Music Essays Baroque Music

euphony Essays baroqueness medicinal drug churrigueresque MusicIn the prevail The Enjoyment of Music, Joseph Machlis and Kristine Forney severalise, the word baroque comes from the Portuguese word barocco which means a pearl of irregular shapes that was utilise to make jewelry of the time. (299)According to online data the word was first intentd to describe the way of feel of computer architecture in Italy during the 17th and 18th nose dirty dogdy. Later on the word baroque was used to describe the practice of medicine styles of the 1600s to the 1700s. The Baroque stoppage was a time when composers experimented with form, styles and instruments. This stay saw the development of opera and instrumental music. (About.com)Although we use the term baroque today, the appropriateness of the term baroque has been questi geniusd. In music, the term Baroque applies to the final period of dominance of imitative counterpoint where contrasting voices and instruments echo each other exclusively at contrastive pitches, sometimes inverting the echo, and even reversing thematic material. Baroque music too many in the sixteenth century was bizarre, extravagant, and unnatural.According to the data from online Encarta, Baroque music was very different to the music before its time such(prenominal) as medieval and early renaissance music and the development of new harmonic and melodic lines bring ined discrimination in pace and variation to the compositions giving them a new shape and form. The structure of the music excessively changed different forms such as fugues and postnons developed and different instruments were introduced.Get help with your evidence from our expert essay writersComposers of the early baroque period placed an emphasis on melody. Developments began in Italy and first took place in vocal music, especially opera. Instrumental music started out as an accompaniment of voice but everyplace the course of the baroque era, it achieved an indep endent identity. Melodies were embellished with dresss of different types, rapid alternation between the main note and the note scantily above it. All composers in countries used ornamentation, but it was favored by French composers. Baroque melodies, vocal and instrumental, made prominent use of melodic sequence, the repetition of a short motif at a higher or lower pitch. (Encarta).The principle melody in baroque music was supported by a written bass line, the basso continuo, play by a viol, cello or bassoon. other parts were added between the melody and the bass by a keyboard instrument, usually a harpsichord or organ. Only they melody and the bass line were written out. Numbers placed over or beneath the bass notes indicated the type of chord to be played, and they keyboard accompanist added the appropriate notes. (Encarta)According to Manfred F. Bukofzer in his book Music in the Baroque Era the baroque style went through several phases that didnt even coexist in different c ountries. They were grouped into three major periods early, middle and late baroque. Although the periods overlap in time, they can roughly be dated as the first from 1580 to 1630, the second from 1630 to 1680, and the last from 1680 to 1730. These spans indicate al single the shaping periods of the new concepts with which the previous ones may run parallel for some time, and the start of the baroque period only applies to Italy. In other countries the periods began ten to twenty years later.The middle baroque period brought the bel-canto style in that cantata and opera, with the distinction between aria and recitative. A integrity section of musical forms began to grow and contrapuntal food grain was reinstituted. The modes were reduced to major and minor and the chord progressions are governed by a rudimentary tonality which guarded the free dissonance treatment of the early baroque.The late baroque style was distinguished by a fully established tonality which regulated chord progression, dissonance treatment, and the formal structure. The contrapuntal technique culminated in the full absorption tonal harmony. The forms grew to large dimensions. The concerto style appeared and with it came the emphasis on mechanical rhythm. (17)Along with the different phases of the baroque period there were also different styles, according to Joseph Machlis and Kristine Forney in their book The Enjoyment of Music they explain the different styles. Machlis Forney states that the transition form Renaissance to Baroque brought with it a great change, the shift of divert from texture of several independent parts to one in which a single melody stood out, from polyphonic music to homophonic. The monodic style which originated in vocal music, was named monody wand literally means one song, music for one singer with instrumental accompaniment. The monodic style was known during the beginning of the baroque era. The recitative style is a half-spoken, half-sung delivery, whic h is often used to link songlike numbers in an opera, oratorio or cantata. Recitative can be dry or accompanied. Secco recitative has only very simple chordal accompaniment accompanied recitative involves the orchestra more(prenominal) actively. Continuo is the accompaniment part within a homophonic texture, in which a keyboard instrument or sometimes a lute plays a supporting bass line. The composer would write out a single melodic line, and then add figures beneath it to indicate which harmonies the performer should add to it in order to contain out the texture. An aria is a solo song, normally occurring in the context of a longer work but sometimes autonomous. It is usually formally closed, meaning that it could be removed from its setting and performed independently as a complete musical unit. The cantata is a work for solo vocalists, chorus and instrumentalist based on a lyric or dramatic poem. It is generally short and intimate, consisting of several movements that include r ecitatives, arias, and ensemble members. (395-412). on that point were many composers that wrote music throughout the baroque era, some more significant than others but each bestow a large amount to the development throughout this period. In Claude Palisca book Baroque Music Arcangelo Corelli was one of the first prominent composers of the Baroque era he was an Italian composer and violinist authorship music in a chamber style and in the form of the late baroque era. Corelli was born in 1653 in Fusignano, Italy not far from Bologna, he spent four years of study in the latter contract of violin music before settling in Rome. Corelli separated perform and chamber sonatas, grouping them in dozens or half dozens. The content of the two types of sonatas show, an interpenetration of the two manners of writing. Corelli would begin his church sonatas with a severe, majestic, solemn mood, passed on to a resolute and contented one, then to a tenderly sombre affection, and finally to a li ght and carefree one. (152)In Donna Getzingr and Daniel Felsenfeld book, Johann Sebastian Bach and the Art of Baroque Music. Bach was a prolific German composer and organist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity. Getzinger and Felsenfeld states that Bachs music wasnt appreciated during his time he never played his music in public places because his music was not always well received. He was often criticized for writing music many considered overly complicated, and he quit jobs when his employers could not understand what he had hoped to accomplish with his music. (11-14)Machlis and Forney state that Bach was one of the greatest religious artists in history. He believed that music must serve the repute of God. Bach produced works that spoke for the entire Lutheran faith. The prime medium for Bachs talents was the organ, and during his life he was known as a vi rtuoso organist. In Bachs last works it revealed a master who raised existing forms to the highest level. His sheer mastery of contrapuntal composition has never been equaled. (416-417)It is a still-debated question as to what extent Baroque music shares aesthetic principles with the visual and literary arts of the Baroque period. A fairly clear, shared element is a love of ornamentation, and it is perhaps significant that the role of ornament was greatly diminished in both music and architecture as the Baroque gave way to the authoritative period. I had the pleasure of listening to some of Bach music, and say I will definitely add his music to my music collection.Works CitedBukofzer, Manfred F. Music in the Baroque Era, from Monteverdi to Bach. London Dent, 1948.Getzinger, Donna. Felsenfeld, Daniel. Johann Sebastian Bach and the Art of Baroque Music. Greensboro, North Carolina Morgan Reynolds Publishing, Inc. 2004Machlis, Joseph, Kristine Forney, The Enjoyment of Music An Introduc tion to Perceptive Listening. New York W.W. Norton, 2000.Palisca, Claude V. Baroque Music. Prentice-Hall history of music series. Englewood Cliffs, N.J. Prentice-Hall, 1981.