Chapter 8: Prelude: The Late Baroque Period

Style Features of Late Baroque Music

Key Terms

• walking bass• harmonic rhythm• basic orchestra• festive orchestra• sequence

• ornamentation

• ritornellos

• continuo

• figured bass

• affects

Style Features of Late Baroque Music

• extravagance– large-scale works for large ensembles– intense, dramatic emotional expression

• control– thorough, methodical expression– extracting maximum effect from material– uniting many elements to depict a single

emotion

Rhythm

• highly regular, determined motion

• distinctive rhythms against a steady beat– freer rhythms in upper voices– walking bass

• steady harmonic rhythm

Dynamics

• rarely indicated; usually steady• dramatic contrast preferred

– either loud or soft (f or p)– change at end of entire section, if at

all

• performers still created subtle nuances

Tone Color

• new interest in sonority – distinctive Baroque sounds and

instruments– idiomatic writing—taking advantage of

unique color of each instrument

• flexibility– works “for violin or oboe or flute”– rewriting earlier works for different

performing forces

Basic Baroque Orchestra

a string orchestra with continuo

Festive Baroque Orchestera

augments the basic with brass, woodwinds, and percussion

Melody

• tends toward complexity and difficulty– extended range– variety of rhythmic note values– intricate, unpredictable twists and turns– irregular phrase lengths

• frequent use of sequence for forward motion

Ornamentation

• addition of fast notes, motives, or effects to a melody– cadenzas; chording continuo instruments

• improvised during performance– sometimes written down to guide lesser

performers– even simple tunes lavishly ornamented

Texture

• standard Baroque texture is polyphonic– sometimes homophonic texture, for

contrast only

• dense orchestral works use many moving contrapuntal lines

• simple works for solo and continuo still feel contrapuntal (active bass)

The Continuo

• provides framework and support for melody and polyphony– bass line played by cello or bass viol– chords played by keyboard or plucked

strings

• creates “polarized” texture• often written as figured bass

Playing the Continuo

• bass line played with left hand

• chords improvised with right hand

• chords “realized” in simple or complex manner, according to ability

Baroque Musical Form

• more standardized formal patterns– fugue, ritornello, dance form, etc.– easier to compose on demand for patrons

• patterns filled in orderly, logical manner– entire fugues constructed from single theme– often symmetrical ordering of movements

• meant to sustain rich musical experience over long time span

Emotional Expression

• powerful yet impersonal

• Baroque composers thought music should– mirror a wide range of emotions

(affects).

– depict those emotions consistently.

– take on a theatrical quality.

Affects

• Scientists studied and classified emotions.

• Composers catalogued musical elements for each “affect.”– keys: D minor = serious; E minor = pathos,

etc.– melodic and rhythmic figures– instrumental and vocal types and genres