Preview

Early Baroque Music Essay Example

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
794 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Early Baroque Music Essay Example
Early Baroque Music

The Baroque Period (1600-1750) was mainly a period of newly discovered ideas. From major new innovations in science, to vivid changes in geography, people were exploring more of the world around them. The music of the baroque period was just as extreme as the new changes. Newly recognized composers such as Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, and Monteverdi were writing entirely new musical ideas and giving a chance for new voices to be heard that were normally not thought of sounds. Their musical legacy is still recognized today, and is a treasured discovery of outstanding compositions being reiterated with every performance of them. Baroque which came from the French word barroque and the Portuguese word barroco originally meant deformed and misshaped. In a sense baroque is an appropriate term to describe this new for of ideas in time. On the other hand, no real word can describe the richness of this time period. Baroque music, just like any other music, reflects the time period that it was written in. The baroque era opened with the Thirty Years War, which included the siege of Vienna by the Turks in 1683, and ended with the development of independent nation states throughout Europe. The face of Europe was completely changed during the baroque period. Most music in the baroque era ended up being predominantly vocal, and its biggest factors were the opera and its styles. Most composers of the baroque period shared the same ideas of how their music should sound like and how it should move the affections. The baroque period had two different practices. The prima practica and the seconda practica were the practices that spited controversy with each other. The "first practice" was just the style of vocal polyphony that was established in writing by Zarlino. The "second practice" was just Claudio Monteverdi's way of being adventurous. He said that the first practice was music that the text prevailed, and that the second practice the text overpowered

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The Baroque era was from 1600-1770. The style from this period took techniques from the Renaissance era and added drama and emotion. Another style artists added was the range of light, accenting a focus point.…

    • 1280 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    IWT1 Task 1

    • 1285 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The social conditions that contributed to the Baroque period began with the rebirth of people, the Catholic Church had overcome the Protestant rising. There was new life and new water brought in to Rome and other major cities. We made discoveries that had shown us that the Earth was not the center of the universe like we had previously thought, also the…

    • 1285 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Antonio Vivaldi was one of the most influential composers of the Baroque period. He, along with many other composers, created some of the earliest European music familiar to us today (What is Baroque Music?). The Baroque period can best be described as using the power of music to communicate (What is Baroque Music?). The composers used a single voice that was accompanied by instruments, as well as specifying the instruments used, to capture the importance of the relationship between tonic and dominant chords. Vivaldi used these techniques to compose many operas, concertos, and church music that helped shape a new era of music.…

    • 860 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Music Appreciation

    • 603 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Baroque music is defined as “that in which the harmony is confused, charged with modulations and dissonances, the melody is harsh and little natural, the intonation difficult, and the movement constrained” (Jean-Jacques Rousseau). To me, baroque music is highly eccentric and decorative; extremely difficult and concise, yet beautiful all at the same time.…

    • 603 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Baroque Era Research Paper

    • 1278 Words
    • 6 Pages

    one cantata a week while he was music director at Leipzig. Due to the pace…

    • 1278 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Baroque Era Analysis

    • 351 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In Baroque Era, you can see the style throughout various of life forms in that time, for the purpose of this response, we are focusing on the architect and musical style of the Baroque Era. Bach’s composition No. 5 (Brandenburg), has polyphonic texture and uses the string and woodwind instrument family. You can hear the violins, flute, and harpsichord in this piece. The musical form of this piece is a three-part ritornello, and there are 3 movements. The movements go: (1) fast, (2) slow, and (3) fast. You can see the same type of texture used in the architect of the Town Hall in Munich, Germany. There are many individual layers to this structure that contribute to making this building a wonderful sight. Starting on at ground level, the Town Hall have these arch ways, followed by numerous amount of windows, and ending with pointed structures. This structure resembles a cathedral and it fits the Baroque style of music because the music…

    • 351 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    During the period of the Baroque musical style (1600-1750), emotions ran high, literally. This was a time for expression of emotions through musical performances called operas. Operas were made popular in Italy in 1600 and employed many theatre elements such as music, acting, poetry, and costumes. Operas, in all simplicity, were dramas set to music. The Baroque was defined by sudden shifts in dynamic, homophonic musical texture, emphasis on beats, and unity of rhythms. Both performances, “Tu Se Morta” by L’Orfeo and “Dido’s Lament” by Henry Purcell, display distinctive qualities of this time period and serve as excellent examples of technique.…

    • 517 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Our modern culture has been influenced by countless things whether it be something from our history or something that happens in our present society. The Baroque Era is one of those things that have influence our culture, not just here in the United States but also in Europe. The Baroque era, which started in Rome;Italy, was an Era in our history that made sure to leave an impact in our society. Due to certain events that happened during the Baroque Era, it has shaped our culture in our Arts, Literature, and also in our Music.…

    • 744 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Music has developed a lot over the years. Classical music has evolved in a more gradual manner with a number of smaller revolutionary steps along the way. In the 9th to 14th centuries the development of music was documented in a physical form. This was where music could now be communicated efficiently, and succeeding generations would know something about the music of their ancestors. There where demands of the church that required a musical notation, and so the earliest written music was largely in Church music called Hymns. The plainsong of this time was still singlehanded, but that’s when the new developments were starting to appear.…

    • 701 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    What Is The Baroque Era?

    • 402 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Baroque was an era of great changes in religion, politics, science, and economics. The Baroque Era began with the Counter-Reformation and ended with two types of revolutions, political and industrial, that changed the world. The baroque was also a period of scientific innovation led by the discoveries of Descartes and Galileo. Science was no longer based on Greek ideals or religious dogma, but on reason and empirical laws.…

    • 402 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Essay On The Baroque Era

    • 1242 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Baroque Era lasted from 1600 to 1750. It incorporated bold, powerful statements and the music was written for specific instruments, which was different from the Renaissance Era up to 1600. Also, the Baroque Era developed figured bass (basso continuo) and included improvisation which allowed for contrasting sections. One influential composer during the Baroque Era was J.S Bach. Bach was an involved musician who composed mainly to meet the needs of the positions he held. For example, as a church organist, he wrote works mainly for organ but also harpsichord, as well as cantatas for church, chorales, concertos, and chamber works. His compositions contained ornamentation that was typical in music during the Baroque Era, such as trills and…

    • 1242 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Baroque period took place from around the 1600’s to the 1800’s. This is when music was just reaching its peak of success; composers achieved great accomplishments during this time in history. Three of the most famous composers are Antonio Vivaldi, George Frideric Handel, and Johann Sebastian Bach. This type of music opened up composers to create a different kind of sound with more artistic freedom. “...Baroque music...was filled with complex melodies and…

    • 820 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Baroque Era

    • 1451 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Baroque music highlighted the use of rhythm and melody. Baroque music was written for listening pleasure and the glory of God. It was sacred with universal appeal. The interest was growing in secular music. Opera was a major artistic innovation of the 17th century. It was a play that was sung, not spoken. It had an audience of aristocrats and middle classmen. There was also a new focus on instrumental music and instrumental accompaniment to voices. There was also new emphasis put on chords and the use of BASSO CONTINUO.…

    • 1451 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Baroque

    • 436 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The term Baroque means an irregularly shaped complex form. It came from the irregularly shaped pearl meaning unnatural and strange. This is completely different, from a description of the music of the time. Musical styles greatly different from artistic styles of the time making it virtually impossible to draw parallels between the two. Instead, one needs to draw independent conclusions about Baroque music.…

    • 436 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Handel report

    • 1756 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Before one learns of Handel’s life it is important to know his music genre and methods. Handel’s musical collection has been placed in the style of Baroque. A term used generally, Baroque has many different origins and definitions. The word in Portuguese is defined as odd pearls and in English simply means strange or different (Dickinson 12). Defined in The Oxford Dictionary of Music by Michael Kennedy as Bizarre, Baroque was a term applied to German and Austrian architecture in the 17th and 18th century. Only later was the term borrowed to describe music (Dickinson 14). Antonio Vivaldi, Johann Sebastian Bach, Henry Purcell and Handel have all had works classified in the Baroque set. The Baroque style eventually began to describe a large portion of musical styles in the late 16th century, which ultimately added even more vagueness to an already imprecise term. Not a lot of things tied pieces of the time together; every piece seemed to be different in style (Dickinson 1-4). Contrary to the information put forth by Buelow, Baroque was described in The Complete Book of Classical Music as having a fairly uniform style. Most of the works of this era made use of basso continuo, which literally means a continuous bass part played by the bassist or cembalist (Dickinson 5-7, Cozen 1-4)…

    • 1756 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays