Baroque Period
1600-1750
What Does Baroque Mean?
 From Portuguese – Barroco
 Extravagantly Ornate
 Fancy
 Florid
Baroque Background
• 13 American Colonies
• East India Trading
Company
• The
Mayflower
Baroque Art
The Doctrine of Affections
 Music Brings On Emotions:
Baroque Musical Style
 Combination of Old and New
 Basso Continuo
 Chords, Dissonance, and Chromaticism
Baroque Musical Style
 Regular / Flexible Rhythm
 Improvisation during Performance
 Modal & Tonal
Background: Opera
 Forerunners:
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Greek Plays
Renaissance Plays
Madrigal Cycles
Early Opera
 Recitative
 Monteverdi
Developments in Opera
 Venice
 Public Opera House
 More Solo Singing
 Less Instruments
• Teatro San Cassiano
George Frideric Handel
• Aria
• No Chorus
Singing
• Giulio Cesare
Act II, scenes 1
and 2
English Opera
 Influenced by Handel
 Henry Purcell

Dido and Aeneas
Baroque Instrumental Music
 Sonata

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ABA FORM
Exposition
Development
Recapitulation
 Arcangelo Corelli

Corelli’s Style
 Trio Sonata, Op 3, No. 2
Baroque Instrumental Music
 Concerto

Solo Instrument with
Orchestra
 Vivaldi


Violin Concerto in a minor
1680
Baroque Instrumental Music
 Suite

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Set of pieces put together in one work
Many composers
France, England and Germany
Suite for brass
trio by Handel
German Suite
 Differences from English and French
 Composer:
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
Dietrich Buxtehude
Praeludium in E Major, Bux WV 141
Johaan Sebastian Bach
 Life

1685-1750
 Parents


Ambrose
Maria
 Family were
all musicians
Johaan Sebastian Bach
 Church Organist and
Choir Director in Leipzig, Germany
 Wrote For:


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Organ
Harpsichord
Orchestra
Cantatas
Johaan Sebastian Bach
 Prelude and Fugue
Prelude – the main musical
idea of a piece of music. Presented first.
Fugue – the development of that musical
idea. Usually very complicated. Presented
immediately following the Prelude

Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in A minor
Baroque Literature
Shakespeare
Milton
Cervantes
French Opera
 Based in tradition
 Jean-Baptiste Lully

Armide
Baroque Sciences
 Francis Bacon

Scientific Method
 Galileo Galilei

Famous Astronomer
 Isaac Newton

Famous Physicist