Chapter 9: Music of the Early Baroque Period

First Section: Characteristics of Baroque Music
  1. The Baroque Era
    1. The word Baroque was originally a derogatory term (meaning deformed).
    2. Twentieth-century music historians applied the term to music from ca. 1600 to ca. 1750.
      1. Many characteristics of the period began before 1600 and some were already declining by the 1730s.
      2. The main shared ideal for the period was the belief that music's principal goal was to move the affections.
    3. Patronage
      1. Noble and royal courts supported musical culture.
      2. The church had less of a role in supporting music than it had previously.
      3. Academies, private associations that sponsored musical activities, supported music in many cities.
      4. Public concerts were just beginning, but were rare until the later 1700s.
    4. Literature, the Arts, and Sciences.
      1. Great writers and playwrights of the period
        1. In England, Donne and Milton
        2. In Spain, Cervantes
        3. In France, Corneille, Racine, and Molière
      2. Great artists of the period
        1. Rubens, Rembrandt
        2. In Spain, Velázquez and Murillo
        3. In Italy, Bernini (sculptor) and Borromini (architect, see Plate VII in CHWM)
      3. Great scientists and philosophers of the period
        1. Bacon
        2. Descartes
        3. Galileo
        4. Kepler
        5. Newton
  2. Characteristics of Baroque Music
    1. The two practices
      1. In 1600 Giovanni Maria Artusi criticized the unconventional approach to counterpoint in Monteverdi's works (see vignette in CHWM).
      2. Monteverdi responded by characterizing his style as the seconda pratica.
        1. The prima pratica was the counterpoint system set forth by Zarlino and defended by Artusi.
        2. In the seconda practica, Zarlino's rules could be broken in the interest of text expression (see NAWM 53, Cruda Amarilli).
        3. The seconda pratica was also called the modern style.
    2. Idiomatic writing
      1. Composers adapted their writing to the medium, i.e. specific instrument, or vocal solo singing.
      2. There were famous virtuoso performers, both instrumentalists and vocalists.
    3. Composers aimed to express the affections.
      1. Affections were states of the soul, such as rage, heroism, sorrow, or joy.
      2. Composers were not trying to express their own emotions, but the range of human emotions.
    4. Rhythm
      1. Meter and rhythm were tied to the affection the composer wished to evoke.
      2. Some works were improvisatory, with flexible rhythms.
      3. Some works used regular rhythms in strict meters.
      4. The two types were often paired to provide contrast.
    5. Basso continuo
      1. The combination of a firm bass and florid treble was the dominant texture.
      2. Composers notated only the bass and treble lines.
      3. The bass was usually played by a continuo instrument such as lute or harpsichord, and was often reinforced by a sustaining bass instrument.
      4. The keyboard or lute player filled in (realized) the chords, using notated numbers ( figures) over the bassline to guide them when the chord was not in root position.
      5. A bassline with figures over the notes is called a figured bass.
      6. In modern editions, editors indicate filled-in notes (ripieno) by using smaller notes.
    6. Fugal counterpoint continued, but with harmony as the guiding principle rather than counterpoint (as in the prima pratica)
    7. Harmony
      1. At the beginning of the Baroque, chromaticism was used for expressive purposes.
      2. By the end of the Baroque, chromaticism was used to help govern the harmony.
      3. A system of major–minor tonality evolved in response to composers' use of a central triad and a hierarchy of relationships among the other chords.

 

© 2002 W. W. Norton & Company

 

Chapter 9: Music of the Early Baroque Period

Second Section: Early Opera
  1. Forerunners of Opera
    1. Drama and music had been intertwined from ancient Greek through Renaissance times.
    2. Intermedi, or intermezzi.
      1. Pastoral, allegorical, or mythological interludes staged between acts of a play
      2. For important state occasions, intermedi were spectacular, with choruses, soloists, and large instrumental ensembles.
    3. The pastoral poem
      1. Pastoral poems, about idyllic love, were the predominant genre of Italian poetry in the Renaissance.
      2. Characters were simple rustic youths and the settings involved nature and imaginary places.
    4. Greek tragedy as a model
      1. Renaissance scholars studied Greek tragedies but disagreed about the role of music.
      2. In one view, only choruses were sung.
      3. A second view, promulgated by Florentine scholar, Girolamo Mei (1519–1594), held that all the parts of a Greek tragedy were to be sung.
  2. The Florentine Camerata
    1. Background
      1. From the early 1570s onward Count Giovanni Bardi hosted an informal academy of scholars at his palace in Florence.
      2. The academy discussed literature, science, and the arts.
      3. Musicians performed new compositions at gatherings.
      4. The scholars began to read letters from Girolamo Mei on Greek music after 1577.
        1. Mei believed the power of Greek music lay in the use of a single melody (solo or unison choir).
        2. The melody moved the listener through the natural expressiveness of vocal registers, rises and falls in pitch, and changes of rhythm and tempo.
    2. Vincenzo Galilei (ca. late 1590s–1591, father of Galileo the astronomer)
      1. Used Mei's theories about ancient Greek music to attack Renaissance counterpoint as exemplified in the madrigal.
      2. He promoted a single melody written to enhance the natural speech inflections of a good orator or actor, as in Greek monody.
      3. Simultaneous melodies contradicted each other, detracting from the meaning of the words.
  3. The Earliest Operas
    1. Ottavio Rinuccini (1562–621), a poet, and Jacopo Peri (1561–1633), a composer, collaborated on all-sung works.
      1. Dafne, produced in Florence in 1597. Only fragments survive.
      2. Euridice was set by Peri and also by Giulio Caccini; both settings were published.
    2. Peri invented stile recitativo (recitative style) for singing dialogue.
    3. Monody was not new; solo performers had accompanied themselves in the sixteenth century, and single lines of polyphonic madrigals were often supported by instrumental accompaniments (solo madrigals).
    4. Giulio Caccini developed a tuneful yet mainly syllabic style of solo song.
      1. Clear and flexible text declamation
      2. He composed embellishments of the melodic line in places where it would enhance the message of the text.
      3. Le nuove musiche (The New Music, 1602)
        1. Collection of his airs and solo madrigals
        2. Included the solo madrigal, Vedrò ‘l mio sol (NAWM 51)
        3. Several types of ornaments were carefully written out.
    5. Peri's Euridice (NAWM 52) uses all types of monody (see vignette in CHWM).
      1. Peri's style of speech-song was similar to the style scholars thought was used for ancient Greek epic poetry.
      2. The basso continuo holds steady notes while the voice moves in a speechlike fashion, with harmonic relations determined by speech declamation.
      3. Words that would be emphasized in speech were given pitches that were consonant with the bass.
    6. Monteverdi's L'Orfeo (1607)
      1. The librettist, Alessandro Striggio, expanded the Rinuccini play into a five-act drama.
      2. Monteverdi's style
        1. Recitatives are songful at key moments, with careful tonal organization.
        2. Contrasting sections in a variety of styles: solo airs, duets, and dances
        3. Scenes defined with the use of choruses and instrumental ritornellos (recurring sections)
      3. NAWM 54 a, b, c correspond roughly to NAWM 52 a, b, c, but in expanded proportions.
        1. Prologue, NAWM 54a
          1. Patterned on the air for singing poetry
          2. Each strophe written out, with the same harmony and different melodies
        2. Strophic canzonet, Vi ricorda, o baschi ombrosi (Do you recall, O shady woods), NAWM 54b
          1. Hemiola techniques reminiscent of the frottola
          2. Root-position chords favored
        3. In un fiorito prato (In a flowered meadow), NAWM 54c
          1. Dramatic dialogue in the most "modern" style of the day
          2. Recitative style as developed by Peri, but with more harmonic variety
          3. In Orfeo's lament, Tu se' morta, (CHWM, ex. 9.3), the melody changes with orfeo's mood.
    7. Florentine court continued to favor other dramatic genres for important events, for example Laliberazione di Rüggiero dall'isola d'Alcina (The freeing of Ruggiero from the Island of Alcina), 1625.
      1. Combined ballet and musical scenes
      2. Composed by ´Francesca Caccini (1587–ca. 1640)
        1. Daughter of Giulio Caccini
        2. Sang as a soloist and with her sister and stepmother in a concerto delle donne.
        3. Worked for the Duke of Florence and became his highest-paid musician
  4. Opera in Rome
    1. Wealthy prelates vied with each other in offering lavish entertainment.
    2. Roman opera stories came from the lives of the saints, mythology, or epic poems.
    3. Luigi Rossi (1597–1653)
      1. Composed Orfeo in 1647, on a libretto by Francesco Buti
      2. The libretto for this version adds incidents, characters, special effects, and comic episodes.
      3. The integrity of the drama began to be less important.
      4. Recitatives more speechlike and arias more melodious.
  5. Opera in Venice (see etude, p.189, in CHWM)
    1. The first opera produced in Venice was Benedetto Ferrari (ca. 1603–1681) and Francesco Manelli's (after 1594–1667) Andromeda, brought from Rome in 1637 to a public theater, the Teatro San Cassiano.
    2. Monteverdi's L'Incoronazione di Poppea (NAWM 55), 1642, was composed for Venice.
      1. Monteverdi continued to blend speechlike recitative with more lyrical monody.
      2. Scene flows between recitative and aria, with sections in measured arioso.
      3. The content of the libretto rather than its poetic forms dictates the style of the setting.
    3. Pier Francesco Cavalli (1602–1676), a student of Monteverdi, composed forty-one operas in which recitatives alternate with soloistic arias.
    4. Antonio Cesti (1623–1669)
      1. His Orontea (NAWM 56), ca. 1649, was performed frequently in Venice and other Italian cities.
        1. Large-scale form, with adjustments to the strophic form
        2. Bel canto style: smooth, mainly diatonic melodies with easy rhythms
        3. Two violins playing throughout, not just in ritornellos
    5. Mid-seventeenth century Italian opera had the main features it would maintain for the next two hundred years:
      1. Concentration on solo singing
      2. Distinction between recitative and aria
      3. Distinctive aria types
      4. Reversal of the Florentine ideal of the text as master of the music; instead, the libretto became only a support for the musical structure.

 

© 2002 W. W. Norton & Company

 

Chapter 9: Music of the Early Baroque Period

Third Section: Vocal Chamber Music
  1. Chamber music for voice was more common than opera
  2. Strophic Aria Types
    1. Repeating a melody with only minor rhythmic variations for each stanza
    2. Strophic variation: composing new music for the first stanza and then changing it for each stanza to reflect the meaning and inflection of the text
    3. Using a standard formula, such as the romanesca (see etude, p. 191, in CHWM)
      1. Associated with the poetic form called ottave rime
      2. Some romanesca compositions use a repeating bass line (ground bass, or basso ostinato).
      3. Chaconne (chacona, ciaccona)
        1. Dance song with a refrain
        2. Repetitions of a simple pattern of guitar chords
        3. Probably originated in Latin America then came to Europe via Spain
      4. Passacaglia (pessecalle, passecaille)
        1. Originated in Spain as a pattern of chords played between the strophes of a song (i.e., a ritornello)
        2. Evolved into a variety of four-bar bass formulas repeated continuously
        3. Usually in a triple meter and minor mode
      5. By the eighteenth century the terms passacaglia and chaconne became confusing because of their similarities
  3. Concertato Medium
    1. From the Italian concertare, to reach agreement: mingling of voices with instruments that are playing independent parts
    2. Concerto: diverse and sometimes contrasting forces brought together to form an ensemble
    3. Concertato madrigal: voices and instruments working together equally
    4. Sacred concerto: sacred vocal work with instruments
    5. Instrumental concerto: a piece for a variety of instruments, sometimes with one or more soloists
  4. Monteverdi's Fifth through Eighth Books of Madrigals (1605–1638)
    1. These mirror the developments in instrumental participation in vocal music.
    2. Performing forces
      1. All include a basso continuo
      2. Many include other instruments
      3. Instruments play ritornellos and introductions.
    3. Book Seven, called a concerto, contains "Madrigals and other kinds of songs".
  5. Cantatas (literally, a piece "to be sung")
    1. By the mid-seventeenth century the term was applied to any composition for solo voice with continuo on a lyrical or quasi-dramatic text.
    2. Cantatas consisted of several sections, including both recitatives and arias.
    3. The leading composers were Luigi Rossi, Giacomo Carissimi (1605–1674), and Antonio Cesti.
    4. Barbara Strozzi (1619–1677)
      1. Born in Florence
      2. Lived in Venice
      3. Giulio Strozzi, probably her father, founded an academy partly to give her an outlet for her musical works.
      4. Published eight collections of vocal music, including cantatas such as NAWM 57, Lagrime mie.
  6. Church Music
    1. Venice
      1. The Church of St. Mark continued to be the center of Venetian culture and the location of civic ceremonies.
      2. Venetian church music glorified the state and was independent of Roman rules.
      3. St. Mark's was the most prestigious place for a musician to work.
      4. Divided choirs (cori spezzati) were popular there.
      5. Giovanni Gabrieli composed for up to five choruses, each with a different combination of voice ranges, and with instrumental accompaniment, such as his polychoral motet / grand concerto, In ecclesiis (NAWM 58).
      6. Gabrieli's students spread his style to northern Italy, Germany, Austria, and Scandinavia.
    2. Sacred genres
      1. Grand concerto: a sacred work for very large, sometimes colossal, performing forces
      2. Concerto for few (one–three) voices with only organ continuo was more common.
      3. Monteverdi's Vespers (1610) uses all the styles of its time.
      4. Motets in the new style, for example, NAWM 60, O quam tu pulchra es, by Alessandro Grandi (ca. 1575/80–1630) combine elements from theatrical recitative, solo madrigal, and bel canto.
    3. Oratorio
      1. Began in Rome as sacred dialogues combining narrative, dialogue, and exhortation
      2. Influenced by opera but not staged
      3. Called oratorio because they were performed in the oratory, the part of the church where lay societies met to hear sermons and sing devotional songs
      4. Librettos in Latin (oratorio latino) or in Italian (oratorio volgare, i.e. vernacular)
      5. Giacomo Carissimi (1605–1674) was the leading composer of Latin oratorios.
        1. NAWM 61, Historia di Jephte, exemplifies mid-century oratorio.
        2. Text is based on the Bible—Book of Judges—but librettist takes liberties with the words.
        3. A narrator (storicus or testo) introduces the story and narrates events.
        4. Choruses tell part of the story.
        5. The excerpt in NAWM is a lament sung by the daughter who is about to be sacrificed due to her father's promise to God.
      6. Similarities to operas: use of recitative, arias, duets, and instrumental sections
      7. Difference from operas: use of sacred subjects, narrators, dramatic, narrative and meditative roles for the chorus, and the lack of staging or acting.
  7. Lutheran Church Music
    1. Lutheran composers continued to compose music based on the chorale but also composed in monodic, concertato, and grand concerto techniques.
    2. Johann Hermann Schein (1586–1630) composed concertos for few voices for German churches.
    3. Heinrich Schütz (1585–1672) was the greatest German composer of the mid-seventeenth century.
      1. Studied in Venice with Giovanni Gabrieli
      2. 1617–72, worked at the chapel of the elector of Saxony in Dresden
      3. Also spent some time in Copenhagen
      4. His only surviving compositions were sacred.
      5. His Psalmen Davids (1619) is a grand concerto with multiple choruses, soloists, and concertato instruments (in German).
      6. His Concertato motets for one to five solo voices with organ were published in Kleine geistliche Konzerte (Little Sacred Concertos) during the Thirty Years'War.
      7. His Symphoniae Sacrae (Sacred Symphonies), published in 1629, 1647, and 1650 were his most important works.
        1. These were concertato motets influenced by Monteverdi, Grandi, and G. Gabrieli.
        2. The last collection uses the fuller forces available after the end of the Thirty Years' War, for example, NAWM 62, Saul, was verfolgst du mich

 

© 2002 W. W. Norton & Company

 

Chapter 9: Music of the Early Baroque Period

Fourth Section: Instrumental Music
  1. Compositions for Instruments
    1. Affected by developments in vocal music
    2. The violin emulated vocal qualities and rose to prominence as a solo instrument.
    3. Instrumental music became the equal of vocal music in quantity and quality by the middle of the seventeenth century.
  2. Dance Music
    1. Dance music styles influenced many other genres, including vocal music.
    2. Suites
      1. A suite: several short pieces, each with specific moods and rhythms
      2. Began in Germany as a continuation of the dance pairs of the Renaissance
      3. As an example, Johann Hermann Schein's Banchetto musicale (Musical Banquet, 1617) includes some suites that build on one melodic idea throughout, and others with only subtle connections among movements.
        1. The sections in the suites in the Banchetto are in this order: paduana, gagliarda, courante, and allemande with a tripla, a triple-meter variation of the allemande.
        2. The style of Schein's suites is dignified, aristocratic, vigorously rhythmic, and melodically inventive, combining Italian and German qualities.
    3. French composers established definite characters for each dance type by arranging actual ballet music for a solo lute, clavecin (the French term for harpsichord), or viola da gamba
      1. Example: NAWM 63a and b, Gigue: La Poste, by Ennemond Gaultier (ca. 1575–1651)
        1. Lute arrangements spread triads out, leaving it to the listener to fill in the harmony.
        2. 63b, for harpsichord, adapts lute (style brisé) techniques to the harpsichord,
      2. The tradition of using little ornaments (agréments) began with lute players and was transferred to French harpsichord composition.
      3. Denis Gaultier (1603–1672) was the leading lutenist of early seventeenth-century France.
        1. His collection of twelve stylized dances, one in each mode, survives in a manuscript with the title La Rhétorique des dieux (The Rhetoric of the Gods).
        2. Each set includes an allemande, a courante, and a sarabande, with other dances added in no particular pattern.
        3. Many of the movements are character pieces with fanciful titles.
      4. Jacques Champion de Chambonniéres (1601–1672) was the most important keyboard composer (clave cinist) in France, followed by Louis Couperin (1626–1661), Jean Henri d'Anglebert (1635–1691), and Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre (see Chapter 11).
    4. Johann Jakob Froberger (1616–1667) carried the French style to Germany and established the standard movements of the suite: allemande, courante, sarabande, gigue.
      1. Example: NAWM 64, Lamentation fait sur la mort . . .
        1. Lament on the death of Emperor Ferdinand III in 1657
        2. Slow allemande
        3. Stile brisé texture
        4. Using the key of F minor to allude to the emperor's name
  3. Improvisatory Compositions
    1. The toccata had been established in the sixteenth century.
    2. Frescobaldi's toccatas are often more contemplative than those of Venetian composers.
    3. Frescobaldi also composed virtuosic toccatas in the venetian style, example: NAWM 65, Toccata No. 3
      1. Frescobaldi evades cadences through various means, giving the work a sense of restlessness.
      2. Performer may take liberties with tempo.
  4. Contrapuntal or Fugal Genres
    1. Ricercare
      1. Brief, serious composition for organ or clavier
      2. Develops one theme continuously in imitation
      3. Example: Ricercar dopo il Credo (After the Credo, ex. 9.8 by Frescobaldi):
        1. Composed for use in church
        2. Shifting harmonies and dissonances, and chromatic lines
    2. Fantasia, Fancy
      1. Used borrowed themes
      2. Series of fugues
    3. English Consort Music
      1. Ensemble music for viols began early in the seventeenth century.
      2. Fancies by John Jenkins (1592–1678) use a variety of procedures.
      3. Later composers of fantasias for strings without basso continuo included Matthew Locke (1621–1677) and Henry Purcell (1659–1695).
  5. Canzona or Sonata
    1. One approach was to build several contrasting sections, each on a different theme in fugal imitation and ending with a cadenza-like flourish.
    2. Variation canzonas use a single theme in successive sections (e.g., CHWM ex. 9.9 by Giovanni Maria Trabaci, ca. 1575–1647).
    3. Most ensemble canzonas are a patchwork of short unrelated sections that sometimes recurred within the work.
    4. The term sonata
      1. Vague in the early seventeenth century, meaning any composition for instruments.
      2. Gradually the term came to mean compositions resembling canzonas in form but with one or two melody instruments (usually violins) with basso continuo instead of the four-part canzona
      3. Sonatas used somewhat free and expressive idiomatic writing compared to the formal, abstract writing of the canzona.
    5. CHWM, ex. 9.10, Biagio Marini's Sonata per il violino per sonar con due corde (1629), is an early example of "instrumental monody."
      1. Contrasting sections without repetitions
      2. Coherence achieved through cadences on A and alternation between rhapsodic and metrical styles
      3. Idiomatic for the violin
    6. By the middle of the seventeenth century the sonata and canzona had merged, and both were called sonata.
      1. Some were specified as Sonata da chiesa, sonatas for use in church.
      2. The typical combination was two treble parts (usually violin) with basso continuo, usually called trio sonatas.
  6. Variations
    1. This type was common, although not always titled as such.
    2. Often the word partite (divisions or parts) was used early in the seventeenth century.
    3. The techniques used were the following:
      1. Melodic repetition with little change, sometimes called cantus firmus variation, with different contrapuntal material in each variation
      2. Melodic repetition with different embellishments in each variation and the harmony remaining the same for each variation
      3. Using a repeated bass line as the constant factor (CHWM ex. 9.11a, Aria di Ruggiero by Frescobaldi)
      4. Chorale melodies as the basis for variations on organ (e.g., those of Samuel Scheidt's collection, Tabulatura nova, 1624, which used written-out parts instead of tablature). Scheidt's works influenced later German composers.

 

© 2002 W. W. Norton & Company