The Baroque Era

The Baroque Era

(1600 to 1750)

The Baroque era was the era of experimentation. New instrumental forms were created, the violin was used often in baroque music. Baroque is Portuguese for, a pearl of irregular shape, which was just like the Baroque era. It was a time of experimenting and expanding the musical roles, and the full equality of the instrumental music. It was during the Baroque era where opera was started in Europe. The Baroque era is very different from the Renaissance era, from the clean and ordered Renaissance, to the ability to convey the filling of available space, sound, and movement. This time period had many defining characters such as the basso continuo and the doctrine of affection. It allowed composers to express their emotions in there composition. Baroque music emphasis on its contrast on volume, texture, and pace of music.

It was very different from Medieval and early Renaissance music. Homophonic method was widely use and became dominant in the instrumental forms of music too. The musical works would mostly contain an organ or harpsichord and a bass instrument which would usually be a bassoon or cello to help convey the harmonic support of chords under the melodic lines.

Homophonic music was becoming popular but polyphonic music was also developing. Two highly strict forms of polyphonic are cannons and fugues. To prove their expertise they improvised complex fugues at a moments notice.

During the 1600s, opera and the orchestra were created. Opera was created in Italy to recapture the Greek drama in which music played a key role. The homophobic musical style played a important role in opera and solo musicals.

Also during the 1600s the orchestra evolved. The orchestra was growing into its own entity and concerto, it was very popular form of music. The concerto had a featured solo instrumentalist or small soloist.

The Composers of the Baroque Era

Henry Purcell (1659-1695)

Henry Purcell was an important English composer. He spent his entire career as a musician in English royal court. He was the singer in the Royal Chapel when he was a boy. He was the assistant of the kings instruments. Ten years later, 1677, he was appointed as the kings composer, then in 1682 he was the organist in the Royal Chapel.

Purcell was best known for his dramatic works and instrumental music. His best opera was the DIDO AND AENEAS and his most famous choral work was ODE TO ST. CELCIA.

Famous Works-Dramatic music, including Dido and Aeneas (1689) and The Fairy Queen (1692), incidental music for plays Sacred vocal music, including a Magnificat, Te Deum and anthems Secular vocal music, including court odes Instrumental music, including fantasias, sonatas, marches, overtures, and harpsichord suites and dances.

George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)

George Handel was an English composer, but born in Germany, when he pasted he was an English citizen. At an early age Handel had a talent for music. He studied music with a local organist and composer. When he reached the age of seventeen, Handel went to Hamburg, where he played the violin in an opera orchestra. After that he was composed his first opera the ALMIRA. He spent a couple years in Italy where his works were very popular and returned to Germany to take post of a music director.

In 1217 he was asked to leave and go to England, once he left he never returned. While he was in England he wrote operas in Italian style, which the style was challenged by rival opera companies then the development of new and lighter styles of ballad opera. The Italian style was beginning to fade away and turn to a new genre, so did Handels career, but he continued to conduct and perform. His last performance was MESSIAH, where he collapsed and three days later he died.

Famous Works-Over 40 operas, including Almira (1705), Rinaldo (1711), Giulio Cesare (Julius Caesar, 1724) and Orlando (1733)

Oratorios, including Esther (1718), Alexander's Feast (1736), Israel in Egypt (1739), Messiah (1742), Sampson (1743), Belshazzar (1745), Judas Maccabaeus (1747), Solomon (1749) and Jephtha (1752); other sacred vocal music, including Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne (c.1713), Acis and Galatea (masque, 1718), Ode for St. Cecilia's Day (1739), Utrech Te Deum (1713), anthems and Latin church music.

Secular vocal music, including solo and duo cantatas; arias

Orchestral music, including Water Music (1717) and Music for the Royal Fireworks (1749); concertos for oboe, organ, horn.

Chamber music, including solo and trio sonatas

Keyboard music, including harpsichord suites, fugues, preludes, airs and dances

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Johann was a German composer and organist. When he was a child, he learned to play the organ, clavichord, and sang in the choir. At the age fifteen he held several organist positions in nearby towns. HE was the master of composing cantatas, oratorios, chorales, and, piano inventions. He had his own unique style and often rearranged pieces for different instruments. Bach was introduced with the piano when he was sixty. When he discovered the piano he went write on working on a six part fugue for King Frederick as a musical offering and now is considered as the most remarkable fugues in history. Later on in his life, Bach was stricken with blindness and went to correct his vision, but unfortunately it was unsuccessful. He suffered a paralytic attack and died.

Works- Over 40 operas, including Almira (1705), Rinaldo (1711), Giulio Cesare (Julius Caesar, 1724) and Orlando (1733)

Oratorios, including Esther (1718), Alexander's Feast (1736), Israel in Egypt (1739), Messiah (1742), Sampson (1743), Belshazzar (1745), Judas Maccabaeus (1747), Solomon (1749) and Jephtha (1752); other sacred vocal music, including Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne (c.1713), Acis and Galatea (masque, 1718), Ode for St. Cecilia's Day (1739), Utrech Te Deum (1713), anthems and Latin church music.

Secular vocal music, including solo and duo cantatas; arias

Orchestral music, including Water Music (1717) and Music for the Royal Fireworks (1749); concertos for oboe, organ, horn.

Chamber music, including solo and trio sonatas

Keyboard music, including harpsichord suites, fugues, preludes, airs and dances

The Baroque Age

Named after the popular ornate architectural style of the time, the Baroque period (ca.1600 to 1750) saw composers beginning to rebel against the styles that were prevalent during the High Renaissance. This was a time when the many monarchies of Europe vied in outdoing each other in pride, pomp and pageantry. Many monarchs employed composers at their courts, where they were little more than servants expected to churn out music for any desired occasions. The greatest composer of the period, Johann Sebastian Bach, was such a servant. Yet the best composers of the time were able to break new musical ground, and in so doing succeeded in creating an entirely new style of music.

It was during the early part of the seventeenth century that the genre of opera was first created by a group of composers in Florence, Italy, and the earliest operatic masterpieces were composed by Claudio Monteverdi. The instrumental concerto became a staple of the Baroque era, and found its strongest exponent in the works of the Venetian composer Antonio Vivaldi. Harpsichord music achieved new heights, due to the works of such masters as Domenico Scarlatti and others. Dances became formalized into instrumental suites and were composed by virtually all composers of the era. But vocal and choral music still reigned supreme during this age, and culminated in the operas and oratorios of German-born composer George Frideric Handel.