Baroque (3/10)

VI:  A Little Music Theory

     Two different pitches with the same name are separated by one or more octaves.  Twelve half steps, the smallest interval on the piano, fit inside one octave.  Two half steps that are put together form a whole step.  By following particular patterns of whole and half steps, one can create major or minor scales, which form the basis of the last four hundred years of Western music.  Notes or harmonies within a scale are said to be diatonic, whereas notes and harmonies from outside the scale are considered chromatic.
     For example, when a piece is said to be "in the key of A major," this indicates that most of the notes in the piece are from the A major scale, which is built from the "major" pattern of half and whole steps between A and A.  Furthermore, A is "the most important note" in the piece, meaning it appears at the end of many phrases and probably closes the work.  This concept of a most important or central tone is tonality.  The shifting of one tonal center to another within a piece is modulation.  Shifting the tonal center for the entire piece, however, is called transposition.

VII:  The Baroque

     The Baroque era (1600-1750) was full of monarchies, bloody Protestant and Catholic wars, explorations of the New World, and a rise in middle class culture.  The term "Baroque" is likely derived from the Portuguese, "barroco," meaning an irregularly shaped pearl.  Hot numbers from the Baroque incude Kepler, Galileo, Copernicus, Descartes, and Newton.
     Several musical changes occurred between the Renaissance and the Baroque eras.  As opposed to the notion of a cantus firmus, melodies were now newly composed.  Harmony was based on major and minor tonality rather than the modes of the Renaissance.  Modes, by the bye, are series of whole and half steps just like major and minor scales, but their patterns are different.  In the early Baroque, texture moved from imitative polyphony to homophony or monody, where one melody is most important.  Monody was first cultivated by a group of artists known as the Florentine Camerata.  Later in the Baroque, however, polyphony would assume greater importance once again.
     Instead of a cappella vocal music, voices were often accompanied by instruments.  As builders produced better instruments, compositions became more technically demanding.  Vocal works also required great virtuosity, and was especially expected from the castrati, talented males who were castrated before their voices changed.  Performances took place in theaters rather than the church and court.  Instrumentalists relied heavily upon improvisation, much like the jazz musicians of today.  By the end of the 1600s, works were based on a single emotion or affection, adhering to the principle of the doctrine of the affections.  While the chief genres of the Renaissance were masses, motets, chansons, madrigals, and instrumental dance music, the Baroque produced operas, oratorios, cantatas, sonatas, concertos, and suites.

VIII:  Baroque Vocal Music

     Lots of people hate opera.  An opera is nothing more than a large-scale work combining story, acting, costuming, soloists, ensembles, choruses, orchestra, and sometimes dancing.  Really, people, what more do you want?  Anyway, the expressive solo songs in opera are called arias.  Ensemble numbers are like arias, but involve groups of characters who express their points of view at the same time.  It happens in Broadway all the time.  If we tried to tell stories through arias and ensemble numbers alone, we would make poor progress indeed; thus, recitatives contain more words and advance the plot quickly.  Opera composers work with librettists, or script writers.  Operas without the moving about on stage or dressing up in costumes are called oratorios.
     Early operas were ornate and heavily influenced by the Florentine Camerata.  In Italy, Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) became one of the first composers for the genre.  By the end of the 1600s, Italian opera was popular everywhere except France.  There, the Italian composer (renamed) Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687) wrote tragédie lyrique, which are operas based on court ballet and classical tragedy.  In England, Henry Purcell (1659-1695) served the courts of several monarchs as a singer, organist, and composer.  Remember his theme in Britten's work from the first post of this lecture series?  Among Purcell's well-known works is the opera Dido and Aeneas.
     Later Baroque opera was dominated by German composer George Frideric Handel (1685-1759).  Handel was born in Halle, Germany.  In 1720, the Royal Academy of Music opened with the aim of producing Italian opera.  Handel earned the position of a musical director there in London, and composed several opera seria, or serious Italian opera.  With the failure of the Royal Academy, Handel turned to oratorio and created such works as the Messiah and Judas Maccabaeus.  Another prolific composer worth mentioning is Barbara Strozzi (1619-1677), who wrote madrigals, motets, and cantatas.    Cantatas are composed for one or more solo voices with instrumental accompaniment.
     It has come time to speak of the great J. S. Bach (1685-1750).  So well respected is he today that we end our notion of the Baroque era with the year of his death.  Bach's works are extremely well crafted and masterfully contrapuntal.  Although he composed nearly three hundred sacred cantatas, only two hundred have been preserved.  These works include orchestral choruses, arias, duets, recitatives, and chorales.  Bach was appointed court organist and chamber musician to the duke of Weimar in 1708, and remained there until his position at Cöthen (1717-1723).  There, he composed instrumental suites, concertos, sonatas, keyboard music, and the six Brandenburg concertos.  Moving to Leipzig, he became the cantor of St. Thomas' Church, writing music for four churches and directing the collegium musicum, a performing group that included university students.  It might be noted that out of his twenty or so offspring, four became significant composers recognized by our history books.

IX:  Baroque Instrumental Music

     Instrumentalists were very good.  While Bach and Handel were formidable organists, Scarlatti and Couperin were masters of the harpsichord.  The three ruling keyboard instruments of the Baroque era are the organ, harpsichord, and clavichord.  The piano was credited to Cristofori in 1700, but didn't pick up steam right away.  Keyboard works of the Baroque were either improvisational in nature, exemplified by preludes and chorale preludes, or strongly imitative polyphonic works such as fugues.

     There were two types of sonatas: the sonata da camera, or chamber sonata, and the sonata da chiesa, or church sonata.  Chamber sonatas were collections of stylized dances, much like the suite, whereas church sonatas were more contrapuntal in nature and typically in four movements.  Although sonatas were composed for up to eight instruments, the trio sonata was a favorite.  These were constructed for two violins with continuo, the harmonic part written for keyboard and cello or bassoon.  So, how many musicians does it take to play a trio sonata?  The answer is four.  You might be able to get your friends with that one.  Some sonatas were composed for one instrument only.  Among these are 555 clever keyboard sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757).

     There were also two types of concertos: the solo concerto, and the concerto grosso.  The solo concerto was written for a solo instrument with ensemble accompaniment.  The concerto grosso, on the other hand, alternated sections between a smaller group called the concertino and a larger group called the tutti or ripieno.  Bach, Handel, and Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) were among the greatest concerto composers.  In some Baroque concertos, a orchestral refrain, or ritornello repeats between sections.

     The Baroque suite was a group of dances composed for solo instrument, chamber ensemble, or orchestra.  While the two giants of the keyboard suite are Bach and François Couperin (1668-1733), Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) and Handel were masters of the orchestral suite.  Other forms of Baroque orchestral music include the passacaglia, chaconne, French overture, and Italian overture.  Both passacaglias and chaconnes are sets of variations created from the bass line, but the chaconne is more harmonically based than melodically.  The French overture is always divided into two sections: the first slow and pompous, marked by dotted rhythms, and the second in fast counterpoint.  The Italian overture, on the other hand, is divided into three sections that run fast, slow, fast.

     The following virtuosic aria from the opera Semiramide riconosciuta by Porpora was originally composed for a castrato.  Cecilia Bartoli's masterful performance is taken from her incredible set of recordings, "Sacrificium."  If you fail to fall in love with her after hearing this, I can only extend my greatest sympathy.

In braccio a mille furie

by Nicola Porpora

Performed by Cecilia Bartoli & Il Giardino Armonico