air de cour

court song.  A short, strophic, and homophonic chanson, often with refrain, which first appeared in France around 1550.

 

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Initially called vaudeville, it was usually performed as a solo or duet with lute accompaniment.

 

Some were used as chamber music, while others were used for court ballets.

 

Characteristic of the air de cour is the constant shift between duple and triple meters.

 

Airs de cour traditionally applied the practice of “doubling” or varing the second statement of each section.

Affektenlehre

Doctrin of the Affections.

 

A Baroque term used to describe an aesthetic concept derived from the Latin and Greek doctrines of oration and rhetoric.  Just as ancient orators would use rhetoric to move the affects (i.e. emotions) of an audience, so, according to Baroque music treatises, should the speaker (i.e. composer) move the affects of the listener.

 

In the Baroque period, there was general agreement that one sought to move one affect at a time.

 

In case of Baroque vocal music, this was inextricably related to the text, and this became a rallying point for th eearly Baroque movement that was led by thinkers and composers such as Bardi, Peri, Caccini and Mei.

 

Such affects include joy, anger, love, fear, hate.

 

This aesthetic can be seen as an extension of the Renaissance musica reservata, and later developed into the more dynamic and unstable emotionalism of Empfindsamkeit.

Almira

Handel’s first opera, composed at the age of 19, and performed at the Hamburg opera house in 1705.;

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He remained in Hamburg, the principal center of German opera then, from 1703-06, after which he went to Italy (1706-1710), where his opera Agrippina was performed in 1709.

anthem

Setting of the Morning and Evening services, of psalms and of pieces for the Offertory, Communion, post-Communion, and for special occasion.

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During the second half of the 16th c, two types appeared: the verse anthem, with “verses” for solo voices and instrumental accomp, alternating with “choruses” for the full choir; and the full anthem, which was a choral motet in English

Ariadne musica

1702.; A collection of keyboard preludes and fugues in 19 different major and minor keys by JCF Fischer.

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It was an important precursor to Bach‘s famous WTC of 1722.

 

Bach was familiar with this earlier didatic work.

 

This set of pieces did not imply equal temperament, as certain keys were avoided.

L’Art de toucher le clavecin

Francois Couperin‘s treatise (1716) on clavecin performance.

 

The detailed instructions for fingering and execution of the agrements, lend insight to the performance practice that prevailed during that time period

Artusi

1540-1613.  A reactionary composer and thoerist active during the end of the Renaissance and the beginning of the Baroque period.

 

 

Wrote a dialogue called L’Artusi overo delle imperfettioni della moderna musica (1600), specifically concerning Monteverdi’s contrapuntal licenses that led to unresolved dissonances.

 

The piece in question that sparked this dialogue was Monteverdi’s madrigal Cruda Amarili, and the apparent contrapuntal freedoms he employed.

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In his response, Monteverdi wrote that this style was the new Seconda practtica, and the older version was Prima Prattica.

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Prima Prattica was the Renaissance polyphonic ideal; an equal-voiced, flowing style with prepared dissonances.;

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The style that Monteverdi represented was essentially monody, which was a favored sop and bass texture that he and his contemporaries argued was better suited to reflect the needs of the text.

Bach, Johann Sebastian

1685-1750.; Bach served as organist at Arnstadt (1703-07) and Muhlhausen (1707-8), as court organist and later concertmaster in the chapel of the duke of Weimar (1708-17), as music director at the court of a prince in Cothen (1717-23), and as cantor of St. Thomas’ school and music director in Leipzig (1723-50).

 

He composed in almost all forms of his time, except for opera.

 

During his time at Arnstadt, Muhlhausen, and Weimar, he wrote mostly organ compositions, including chorale preludes, several sets of variations on chorales, and some toccatas and fantasias which show influences of Buxtehude.

 

At Cothen, he wrote no church music, but rather clavier (WTC, Part 1, 1722) or instrumental works (Brandenburg concerti, and the works for solo violin and solo cello), music for instruction and for domestic or court entertainment.

 

At Leipzig, he wrote his cantatas and other church music, as well as the Goldberg Variations.

 

His style exhibits a mastery of counterpoint and a fusion of Italian, French, and German characteristics.

 

Other elements of his style include the concentrated and individual themes, the copious musical invention, balance between harmonic and contrapuntal forces, strength of rhythm, clarity of form, grandeur of proportion, imaginative use of pictorial and symbolic figures, intensity of expression always controlled by a ruling architectural idea, and the tehcnical perfection of every detail.

Bardi

1534-1612 Member and patron of the Camerata in Florence starting in the 1570’s.

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He wrote that the melody and rhythm should follow the text.

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Other members included Caccini and Galilei and all were influenced by Mei

Baroque organ

Gottfried Silbermann (1683-1753) was an early 18th century organ builder who was trained in France and was influenced by the French full organ or plein jeu.

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German organ builders were also influenced by instruments in Antwerp and Amsterdam, which were based on the divisions of pipes into various Werke.; These organs had a richer sound and higher wind pressure than the sweeter Italian organs.

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Organ music reached a golden age in Germany during the late seventeenth and early 18th centuries, with composers and players such as Bohm at Luneburg, Buxtehude at Lubeck, Zachow and Kuhnau in Saxony and Thuringia, and Pachelbel in Nuremberg

Basso sequente

a bass line which is not figured, and which simply reproduces the lowest note of the texture at any moment, (and therefore is expendable)

Bay Psalm Book

the first American Psalter, and the first book printed in the New World in 1640.

The Beggar’s Opera

John Gay, 1st performance in London, 1728.

 

An English ballad opera which enjoyed tremedous success, this piece poked fun at Italian opera.

 

It consists mainly of popular tunes and some numbers parodied from familiar operatic airs.

 

Its success was indicative of the English reaction against foreign opera, which led Handel to turn from opera to oratorio in the latter part of his life

Bel Canto

In Italian this literally means “beautiful singing”.

 

It descirbes a kind of singing that originated in the late 17th C and which flourished in the 19th C. 

 

It also specifically concerns a technique of singing that emphasizes beauty of sound and brilliance of performance rather than dramatic expression or romantic emotion.

 

Its early development is closely tied up with Italian opera seria (Scarlatti, Jomelli, etc).

 

This term has also been used to apply to the compositional styles of Rossi and Carissimi, who cultivated a simple, melodious vocal style of songlike quality, without virtuoso coloraturas.

 

Finally, the term also applies to the compositional style of the 19th c Italian bel canto composers – Bellini, Rossini, and Donizetti

Bernhard, Christoph

1628-1692. German composer, theorist 1649 – singer in the court under Schutz in Dresden.

 

Stayed in Dresden most of life, eventually becoming Kapellmeister.

 

Composed a funeral motet at the request of Schutz and was performed at the ceremony in 1672.

 

Most important: musical treatises (The treatises of Christoph Bernhard and An Augmented Treatise on Composition or Tactatus compositionis augmentatus), noteworthy for their classification of the styles of Baroque music according to purpose – church stylus gravis, the “Palestrina style” and the new chamber style of Menteverdi stylus luxurians, where language is master of the music

Biber, Heinrich

Bohemian, 1644-1704, composer and violinist, the most famous virtuoso of his age.

 

An important precursor of JS Bach – he used high positions, new modes of bowing, multiple stopping, and unconventional tunings (scordatura) to produce the illusion of counterpoint (in his violin compositions).

 

16 Mystery Sonatas are notable, not so much programme music as evocations of the moods of biblical scenes.


One opera is extant. 

 

His church music employs a capella and concertato forces, the latter being used to epecially good effect in the F minor Requiem, scored for trombones, strings, solo and ripieno voices, and solo violin

Blow, John

English, 1649-1708Composer responsible for teaching Purcell.

 

Organist of Westminster Abbey in 1668.

 

Fluent composer of anthems and services, master of the festive verse anthem.

 

Contrapuntal style, using English false relation and “old fashioned” harmonies, is frequently extremely expressive.

 

His odes contain powerful music, esp the masterly Ode on the death of Mr Henry Purcell (published 1696) for countertenor duet, two recorders and continuo.

Bonocini, Giovanni Maria

Italian, 1642-1678.  Father of Giovanni Bonocini.

 

Wrote some attractive chamber music and was one of Corelli’s most important predecessors in the compositions of trio sonata and the development of idiomatic writing for violin.

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Wrote a treatise on counterpoint which was widely known in Germany in the 18th C

Bonocini, Giovanni

Italian, 1670-1747.; Eldest son of GM Bonocini.

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Primarily an opera composer.

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He was one of the resident composers of the newly founded Royal Academy of Music (London, 1720s).

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Operas written in London were very successful (Griselda) and were competitive with Handel’s at the time.

 

The styles of the two were quite distinct – Bonocini’s arias are at their best when simple and tuneful, while Handel tended to write an extended forms and with elaborate orchestral accomp.

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One of the first perpetrators of plagiarism: tried to pass off a composition by Lotti as his own.; The scandal forced him to leave London

Buxtehude, Dietrich

Danish or German, 1637-1707.; Organist and composer.

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One of the most influential composers of his day, and the most esteemed organist before Bach.

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Was organist at St. Mary’s in Lubeck, and gained such fame that Handel went to meet him as well as Bach, who walked 200 miles just to hear him play.

 

He wrote in all manner of keyboard styles: Toccatas, passicaglias (of which Bach’s Passacaglia in c min is indebted to), preludes, fugues, chaconnes, and pieces based on chorales.

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His vocasl music are mostly church cantatas, of which more than 100 are extant.; These are devoutly simple, and lack the elaboration of his Bachian successors.

Byrd, William

English, 1543-1623.; One of the greatest English composers of the 16th century.

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Throughout a difficult religious period in England as a catholic, he remained in favor with the court, composing both Protestant and Catholic service music.

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He studied with Thomas Tallis, with whom he published the first of 3 Cantiones Sacrae, collections of Latin motets.

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He also wrote In nomines, song, consort music, and virginal music.

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Possibly his most important contributions were his motets, many of which were in the Netherlandish polyphonic style.; His Protest Motets are good examples and reflect his struggle as a Catholic in Protestant Enlgand.

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Caccini, Giulio

1551-1618.; A member of the famed Florentine camerata, his songs helped usher in the new style of monody just after 1600.

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He perfected the new conception of song in his Le nuove musiche (1602).; This includes solo madrigals and arias, an important explanatory preface and demonstrate the essential of the new monodic style: a pliable vocal line that clings to the text’s inflections and heightens their meaning through embellishsment, over a subduced chordal accomp improvised from the new basso continuo

cadenza

An improvised or written-out ornamental passage performed by a soloist, usually over the penultimate or antepenultimate note or harmony of a prominent cadence.

 

During a cadenza the accompaniment either pauses or sustains a pitch or chord.

 

Although a cadenza may appear elsewhere, it most typically ornaments a prominent tonic cadence, such as one before a final ritornello or coda.

 

If improvised, it may be indicated by a fermata in all parts, as in Mozart’s Piano Concerti (Mozart’s Piano Concerto in Bb major).  Improvised cadenzas were fine when the composer was also the performer; however, when others attempted to create their own versions, it was not always successful because of the disparity or conflict in style (Ex, Clara Schumann’s cadenzas to Mozart’s D minor Concerto, though delightful, are too near her husband’s manner not to seem out of place).

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Virtuosic cadenzas gained importance beginning in the Baroque era.; Corelli often notated cadenzas in the first movements (allegro) of his Violin Sonatas, Op.5.; Torelli, Vivaldi, and JS Bach occasionally wrote them out in concertos.

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Italian opera singers placed cadenzas at any of the three vocal cadences in the standard 3-part aira, particularly the last.

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CPE and Quantz discussed the improvisation of cadenzas at length in their treatises on performance.

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As cadenzas became more elaborate, their thematic reference to the composition increased: late Mozart wrote optional cadenzas and Beethoven, too (#3).; Beethoven wrote obligatory cadenzas in his 5th concerto.

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In the 19th c, obligatory cadenzas, often placed in unorthodox position (Mendelssohn, at the end of Dev), became a common feature of vocal and instrumental music, notably in piano works of Chopin and Liszt and the later operas of Verdi

Cantata

A composite vocal genre of the Baroque era, consisting of a succession of recitatives, ariosos and set-pieces (e.g. arias, duets, and choruses).

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A cantata may be either secular or sacred in subject matter and function, and its treatment may be lyrical, allegorical, or dramatic (although almost never actually staged).

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Cantata range from intimate, small-scale works for solo singer or singers and restricted accompanimental forces (sometimes called chamber cantatas, e.g. A Scarlatti’s secular cantata for sop voice with continuos Acc, Lontan dalla sua Clori) to large ones with chorus and orchestra accomp (JS Bach’s Cantata No.80 Ein’ feste Burg ist unser Gott for singers (SATB) and soloists, 2 oboes, strings in 4 parts, 3 trumpets, and timpani).  Such large cantatas were often composed to celebrate or commenorate specific events.

 

The cantata originated early in the 17th c in Italy, where the term was first used simply to indicate a piece to be sung (as opposed to “sonata” to be played on instruments).

 

The most frequently performed cantatas today are those of Bach, they are sacred works with German texts and were intended for performance during Lutheran church services.  The typical Bach cantata employs several soloists and chorus and is accompanied by a small orchestra

canzona

It. for “song” but in fact the canzona was the most important instrumental genre of the late 16th c. 

 

Common practice for lutenists and keyboard players to make instrumental arrangment of the Fr polyphonic chanson known in Italy as the canzone francese.  A typical opening motif began with one long note and two short notes on the same pitch and the pieces had simple distinct structures with lively rhythms.

 

The canzona and its diminutive the canzonetta were lighter pieces in text and music than the madrigal and similar in spirit to the native It. frottola.

 

Since these Fr. Chansons often began with fugal imitations, the canzona was considered a fugal genre (In fact the term “canzona” and “fugue” were cirtually interchangeable in Germany by the 17th C).

 

By the end of the 16th C, with the idiosyncratic instrumental styles emerging, the evolution of the canzona went two different directions.  The keyboard version was more polyphonic and featured treatment of single theme paving the way for the fugue.

 

Notable composers included Froberger and Frescobaldi.

 

Meanwhile, the instrumental version, with its contrasting meter, tempo, and rhythm, led to the trio sonata of the 17th C, which was the dominant medium of the early Baroque era.

 

Notable composers of this genre include A. Gabrieli and Frescobaldi

di Capua, Rinaldo

1705-1780Italian composer.

 

Information about his life is scarce and sometimes unreliable; mainly lived and worked at Rome; 32 stage works: opera seria, comic opera.

 

His qualities as an instrumental composer are revealed in his sinfonias, or ouvertures, in which he contributed to the development of the Classical symphony-sonata.

 

The first movement departs from the old binary form of the Baroque and tends to have bithematic structure, with signs of a subsidiary thematic group, and tripartite structure with a sizable central development section.

 

The second movement becomes a bipartie song form

Carissimi, Giacomo

Italian composer, 1605-1674.  

 

One of the finest of the 17th century, chiefly known for his secular cantatas and oratorios.

 

His 16 oratorios were essentailly substitute operas on old Testament themes performed during Lent when opera was forbidden.

 

His finest oratorio is Jeptha, where solo narrator and chorus act as commentators, and the latter even takes the roles of opposing groups in the story.

 

Handel would later expand on this basic scheme.

 

His notable pupils include A. Scarlatti and Charpentier

chaconne/passacaglia

Two ground bass patterns which were not associated with any poetic form.

 

The chaconne was probably imported into Spain from Latin America: it was a dance song with a refrain that followed a simple pattern of guitar chords, which in Italian variations upon it were transformed into a bass line.

 

The passacaglia originated in Spain as a ritornello, that is music having a certain pattern of guitar chords, played before and between the strophes of a song.  It too evolved into a vareity of bass formulas that were suitable for making instrumental or vocal variations.

 

It was usually in triple meter and minor mode.

 

17th c composers write both forms with a continually repeating four-bar formula in triple meter and slow tempo.

 

In the 18th c, the forms begain to be confused

Chambonnieres, Jacques Champion de

French, 1672-?.  Composer of harpsichord music and famous as harpsichord player.

 

Retired from the court of Louis XIV due to intrigues (secret scheme).

 

He is a founder of the French school of harpsichord composers.

 

In 1670 two books of his Pieces de calvessin were published.  They consist mainly of dances in the style brise arranged in suites.  Some have titles, but there is no suggestion of program music.

 

Their delicate and elegant style reveals much of the man whose “beauty of rhythm, fine touch, lightness and rapidity of hand” were admired throughout Europe

Charpentier, Marc-Antoine

French 1645-1704.  Composer of church music, sacred dramas, cantatas.

 

Studied in Rome with Carissimi at the German College.  On returning to Paris he was seriously hampered by French nationalism, which was opposed to his Italiantate style.

 

Lully, esp, saw him as a serious rival throughout his own lifetime. 

 

Employed by Moliere (after Lully’s collaboration ended) and wrote incidental music for the Comedie Francaise.;

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Worked also for the royal family, the Jesuits, and the church st Louis, before becoming maitre de musique at Saint Chapelle in 1698.

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He was Lully‘s most important contemporary in France, and his church music is esp attractive – splendid grand motets (often using double choir), 11 masses (from rich polyphony of old, to the harmonization of carol tunes in the well known Messe de minuit pout moel, early 1690s).

 

His dramataic cantata Orphee descendat aux enfers shows what he might have done with opera had he been given the chance

Cherubini, Luigi

Italian, 1760-1842.  Italian composer who spent most of his career in France (also died in Paris.)

 

Educated in Florence (wrote several Masses and an oratorio there), London (2 operas), then lived in Paris for the rest of life.

 

Known principally as a composer of operas Lodoiska (1791) made him famous.

 

After Fr Rev., which he duitfully supported, he joined the faculty of the Paris Conservatoire (then just formed in 1793 for the training of military bands).

 

1805 visited Vienna and met Beethoven and was greeted enthusiastically by Haydn. Several of his operas were staged there, but when Napoleon invaded Austria, Beethoven ordered Cherubini to return to Paris.

 

In 1809 and following, all of his important works are sacred except for an opera, a set of string quartets, and a symphony.

 

With the fall of Napoleon, Cherubini’s material situation began to improve.; 1816, was appointed, with Le Sueur, to the chapel of Louis XVIII.; He was made director of the conservatoire in 1822.


After 1837, he abandoned composition to devote life to teaching – pupils include Auber, Halevy and Boieldieu

chitarrone

A large lute with extra bass strings, the chitarrone was the prefeered instrument for realizing the thoroughbass acompaniment to a recitative or arias in the early 17th c

chorale

English term for the strophic congregational hymns of the Protestant Church in Germany.;

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The German word, Choral, from which it is derived, orginally signified a plainchant melody sung chorally, but from the late 16th century its meaning was widened to include vernacular hymns.

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However, the term most commonly used for such hymns in early Reformation times was geisliche Lieder.;

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Strictly speaking, the word “chorale” means both the text and the melody of a hymn, as a single unit, but not infrequently the term is used to describe the music only -either a single-line melody or a fully harmoized version as in the 4-part settings of Bach.

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Texts of Luther’s 34 chorales are drawn from Psalms, Gregorian seasonal hymns, antiphons, Mass Ordinary, German sacred song, and nonliturgical Latin hymns

 

Tunes are adapted from secular sources or are composed on similar models.

 

A great many chorale melodies are in bar form, and some show a relationship to the melodic procedures of the Meistersinger

chorale fantasia

An organ work in the free style of a fantasia based on a chorale melody.

 

Many of the large-scale works, were composed by many north German composers of the 17th and 18th c, notably Buxtehude and Bach, and the genre was revived in the late 19th c by such composers as Reger

Chorale prelude

1. In a general sense, the same as an organ chorale.

 

2. A short setting for organ of one strophe of a chorale, which serves as an introduction to a congregational rendering of the chorale.

 

The melody, which maybe embellished, is presented over a polyphonic accompaniment.

 

The chorale prelude was developed in the late 17th c, mainly by N German composers (e.g. Bohm, Buxtehude, JC Bach) and reached its culmination in JS Bach’s 45 examples in the Orgelbuchlein, mostly written in the decade 1710-20.

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Several of Bach’s pupils continued the tradition, but the term was not much used after 1750.  It was revived in the 19th c by Brahms and Reger

chorale variation

Variations on a chorale melody, usually for keyboard.

 

The form was popular in the early 17th c, and there are several by such composers as Sweelinck and Scheidt.

 

Later, the term chorale partita was used, for examples by Bach.

 

Buxtehude wrote a set of variations on “Auf meinen lieben Gott” employing the secular dance forms of the suite, and his example has been followed in the 20th c by Ernst Krenek

Collegium musicum

The earliest example of concert-giving in Germany and Austria.

 

Founded in the 17th c, it was associated with the court – notably in Berlin (Frederick the Great, whose fine orchestra included Johann and Carl Graun, CPE Bach, and Quantz) and Mannheim (Elector Carl Theodor, whose orchestra was the model for the rest of Europe for 30 years under the leadership of Stamitz and others).

 

It is similar to the Concert Spirituel which later occured in France in 1725; the big difference is that the concerts in France were for the public, not the court

Concertato

The characterstic medium of the seventeenth century, which consisted of the mingling of voices with instruments such that the instruments are not merely doubling the voices but have independent parts

Concerto

From Italian “concertare”, to join together; also related to Latin “concertare”, to fight or contend.

 

A piece for soloist and orchestra

 

Conceived in the concertato contrast between opposing vocal and instrumental groups in the works of G. Gabrielli, the concerto concept took more definite form in the 17th c sonata and sinfonias for divided orchestra.

 

Throughout the early Baroque period, the term concerto was commonly used for Italian and German church music for voices accompanied by instruments, as in the Symphoniae sacrae of Schutz.

 

The history of the concerto proper begins with the concerti grossi of Corelli

Concerto Grosso

Written for several soloists who often form a concertino (or little concerto) in the texture of the trio sonata and orchestra.

 

Baroque and Classical periods.

 

Antecedents: Conzona, sonata, and trio sonata.

 

Texture alternates between ritornello and soloists.

 

Evolved to solo concerto (EX Corelli Concerti Grosso Op.7 1714Handel’s Grand Concertos, Op.6)

Orchestral concerto

20th C version of the concerto grosso;

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A Neoclassical concept – Bartok Concerto for Orchestra (1944), Berg Chamber Concerto

Ritornello

The recurring tutti section of a concerto movement or a da capo aria.

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ritornello form” is common: typically in the 1st and last mvts of a late-Baroque or Classical concerto, based on an alternation of tutti and solo sections.

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Sometimes the principal formal event is the recurrence of the main theme in various keys

Sacred concerto

In the late 16 and 17th C, sacred works for voices and instruments were typically called concertos.

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Secular works of similar character were more often entitles airs, musiche, cantatas, and so forth.

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Large-scale sacred concertos for chorus, soloists, and instruments were particularly common in Venice, appearing in collections by A. and G. Garbieli and Monteverdi from the late 16th c onward.

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More widely cultivated was the small sacred concerto for 1-4 solo voices, continuo, and (frequently) additional solo instruments

Solo Concerto

The last type of concerto to develop, it had far reaching effects on virtuosity, manufacture of/ improvements for instruments, construction of concert halls, and audience attendance.

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Became more of a show piece in the Romantic era – strictly to demonstrate virtuosity – than its more homogeneous beginnings in the Classical period

consort

17th C term that referred to a family of instruments.

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The consort was considered whole if it was a family of the same instruments, such as viols.

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It is considered broken if the ensemble was contrasting.

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The term also referred to the music itself and the performance

Corelli, Arcangelo

Italian, 1653-1713.; Violinist and composer.

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1675 moved to Rome where he remained the rest of life.;

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By 1700 he published 5 volumes of chamber music which were to make him one of the best-known composers of his time (Op.1-5: trio sonatas and violin sonatas).

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At the end of his life, he prepared his Op.6, a set of 12 concerti grossi, for publication, but they may date from much earlier, being stylistically offshoots from his sonatas.

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He was one of the 1st composers to vary the keys in a binary mvt in a meaningful way

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Couperin, Francois

1668-1733.; A French composer of works for keyboard.

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Couperin titles all of his pieces ordres.; These were collections of short pieces which may have been intended for suite-like performance.; Pieces in the same ordre are linked by key and in particular, Couperin used the underutilized sharp keys (A, E, b, and f#) in his music.

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Many of the pieces in the orfres bear programmatic titles.; Many are also recognizable dance movements, though others are more abstractly linked to the dance.

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Echoes of the Lullian opera, the theater of the fairs, and popular music all occur in Couperin’s ordres, filled out with copious use of French ornaments

Dafne

a poem by Rinucci, which was set to music by Peri.

 

This was produced in Florence as the first dramatic pastoral fully set to music in 1597

das Wohltemperirte Clavier

A collection written by JS Bach in two volumes.

 

Each volume contains an prelude and fugue in all twenty-four major and minor keys.

 

Many of these pieces appear to have grown out of pedagogical exercises Bach set for his children and students.

 

The title itself probably does not refer to equal temperament as we know it.  Rather, it refers to a version of mean-tone tuning used during Bach’s time.

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Bach’s work obviously inspired later composers like Chopin, Hindemith, Shostakovich, etc. who wrote similar collections in all twenty-four keys

Fitzwilliam Virginal Book

A manuscript containing nearly 300 works for virginal (small harpsichord) from ca. 1562-ca. 1612.

 

It includes dances, arrangements of songs and madrigals, preludes, and set of variations by the principal Enlgish composers of keyboard works of the period like William Byrd and John Bull

Florilegium

Muffats’ collection of orchestral suite (1695 and 1698).

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The second part includes an essay about French bowing and ornaments.

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The dances of the suites are patterned after Lully

Forme, Nicholas

1567-1638.; Favorite composer of Louis XIII in France.

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Important contributions of French sacred music.

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Lightened the style with chansonlike rhythms, madrigalistic word painting and metrical freedom

Fortspinnung

“Spinning-out”.; A compositional process in which melodic material is continuously derived from a brief figure, possibly by sequence to creat a continuous melodic line.

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Typicaly applied to Baroque textures, and clearly understood when contrasted with the balanced and regular phrasing of the Classical period.

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Many examples could be drawn from Corelli, Bach, Telemann, etc

Frederick the Great

18th century King of Prussia.

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During his reign he employed CPE BAch, Graun, and Quantz, among others.

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He was an above average flautist, composer, and librettists, who regularly played in his own court.

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He also established the Berlin Opera and probably took part at least as advisor to some of the operas put on there.

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A theme of his is the basis for Bach‘s masterpiece Musical Offering

French overture

An overture is originally an orchestra piece intended for an introduction to an opera or ballet or other dramatic works.

 

In the French style, there are two parts: a stately slow section in duple meter with dotted rhythms and then a faster fugal section in triple meter.  Sometimes there is a return to the slow section.

 

These overtures first appeared in Lully’s ballet Alcidiane and remined the standard type during the reign of Louis XIV.

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It was adopted by Germans and English

Froberger, Jakob

1616-67.; The most renowned German keyboardist of his day.

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He was a cosmopolitan being influenced by the Italians (student of Frescobaldi) and the French.

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The pieces showing Italian influence are the toccatas, ricercares, and canzonas.

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The French influence is evident in the suites of clavier.; The suites are among the first to sue the standard group of dances: allemande, gigue, courante, and sarabande.; The gigue was moved to the end of the suite and this became the classic Baroque dance suite.

fugue

“flight”.; The most fully developed procedure of imitative counterpoint in which the theme is stated successively in all voices of the polyphonic texture.

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Typical four voice form: In the exposition, the fugal subject is presented alone in one voice, then imitated or answered, usually in the dominant by a second voice.; It can be tonal (different intervals) or real (exact intervals).; Usually the third voice enters on the tonic and the fourth in the dominant.

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After statements of the subject, each voice continues with a countersubject until a cadence.

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An episode follows, borrowing material from the subject.

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The subject enters again, either in alone or in a complete reexposition.

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the episodes and subject presentations can alternate several times until a final section with the subject in the tonic.

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The supreme examples are Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier and Art of Fugue

Fux, Johann Joseph

1660-1741. Austrian composer and musical theorist probably most famous for his treatise Gradus ad Parnassum (Steps to Parnassus: 1725).

 

This treatise is a codication of Palestrinian counterpoint and represents “stile antico” in opposition to Monteverdi and “stile moderno

 

There are well-known traslations and commentaries of Fux’s works by Alfred Mann, Eastman professor emeritus, recently deceased.

Gaultier, Denis

1603-72.; Represents the culmination of lute music in the early 17th c.

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the collection La Rhetorique de dieux (The Rhetoric of the Gods) contains twelve set of dances.; Each set has an allemande, courante, and sarabande.


Ennemond Gaultier (1575-1651) was another important lute composer.; Famous example is La Poste

Geminiani, Francesco

1687-1762.; One of Corelli’s pupils who had a long career as virtuoso and composer in London.

 

He published The Art of Playing on the Violin, which embodies the techniques of Corelli and other Italian masters of the early 18th century.

 

He wrote solo sonatas and concerti grossi in the style of Corelli

Gibbons, Orlando

1583-1625.  Often considered the father of Anglican church music.

 

The Anglican Church separated from the Roman Catholic church in 1532, but it wasn’t until later the English was used in the liturgy and worship.

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One of the “virginalists” (English keyboard composers of the late 16th c like Bull and Byrd)

Gradus ad Parnassum

A counterpoint textbook wirtten by JJ Fux geared toward writing music in the prima prattica style.

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The lessons in the book follow the species approach to counterpoint and are given by means of a dialogue between Aloysius (the Master) and Josephus (the student).

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This book has remained in print until the present day and was used as a training manual for a number of Classic-era composers including Mozart and Haydn

Handel, Georg Friederich

1685-1759.; A German composer who studied in Italy and eventually settled in London.

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His musical career was begun in Hamburg where he staged his first opera, Almira (1705).; This opera featured German recitatives and airs with Italian airas.; Bilingual operas were actually quite normal during this era of international musical styles drawn from a number of national traditions.

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Four years in Italy converted Handel almost wholly to the lyric Italian style of writing.;

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In 1710 he ventured to London and staged over forty operas there between 1711 and 1741.; Famous operas by Handel include guilio cesare (1724) and Alcina (1735).; Most are in the Italian style and feature as libretto subjects: Roman history, mythology and legend, medieval romances, and Renaissance epics.

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In 1728 Handel began facing financial ruin when his supported Geroge I died and the new genre of ballad opera (John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera) gained in popularity.; though Handel continued writing operas until 1741, he never enjoyed the financial succcesses of his early years.

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Handel also composed numerous oratorio ranging form those lacking in dramatic thread (Messiah, Israel in Egypt) to virtual operas (Semele).; The chorus is feature more in the oratorio than in the opera and its English style grew out of Handel’s familarity with the English anthem.

 

Handel also composed a number of instrumental works, including Concerti Grossi based on those of Corelli, instrumental suites (Water Music, Royal Fireworks Music) and keyboard works (he taught figure based realization to the princess Anne)

Humphery, Pelham

One of the first Englishmen to be admitted to the new Chapel Royal in 1660.

 

Humphrey went abroad (France and Italy) to study composition and his style reflects these foreign influences.

 

He composed many anthems, most of which open with short instrumental preludes akin to French overtures (dotted rhythms, rich harmonies full of suspension, and majestic candece).

 

Humphrey’s text setting features the melodic continuity, steady rhythm, and harmonic momentuum of recitatif mesure.

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Italian influences are obvious in his chromaticism, free use of dissonance, and short-breathed exclamations.

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His O Lord My God is a good example of this mixed style

Il Combattimento di tancredi e Clorinda

A work by Monteverdi in stile rappresentativo, performed in Venice in 1624.

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It is a setting of a portion of Tasso’s Jerusalem Delivered, describing the combat between the crusader knight Tancred and the pagan heroine Clorinda, ending in her death.

 

Most of the original text is straight narrative, which Monteverdi gives to the tenor soloist in recitative.  The few short speeches by the main characters are sung by a tenor and soprano who are instructed to mime the actions described during the singing of the narrative.

 

Monteverdi makes use of instrumental interludes and stile concitato in this work

L’incorinazione di Poppea

Opera by Monteverdi (1642).; The liretto was by Francesco Busenello.

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The work is a masterpiece for the stage and one of the best early-Venetian works.

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The chorus has all but disappeared in this work and aria-arioso passages, madrigal-like duets, and comic ariettes make up the bulk of the material.

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The drama is deeply passionate and concerns the Roman Emperor, Nero, his wife Ottavia, and his lover, Poppea.

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Monteverdi used the recitative as a vessel for the loftiest moments of drama and emotion (Ottavia’s farewell to Rome), moving easily between it and aria texture.

 

Monteverdi also uses stilo concitato to great effect to express anger in this work

Italian opera (mid 17th c)

By the mid-17th c. Italian opera had assumed the main outlines it was to maintain without essential change for the next two handred years: 1. Concertration upon solo singing with (for a long time)comparative neglect of ensembles and of instrumental music.  2. separation of recitative and aira, and 3. introduction of distinctive styles and patterns for airas.

 

This development was accompanied by a complete reversal in the relation of text and music: the Florentines had considered music accessory to poetry, while the Venetian treated the libretto as hardly more than a conventional scaffolding for the musical structure.

Kuhnau, Johann

His death in 1722 opened up the canter position at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig that JS Bach filled

Die Kunst der Fugue

The Art of the Fugue, composed by Bach.

 

Apparently left unfinished in consists of all manner of fugal writing.

 

It features 18 canons and fugues in the strictest style, all on the same subject, or one of its transforamtions, and is arranged in increasing complexity

Ladies of Ferrara

Three women singers at the court of Ferrara who were famous for their virtuosic expressivity.

 

the principal composer for three ladies was Luzzasco Luzzaschi, a pupil of de Rore.

 

their prominencce is indicative of the rise of the solo singer after 1570

de Lalande, Micel-Richard

One of the four composers who won positions as sous-maitre of the royal chapel in the famous national competition or concours of 1683.

 

As the other died or retired one by one, he took over thier quarter-years and by 1714 was in complete control of the chapel.

 

His sixty-four grands motet constitute the core of surviving repertory in this genre.  One of the most famous is the De profundis.  This work was written in 1683 for the repose of the soul of the Queen Marie-Therese.  It’s text feature Psalm 129/130 (Out of the depths I cry to thee, O Lord).; The addition of verse Requiem and Et lux perpetua made this grand motet suitable for funeral and memorial services.

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de Lalande’s writing shows a number of Italian traits (perhaps learned from his predecessor Charpentier) such as: frequent dissonant suspensions, freely-introduced dominant seventh chords, rich instrumental harmonies, independent of the vocal parts, and ritornello-like introductory symphonies

LeClair, Jean Marie

1697-1764.  A French composer who, like Couperin, combined the new style of Corelli with a native flair for simple melody, nourished by the air de dance and tastefully laced with turns and trills.

 

This style is featured in his instrumental sonata writing

Lully, Jean-Baptiste

1632-1687.  A native of Florence who travelled to France at Fourteen,  Lully composed instrumental music for Louis XIV and was a member of the 24 Violons du Roy before he led his own petits violons.

 

Lully thus quickly absorbed the rich French heritage of orchestral music.

 

As a dancer, Lully also composed a number of ballets de cour, including overtures, air and recits.

 

Lully collaborated with Moliere and Corneille in a series of ballet comedies and one ballet tragedie which combined French and Italian styles.

 

His real area of mastery, however was the opera.  His librettist, Quinault, also achieved a satisfactory union of French and Italian elements.

 

Lully’s music features a sharp contrast between recitative and air, though the middleground of arioso also appears.

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Quinault‘s verse often necessitated a changing meter with alternating bars of 3/4 and 4/4.

 

Lully also wrote impassioned speeches in a type of recitative that featured halting rhythms and augmented and diminished intervals

 

Lully’s airs are usually pleasant but not emotionally charged.; They often feature only solo voice with basso continuo, though a two-violin ritornello is sometimes included.

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Lully’s instrumental writing in the operas features a five-part orchestra (rather than the traditional Italian scoring for two treble voices plus bass) and distinguished between the petit choer (the counterpart of the Italian concertino) and the grand couer (the ripieno which included the twenty-four violins and occasional wind and percussion instruments).

 

Lully and Quinault eventually moved away from the Italian tragicomedy and developed a new French genre, the tragedie lyrique

Luther, Martin

A Catholic priest, whose journey to Rome prompted him to nail his 95 these on the door of the church in Wittenburg.

 

His reaction to simony and nepotism in the corrupt Catholic church lead him to unwittingly spearhead the beginnings of the Protestant Reformation in Germany in the sixteenth century.

 

Luther enacted a number of changes in the mass and church service which included a vernacular translation of the bible and the inclusion of music sung by the congregation (rather than solely by professional musicians).,

 

Luther also penned a number of nomophonic settings of Psalms for the congregation to sing.  These modal settings were later used by Baroque composers (most notably JS Bach) as melody for four-part chorales

mannerism

style used by de Rore where the homogeneity of style valued in the Renaissance was sacrificed for a melange which aimed to make the representation of the text more vivid and moving.

 

De Rore would change from one rhythmic scheme to anther, from diatonicism to chormaticism, from root chord to 6th chord, and from sharp keys to flat keys

masque

The masque was the English counterpart of the ballet de cour and emphasized dance and musical spectacle.

 

Masques were given both publicly and privately in England during the 1630-1650s. 

 

The masque was basically a theatrical event and served both as a deterrent, and later, as a forerunner of English opera (cultivated soon after the era of the masque by Henry Purcell). 

 

Cupid and Death by the poet James Shirley is an example of a representative masque.  Music for this piece (produced a number of times) was written by both Matthew Locke and Christopher Gibbons

Meantone temperament

A type of tuning in which perfect fifths are tuned slightly low (1/4 of the syntonic comma, or 22 cents) in order that five fifths (c-g-d-a-e) will arrive at an in-tune third.

 

This system works well as long as one stays within the key with only one or two accidentals in them.

 

However, more remote keys ound increasingly out of tune, and one fifth in particular, the wolf fifth (ofthen Eb-G#) is quite bad.

 

This system of tunning was in effect from ca. 1500 onward through the end of the Baroque and necessitated some of the Baroque developments in instrument-making (such as the divided keyboards on Baroque organs) which allowed for good intonation in all keys

Memestriers

one of the reasons France under Louis XIV resisted foreign musical influence was due to the menestriers.

 

These were strong guilds of musicians whose strict rules of apprenticeship and accreditation made it difficult for outsiders to enter the musical profession.

 

The central social function of these musicains in France during the Baroque was to accompany court dancing and ballet entertainment

monody

a type of solo song that developed about 1600 in reaction to the polyphonic style of the 16th c and that is characterized by recitative-like design of the voice part and by thoroughbass accompaniment.

 

Some of the earliest examples of true monody were published in Caccini’s Le nuove musiche (1601)

motto aria

Baroque aria beginning with a brief and usually emphatic phrase from the singer (the “motto”) preceding the opening orchestral ritornello.

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Normally the same phrase follows the ritornello, beginning the aria proper.

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The device is used to avoid, in a strong dramatic situation, the tautology of a long ritornello before the singer expresses himself.

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Ex: include Eduige’s aria “la faro” from Act 1 of Handel’s Rodelinda and Oberto’s “Barbara” from Act 3 of Alcina

Moulinie, Etienne

1600-1669.  A French composer of motets.

 

Mouline wrote the first collection of sacred music published in France to have a basso continuo.

 

this collection, Meslanges de sujets Crestiens… avec une basse continue, was published by Ballard around 1650.

 

Some of Mouline’s motets were influenced by the air de cour, while other show decidedly Italina traits, derived from the music of Viadana, the inventor of figured bass.

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the motets are scored for alternating chorus and soloists, but many of the solo recits are left bare in terms of accompaniment which is why figured bass worked well to provide harmonic support to these solo lines

Nuove Musiche

This phrase has two meanings.; Specifically, it is the title of a collection of arias and madrigals published by Gulio Caccini in 1601 featuring music with the new, monodic style of recitative with basso continuo.

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Generally, in refers to the style of music becoming popular in the 17th c.;

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This new style grew out of Monteverdi’s seconda prattica and the music of the florentine Camerata.  It marked the beginnings of opera, oratorio, and cantata, as well as the Baroque period in general.

oratorio

An extended musical drama with a text based on religious subject matter.

 

the oratorio originated in the 17th century.  Throughout most of its history it was intended for performance without scenery, costume, or action.  As a result, most oratorios place special emphasis on narration, on contemplation, and particularly in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, on extensive use of a chorus.

 

The Baroque oratorio finds its significant roots in certain late 16th c motets, which like some madrigals of the period, contain elements pf dramatic narration and dialogue.  This includes Haydn’s The Creation, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Brahms’ Requiem, and Britten’s War Requiem (1962)

Orfeo

A mythical figure/story to be selected for several operas from Baroque through Romantic periods.

 

Monteverdi composed La Favola d’Orfeo (Mantua, 1607: a prologue and five acts; libretto by alessandro Striggio on the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice); Gluck composed Orfeo ed Euridice (Vienna, 1762: opera in three acts; libretto by Raniero de Calzabigi; revised in 1774), and Offenbach’s Orphee and Enfers [Orpheus in the Underworld] (Paris 1858: operetta in two acts; setting: Greek legend; revised in 1874)

Pachelbel, Johann

1653-1706.  german composer and organist of the late 1600’s.

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One of the leading progressive German composers of his time; Hitherto admired mainly as a composer of organ and other keyboard music.

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He can, as a result of recent research, be seen also as a leading composer of Protestant church music.

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He was one of the few 17th c composers whose name was never entirely forgotten.;

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His fame as a teacher was widespread, and though he never left Germany.

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Composed liturgical/non-liturgical organ music, chamber, and vocal music.

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partita/chorale partita

1. In the late 16th and 17th c., a variation, usually one on a traditional melody such as the romanesca or passamezzo.

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This meaning was continued in the chorale partitas of Georg Bohm and Bach.

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2. In the Baroque period, a suite.; the earliest known use of the term in the sense occurs in Johann Kuhnau’s Neuer Clavier Ubung erster Theil, bestehend in sieben Partien (1689).  The best known are Bach’s solo violin and keyboard partitas.

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3.; In the early Classical period, a type of multimovement instrumental work.; Many Classical partitas consist of abstract movements.; Mostly for solo instruments but a fair number of orchestral partitas also exist

Passacaglia

A continuous variation form, principally of the Baroque, whose basso ostinato formulas originally derived from the ritornellos to early 17th c songs.

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These passacaglias or ritonellos were played on the guitar between stanzas or at the ends of songs, where they were repeated many times, probably with improvised varaitions.

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The practice began in Spain and quickly moved to Italy and France.

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The passacaglia then developed in a way quite similar to the chaconne.; Its four-bar-ostinato became the basis for long sets of continuous variations as well as vocal pieces.

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Early differences between chaconne and pssacaglia were the particular chord progressions: the passacaglia tended to be in minor, with a I-IV-V or I-IV-V-I pattern.; The bass lines themselves might change in successive phrases, or extra harmonies might be inserted, but these variants fell within a limited set of formulas.

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One of these formulas is the descending tetrachord used in so many operatic laments but appearing as well in pieces titled passacaglia (i.e. Biber, Passacaglia in G minor for solo violin).

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Bach’s Passacaglia in C minor for organ BWV 582 is well-known 18th c passaglia. 

 

This format was picked up by 20th cc composers in non-tonal or serial pieces (Webern Passacaglia op.1; Schonberg, Pierrot Lunaire op.21, “Nacht“; Berg, Wozzect; Stravinsky, Septet)

La Poupliniere

A wealthy Parisian music sponsor who provided for a long-lived semipublic series of concerts in the 1730s.

 

Among his musical directors were Rameau, Stamitz, and gossec.

 

These concerts existed alongside other Parisian tradition, like the Concertos Spirituels of Philidor.

 

These orginally began as an outlet for the performance of proper devotional music during Lent, they quickly became a vessel for a dazzling display of both vocal and instrumental genres, French and foreign.

 

These concerts maintained a standard of excellence until the Revolution

Purcell, Henry

1659-1695. A Middle Baroque Composer, organist, bass, and countertenor singer.

 

One of the greatest composers of the Baroque.

 

At an early age, his works show a complete mastery of contrapuntal writing.

 

A composer of fantasias for viols and much theatre music, which included songs and instrumental pieces.

 

He succeeded his teacher John Blow as organist of Westminster Abbey.

 

His genius as a writer for the stage was hampered by the fact there was no opera during his lifetime.  Still, he wrote the miniature opera Dido and Aeneas for a girl’s school.

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This work achieves a high level of dramatic intensity in a narrow framework.;

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After its success he wrote mainly for the public theaters

Quinault, Philippe

1635-1688.; French dramatist, librettist and poet;

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15-year collaboration with Lully that resulted in 14 librettos.

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By both temperament and artistic inclination, Quinault was ideally suited to collaboration with Lully; generally more galant than heroic or tragic.

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Armide’s librettist; he was expected to observe unity of action

Rameau, Jean-Philippe

1683-1764French composer/theorist.

 

A close contemporary of JS Bach, Handel, Domenico Scarlatti and Telemann, he was the leading Fr. compoer (particularly of dramatic music) of his time and an important innovator in harmonic theory.

 

Along with Francois Couperin, he was the leading author of Fr. harpsichord.

 

First attained fame as a theorist with his Harmonic Foundations of 1722.

 

He was 50 beofre his fame as composer took hold.

 

His Hippolyte et Aricie (1733) sparked criticism by the Lullists of his day for the revolutionary used of harmony in his opera, but later was attacked as an establishment composer by those who supported IT. opera in the Querelle des Buffons in the 1750s/

 

His work was influential on those It. opera seria composers bent on reform such as Treatta and Gluck.

 

So, when Gluck arrived in Paris, his works could be seen as continuing traditions of the last great Fr. composer, Rameau.

 

His work lost favor at the end of the 18th C

recitatif mesure

a type of vocal writing in which the passages involved approach the air in having a uniform meter but lack the repetition and closed form of the aria.

 

This style of writing is abundant in the later operas of Lully

Rinaldo

Handel’s first London opera, produced in 1711.

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The opera is in the Italina style

romanesca

an air for singing ottave rime, consisting of a treble formula with a standard harmonization accompanied by a bass.

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In many compositions based on the romanesca, only the bass is recognizable, so it is often referred to as a ground bass

Rospigliosi, Giulio

1600-1669.; It librettist.

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The most important librettist of his day for Roman opera.

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He created the genre of sacred opera and wrote the librettos of the earliest signifianct comic operas.

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His libretti are celebrated for the quality of poetry, skillful adjustment to the demands of staging and music, introduction of comic roles, and a human realism derived from late medieval literature (ie Dal male il benne is based on Boccaccio) and from Spanish Drama

Rossi, Luigi

1597-1653.; Italian composer, singing teacher, lutenist and keyboard player.

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He was a conspicuous figure on the musical scene both in Italy and, for a time, in France.

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He was one of first and the finest composers of chamber cantatas in the Baroque period and the leading composer of vocal music in the Rome of his day.

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About 300 cantatas survive;

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Rossi played a significant part in the development of opera.; Two features in particular: one as graund, festive, extravagant spectacles, choruses, ballets, many characters and scenes, much intrgues and comic episodes; the other as a new, warm lyricism in many arias.

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Emotive, well-shaped and beautiful melodies prevail, especially in Orfeo

Rousseau, Jean Jacques

Seventeenth-century philospher and author, as well as composer (he wrote an opera entitled, Le Devin du village).

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Rousseau penned many of the music-oriented entries in the new encyclopedie of Diderot, including the definition of baroque (which he speciously derived from the Italian, baroco, meaning confused and unnatural).

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Rousseau also sided with those favoring Italian opera in the guerre des bouffons over Pergolesi’s La serva padrona

Royal Academy of Music

London association of nobleman, supported by the king, founded in 1718-19 for the promotion of Italian opera (in London at Handel’s time)

San Petrino in Bologna

a large cathedral that had long been a center of concerted music (since the begining of the 18th c).

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Cazzati was choirmaster there in the later part of that century (1657-1673)

Scarlatti, Alessandro

1660-1725.; Italian composer, who may have studied with Carissimi.

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He is noted especially for operas and cantatas.

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Reputed founder of the Neapolitan school of 18th c opera;

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His Griselda, one of his last operas, is indicative of the 18th C Neapolitan style. It abandons the ground bass and binary form air in 2 stanzas in favor of the ternary da capo aria.

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It also features the recitative semplice/secco, a speech-like manner of singing supported by only continuo for the purpose of traversing long streches of dialogue; and the recitative accompagnato/stromentato/obbligato, which was accomp by the orch. for tense and dramatic situations.; It reinforced the emotion of the voice part and punctuated phrases with brief instrumental outbursts.

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He was also the teacher of the Gr. Hasse

Scheidt, Samuel

1587-1654.; The first internationally significant German Baroque composer for the organ, he is responsible for the flowering of the new north Gr. style that occurred as a result of the Counter-Reformation.

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His main genres include instrumental music, mostly for organ (though it is now largely eclipsed by Bach), and his sacred vocal music that is a capella or uses basso continuo

Schein, Johann Hermann

1586-1630.; German composer and poet.

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an important predecessor of Bach, both as Leipzig Thomaskantor and as a gifted composer.

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One of the first composers to graft the style of the Italian madrigal, monody and concerto on to the traditional elements of Lutheran church music.

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His Banchetto Musicale of 1621, a collection of suites, were instrumental in the standardization of the suite since they are some of the first examples of a collection of dances that are conceived as a comosite and integral work; the dances are thematically and key related

Schutz, Heinrich

1585-1672.; German composer.

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the greatest German composer of the 17th c and the first of international stature.

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He studied with A Gabrielli and may have known Monteverdi, and the influence of polychoral and concertato style is evident.

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Through the example of his compositions and through his teaching he played a major part in establishing the traditions of high craftsmanship and intellectual depth that marked the best of his nation’s music and musical though for more than 250 years after his death.

 

Composed 3 volumes Symphoniae sacrae, Cantiones sacrae, Geistliche Chor-Musik, Magnificat, 3 passions (St. John, St. Matthew, St. Luke)

 

He was one of the last composers to write in modal style

Scordatura

literally “mistuning“.

 

The tuning of string instrument’s open strings to some other less used tuning arrangement.

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It is often used to achieve melodies and harmonies unavailable in normal tuning, for expressive or technical effects, and to make instruments sound louder.

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Many of the Rosary sonatas by Biber feature scordatura.

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Other instances include the Schuman Piano Quartet in EbM, Paganini vln concerto in DM, Mahler’s 4th sym, Mozart sinfonia concertante

sonata da camera

Sonata: the preferred name for an independent piece of several movements for few parts with basso continuo.

 

It. chamber sonata or court sonata.

 

A work for instrumental ensemble, prevalent from the 1650-1740s.

 

written for one or more melody instruments, normally of the violin family, and basso continuo, it was associated with dance throughout the 17th c.

 

Corelli’s opp. 2 and 4

Sonata da chiesa

It. Church sonata.

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A work for instrumental ensemble, prevalent form the 1650 through 1770s.

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It has one to seven or more sections or movements, contrasting in meter, tempo and texture, and is written for one or more melody instruments, normally of the violin family, and basso contiuo.

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Though called simply sonata in most 17th c publications, suggesting use outside the church as well, it is identifiable by a serious style, manifest in much fugal writing, by the relative scarcity of the dance movements chracteristic of the sonata da camera, and by the common specification of organ as the continuo instrument.

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Late in the century the term was an occasion equated with sinfonia.

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with Corelli the form of the church sonata became standardized.; Most have four movements: S-F-S-F.

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Composer of this kind include vivaldi, Handel, Bach , and Telemann.

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Available evidence suggests that the church sonata, in part or as a whole, was used in Italy, and doubtless elsewhere, in the Mass of the Roman rite as a substitue of the gradual and communion, and at Vespers for Psalm antiphons.

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On occasion, church performances entailed doubling of parts, making them in fact orchestral performance

Solo Sonata

Of the basic genre descirbed above, the solo sonata was for two or more players (solo melody instruments and basso continuo)

Trio sonata

the commonest type of Baroque instrumental chamber music.

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Written in three parts two upper lines, noramlly in the same register, and basso continuo – it often includes a concertante bass as well.

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It requires four performers: two melodic instruments for the top lines, normally violins; a melody bass instrument (bass viol, violone, cello) that either reinforces the bass line of the continuo part or as a concertante part, participates in imitations with the upper parts; and a chord-playing instrument such as organ, harpsichord, or theorbo to realize the harmonies of the continuo.


Until 1660s, occasional options in instruments were offered, such as cornetto for the violin, and trombone or bassoon for the stringed bass instrument.


After 1670, the most common medium for sonatas da chiesa or da camera.

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In the 18th century, flutes were often alternatives to the violin.

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Rossi and other composer.

style brise

broken style.;

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A characteristic instrumental idiom of individual dances through arrangements of actual ballet music in the early French baroque era.

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First written for the lute, and then eventually for the clavecin and vioal da amba.

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In the transference from the dance music to the lute medium, one had to consider that lutenists generally played one note at a time, and that this texture sounded somewhat spare, esp in harmony.

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This led to the addition of melody, bass and harmony in different registers, to afford continuity to the whole.

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This technique was called style brise.

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One of the first practicioners of style brise was Ennemond Gaultier’s with his piece La Poste.

 

The culmination of Fr. lute playing and composition was Denis Gaultier.

 

Style brise also found its way to the clavecin, with prominent composers such as Chambonniere, Jacquet de la Guerre, Louis Couperin, and Francois Couperin.

 

John Jakob Froberger, in addition to helping establish the dance suite, was also one of the first to carry the style brise tradition over to Gr

Stile antico

Palestrina’s music has often been regarded as the model of classical Renaissance polyphony, esp in its controlled treatment of dissonance, though successive generations have varied considerably in their understanding of it.

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In the 17th century, his music was taken as the model for what was by then termed the stile antico, but which was nevertheless still cultivated for some types of sacred music.

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The style of unaccompanied, largely diatonic, polyphonic vocal music

stile concitato

excited style.

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A style invented by Monteverdi, in which there was a rapid reiteration of a single note, either with quickly spoken syllables in the voice or instrumentlaly as a string tremelo.

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It was used for warlike sentiments and actions

Stile rappresentivo

A turn of the 17th C theater style inspired by the antique (ancient Greek) model of sung dialogue based on speech.

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It is a dramatic recitative that features melodies moving freely over a foundation of simple chords.

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It started in Humanist-inspired Florence and spread quickly throughout Italy, including Mantua, where Monteverdi was located.

strophic variation

With the focus in the early baroque period on the expression of the text, the strophic aria became a popular framwork for composers wishing to keep the focus on the text.

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Using the strophic method the composer could repeat the same melody, write new music, or keep the same harmonic and melodic plan for all the strophes.

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The latter was called strophic variation.

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Thes can be seen in Caccini’s Le Nuove musiche of 1602

Suite

A collection of dance movements for solo instrument (Bach violin sonatas and partitas and cello suites, Froberger keyboard suites, Bach English, French suite etc) or chamber ensemble or orchestra.

 

The various movements are usually cast in closely related keys (and sometimes even with the same melodyBuxtehude) and follow a fairly standard progression, often beginning with an allemande or prelude, and concluding with the spritely gigue.

Allemande

A stately dance in duple meter.

 

Like the earlier pavane/galliard pairing, the allemande is often paired with a lively, triple-meter dance like courante.

 

The allemande often features a short upbeat and running notes which permeate the musical facbric in a pseudo-contrapuntal sort of texture

Courante/ corrente

The french and Italian names, respectively for a lively, jumping dance in triple meter.

 

the music often features quick-moving “running” notes.

 

The Italian corrente is in 3/4 or 3/8 with a homophonic texture (melody predominates).

 

The French courante is at a slower tempo and often switches between the duple and triple meters of 6/4 and 3/4.  Its texture is more contrapuntal and melodic figures appear in all the voices.

 

Bach typicall used the French style courante in his suites, although curiously enough the Italian type occurs in many of the French suites.

Sarabande

Recent research suggests it originated in the West Indies, and was brought to Spain its first European home, by Spanish explorers. 

 

Originally its music and steps were intended to accomp wakes and funerals, but it was misunderstood by the Spanish court as an erotic piece, and banned until the mid-17th c, when its original melancholic and tragic character was elucidated.

 

The dance is of simple meter, often with a heavy emphasized 2nd beat (although this is less true of the Fr. version) and serves as the emotional centerpiece of the codified Baroque suite, where it follows the Courante and precedes a gavotte, bouree, minuet etc.

double

a movement following of the main suite movements in which the harmonic progression and melody from the dance movement are elaborated through extensive use of passing tones, neighbor tones, and arpeggios.

 

The double, thus provides a sort of variation upon the movement immediately preceding it.

gigue

A fast-paced dance which is usually cast in triple and/or compound meters.

 

the gigue often closes the Baroque instrumental suite

Tablature

a style of notation (primarily for lute) which shows finger placement on frets rather than pitches.

 

Rhythm is notated above the score.

 

Since the Renaissance, much music for other instruments (esp keyboard) was “intabulated” for lutenists to play.

 

Intabulation thus made a great body of music available to the unschooled and musically “illiterate”

Teatro S. Cassiano

the first theatre to which paying public was admitted, a decisive step for the history of opera, since until then it depended on wealthy or aristocratic patrons.

 

Venetian inaugurate there in 1637 with the production of Andromeda, by librettist, composer and theorbo player Bendetto Ferrari, and composer Francesco Manelli

Telemann, Georg Phillip

1681-1767.  Perhaps the most under-rated composer of the Baroque era – in his day he was more famous than Bach and was acutally the town council’s first choice for cantor of St Thomas in Leipzig.

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He composed an enormous body of music, including 40 operas, 12 cantata cycles for the liturgical year, passions, overtures, suites, concerti, and orchestral works numbering in the hundreds

toccata

From the Italian, tocare, to touch.

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this was an instrumental piece which grew out of its original function as a prelude.

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It is also the form most antithetical to the ricercare and fantasia, both of which tend toward slower tempo and more solemn expressions.

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The toccata was essentially a fast-paced technical piece.

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The first example occurs in a collection of lute music by Castiglione in Milan (1536).

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Keyboardists eventually made the tocatta their own, including composers such as Andrea and Giovanni Gabrielli, and Merula.

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Starting with Frescobaldi, the baroque version increses in length, intensity, and virtuosity.

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Leo Hassler, who studied in Venice with Gabreilis, brought the toccata back to Gr., where its highest form was attaned in the work of Bach.

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It is often followed by the stricter form of the fugue.

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One fine example is Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in d minor.

 

Beyond the Baroque period, it is found infrequently.

 

There are isolated examples by Prokofiev and Schumann, and the Le Tombeua de Couperin by Ravel and Debussy’s Suite pour le piano

Tomkins, Thomas

1572-1656.; An accomplised English composer of anthems, services and madrigals.

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When David heard that Absalom was Slain calls forth mighty chromaticism (as does a piece by the same name by Weelkes).

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His anthem, “Arise, O Lord, into thy resting place” dramatizes the text with a vareity of rhetorical devices (including a melody that remains around the same pitch for eight bars to illustrate “resting point”).

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He was from a musical family and workes as Master of Chorister at the Corcester Cathedral as well as organist at the Chapel Royal in London

Torelli, Giuseppi

1658-1709. It composer, violinist and violist, and pedagogue.

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torelli was responsible for the crystallization of mature Baroque concerto form.

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he built upon the innovations of Corelli, but in his twelve concerti of Op.8 (6 for one violin, 6 for two violins) one finds the stereotypical F-S-F succession of movements, the ritornello form , and virtuoso flights of the soloist.

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torelli’s style, along with that of Albinoni, and Vivaldi, provided for a second wave of Italian influence on the German concerto (evident in the works of Bach)

tragedie lyrique

The French serious opera genre that developed in the last quarter of the 17th C well into the 18th C.

 

Also called tragedie en musique/ opera serieux, it is most associated with Quinault and Lully were leading composers, and then Rameau.

 

It features spectacular dance scenes and brilliant choruses, and plots mainly in Classical mythology or It. romantic epics by Tasso or Arioso.

 

They are generally in 5 acts, with each at ending in divertissments, which offer opportunities for dancing and choral display.

 

Ex: Lully’s Armide (1686), Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie (1733)

Vivaldi, Antonio

An Italian composer and priest.

 

He was known as the “Red Priest” because of his fier hair.

 

He was one of the greatest and most prolific composers of concerti – some for solo or duo insturments, others for complete orchestra.

 

Vivaldi was also a virtuoso violinist, violin teacher, musical director and choirmaster at the Pieta, a combination orphanage, nunnery, conservatory for girls in Venice.

 

His style ranges from Baroque in his early compositions to galant in his late works.

 

Many of his works exemplify standard concerto techniques (F-S-F movement structure and concertino vs ripieno with ritornello forms) but his style is individualistic.

 

His music features additive construction which short ideas are repeated and sequenced frequently and then strung together with similar constructions of different ideas

Weekles, Thomas

1576-1623.  An accomplished English composer of anthems, services, and madrigals.

 

His When David heard that Absalom was slain calls forth mighty chromaticism (as does a piece by the same name composed by Tomkins).

 

this religious text in a madrigal setting has been referred to as “sacred madrigal“.

 

Esp effective in the above mentioned work in Weelkes use of rhythm of David’s sighs and dejected laments.

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Weelkes worked as organnist in both the Winchester College and Chichester Catherdral

Basso Ostinato

Or ground bass.

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Ostinato comes from the It. meaning “obstinate”.;

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A ground bass then, refers to some repetitive melodic pattern with a continuous variation in the upper voices.

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However, the ground may refer to parts of, or the entire scheme: this includes the harmonies and upper voices, to the repetitive process in general, or to a composition in which it occurs.

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It also sometimes refers to the essential harmonic progression, which may or may not employs an exactly recurring bass line.

Bernhard, Christoph

Born in present day Poland/Germany, 1628-1692.

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German composer, theorist.

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1649: singer in the court under Schutz in Dresden.

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Musical treatises (The Treatises of Christoph Bernhard, and An Augmented Treatise on Composeition or Tactatus compositionis augmentatus), noteworthy for their classification of the styles of Baroque music according to purposechurch stylus gravis, the “Palestrina style”, and the new chamber style of Monteverdi stylus luxurians, where language is master of the music

Cembalo character pieces

F. Couperin composed 4 books of suites for harpsichord called orders.

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The feature dance suite movements such as the courante, sarabande, and gigue, but also programmatic titles La Visionaire, La Misterieuse, Les Ombre Errantes.;

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These pieces are generally transparent in texture, highly ornamented, concise, and often feature much interplay between the treble and bass

Goldberg Variation

One of JS Bach’s masterpieces for keyboard, it is a set of 30 variations on a sarabande.

 

It is published as Part IV of the Clavier-Ubung.

 

The structure of the piece as a whole is unique: while every variation preserves the bass and harmonic structure of the theme, every third variation is a canon.  The first starts on the unison, the second at the second and so forth on through the ninth.

 

The 30th variation is a quodlibert, a mixture of 2 popular song melodies combined in counterpoint above the bass of the theme.

 

The work ends with a da capo of the theme.

 

The other variations are a potpourri of forms: inventions, fugues, French overture, slow aria

Continuo Madrigal

Even after Monteverdi’s turn to opera, he still wrote motets and Masses in the conservative style.;

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But in his 5th book of madrigals, in addition to favoring the transparency and simplicity of the monodic style over the old homogenous equal-voiced texture, he added continuo parts in the last 6 pieces.; Hence the term continuo madrigals.

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It marks one of the many turns away from old prima prattica exemplified by Palestrina to the new Seconda Prattica ushered in by Monteverdi, Caccini, and their contemporaries.

Double Fugue

Scholar debate this term.; Some say that a double fugue is when two subjects are stated simultaneously at the outset of a fugue.

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This means that a subject and countersubject handled in the standard is not a double fugue because they are not stated at the outset.

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Others state both subjects must be given their own expositions, with the two subjects only combining towards the end.

Dumont, Henri

1610-84.; Contemporary of Lully and Charpentier.

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Wrote solo motets as well as elaborate motets for soloists, double choruses and orchestra

Figured bass

One of the result on the new emphasis in the early Baroque period on the bass, and the highlighting of the bass and treble as the two essential lines of a texture, was the seeming indifference to the inner parts as lines.

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This was objectified in the system of notation called basso continuo.

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Above the bass notes, the keyboardist or lutenist as part of the continuo would fill in the required chords.;

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But if they were in positions other than common triads in root position or if the music necessitated suspensions or accidentals, the composer would add figures (hence figured bass) or signs above or below the bass notes

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Israel in Egypt

A biblical oratorio by Handel, based on the Old Testament story.

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This biblical oratorio, in addition to Saul and Judas Maccabeus, earned a certain appeal to English audiences in the early 18th C, because this time was also one of prosperity and imperial expansion for the British, and English audiences felt a kinship with chosen people who triumphed with the blessing of God

Marin Marais

A celebrated viola da gamba player in the late 16th and early 17th C, and one of the first French composers to write trio sonatas.

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He published several books of viol music and his instrumental music has descriptive titles, like those of Francois Couperin

menestriers

One of the reasons France under Louis XIV resisted foreign musical influence was due to the menestriers.

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These were strong guilds of musicians whose strict rules of apprenticeship and accreditation made it difficult for outsiders to enter the musical profession.

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The central social function of these musicians in France during the Baroque was to accompany court dancing and ballet entertainments

Musikalisches Opfer

A Musical Offering by Bach.

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Contains predominantly canons and various combinations of 2-6 instruments but also two ricercares, one of 3 and another of 6 voices, and a 4-mvt trio sonata.

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All are based on a theme by Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, who had orginally given Bach this royal theme (all the more difficult to improvise upon due to its chromatic nature) in an improvisation session on a visit to Bach’s to Potsdam in 1747.

 

It was later elaborated by with the resultant work being this “Offering” to the King

Rinaldo

Handel’s first London opera, produced in 1711.

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The opera is in the Italian style.

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Was a great success in part because of two of the leading two castrati of the time.

Stile concitato

“excited style”

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A style invented by Monteverdi, in which there was a rapid reiteration of a single note, either with quickly spoken syllables in the voice or instrumentally as a string tremelo.

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It was used for warlike sentiments and actions, and is best represented in his Coronation of Popea and his 8th book of madrigals, Combattimento Tancredi et Clorinda

Theorbo

Large bass lute, or archlute, used from the 16th -18th C for song accomp, and for basso continuo parts.

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It had 8 strings running along the fingerboard, and 8 off-the -fingerboard bass strings, or diapasons.

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Both sets of strings had separate pegboxes connected by an S curve in the nect.

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In the 18th C all but the top two course of strings were double.

Viola d’Amore

A 6 or 7 stringed instrument with sympathetic strings used primarily during the Baroque period.

 

Due to the sympathetic strings, the sound was sweet and delicate, and was especially popular in the late 17th C.

 

It fell into disuse like much of the viol family, when the violin’s volume and power became the instrument of choice.

Zarzuela

from Zarza, bramble bush.

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A Spanish theatrical genre characterized by a mixture of singing and spoken dialogues.

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Throughout its history, the zarzuela has included elements from the Spanish popular tradition.

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Originated in the 17th C musical court plays, i.e. Pedro Calderon de la Barca (1600-1681)‘s play;

 

1710-1750, the zarzuela increasingly approximated the musical styles and conventions of contemporary opera seria, which quickly replaced zarzuela as the favorite court entertainment.


After 1710, zarzuelas were largely commissioned for public theaters, and the demands of the theater-going public became more important than royal taste.

 

Around 1760, it became nationalistic; disappeared for roughly 50 years in Sapin and during the Rossini epoch in Italian opera.

 

In the 19th C, zarzuela was revived by Basilio Basili (1803-95) and Manuel Breton de los Herreros (1796-1873), a declared enemy of Italian opera.

 

Young Spanish composers, the “groupo de los cinco” (group of five), who, in essence, founded the modern zarzuela genre: Francisco Asenjo Barbieri (1823-94), Rafael Fernando (1822-88), Joaquin Gaztambide (1822-70), Cristobal Oudrid y Segura (1825-77), and Jose Inzenga (1828-91).

 

It was called as the “national lyric-dramatic genre”.

 

In the early 20th c, the zarzuela continued as popular theater and attracted many talented composers in Spain