, such as Johann Sebastian Bach and Arcangelo Corelli, thrived during this period. They composed hundreds to thousands of compositions in various different musical forms and each piece holds the characteristics of the Baroque period uniquely. This paper will review the

From 1600 to 1750, Western Europe music was known as the Baroque period. The most known composers of this era were Bach, Vivaldi and Handle. Their music and styles inspired the people of their time and continue to do so 400 years later in the modern world. The Baroque era was considered a time of flamboyant lifestyles; a style that “filled the space.” When the church began to distance themselves from the political control of Europe, composers began to come up with more radical styles to be used in their pieces that had not been seen before. For this reason, Baroque music became known for its highly energetic and dramatic styles. Of course, behind this great music came amazingly talented composers who made it all happen. Perhaps one of the

The Baroque period came to be through the influences of religion and politics. The Vatican in Rome at the time of the Baroque was challenged by the rise of the Protestant reformation as it grew more powerful and larger in size. This threatened the political power and religious authority of the Vatican. Certain measures had to be taken to ensure that Rome would be the most culturally magnificent and the most

Baroque music was the genre that came out before Classical music. This genre of music has more of a tonal center. The texture of the music was a lot different than that of classical music. Baroque music is usually polyphonic, but at times is homophonic. In fact, the Baroque era is what made music shift from polyphony to homophony. One

•Figured Bass—a system of numbers placed under the music—was developed to indicate clearly the harmonies that should be played with each note indicated in the bass line. The figured bass was typically realized—performed—by the harpsichord.

Musical style, harmony and melody grew more and more complex during the Baroque period. As such, during the classical era there was an emergence of a new style of music, the Classical style (Mostlywind.co.uk, 2015). The Classical musical style was characaterised by a simple, delicate expression of music that was meant to please its listeners with a refined sound, as such, there was very little to no dissonance used in all pieces. The melody during this time period was short and very defined, with only a few themes introduced per each piece. Rhythm was regular and due to the complexity of the texture of music during the Baroque period, the texture of music was simple and

The baroque concerto has proved to be a very formative aspect of classical music. Without the emergence of the concerto, music would not be as it is today. Concerto composers changed the way music was perceived and defied musical norms, introducing new and exciting patterns, sequences, and combinations.

A body of instruments accompanying the concertino in an orchestra in a baroque concerto grosso

Baroque music is characterized through contrasts as dramatic elements, monody and the advent of the basso continuo, and different instrumental sounds. Contrast is an essential feature in the production of baroque arrangements. The alternations between bold and flamboyant and soft, solo and ensemble, different instruments and timbres all constitute a key portion in various baroque compositions. Composers similarly created more precise instrumental arrangements regularly stipulating the instruments on a musical piece that ought to be executed instead of allowing the performing musician to select.

Zadok the Priest is a piece by George Frideric Handel from the Baroque Era, and Missa Papae Marcelli "Gloria" is a piece by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina from the Renaissance Era.Baroque music broke away from the harshness of the Medieval and early Renaissance style with new emphasis on the use of vocal and instruments. Many musical forms were born out of this era including opera. Some composers of this time were Tomaso Albinoni ,Antonio Vivaldi, Johann David Heinichen,George Frideric Handel, Domenico Scarlatti , and Johann Sebastian Bach.The church was the most important place where Baroque and Renaissance were playing as a serve in the church . There are many changes happened between the renaissance and baroque period : The first crucial distinction is the texture the shift from the imitative polyphony in the renaissance era to treble-bass polarity,monody and the development of basso continuo . The second crucial distinction is the tone of the baroque music was of development of tonal architecture and formal principles; baroque, binary, ternary, fugue, etc. while the form of renaissance music was much of the systematic point imitation and Cantus Firmus structures.The third crucial distinction is the Baroque musical genres include both vocals and instrumentals, with the only difference being they were quite larger in number of categories than those of in the renaissance era . The fourth crucial distinction is Renaissance music consisted of smooth regular flow of

Baroque music generally has certain elements in common across the board, including but not limited to: basso continuo, ornamentation, decisive rhythms, melodiousness, and use of several textures. Of course, different countries in Western Europe had different styles and sub-genres within this. Theorists and composers, such as Jean Philippe Rameau with his treatise on harmony, began defining characteristics of harmony by studying works of his contemporaries. Although the Baroque music as a whole sounds similar, it is important to keep in mind that it was not one unified style, but rather it was separated and understood differently depending on region.

3. The music elements, such as mood, rhythm, melody, dynamics, texture, harmony, tone color and form, has a characteristic defined in baroque.

The Baroque era lasted from about 1600 to 1750. The music from the Baroque began to develop contrapuntally and in harmonic complexity. Composers also relied on the performers ability to add ornamentation and to complete the harmonies in a basso continue score through improvisation. These scores consisted of a bass line with numbers and symbols written above, to indicate the

Baroque music is a style of Western art composed from approximately 1600 to 1750. This style of music is filled with delicate decoration and ornamentation. Elements that originated from this period influenced modern classical form in many ways. Balance was a very important component to baroque music, every note was to be heard. Bachs view of balance can be found in his sonatas written for violin and piano. They were originally meant to be 3-part Trio Sonatas, one part for the violin, and a part for each hand of the pianist. Because the Harpsichord is generally relegated to the rear of the sound spectrum, the violinist would overpower the harpsichord, making it sound as if it were a written violin solo. The same goes for Bach 's sonata for flute (or viola) and harpsichord. Choral music also has these issues, but with the instruments and the voices. Michael Sartorius said, "If Bach wrote it, the listener should hear it". Most recordings of Bach 's cantatas and choral works use a small organ for the