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Development of instrumental music during the baroque era
Development of music from the medieval to the baroque period
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The Baroque Period begins with the death of J. S. Bach. This period is also known as the Age of Absolutism. Most composers in this time period found employment in the church, court, and the opera house. As the instruments started to grow so did the Baroque orchestra. String, woodwind, and many others became more important than vocal music at this time. During the Baroque period harmonic complexity grew.
There are many similarities in today’s music and music from the Baroque period. Take Pop music for example, it starts out fast, then slow, back to fast. Which is the same in the Baroque period with concerto grosso music how it goes fast, then slow, back to fast again. Also with Dance Suite it has differing rhythmic patterns and meters, which
is in a lot of the music I listen to as well. I also listen to some country, most country songs tell the composers life story. The Opera in the Baroque period was also based on their life stories. But in today’s music there are many differences from now to the Baroque period. This is because Pop music has gotten away from instruments and now is using electronics to make beats. We also have rap music which is very inappropriate and has a lot of foul language. This is something you would not hear in the Baroque period for the fact that they focused more on instrumental music than vocal music. Drums were not often used in Baroque music, though we do use a lot of bass in our music today. I do believe that this has opened me to explore other styles of music. This is because I have realized that the music I listen to today have many similarities to music from long ago. There are still many styles of music from before the Baroque period. But the Baroque period was the most interesting to me; it helped me realize that there is more styles out there that I have not even heard yet. I think that the Baroque period helped me become interested in other styles of music.
His death marked the end of Baroque music. Bach left a music legacy. His music has been studied and continues to be studied by several generations of composers and musicians.
With the rejection of complicated Baroque style of music, the classical era came about. The idea of simpler music would appeal to a broader audience, thus making the classical era more popular. The change was not sudden; rather, the Rococo style was like a transition period. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach was an important character in the changing of styles. The Rococo style was known as an expressive or sensitive style. Baroque music usually remained in the same mood throughout a piece, whereas this new style would sometimes change moods abruptly with highly contrasting ideas. The use of ornaments in music gradually went out with the complicated baroque music. Simpler, more original melodies emerged with this new style. During the Baroque era, instrumental music and vocal music were equally important. This contrasts the Classical era where instrumental music was more prominent than vocal.
...rease in popularity during the Baroque Age. The listeners enjoyed hearing the keyboard pieces that were often grouped into suites and played in the same key. Organ music was also very important during this era, mainly being played in church services. The major forms of keyboard music were preludes, chorals, variations, and fugues. Each of the three musicians used these forms of keyboard music in their pieces. Through these forms, Bach was able to take on every genre of music, creating his own which was the keyboard concerto. The works that Handel composed were often forgotten unless they were an oratorio. Telemann’s music was generally complex containing French, Italian, and Polish styles. Though the styles of music between these three men vary, they were able to leave a positive lasting impression causing people to reproduce and listen to their music regularly.
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.
From the concrete structure of the Baroque period to the free-form structure of the Modern period each composer brings forth a new understanding and value to their time period. Within these pieces that they creatively compose it brings new light and displays the culture of the time period. The composers each have story to tell and has each creatively constructed their own works within the diameters of their era.
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.
Johann Sebastian Bach was one of the most famous German composers of his time. All of his work was mostly during the baroque era. The baroque period was from 1600 to 1750 and it is known to be one of the most diverse musical periods as opposed to the other classical music eras. It was in this era that “included composer like Bach, Vivaldi and Handel, who pioneered new styles like the concerto and the sonata.”(Classic FM) Johann Sebastian was born in the midst of the Baroque era as he was born on March 31, 1685 in Thuringia, Germany. Johann came from a family of musicians, which is how he himself became one as well. It was his father who showed him how to play his first instrument, which was the violin. His father was also a well-known musician in his town as he “worked as the town musician in Eisenach.”(Johann Sebastian Bach) It is known that Johann Sebastian went to a school that taught him
When comparing Baroque era music to any modern day rock band, one most listen to the music with open ears. It is hard to identify the similarities of Baroque music and that of modern day rock. Although, the advances made in music during the Baroque era (1600-1750) are still noticeable in modern day rock. A perfect example of the noticeability of modern rock influenced by Baroque music can be heard in the Baroque music of Johann Sebastian Bach’s, “Brandenburg Concerto No 4 G major BWV 1049”(Classical Vault 2), and modern day rock band, This will destroy you combined instrumental music, “Three legged work horse and there are some” (TheRealConcertKing). Although both compositions show much difference, they are also very similar in the way the music is set up and thought out in music form.
Baroque era covers the period between 1600 and 1750 beginning with Monte Verdi (birth of opera) and ended with deaths of Bach and Handel. The term baroque music is borrowed from the art history. It follows the Renaissance era (1400-1600). It was initially considered to be a corrupt way of Renaissance by conservatives. The dominant trends in Baroque music correspond to those in Baroque art and literature. Some features of Baroque art included a sense of movement, energy, and tension (whether real or implied). Strong contrasts of light and shadow enhance the effects of paintings and sculptures. Opera is one of the types of music in the Baroque era. It represented melodic freedom. Baroque era was usually referred to as the thorough-bass period. In early Baroque era no tonal direction existed, but experiments in pre-tonal harmony led to the creation of tonality. [1] Baroque genre included instrumental suite, ritornello, Concerto grosso and chant. There were important composers of the Baroque period such as Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel, Antonio Vivaldi William Byrd Henry Purcell and George Phillip Telemann. Starting in northern Italy, the hierarchical state -- led by either the urban bourgeoisie or despotic nobles -- replaced the fluid and chaotic feudal system of the middle Ages. [2] For this reason, some historians refer to the Renaissance as the Early Modern Era. Sculptors, building on the techniques of artists such as Giovanni Bernini (1598-1680), found ways to create the illusion of energetic and even violent movement in their works. Painters created larger and more crowded canvases. Virtuosity was used in all the arts. The arts became an important measure of learning and culture. Music moved from the science of number to an expressive art viewed as an equal to rhetoric.
Music throughout the ages has changed dramatically. Starting in the Medieval period, from 400-1475, music was in the form of what is called the Gregorian chant. Instruments were very rarely used at this time. Since songs during this period were either troubadour or trouvere these chants had no real harmony. One example of this type of medieval composition is “Viderunt Omnes” by Leoninus. Like most Gregorian chants the texture of this piece is monophonic and polyphonic. “Viderunt Omnes” is a typical Gregorian chant in that it uses diatonic, not chromatic notes of the scale. Musical compositions during the Medieval period was made mostly by members of the church for the church. It was and is a very slow and steady movement that was meant to create a feeling of peace for worship purposes.
“Music” as defined by the Oxford Dictionary, is “vocal or instrumental sounds combined in such a way as to produce the beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion.” Emotion, and the treatment of emotion, is indubitably an important aspect of music from all eras, but the manner in which emotion is expressed, has changed over time. Throughout the Baroque period (c. 1600 – 1750) musicians attempted to cause a specific extreme emotion in the listener, while during the Classical period (c. 1750-1825) composers sought to produce a balance of emotions. Due to philosophical and artistic movements that occurred, emotion, a critical element of music, was conveyed differently between the Baroque and Classical periods.
Northern and Italian Baroque art were unique in their own ways but were also similar as well. While Northern Baroque Art aimed for excitement and move viewers in an emotional sense, Italian Baroque art was more detailed and captured the personality of the figure. The arts compared to one another by the use of self-portraits and the famous feature of light and dark as well. Art back in the 17th and 18th century was the center of everything and much more important back then compared to how it is now.
The Italian Renaissance and the Baroque era are two major periods in art history, some of the types of art in those periods were painting, sculpting, and architecture. During these periods, many artist gained enormous fame from creating wonderful pieces of work that represented their beliefs and artistic thinking. This essay will analyze and evaluate two pieces from those major art periods. Rembrandt 's painting The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp and the sculpture David, by Michelangelo. These two masterpieces shed light of their significance in art history. David represents the Italian Renaissance for it being a strong symbol of the new republic, The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp depicts the focus on human progression.
This era is recognized by the creation of tonality, as well as the establishment of the opera, cantata, and concerto. Different from the classical era, this era featured a unity of mood, a continuous rhythm and melody, and a predominantly polyphonic texture, meaning that there were two melody lines, each fighting for the listener 's attention. The composers from the Baroque period were well-known for their extravagant, frivolous and bizarre usage of their instruments and their performances. The most notable influence from this era is in modern music especially rock music, because in rock music emotions are intense and the mood are usually unified just like the music from the Baroque period. Some artists and rock bands have adopted this bizarre style, for example Prince and Lady Gaga. Many rock bands were inspired by composers of this era such as Bach because of the intensity of his
Classical music came about as a lighter, less complicated music than in the Baroque era. There was a preferred use of homophonic texture and had more variety and contrast in each piece of music. The string quartet was one of the favorite forms of chamber music during the Classical Era(1750-1830). A string quartet consists of two violins, one viola, and one cello. There was usually one melody played, and each instrument had its range and voice for each musical piece. Classical music put great emphasis on beauty and balance with a shorter tune and clearly marked cadences. Classical music has three characteristics of balance, clarity, and proportion. There was more importance given to instrumental music at this time.