The Baroque Masters lecture performance by Dr. Yelena Grinberg showcased a selection of keyboard works composed during the Baroque Ear (1600-1750) by t Baroque Masters George Frederic Handel, Domenico Scarlatti, and Johann Sebastian Bach. The ideal of the Baroque period was that music should not only be pleasing, but it must also induce very strong, visceral emotions and stir the passions of the soul. Some important features of the Baroque ear are the precise and elevated rhythms, clear and defined meter, irregular or embellished melodies, and an enriched and unified texture which was he together by the ongoing ground bass known as basso continuo. Although each of these Baroque Masters composed music that was highly reflective of the Baroque …show more content…
Grinberg played Partita No.4 in D Major (1728) by renowned composer J.S Bach. Bach was a prolific composer, composing over 1,000 compositions for the keyboard, and is revered for his work 's musical complexities and stylistic innovations. The partita that was played was one of his six partitas, which are stylized dance suites. Like Scarlatti’s sonatas, Bach’s partitas were originally composed for keyboard practice; they were not intended to be performed. Also similar to Scarlatti’s sonatas, Bach’s partita was cast in the popular baroque binary form. The Partita was spontaneous in structure; each movement began with a different structure. The partita opened with a French overture. The first movement had a slow, dotted rhythm, while the second movement exhibited a livelier rhythm with imitative polyphony, a texture that was favored in Baroque compositions. Next there were two dance suites, an Allemande moderately paced in quadruple meter, followed by a Courante, which is paced in triple meter for a livelier beat. Like Scarlatti, Bach’s musical works were also creative and inventive, making them somewhat ahead of their time. After the two dance suites, Bach added an unusual additional movement titles “Air” which took the form of an area. The remaining three dance suites were a Spanish Sarabande, the same dance suite that Handel used in his Chaconne in G major. The Sarabande uses a chromatic scale with dissonant harmonies, which we hear a lot of in the Baroque era. Next came a French minuet, cast in triple meter. Later on in the Classical period, every symphony and string quartet would include a minuet as the moderate third movement. The fourth and final movement of the Partita was an exhilarating gigue in which Bach creatively inverted the subject. Although this was a particularly long piece, Bach’s rhythmic vitality and creativity made this work very festive and enjoyable to listen
As the late Baroque period morphed into the new period known as the classical period, technological advances and new compositional techniques and ideas created new opportunities for the musicians of the period. The changes allowed for new performance techniques, forms, performance venues, and newly available compositional orchestrations to be improved and evolved into something new and improved for the new period.
The Baroque style of music was in prominence from the beginning of the 17th century until the mid-18th century. Some primary features of this style, particularly in the later years, include an emphasis on polyphonic textures and a continuity throughout the entire piece. Most compositions were created for specific events and sometimes written for particular instruments. (Kamien, 2015). The Trumpet Concerto for 2 Trumpets, composed by Antonio Vivaldi, is one example of these late Baroque style compositions and one we can use to analyze: the common elements, the overall effect, and the composer’s possible perspective.
This book by John Rupert Martin is a good introductory book in the understanding of Baroque artists and their tremendous variety. Martin defines the Baroque characteristics, but only very broadly leaving a significant amount of room for the reader to make his own deductions. In general, Martin believes that the typical definitions of the Baroque are "too restrictive and hence likely to create more problems of classification and interpretation than it solves." Even the time of the Baroque is left open to the reader when Martin says the Baroque is roughly comprehended by the seventeenth century. It is important to note at the outset that this is only a convenient approximation; for epoch as a whole can certainly not be fitted into such a strait-jacket." This helps to define the Baroque much more generally as a gradual change which can much easily be noticed from the present than the past.
The baroque has been called a theatrical style, one that deals in spectacle, grandeur, and dramatic contrast. Test these concepts in an essay that discusses the baroque as an expression of the Catholic Reformation, Protestant devotionalism, the Scientific Revolution, and the Age of Absolutism. Define your general statements with specific examples. The following essay will discuss the baroque period and how the Catholic Reformation, Protestant devotionalism, and the Scientific Revolution influenced it. The Baroque period generally refers to the years 1600 to1750. Classicism of the Renaissance has been replenished during the Baroque period. During the Baroque artistic period, the exploration of the fundamental components of human nature and the realm of senses and emotions were very crucial. The Baroque era was a very dynamic time that showed an abundance of radiance and color. Artists of this time were passionate and sensual. Their works were many times considered to have an overpowering emotional effect. The superficial form of light was fascinated during this period due to the thoughts of godlike sun or the truth of the Holy Spirit. The Baroque naturalism maintains the religious themes in content. The elements of perception in the Baroque art are how we perceived the natural human figures are in motion through space, time, and light. We present and analyze the extent of human actions and passions in all its degrees of lightness, darkness, and intensity. The scientific revolution also had a tremendous impact on art during this time. Scientists started to study the earth and it’s positioning in the universe. This was a time when the people started take more of an interest in astronomy and mathematical equations. During the time of the Catholic Reformation artists began to challenge all the rules that society has set for artistic design. Artist starting with Parmigianino, Tintoretto, and El Greco began to add a wide variety of colors into their paintings, challenging the way things have been done in the past. These artists also added abnormal figures or altered the proportions in paintings. This is displayed in Parmigianino’s painting, Madonna of the long neck. During this time the Catholic Church was in a transition period moving from their recent reputation and becoming a well-respected organization. During this reform, an autobiography written by Layola about Saint Teresa of Avila set a new tone for Catholics to follow. This influenced people to have a more spiritual outlook on life.
Sherrane, Robert. “The Baroque Age: George Frideric Handel.” Music History 102. Accessed: 5/18/2010. Date: 2008.
Getzinger, Donna. Johnann Sebastian Bach and the art of baroque music. 1st ed. Greensboro: Morgan Reynolds, 2004
Johann Sebastian Bach was born into a family of musicians. It was only natural for him to pick up an instrument and excel in it. His father taught him how to play the violin and harpsichord at a very young age. All of Bach’s uncles were professional musicians, one of them; Johann Christoph Bach introduced him to the organ. Bach hit a turning point in his life when both of his parents died at the age of ten years old. Bach’s older brother Johann Christoph Bach took him in and immediately expanded his knowledge in the world of music. He taught him how to play the clavichord and exposed him to great composers at the time. At the age of fourteen, Bach and his good friend George Erdmann were awarded a choral scholarship to the prestigious musical school St. Michael’s in Luneburg. From then on, Bach began to build his career in the music industry. His first two years at the school he sang in the school’s a cappella choir. Historical evidence has shown that Bach at a young age would visit Johanniskirche and would listen to the works of organ player Jasper Johannsen. This was thought to have been the inspiration to Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor. Studying at the prestigious musical school has help Bach network his way around and become acquaintances’ with some of the best organ players at the time such as Georg Böhm, and Johann Adam Reincken. Through his acquaintance with Böhm and Reincken Bach had access to some of the greatest and finest instruments.
As stated by Dr. Brown, Catholic Southern Europe was characterized by the counter reformation and absolutist monarchies. Different arts were created in the church service and Northern European burgers. The work that describes the Baroque period is stylistically complex, even contradictory.According to Dr. Brown's desire to evoke emotional states by appealing to the senses, often in dramatic way led to "grandeur, sensuous richness, drama, vitality, movement, tension, emotional exuberance, and a tendency to blur the distinctions between the various arts". Tendency can be seen, for Louis XIV at Versailles . (2)
The 17th century was the era of the baroque style, characterized by energy, drama, and movement. The church in Rome needed art that spoke to its resurgent power even as the conflict between the protestant and Catholics continued. Baroque was basically a counter movement to the rising Protestantism. A visual language was needed to reemphasize and reestablish the catholic belief amongst people. Baroque art was an attempt to gain control over peoples thinking, to basically make them think and feel more deeply, which could have happened only though art. The baroque era expands roughly from 1600 to 1750. The word 'Baroque' was claimed to derive from the Portuguese barroco meaning a 'pearl or tooth of unequal size.' It was therefore implied to mean imbalance and ugliness which was exactly opposite to what beauty and perfection through the imitation of ancient and Greek. It was around in 19th century when after a series of writings, baroque art could finally be considered as vital and different from renaissance art. The baroque era is sometimes roughly divided into three phases, early baroque (1590-1625), high baroque (1625-1660) and late baroque (1660-1725), in which late baroque is also sometimes called rococo.
Sartorius, Michael. Baroque Music Perormance: "Authentic" or "Traditional": A discussion of the essential issues involved. Ed. Micahel Sartorius. n.dat. Baroque Music Pages. [17 October 2003] .
A sinfonia (Italian for symphony) broadly refers to a number of instrumental works from the Baroque period, including symphonies, sonatas, canzonas, concerti, and Italian opera overtures. Even J.S. Bach titles his “three-part” inventions for harpsichord “Sinfonia”. Torelli’s Sinfonia in D (G.8) is a four-movement “concerto” for trumpet, strings and harpsichord continuo. Unlike a concerto grosso, where a main theme is presented and then reappears in fragments, the main themes of Sinfonia in D are developed rather freely. The second movement (Adagio) is a very short, slow, interlude without trumpet that introduces the third movement (Allegro). Hence, the program shows these two movements as “adagio-allegro” joined together.
One of the characteristics of the Italian Baroque is the realistic depiction of human figures, vivid use of color and foreshadowing techniques, especially in the paintings. In addition, the figures of the paintings seem to emerge from the background, giving huge differences between light and dark. The Italian baroque structure has a sense of movement and that of energy when in static form. The sculptures make the observers to have multiple viewpoints. The Baroque architecture has characteristic domes, colonnades, giving an impression of volume and void.
Baroque art can be described as a “distinctive new style” in which artists embraced “dynamism, theatricality, and elaborate ornamentation, all used to spectacular effect, often on a grandiose scale”. Baroque art encompasses a vast range of art from the dramatic and theatrical Italian pieces, as the quote suggests, to the more simple and every-day life but still fabulous Dutch pieces. Baroque art can hardly be contained in one description because it describes so many types of art, in great part due to the religious, socio-economic, and political scenes of the time. Religiously, the Catholic Church was responding to the Reformation by creating dramatic pieces to invoke piety and devotion. Politically, monarchies and rulers were using commissioned art to emphasize their authority and their given right to rule. Socio-economically, the middle class was rising and therefore wanting to buy and commission pieces of art to boost their reputation and validate their status in the social scene. These three changes were extremely significant but can by no means generalize the entire historical context of Baroque art. Instead, they stand as specific examples of important reasons for the range and breadth of Baroque art.
Anthony, James R., H. Wiley Hitchcock, Edward Higginbottom, Graham Sadler, Albert Cohen. “French Baroque Masters.” The New Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians. W.W. Norton and Company, 1986. p. 1-63
The Baroque era was the age of magic. Flat surfaces became three-dimensional and paint on plaster became alive. It was the age of masterful illusion. Nothing exhibits this mastery better than Baroque ceiling paintings.