The Renaissance (1450 1600) The Baroque (1600 1750) The Classical (1750 ( 1810) The Romantic(1810 ) 1910)

910) The Twentieth century

Lesson 1 What came before Baroque To develop an understanding of the development of early music and its influence on the music that followed.

What d we know alrea do n ady?

Renaissance

Baroque

Classical

Its It very g d b t t our modern ears th grand but to d the harmony is very strange. This is because the religious composers of the renaissance time didnt thi k in did t think i our major and minor scales th j d i l they thought in scales called modes. Baroque music used new ideas of scales in major and minor keys. Now listen to this piece of church music by the Italian composer Palestrina, written two hundred years later. It still sounds very old, but its somehow more normal. This is because music was moving normal towards the major and minor scales we use today. Also, the rhythms are much smoother.

IF YOU HAD to choose one art form that sums up the baroque era, it would be opera. Look at th i t the image of a b f baroque palace. l

In the baroque era, society was changing. The Church and the aristocrats were being challenged b th new middle class, so th h ll d by the iddl l they had to assert their authority by creating grand spectacles spectacles. This i h baroque church music often Thi is why b h h i ft sounds just as grand as baroque opera!

The i l Th viol was thrown out and replaced b h d l d by Violins, Cellos, Violas. Harpsichords were b il H i h d built. Music used these instruments and d d h d developed l d a continuo style of playing. (Harpsichord and Cello, Cello playing bass notes and improvising on the chords) this provides a continuous bass for the melody to be composed over. y p Lets hear an example. p

The b Th brass instruments will b li it d t i t t ill be limited to trumpets and horns.

At this time neither of these instruments had valves and so the music written f them was never melodic. d h i i for h l di It were used simply to add harmony to the music.

The music is polyphonic in texture. p yp

Baroque composers loved to have lots of interweaving musical lines happening at the same time. This texture is a good sign that the music is baroque.

The music has lots of ornaments such as mordents, trills, mordents trills turns and grace notes. notes
Books on the theory of music were being printed y and music had very little dischords.

Some important composers that were making changes in the era were;
Johann Sebastian Bach Antonio Vivaldi Henry Purcell H P ll George Fredrick Handel

These built on id Th b ilt ideas and composers th t d that came before them, John Dowland created songs first in a renaissance style and later in the new baroque ideas. Lets do some listening!

The Baroque orchestra did not have standardization. It was composed mainly of strings, while wind instruments and percussion instruments were used less f dl frequently. Th b tl The bass part of t f the orchestra played the basso continuo. Instruments of different kinds doubled on each part as there was not much colour definition to the Baroque era s orchestration. eras orchestration

Brass where given no melodies!

Albinoni g Adagio in G minor Rameau La Poule

Description tempo, texture, structure, , , timbres, rhythm. Bass continuo, continuo ornamentation, harpsichord. harpsichord

The first 9 bars of the Canon in D: the violins play a three-voice canon over the ground bass which provides the harmonic structure. Colors are used above to differentiate and highlight the individual canonic entries entries.

The Baroque Concerto With the rise of purely instrumental music in the Baroque Age, there also arose a flowering of instrumental forms and virtuoso performers to play them them. Italian composer and violinist Arcangelo Corelli (16531713) pioneered the form of the concerto grosso, in which the principle element of contrast between two independent groups.
The larger group is called the ripieno and usually consisted of a body of strings with harpsichord continuo, while a smaller group or concertino consisted of two t f ti i t d ft to four solo i t l instruments. t The various sections of the concerto would alternate between fast and slow tempos, or movements. Later composers of the period such as Johann Sebastian Bach and Antonio Vivaldi transformed this genre i f d hi into the solo concerto, i which the h l in hi h h solo instrument is of equal importance as the string orchestra.

Lets listen to Corellis Concerto Grosso.

In the concerto grosso the full orchestra (tutti) has the ritornello; the solo group (concertino) h th contrasting episodes. ( ti ) has the t ti i d This was a very important development because thi led to th development of th b this l d t the d l t f the concerto. Tutti and solo.

The Renaissance (1450 1600) The Baroque (1600 1750) The Classical (1750 ( 1810) The Romantic(1810 ) 1910) The Twentieth century

Lesson 2 Styles of the Baroque? We should have an understanding of the development of baroque Music.

Homework Discover what was happening historically in the baroque era.