Reformation and the Baroque Period

322 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: Compare baroque era music with early music era

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.
One example which we heard in class was Handel's oratorio called Solomon, Act III. The third act is good representation of music of the Baroque and was written by Handel in order to state how marvelous and powerful Baroque music was. One of the biggest changes in Baroque music is the development of free standing instruments. The helps in the creation of a drama or mood in the music. Also, tonal unity is used to help demonstrate this mood. In Solomon, Act, dynamics, the contrast between loud and soft plays an intricate part in the sound of the music. It furthers the feeling of an overall unity in the piece. It starts and ends in the home key and wanders in the center. There is a unity in the tempo and the mood. However, their is a contrast in harmony, instrumentation, and dynamics.
This music is very difficult to relate to the Reformation/Counter Reformation of the time and may be why it is difficult to relate music to art. Another possible problem of relating music to art in this era is simply that in painting, the Baroque was coming of the Renaissance, simply the ultimate point of art. Music of the Renaissance was thought to be good, but not the ultimate.
In general, music did have some relation to the Reformation/Counter-Reformation. According to the rules of the Council of Trent, art should be free from sin and should bring one closer to the church and the love of god. The music in the Baroque seems to have its own interpretations of this. While music does not attempt to bring one closer to the love of god, it most certainly tries to bring one closer to the love of music.

Show More
Related

  • The Late Baroque Style Compared to the Classical Style

    526 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • John Rupert Martin's "Baroque"

    1152 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Baroque

    525 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Baroque Era Music Compared to Modern Rock

    994 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Lord Burlington and Chiswick House

    1773 Words  | 4 Pages

    Baroque era arose during the late 16th century in Italy. Baroque style is characterized by the new invention of lights and forms which was evolved out of Renaissance architecture in Italy.

    Read More

  • Comparing the Baroque Era and the Classical Era

    1287 Words  | 3 Pages

    There are two distinct eras in music that have impacted it immensely throughout time. They are known as the Baroque era and the Classical era. These eras have helped mold and elevate music, building creative pathways that still hold a strong effect in present day music. The differences in both the Baroque and Classical eras are quite immense but they both hold equal importance to the history of music and are high in their overall influential worth.

    Read More

  • Renaisssance versus Baroque Periods

    958 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • “The Martyrdom of St. Matthew” - Painting Analysis

    967 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...ic landscapes. The baroque marked the time in which painters considered using subjects other than scenes from the Bible and from classical traditions. The baroque period also was the period in which artists painted portraits, and everyday life scenes. Baroque artist broke away from trying to make the calm balance known to the renaissance artists. Artists from the baroque era were interested in no longer tried in the extreme. They wanted to paint subjects possessing strong emotions; they wanted to capture those emotions and feelings in their work. Instead of just extremes of feeling sometimes, these strong emotions were personal. More often artists tried to portray intense religious emotions. Baroque art attempted to explain how and why their subjects fit as strongly as they did by representing their emotional states as vividly and analytically as possible.

    Read More

  • Classical Music

    1052 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Baroque era contains three phases: early, middle, and late. During the early phase of Baroque, harmony became the central idea to music. The Florentine Camarata reinvigorated this style and were the ones who opposed their contemporary music. This group started in Italy and influenced composers in France. Baroque music would help create the popular form of music known as opera. Since it focuses on the soloist rather than a group of people singing simultaneously. It also focuses on the harmonic aspect of music (Palisca, 25).

    Read More

  • Baroque Vs Italian Baroque Art

    1519 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Renaissance and Reformation

    797 Words  | 2 Pages

    The renaissance and the reformation were two of the most significant changes in history that has shaped our world today. Both of these great time periods are strikingly similar in some ways and totally different in others. This is because the renaissance was a change from religion to humanism whether it is in art or literature; it is where the individual began to matter. However, the reformation was,” in a nutshell,” a way to reform the church and even more so to form the way our society is today. The first half of this paper will view the drop in faith, the economic powers, and the artistic and literary changes during the renaissance, while the second half will view the progresses and changes the church makes during the reformation.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast The Renaissance And Baroque Art

    1097 Words  | 3 Pages

    It reflected the Counter Reformation by the Catholic church against the Protestants. Much of Baroque art were stylized from Mannerism and what was going on at the time. “To counter the inroads made by the Reformation, the Roman Catholic Church after the Council of Trent adopted a propagandistic stance in which art was to serve as a means of extending and stimulating the public’s faith in the church. To this end the church adopted a conscious artistic program whose art products would make an overtly emotional and sensory appeal to the faithful” (Britannica). This led to a new interest in nature and the need for learning, encouraging the developments of science and exploring the world, where art was becoming more engaging and

    Read More

  • The Intentions of Baroque Architecture

    1358 Words  | 3 Pages

    The word “Baroque”, or “Barocco” was first used as a stylistic term to describe a period that flourished at 16th century and 17th century from Italy, originate after the movement of Gothic and Renaissance era. To describe the Baroque style, it is a collection of arts, developed under the Authority of the Catholic Church. Baroque architecture focus on realism and dramatic illusory as demanded by the Catholic Church to serve religious objective. In regard to the timeline movement, the renaissance emphasis balance and Harmony, while Baroque turns to explore on sophistication and drama. It is the combination of painting, sculptures and architecture.

    Read More

  • Joseph Haydn Accomplishments

    659 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the history of music many have accomplished tremendous features and have helped push the flow and growth of music and represent it wholeheartedly. Looking at musics long history and it’s coming to now you see the push from early church Gregorian Chant, the monophonic singing and droning of the early church, to the Renaissance and the change to polyphonic textures and more secular music while still holding true to its religious roots. Music evolved from there to the Baroque era, where some of the greatest minds of music history make their appearance, like Bach and Vivaldi who without a doubt left such a monumental mark on how music was played and composed and their legacy have impacted generations since. Now after the Baroque period, a time

    Read More

  • Baroque Of St. Teresa

    550 Words  | 2 Pages

    BAROQUE In arts, Baroque is a term derived from the Portuguese 'barocco' meaning, irregular pearl which describes a fairly complex idiom, originating in Rome, during the 17th century, and which embraced painting, and sculpture as well as architecture. Baroque style features exaggerated lighting, intense emotions, artistic sensationalism and release from restraint. The three essential elements of baroque style are lighting, movement and emotions.

    Read More

More about Reformation and the Baroque Period

Open Document