Private baroque theatre in Český Krumlov.

Teatro Argentina (Panini, 1747, Musée du Louvre).

Baroque music is the style of Western music extending approximately from 1600 to 1750.^[1] This era follows the Renaissance and was followed in turn by the Classical era. The word "baroque" comes from the Portuguese word barroco, meaning "misshapen pearl",^[2] a negative description of the ornate and heavily ornamented music of this period; later, the name came to be applied also to its architecture.

Baroque music forms a major portion of the classical music canon, being widely studied, performed, and listened to. Composers of the baroque era include Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel, Alessandro Scarlatti, Antonio Vivaldi, Georg Philipp Telemann, Jean-Baptiste Lully, Arcangelo Corelli, François Couperin, Denis Gaultier, Claudio Monteverdi, Jean-Philippe Rameau and Henry Purcell.

The baroque period saw the creation of functional tonality. During the period, composers and performers used more elaborate musical ornamentation, made changes in musical notation, and developed new instrumental playing techniques. Baroque music expanded the size, range, and complexity of instrumental performance, and also established opera as a musical genre. Many musical terms and concepts from this era are still in use today.

Etymology[link]

History of European art music[link]

The term "Baroque", is used by music historians generally to describe a broad range of styles from a wide geographic region, mostly in Europe, composed during a period of approximately 150 years.^[3] Although it was long thought that the word as a critical term was first applied to architecture, in fact it appears earlier in reference to music, in an anonymous, satirical review of the première in October 1733 of Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie, printed in the Mercure de France in May 1734. The critic implied that the novelty in this opera was "du barocque", complaining that the music lacked coherent melody, was filled with unremitting dissonances, constantly changed key and meter, and speedily ran through every compositional device.^[4]

The systematic application by historians of the term "baroque" to music of this period is a relatively recent development. It was in 1919 that Curt Sachs was the first to attempt to apply the five characteristics of Heinrich Wölfflin’s theory of the Baroque systematically to music.^[5] In English the term only acquired currency in the 1940s, in the writings of Lang and Bukofzer.^[6]

As late as 1960 there was still considerable dispute in academic circles, particularly in France and Britain, whether it was meaningful to lump together music as diverse as that of Jacopo Peri, Domenico Scarlatti and J.S. Bach with a single term; yet the term has become widely used and accepted for this broad range of music.^[7] It may be helpful to distinguish it from both the preceding (Renaissance) and following (Classical) periods of musical history.

History[link]

Early baroque music (1600–1654)[link]

Jacopo Peri

The Florentine Camerata was a group of humanists, musicians, poets and intellectuals in late Renaissance Florence who gathered under the patronage of Count Giovanni de' Bardi to discuss and guide trends in the arts, especially music and drama. In reference to music, their ideals were based on their perception of Classical (especially ancient Greek) musical drama, in which discourse and oration was viewed with much importance.^[8] As such, they rejected the use by their contemporaries of polyphony and instrumental music, and discussed such ancient Greek music devices as monody, which consisted of a solo singing accompanied by a kithara.^[9] The early realizations of these ideas, including Jacopo Peri's Dafne and L'Euridice, marked the beginning of opera,^[10] which in turn can be considered to have marked the catalyst of Baroque music.^[11]

Concerning music theory, the more widespread use of figured bass (also known as "thorough bass") represents the developing importance of harmony as the linear underpinnings of polyphony.^[12] Harmony is the end result of counterpoint, and figured bass is a visual representation of those harmonies commonly employed in musical performance.^[13] Composers began concerning themselves with harmonic progressions,^[14] and also employed the tritone, perceived as an unstable interval,^[15] to create dissonance. Investment in harmony had also existed among certain composers in the Renaissance, notably Carlo Gesualdo;^[16] However, the use of harmony directed towards tonality, rather than modality, marks the shift from the Renaissance into the Baroque period.^[17] This led to the idea that chords, rather than notes, could provide a sense of closure, which is one of the fundamental ideas of what came to be known as tonality.

Claudio Monteverdi in 1640 by Bernardo Strozzi

Italy formed one of the cornerstones of the new style, as the papacy—besieged by Reformation but with coffers fattened by the immense revenues flowing in from Habsburg conquest—searched for artistic means to promote faith in the Roman Catholic Church. One of the most important musical centers was Venice, which had both secular and sacred patronage available.^{[original research?]}

Giovanni Gabrieli became one of the important transitional figures in the emergence of the new style, although his work is largely considered to be in the "High Renaissance" manner. However, his innovations were foundational to the new style. Among these are instrumentation (labeling instruments specifically for specific tasks) and the use of dynamics.^{[original research?]}

The demands of religion were also to make the text of sacred works clearer, and hence there was pressure to move away from the densely layered polyphony of the Renaissance, to lines which put the words front and center, or had a more limited range of imitation. This created the demand for a more intricate weaving of the vocal line against backdrop, or homophony.^{[original research?]}

Claudio Monteverdi became the most visible of a generation of composers who felt that there was a secular means to this "modern" approach to harmony and text, and in 1607 his opera L'Orfeo became the 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.^{[original research?]}

This musical language proved to be international, as Heinrich Schütz, a German composer who studied in Venice under both Gabrieli and later Monteverdi, used it to the liturgical needs of the Elector of Saxony and served as the choir master in Dresden.^{[original research?]}

Middle baroque music (1654–1707)[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

King Louis XIV by Hyacinthe Rigaud (1701)

The rise of the centralized court is one of the economic and political features of what is often labelled the Age of Absolutism, personified by Louis XIV of France. The style of palace, and the court system of manners and arts which he fostered, became the model for the rest of Europe. The realities of rising church and state patronage created the demand for organized public music, as the increasing availability of instruments created the demand for chamber music. This included the availability of keyboard instruments.

The middle Baroque is separated from the early Baroque by the coming of systematic thinking to the new style and a gradual institutionalization of the forms and norms, particularly in opera. As with literature, the printing press and trade created an expanded international audience for works and greater cross-pollination between national centres of musical activity.

The middle Baroque, in music theory, is identified by the increasingly harmonic focus of musical practice and the creation of formal systems of teaching. Music was an art, and it came to be seen as one that should be taught in an orderly manner. This culminated in the later work of Johann Fux in systematizing counterpoint.

One pre-eminent example of a court style composer is Jean-Baptiste Lully. His career rose dramatically when he collaborated with Molière on a series of comédie-ballets, that is, plays with dancing. He used this success to become the sole composer of operas for the king, using not just innovative musical ideas such as the tragédie lyrique, but patents from the king which prevented others from having operas staged. Lully's instinct for providing the material that his monarch desired has been pointed out by almost every biographer, including his rapid shift to church music when the mood at court became more devout. His 13 completed lyric tragedies are based on libretti that focus on the conflicts between the public and private life of the monarch.

Arcangelo Corelli

Musically, he explored contrast between stately and fully orchestrated sections, and simple recitatives and airs. In no small part, it was his skill in assembling and practicing musicians into an orchestra which was essential to his success and influence. Observers noted the precision and intonation, this in an age where there was no standard for tuning instruments. One essential element was the increased focus on the inner voices of the harmony and the relationship to the soloist. He also established the string-dominated norm for orchestras.

Arcangelo Corelli is remembered as influential for his achievements on the other side of musical technique— as a violinist who organized violin technique and pedagogy— and in purely instrumental music, particularly his advocacy and development of the concerto grosso. Whereas Lully was ensconced at court, Corelli was one of the first composers to publish widely and have his music performed all over Europe. As with Lully's stylization and organization of the opera, the concerto grosso is built on strong contrasts— sections alternate between those played by the full orchestra, and those played by a smaller group. Dynamics were "terraced", that is with a sharp transition from loud to soft and back again. Fast sections and slow sections were juxtaposed against each other. Numbered among his students is Antonio Vivaldi, who later composed hundreds of works based on the principles in Corelli's trio sonatas and concerti.

Henry Purcell by John Closterman

In England the middle Baroque produced a cometary genius in Henry Purcell, who, despite dying at age 36, produced a profusion of music and was widely recognized in his lifetime. He was familiar with the innovations of Corelli and other Italian style composers; however, his patrons were different, and his musical output was prodigious. Rather than being a painstaking craftsman, Purcell was a fluid composer who was able to shift from simple anthems and useful music such as marches, to grandly scored vocal music and music for the stage. His catalogue runs to over 800 works. He was also one of the first great keyboard composers, whose work still has influence and presence.

In contrast to these composers, Dieterich Buxtehude was not a creature of court but instead was an organist and entrepreneurial presenter of music. Rather than publishing, he relied on performance for his income, and rather than royal patronage, he shuttled between vocal settings for sacred music, and organ music that he performed. His output is not as fabulous or diverse, because he was not constantly being called upon for music to meet an occasion. Buxtehude's employment of contrast was between the free, often improvisatory sections, and more strict sections worked out contrapuntally. This procedure would be highly influential on later composers such as Bach, who took the contrast between free and strict to greater heights.

Late baroque music (1680–1750)[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

Jean-Philippe Rameau, by Jacques André Joseph Aved, 1728

The dividing line between middle and late Baroque is a matter of some debate. Dates for the beginning of "late" baroque style range from 1680 to 1720. In no small part this is because there was not one synchronized transition; different national styles experienced changes at different rates and at different times. Italy is generally regarded as the first country to move to the late baroque style. The important dividing line in most histories of baroque music is the full absorption of tonality as a structuring principle of music. This was particularly evident in the wake of theoretical work by Jean-Philippe Rameau, who replaced Lully as the important French opera composer. At the same time, through the work of Johann Fux, the Renaissance style of polyphony was made the basis for the study of counterpoint. The combination of modal counterpoint with tonal logic of cadences created the sense that there were two styles of composition— the homophonic dominated by vertical considerations and the polyphonic dominated by imitation and contrapuntal considerations.

The forms which had begun to be established in the previous era flourished and were given wider range of diversity; concerto, suite, sonata, concerto grosso, oratorio, opera and ballet all saw a proliferation of national styles and structures. The overall form of pieces was generally simple, with repeated binary forms (AABB), simple three part forms (ABC), and rondeau forms being common. These schematics in turn influenced later composers.

Antonio Vivaldi

Antonio Vivaldi is a figure who was forgotten in concert music making for much of the 19th century, only to be revived in the 20th century. Born in Venice in 1678, he began as an ordained priest of the Catholic Church but ceased to say Mass by 1703. Around the same time he was appointed maestro di violino at a Venetian girls' orphanage with which he had a professional relationship until nearly the end of his life. Vivaldi's reputation came not from having an orchestra or court appointment, but from his published works, including trio sonatas, violin sonatas and concerti. They were published in Amsterdam and circulated widely through Europe.

It is in these instrumental genres of baroque sonata and baroque concerto, which were still evolving, that Vivaldi's most important contributions were made. He settled on certain patterns, such as a fast-slow-fast three-movement plan for works, and the use of ritornello in the fast movements, and explored the possibilities in hundreds of works— 550 concerti alone. He also used programmatic titles for works, such as his famous "The Four Seasons" violin concerti. Vivaldi's career reflects a growing possibility for a composer to be able to support himself by his publications, tour to promote his own works, and have an independent existence.

Domenico Scarlatti was one of the leading keyboard virtuosi of his day, who took the road of being a royal court musician, first in Portugal and then, starting in 1733, in Madrid, Spain, where he spent the rest of his life. His father, Alessandro Scarlatti, was a member of the Neapolitan School of opera and has been credited with being among its most skilled members. Domenico also wrote operas and church music, but it is the publication of his keyboard works, which spread more widely after his death, which have secured him a lasting place of reputation. Many of these works were written for his own playing but others for his royal patrons. As with his father, his fortunes were closely tied to his ability to secure, and keep, royal favour.

George Frideric Handel by Philip Mercier

Perhaps the most famous composer to be associated with royal patronage was George Frideric Handel, who was born in Germany, studied for three years in Italy, and went to London in 1711, which was his base of operations for a long and profitable career that included independently produced operas and commissions for nobility. He was constantly searching for successful commercial formulas, in opera, and then in oratorios in English. A continuous worker, Handel borrowed from others and often recycled his own material. He was also known for reworking pieces such as the famous Messiah, which premiered in 1742, for available singers and musicians. Even as his economic circumstances rose and fell with his productions, his reputation, based on published keyboard works, ceremonial music, constant stagings of operas and oratorios and concerti grossi, grew tremendously.

By the time of his death, he was regarded as the leading composer in Europe and was studied by later classical-era musicians. Handel, because of his very public ambitions, rested a great deal of his output on melodic resource combined with a rich performance tradition of improvisation and counterpoint. The practice of ornamentation in the Baroque style was at a very high level of development under his direction. He travelled all over Europe to engage singers and learn the music of other composers, and thus he had among the widest acquaintance of other styles of any composer.

Johann Sebastian Bach by Elias Gottlob Haussmann, 1748

Johann Sebastian Bach has, over time, come to be seen as the towering figure of Baroque music, with what Béla Bartók described as "a religion" surrounding him. During the baroque period, he was better known as a teacher, administrator and performer than composer, being less famous than either Handel or Georg Philipp Telemann. Born in Eisenach in 1685 to a musical family, he received an extensive early education and was considered to have an excellent boy soprano voice. He held a variety of posts as an organist, rapidly gaining in fame for his virtuosity and ability. In 1723 he settled at the post which he was associated with for virtually the rest of his life: cantor and director of music for Leipzig. His varied experience allowed him to become the town's leader of music both secular and sacred, teacher of its musicians, and leading musical figure. He began his term in Leipzig by composing a church cantata for every Sunday and holiday of the Liturgical year, resulting in annual cycles of cantatas, of which about 200 works are extant.

Bach created the grand scale works St John Passion, the St Matthew Passion, the Christmas Oratorio, spanning six feast days, and the Mass in B minor. Bach's musical innovations plumbed the depths and the outer limits of the Baroque homophonic and polyphonic forms. He was a virtual catalogue of every contrapuntal device possible and every acceptable means of creating webs of harmony with the chorale. As a result, his works in the form of the fugue coupled with preludes and toccatas for organ, and the baroque concerto forms, have become fundamental in both performance and theoretical technique. Virtually every instrument and ensemble of the age— except for the theatre genres— is represented copiously in his output. Bach's teachings became prominent in the classical and romantic eras as composers rediscovered the harmonic and melodic subtleties of his works.

Georg Philipp Telemann (1681–1767), hand-colored aquatint by Valentin Daniel Preisler, after a lost painting by Louis Michael Schneider, 1750.

Georg Philipp Telemann was the most famous instrumental composer of his time, and massively prolific— even by the standards of an age where composers had to produce large volumes of music. His two most important positions – director of music in Frankfurt in 1712 and in 1721 director of music of the Johanneum in Hamburg – required him to compose vocal and instrumental music for secular and sacred contexts. He composed two complete cantata cycles for Sunday services, as well as sacred oratorios. Telemann also founded a periodical that published new music, much of it by Telemann. This dissemination of music made him a composer with an international audience, as evidenced by his successful trip to Paris in 1731. Some of his finest works were in the 1750s and 1760s, when the Baroque style was being replaced by simpler styles but were popular at the time and afterwards. Among these late works are Der Tod Jesu (The Death of Jesus) 1755, "Die Donner-Ode" (The Ode of Thunder) 1756, "Die Auferstehung und Himmelfahrt Jesu" (The Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus) 1760 and "Der Tag des Gerichts" (The Day of Judgement) 1762.

Influence on later music[link]

Transition to the Classical era (1740–1780)[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

The Flute Concert of Sanssouci by Adolph von Menzel, 1852, depicts Frederick the Great playing the flute as Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach accompanies on the keyboard. The audience includes Bach's colleagues as well as nobles.

The phase between the late Baroque and the early Classical era, with its broad mixture of competing ideas and attempts to unify the different demands of taste, economics and "worldview", goes by many names. It is sometimes called "Galant", "Rococo", or "pre-Classical", or at other times, "early Classical". It is a period where composers still working in the Baroque style were still successful, if sometimes thought of as being more of the past than the present—Bach, Handel and Telemann all composed well beyond the point at which the homophonic style is clearly in the ascendant. Musical culture was caught at a crossroads: the masters of the older style had the technique, but the public hungered for the new. This is one of the reasons Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach was held in such high regard: he understood the older forms quite well and knew how to present them in new garb, with an enhanced variety of form; he went far in overhauling the older forms from the Baroque.

The practice of the baroque era was the standard against which new composition was measured, and there came to be a division between sacred works, which held more closely to the Baroque style from secular or "profane" works, which were in the new style.

Thomas Arne

Especially in the Catholic countries of central Europe, the baroque style continued to be represented in sacred music through the end of the eighteenth century, in much the way that the stile antico of the Renaissance continued to live in the sacred music of the early 17th century. The masses and oratorios of Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, while Classical in their orchestration and ornamentation, have many Baroque features in their underlying contrapuntal and harmonic structure. The decline of the baroque saw various attempts to mix old and new techniques, and many composers who continued to hew to the older forms well into the 1780s. Many cities in Germany continued to maintain performance practices from the Baroque into the 1790s, including Leipzig, where J.S. Bach worked to the end of his life.

In England, the enduring popularity of Handel ensured the success of Charles Avison, William Boyce, and Thomas Arne—among other accomplished imitators—well into the 1780s, who competed alongside Mozart and Bach. In Continental Europe, however, it was considered an old-fashioned way of writing and was a requisite for graduation from the burgeoning number of conservatories of music, and otherwise reserved only for use in sacred works.

After 1760[link]

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Violinist and composer Fritz Kreisler attributed many discovered works to lesser known Baroque composers.

Because baroque music was the basis for pedagogy, it retained a stylistic influence even after it had ceased to be the dominant style of composing or of music making. Even as Baroque practice fell out of use, it continued to be part of musical notation. In the early 19th century, scores by baroque masters were printed in complete edition, and this led to a renewed interest in the "strict style" of counterpoint, as it was then called. With Felix Mendelssohn's revival of Bach's choral music, the baroque style became an influence through the 19th century as a paragon of academic and formal purity.

In the 20th century, Baroque was named as a period, and its music began to be studied.

There are several instances of contemporary pieces being published as "rediscovered" Baroque masterworks. Some examples of this include a viola concerto written by Henri Casadesus but attributed to Johann Christian Bach, as well as several pieces attributed by Fritz Kreisler to lesser-known figures of the Baroque such as Gaetano Pugnani and Padre Martini. Alessandro Parisotti attributed his aria for voice and piano, "Se tu m'ami", to Pergolesi.

Various works have been labelled "neo-baroque" for a focus on imitative polyphony, including the works of Giacinto Scelsi, Paul Hindemith, Paul Creston and Bohuslav Martinů, even though they are not in the baroque style proper. Musicologists attempted to complete various works from the Baroque, most notably Bach's ‘’The Art of Fugue’’. Composer Peter Schickele parodies classical and baroque styles under the pen name PDQ Bach.

Baroque performance practice had a renewed influence with the rise of "Authentic" or Historically informed performance in the late 20th century. Texts by Johann Joachim Quantz and Leopold Mozart among others, formed the basis for performances which attempted to recover some of the aspects of baroque sound world, including one-on-a-part performance of works by Bach, use of gut strings rather than metal, reconstructed harpsichords, use of older playing techniques and styles. Several popular ensembles adopted some or all of these techniques, including the Anonymous 4, the Academy of Ancient Music, Boston's Handel and Haydn Society, William Christie's Les Arts Florissants, Sigiswald Kuijken's La Petite Bande and others.

Timeline of Baroque composers[link]

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 from:1600 till:1633 text:"Jacopo Peri"                                   #from 1561
 from:1600 till:1621 text:"JP Sweelinck" $bold  #from 1562
 from:1600 till:1643 text:"Claudio Monteverdi" $bold                      #from 1567
 from:1600 till:1652 text:"Gregorio Allegri"                              #from 1582
 from:1600 till:1643 text:"Girolamo Frescobaldi" $bold                    #from 1583
 from:1600 till:1672 text:"Heinrich Schütz" $bold                         #from 1585
 from:1600 till:1654 text:"Samuel Scheidt"                                #from 1587
 from:1602 till:1676 text:"Francesco Cavalli" $bold
 from:1605 till:1669 text:"Antonio Bertali"
 from:1605 till:1674 text:"Giacomo Carissimi"
 from:1610 till:1684 text:"Henri Dumont"
 from:1616 till:1667 text:"Johann Jakob Froberger"
 from:1619 till:1677 text:"Barbara Strozzi"
 # from:1626 till:1661 text:"Louis Couperin"
 from:1629 till:1691 text:"Jean-Henri d'Anglebert
 from:1632 till:1687 text:"Jean-Baptiste Lully"  $bold
 from:1634 till:1704 text:"Marc Antoine Charpentier"
 from:1637 till:1707 text:"Dieterich Buxtehude" $bold
 # from:1638 till:1700 text:"Diogo Dias Melgás" # Renaissance style?
 from:1644 till:1704 text:"Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber"
 # from:1653 till:1704 text:"Georg Muffat"
 from:1653 till:1706 text:"Johann Pachelbel"
 from:1653 till:1713 text:"Arcangelo Corelli" $bold
 from:1656 till:1728 text:"Marin Marais"
 from:1659 till:1695 text:"Henry Purcell" $bold
 from:1660 till:1725 text:"Alessandro Scarlatti" $bold
 from:1668 till:1733 text:"François Couperin" $bold
 from:1670 till:1746 text:"Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer"
 from:1674 till:1754 text:"Tomaso Albinoni"
 from:1678 till:1741 text:"Antonio Vivaldi" $bold
 from:1679 till:1745 text:"Jan Dismas Zelenka
 from:1681 till:1760 text:"Georg Philipp Telemann" $bold                   #till 1767
 from:1683 till:1760 text:"Jean-Philippe Rameau" $bold                     #till 1764
 from:1685 till:1750 text:"Johann Sebastian Bach" $bold
 from:1685 till:1757 text:"Domenico Scarlatti" $bold
 from:1685 till:1759 text:"George Frideric Handel" $bold
 from:1686 till:1750 text:"Silvius Leopold Weiss"
 from:1687 till:1760 text:"Francesco Geminiani"                            #till 1762
 from:1688 till:1758 text:"Johann Friedrich Fasch"
 # from:1692 till:1760 text:"Unico Wilhelm van Wassenaer"                  #till 1766
 from:1692 till:1760 text:"Giuseppe Tartini"                               #till 1770
 from:1695 till:1760 text:"Pietro Locatelli"                               #till 1764
 from:1697 till:1760 text:"Johann Joachim Quantz"                          #till 1773
 from:1699 till:1760 text:"Johann Adolf Hasse"                             #till 1783
 # from:1702 till:1755 text:"Francisco António de Almeida"
 from:1704 till:1742 text:"Carlos Seixas"
 from:1706 till:1760 text:"Baldassare Galuppi"                             #till 1785
 # from:1707 till:1760 text:"António Teixeira"                             #till 1774
 from:1710 till:1736 text:"GB Pergolesi" $bold

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Baroque instruments[link]

Baroque instruments including hurdy gurdy, harpsichord, bass viol, lute, violin, and guitar.

The double-manual harpsichord of Vital Julian Frey, after model from Jean-Claude Goujon 1749.

Strings[link]

• Violino piccolo
• Violin
• Viol
• Viola
• Viola d'amore
• Viola pomposa
• Tenor violin
• Cello
• Contrabass
• Lute
• Theorbo
• Archlute
• Angélique
• Mandolin
• Guitar
• Harp
• Hurdy gurdy

Woodwinds[link]

• Baroque flute
• Chalumeau
• Cortol (also known as Cortholt, Curtall, Oboe family)
• Dulcian
• Musette de cour
• Baroque oboe
• Rackett
• Recorder

Brasses[link]

• Baroque trumpet
• Cornett
• Horn
• Serpent
• Sackbut

Keyboards[link]

• Clavichord
• Tangent piano
• Fortepiano – early version of piano
• Harpsichord
• Organ

Styles and forms[link]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2009)

The Baroque suite[link]

The Baroque suite was scored with or without soloists.

• Overture- The Baroque suite generally began with a French overture ("Ouverture" in French).

• Allemande- Often the first dance of an instrumental suite, the allemande was a very popular dance that had its origins in the Renaissance era, when it was more often called the almain. The allemande was played at a moderate tempo and could start on any beat of the bar.

• Courante- The courante is a lively, French dance in triple meter. The Italian version is called the corrente.

• Sarabande- The sarabande, a Spanish dance, is one of the slowest of the baroque dances. It is also in triple meter and can start on any beat of the bar, although there is an emphasis on the second beat, creating the characteristic 'halting', or iambic rhythm of the sarabande.

• Gigue- The gigue is an upbeat and lively baroque dance in compound meter, typically the concluding movement of an instrumental suite. The gigue can start on any beat of the bar and is easily recognized by its rhythmic feel. The gigue originated in the British Isles. Its counterpart in folk music is the jig.

These four dance types make up the majority of 17th century suites; later suites interpolate additional movements between the sarabande and gigue:

• Gavotte- The gavotte can be identified by a variety of features; it is in 4/4 time and always starts on the third beat of the bar, although this may sound like the first beat in some cases, as the first and third beats are the strong beats in quadruple time. The gavotte is played at a moderate tempo, although in some cases it may be played faster.

• Bourrée- The bourrée is similar to the gavotte as it is in 2/2 time although it starts on the second half of the last beat of the bar, creating a different feel to the dance. The bourrée is commonly played at a moderate tempo, although for some composers, such as Handel, it can be taken at a much faster tempo.

• Minuet- The minuet is perhaps the best-known of the baroque dances in triple meter. It can start on any beat of the bar. In some suites there may be a Minuet I and II, played in succession, with the Minuet I repeated.

• Passepied- The passepied is a fast dance in binary form and triple meter that originated as a court dance in Brittany.^[18] Examples can be found in later suites such as those of Bach and Handel.

• Rigaudon- The rigaudon is a lively French dance in duple meter, similar to the bourrée, but rhythmically simpler. It originated as a family of closely related southern-French folk dances, traditionally associated with the provinces of Vavarais, Languedoc, Dauphiné, and Provence.^[19]

Other features[link]

• 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
• Combined instrumental-vocal forms, such as the oratorio and cantata
• New instrumental techniques, like tremolo and pizzicato
• 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
• Ornamentation
• 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[link]

This section may contain original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding references. Statements consisting only of original research may be removed. More details may be available on the talk page. (March 2012)

Baroque composers wrote in many different musical genres. Opera, invented in the transitional period between the late Renaissance and early Baroque, became an important musical form during the Baroque, with the operas of Alessandro Scarlatti, Handel, and others. The oratorio achieved its peak in the work of Bach and Handel; opera and oratorio often used very similar music forms, such as a widespread use of the da capo aria.

In other religious music, the Mass and motet receded slightly in importance, but the cantata flourished in the work of Bach and other Protestant composers. Virtuoso organ music also flourished, with toccatas, fugues, and other works.

Instrumental sonatas and dance suites were written for individual instruments, for chamber groups, and for (small) orchestra. The concerto emerged, both in its form for a single soloist plus orchestra and as the concerto grosso, in which a small group of soloists is contrasted with the full ensemble. The French overture, with its contrasting slow and fast sections, added grandeur to the many courts at which it was performed.

Keyboard works were sometimes written largely for the pleasure and instruction of the performer. These included a series of works by the mature Bach that are widely considered to be the intellectual culmination of the Baroque era: the Well-Tempered Clavier, the Goldberg Variations, and The Art of Fugue.

Vocal[link]

• Opera
  • Zarzuela
  • Opera seria
  • Opera comique
  • Opera-ballet
• Masque
• Oratorio
• Passion (music)
• Cantata
• Mass (music)
• Anthem
• Monody
• Chorale

Instrumental[link]

• Chorale composition
• Concerto grosso
• Fugue
• Suite
  • Allemande
  • Courante
  • Sarabande
  • Gigue
  • Gavotte
  • Minuet
• Sonata
  • Sonata da camera
  • Sonata da chiesa
  • Trio sonata
• Partita
• Canzona
• Sinfonia
• Fantasia
• Ricercar
• Toccata
• Prelude
• Chaconne
• Passacaglia
• Chorale prelude
• Stylus fantasticus

Notes[link]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

External links[link]

Carl Heinrich Graun

Carl Heinrich Graun (7 May 1704 – 8 August 1759) was a German composer and tenor singer. Along with Johann Adolph Hasse, he is considered to be the most important German composer of Italian opera of his time.^[1]

Biography[link]

Graun was born in Wahrenbrück in Brandenburg. In 1714, he followed his brother, Johann Gottlieb Graun, to the school of the Church of the Cross, Dresden, and sang in the Dresdner Kreuzchor and the chorus of the Dresden Opera. He studied singing with Christian Petzold and composition with Johann Christoph Schmidt. In 1724, Graun moved to Braunschweig, singing at the opera house and writing six operas for the company. In 1735, Graun moved to Rheinsberg in Brandenburg, after he had written the opera Lo specchio della fedeltà for the marriage of the then crown prince Frederick (the Great) and Elisabeth Christine in Schloss Salzdahlum in 1733. He was Kapellmeister to Frederick the Great from his ascension to the throne in 1740 until Graun's death nineteen years later in Berlin.

Graun memorial in Wahrenbrück

Graun wrote a number of operas. His opera Cesare e Cleopatra inaugurated the opening of the Berlin State Opera (Königliche Hofoper) in 1742. Montezuma (1755) was written to a libretto by King Frederick. His pieces are rarely played today, though his passion cantata Der Tod Jesu (The Death of Jesus, 1755) was frequently performed in Germany for many years after his death. His other works include concertos and trio sonatas.

He married twice and had a daughter, who became a singer, from his first marriage and four sons from his second.

Works[link]

Stage works[link]

• Polydorus (5 acts, 1726–28)
• Iphigenia in Aulis (3 acts 1728)
• Scipio Africanus (3 acts, 1732)
• Lo specchio della fedeltà (3 acts, 1733)
• Pharao Tubaetes (5 acts, 1735)
• Rodelinda, regina de' langobardi (3 acts, 1741)
• Cesare e Cleopatra (3 acts, 1742)
• Artaserse, libretto by Metastasio (3 acts, 1743)
• Catone in Utica, libretto by Metastasio (3 acts, 1743)
• Alessandro e Poro, libretto by Metastasio (3 acts, 1744)
• Lucio Papirio (3 acts, 1744)
• Adriano in Siria, libretto by Metastasio (3 acts, 1746)
• Demofoonte, libretto by Metastasio (3 acts, 1746)
• Cajo Fabricio (3 acts, 1746)
• Le feste galanti (1747)
• Cinna (3 acts, 1748)
• L'Europa galante (1748)
• Ifigenia in Aulide (3 acts, 1748)
• Angelica e Medoro (3 acts, 1749)
• Coriolano (3 acts, 1749)
• Fetonte (3 acts, 1750)
• Il Mithridate (3 acts, 1751)
• L’Armida (3 acts, 1751)
• Britannico (3 acts, 1751)
• L'Orfeo (3 acts, 1752)
• Il giudizio di Paride (1 act, 1752)
• Silla (3 acts, 1753)
• Semiramide (3 acts, 1754)
• Montezuma (3 acts, 1755)
• Ezio, libretto by Metastasio (1755)
• I fratelli nemici (3 acts, 1756)
• La Merope (3 acts, 1756)

Other works[link]

• Te Deum
• Ein Lämmlein geht und trägt die Schuld Passion cantata (ca. 1730)
• Kommt her und schaut (Große Passion) (1730)
• Der Tod Jesu, Passion cantata (1755)
• Oratorium in Festum Nativitatis Christi, Christmas oratorio
• Easter Oratorium
• Six Italian Cantatas
• Concerto for Horn, Strings and Cembalo D-major
• Lieder (1743)
• Sinfonia C-major
• Concerto for Viola da gamba

Bibliography[link]

• John W. Grubbs (1972): The Sacred Choral Music of the Graun Brothers, 1972

Notes[link]

Sources[link]

• "Graun, Carl Heinrich" by E. Eugene Helm, in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera', ed. Stanley Sadie (London, 1992) ISBN 0-333-73432-7

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Carl Heinrich Graun

• Free scores by Carl Heinrich Graun at the International Music Score Library Project
• Free scores by Carl Heinrich Graun in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
• Free scores by Carl Heinrich Graun in the Werner Icking Music Archive (WIMA)

Gaspar Sanz. A detail from the dedication page of Instrucciòn de Mùsica may be an image of Sanz.

Gaspar Sanz (1640–1710) was an Aragonese composer, guitarist, organist and priest born to a wealthy family in Calanda in the Spanish comarca of Bajo Aragón. He studied music, theology and philosophy at the University of Salamanca, where he was later appointed Professor of Music. He wrote three volumes of pedagogical works for the baroque guitar that form an important part of today's classical guitar repertory and have informed modern scholars in the techniques of baroque guitar playing.

Biography[link]

His birth date is unknown but he was baptized as Francisco Bartolome Sanz y Celma in the church of Calanda de Ebro, Aragon on 4 April 1640 later adopting the first name "Gaspar". After gaining his Bachelor of Theology at the University of Salamanca, Gaspar Sanz travelled to Naples, Rome and perhaps Venice to further his music education. He is thought to have studied under Orazio Benevoli, choirmaster at the Vatican and Cristofaro Caresana, organist at the Royal Chapel of Naples. He spent some years as the organist of the Spanish Viceroy at Naples.

Sanz learned to play guitar while studying under Lelio Colista and was influenced by music of the Italian guitarists Foscarini, Granata, and Corbetta. When Sanz returned to Spain he was appointed instructor of guitar to Don Juan (John of Austria), the illegitimate son of King Philip IV and Maria Calderon, a noted actress of the day.

John of Austria as he appears on the dedication page of "Instrucciòn de Mùsica sobre la Guitarra Española"

In 1674 he wrote his now famous Instrucción de Música sobre la Guitarra Española,^[1] published in Saragossa and dedicated to Don Juan.^[2] A second book entitled Libro Segundo de cifras sobre la guitarra española was printed in Saragossa in 1675. A third book, Libro tercero de mùsica de cifras sobre la guitarra española, was added to the first and second books, and all three were published together under the title of the first book in 1697, eventually being published in eight editions. The ninety works in this masterpiece are his only known contribution to the repertory of the guitar^[3] and include compositions in both punteado ("plucked") style and rasqueado ("strummed") style.

In addition to his musical skills, Gaspar Sanz was noted in his day for his literary works as a poet and writer, and was the author of some poems and two books now largely forgotten.

He died in Madrid in 1710.

Influence[link]

His compositions provide some of the most important of examples of popular Spanish baroque music for the guitar and now form part of classical guitar pedagogy. Sanz's manuscripts are written as tablature for the baroque guitar and have been transcribed into modern notation by numerous guitarists and editors, Emilio Pujol's edition of Sanz's Canarios being a notable example.

He has influenced some twentieth century composers.

• The composer Manuel de Falla, utilised some of his themes in his work El retablo de maese Pedro composed in 1923.
• In 1954, at the request of guitarist Andres Segovia, Joaquín Rodrigo composed his Fantasia para un Gentilhombre on themes from Instrucción de música sobre la Guitarra Española.
• Passages of Peter Warlock's "Capriol Suite for String Orchestra" composed in 1926 appear to be inspired by Sanz's composition "Dance De Las Hachas".

Works[link]

An example of tablature from Instrucciòn de Mùsica sobre la Guitarra Española

Notes[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Gaspar Sanz, Anthology of Selected Pieces edited by Raymond Burley (Schott 1993)
• Baroque Guitar In Spain And The New World by Frank Koonce (Mel Bay Publications)

External links[link]

• The Mutopia Project has compositions by Gaspar Sanz
• Gaspar Sanz - Guitarra Magazine
• Gaspar Sanz in El poder de la palabra (Spanish)
• Rasgueados y punteados: Gaspar Sanz y la guitarra española La Lira de Orfeo (Spanish)
• En el Tercer Centenario del fallecimiento de Gaspar Sanz Escritos de José Antonio Bielsa (Spanish)

Manuscripts[link]

• Instruccion de musica sobre la guitarra española - Biblioteca Nacional de España info

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Gaspar Sanz

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