The Baroque Era Sacred Music

National Styles of Music

❖ Italian music is associated with lyrical melody and a

strong sense of meter, and is considered serious.
❖ French music is lively and based in dance rhythms, but
with more ornamented melody.
❖ Germany took on both Italian and French attributes, but
was also known for a focus on counterpoint.
 Four Sacred Music Styles
The first three belong to the sixteenth century but continued into the
seventeenth and eighteenth. Based on the stile antico or prima
prattica.
1. The primary style was the polyphonic, a cappella, Netherlands-
style motet and Mass. Counterpoint was still strictly controlled by
the rules of panconsonance laid out by Zarlino. This style in a
secular piece could allude to the church and sacred topics.
2. The second was the polychoral scoring of the Venetian tradition.
3. The third was the polychoral style with concertato instruments.
4. The final and most progressive type of church music was the
sacred concerto. The modern style applied to the motet.
Monteverdi at St. Mark’s
Cathedral
Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672)
❖ From 1609 to 1612 Schütz
visited Venice to learn from
Giovanni Gabrieli.
❖ He went back again in 1628-29
to absorb the stile moderno from
Monteverdi.
❖ His music combines the prima
pratica and seconda pratica.
❖ He also combined the monodic
style and affective aesthetic of
the Italians with the German
language and taste (a bit more
reserved).
Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672)
❖ Symphoniae sacrae (Sacred
symphonies), Book III (1650)
includes Saul, was verfolgst du
mich?
❖ This is a polychoral motet with
concertato instruments.
❖ But it has the drama of the stile
moderno.
❖ Schütz maximizes contrast by
juxtaposing tutti scoring with an
expressive monody.
❖ Creates specific musical affects to
bring the text alive.
Oratorio
 Oratorio

❖ Developed from the motet and the sacred concerto.

❖ First performed in a prayer hall – oratorio – and was

called this from ca. 1640.

❖ The stories were taken from the Bible, which is rich in

dramatic episodes. Modern poets filled in details and
invented new dialogue.

❖ Divided into large sections, like the acts of an opera.

 Oratorio

❖ The action was not staged as in opera but was narrated

by a singer known as testo (text) or historicus, and this
became a crucial distinction between opera and oratorio.

❖ Most of the singing was done by the narrator and the

solo singers who took the lines of the individual
characters in the story.

❖ There was also a greater use of the chorus than in

opera.
Giacomo Carissimi (1605-74)

❖ Most significant composer of

Latin oratorios in the mid-17th
century.
❖ Instrumental ritornellos,
choruses, and solo arias.
❖ Range of styles in solo parts
from simple recitative through
more expressive recitativo
arioso to clearly structured
arias.
Handel and the Oratorio

❖ Opera seria in England

declined in the 1730s.
❖ Oratorios appealed to the
rising bourgeoisie.
❖ Handel’s oratorios draw on
the Old Testament.
❖ They resemble opera seria
in structure and style.
❖ But choruses are in the
English choral anthem style.
 Handel and the Oratorio

Zadok the Priest was used for the coronation of King George II in
1727.
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-
1750)
❖ The affective aesthetic
reached a pinnacle in his
music.
❖ Bach worked within locally
constrained conditions, at a
time when other composers
were turning to new styles.
❖ He also sought to produce the
most thoroughly developed
works in nearly every genre of
the (older) era.
 Praise of Bach

‘He is an extraordinary artist on the harpsichord and on the

organ. … His facility is astonishing, and one can hardly
understand how it is possible that he can make his fingers
and his feet cross each other, extend, and manage the
widest leaps so singularly and nimbly, without mixing in a
single wrong note or contorting his body by any such
vigorous movement.’
(Johann Adolph Scheibe, 1737)
 Criticism of Bach

‘This man would be the wonder of entire nations, if he had

more charm, and if he did not detract from the natural in his
pieces by a bombastic and muddled style, and obscure
their beauty by excessive artifice. Because he judges
according to his fingers, his pieces are extremely difficult to
play; for he requires that the singers and instrumentalists
do with their throats and instruments whatever he can play
on the keyboard. This, however, is impossible.’
(Johann Adolph Scheibe, 1737)
Bach in Leipzig (1723-1750)

❖ Kantor at St. Thomas Church

and School, with many and
varied responsibilities.
❖ Wrote a cantata every week.
❖ Composed oratorios,
including for Christmas and
Easter, and the Passion
oratorios based on the Gospel
narratives of John (1724) and
Matthew (1727).
 Bach Cantatas
❖ Included solo singers, a small choir, and orchestra. Bach
wanted three singers on each part, and one to three players on
each instrument (an orchestra of around twenty).
❖ The typical plan included six movements, three before and three
after the sermon (other movements might also be added):
❖ an opening chorus, a solo recitative, and an aria or a duet;
❖ then another recitative, another aria or duet, and a chorale.
❖ The first movement is sometimes an elaborate arrangement of
the chorale in concerted style. The poetry for the free or
‘madrigalistic’ movements and recitatives (i.e., those not based
on the chorales) was by contemporary poets.
 ‘Jesu, der du meine Seele’
(1724)
❖ First movement, Chorus, combines different baroque techniques:
ostinato bass incorporated into a large-scale ritornello structure.
❖ Second movement is a duet in da capo form. Word-painting: the
main thematic idea is an energetic, upward-moving line matching
the text: ‘We hasten with weak, yet eager steps’.
❖ The fifth movement, a bass recitative, has more word painting:
‘Wunden’, ‘Naegel’, ‘Kron’, ‘Grab’, and ‘erschreckliches’.
❖ The sixth movement aria is actually a duet between the vocalist
and oboist. This manner of writing for voice and solo instrument
occurs frequently in Bach’s music.
❖ The cantata ends with a harmonized version of the chorale melody.
The Baroque Era Instrumental Music
Corelli, Vivaldi, and J. S. Bach
 Building on the Past
❖ Early 17th century maintained the types of instrumental
music employed previously.
❖ New factors in musical thinking directed those older forms
along new paths:
❖ the doctrine of the affections
❖ the concertato principle
❖ the new harmonic language
❖ ideas about abstract musical form
 The Fantasia

❖ Builds on the ricercar, which was based on the motet

and had a free form consisting of a series of interlocking
sections based on various points of imitation.
❖ The keyboard fantasia concentrated on working out one
point of imitation, or subject, through an entire piece, to
provide unity and maintain a single affect.
 The Sonata

❖ Building on the canzona, elaborated transcriptions of

chansons, which had short, contrasting sections that
maintained interest more through contrast than through
unity.
❖ In the sonata, divisions between the sections resulted in
clearly distinguished movements, each conveying a
distinct affect.
 Sets of variations
❖ Variations offered both unity and variety. Such sets were often
called partita, since they were made up of many partes.
❖ The first written variations of the chaconne, a dance imported from
Latin America, appeared in Spanish guitar books of the early 17th
century.
❖ The earliest set for keyboard is Frescobaldi’s Partite sopra
ciaccona (1627).
❖ Passacaglias originated in the early 17th century as ‘walking-
around music’ for guitar that served as introductions, interpolated
episodes, and conclusions to songs and dances; these were also
known as ripreseor ritornelli, repeated with improvised variations.
❖ Frescobaldi’s Partite sopra passacagli (1627) may have been the
earliest for keyboard.
 Improvisatory Instrumental
Music
❖ Especially for keyboard, often entitled ‘toccata’ or
‘prelude’. Free, virtuosic passagework paired with
contrapuntal sections resembling fragments of ricercars
or canzonas.
❖ Some pieces or passages adopt a flamboyant, florid
style, whereas others consist of slow-moving,
contemplative, harmonic changes.
❖ Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643), Toccata IX
 Instruments
❖ Increasing interest in instrumental music independent of vocal
contexts or models led musicians to develop idiomatic styles
associated with individual instruments.
❖ The violin family was fully developed and became the usual core
of instrumental ensemble groupings.
❖ Players achieved a technique that allowed the performance of
lines vastly exceeding the range, flexibility, and speed limits of
earlier models based on vocal ideals.
❖ The concertato ideal led to the exploitation of a wide variety of
instrumental colours: recorders and flutes, oboes and bassoons,
trumpets and timpani, as well as strings and keyboard
instruments. Also available were horns and trombones.
 Developments in Style and
Structure
❖ Instrumental music required structures that would balance
unity and contrast and have coherence and overall form.
❖ A single affect created a high degree of unity within any
movement, in terms of expressive figures, typical rhythms, etc.
❖ Contrast was likely to be produced by concertato scoring or by
the terraced dynamic changes that imitated concertato effects.
❖ A major discovery was that musical shape could be created by
departure from and return to a main key area. Further, these
departures and returns could be articulated by melodic events
and scoring changes.
 Dance Music

❖ Individual dances adopt a binary form with two halves

roughly equal in length and separated by a strong
cadence, each half repeated.
❖ The pairing slow and fast dances was gradually
extended to more movements, forming a suite.
❖ Suites followed a plan of contrasting tempos and
rhythmic characters, producing contrasting affects.
 The Suite
❖ Building on the practice of pairing slower and faster dances,
the suite was the first multimovement genre in instrumental
music.
❖ In German suites from the middle of the 17th century, the
order of allemande, courante, sarabande, and gigue became
the norm.
❖ Other movements came after the sarabande: bourrées,
gavottes, minuets, etc. A prelude might come at the
beginning.
❖ The sequence provided contrast between adjacent
movements, as well as progression from slower to faster
movements.
❖ Unity was provided over the entire span of the suite by the
use of a single key throughout.
 The Suite
❖ Different dances, with their proper rhythmic styles,
embodied different affects.
❖ In Johann Matheson’s Der vollkommene Capellmeister
(The complete music director, 1739): the affects were listed
as:
Minuet – ‘moderate gaiety’
Gavotte – ‘jubilant joy’
Bourrée – ‘contentedness’
Courante – ‘hope’
Sarabande – ‘ambition’
Gigue – a variety of passions were possible, from
‘anger’ to ‘flightiness’
 The Suite
❖ Could be composed for any medium – lute, viol, cello, etc. – but
harpsichord dominated the genre.
❖ Excerpting dances from operas led to orchestral suites, then
composers began to write original suites for orchestra.
❖ All of the standard dances were in binary form. Each dance was
constructed in two main parts, and each part was repeated.
❖ The first part moved away from the main key centre and
cadenced in a related but contrasting area. The second half
began at that point and cadenced in the opening key again.
❖ This practice represents the beginning of the principle of tonal
departure and return, that was to underlie the development of
musical form for the next two centuries.
 The Suite
❖ France, with its tradition of court dances, had a strong
influence on the structure and style of suites throughout
Europe. In France the term ordre sometimes substituted
for the word suite.
❖ French composers were also fond of identifying their
pieces by people’s names (real or fictional) or
describing them by titles indicating affective content.
❖ François Couperin (1668-1733), Pièces de clavecin,
Book 1: 2nd Ordre, Premiere Courante and Sarabande,
‘La prude’
François Couperin (1668-
1733)
❖ Organist at Saint Gervais and
composer to the French court.
❖ Obtained a 20-year royal
privilege to publish in 1713 and
issued four volumes of
harpsichord works.
❖ Published a harpsichord
playing manual, collections of
keyboard and chamber music,
and a treatise describing the
proper performance of
embellishments.
 German Music for Keyboard
❖ The chorale prelude was used to introduce chorale singing.
❖ Chorale melody stated as a cantus firmus, supported by
material devised to produce an affect in keeping with the chorale
test.
❖ Often main melody in long notes in soprano or tenor – each of
its phrases introduced by motives from the chorale presented in
imitative texture in the other parts (Vorimitation, pre-imitation).
❖ Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706), Chorale Prelude on the
Magnificat peregrini toni
❖ Also improvisatory preludes and toccatas in free forms.
❖ Dieterich Buxtehude (ca. 1637-1707), Praeludium in G minor.
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-
1750)
❖ The affective aesthetic reached
a pinnacle in his music.
❖ Bach worked within locally
constrained conditions, at a time
when other composers were
turning to new styles.
❖ He also sought to produce the
most thoroughly developed
works in nearly every genre of
the (older) era.
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-
1750)
❖ Born in Eisenach, now in central
Germany.
❖ His parents died when he was ten.
❖ Moved to the north, Lüneberg, to
go to school.
❖ Heard three great organists and
was influenced by them: Boehm,
Reincken, and Buxtehude.
❖ At eighteen Bach began his
professional career as a church
organist in Weimar and Arnstadt.
Bach in Weimar (1708-1717)
❖ Appointment at the court of the duke
of Weimar, again as organist.
❖ In 1714 he was promoted to
Konzertmeister, which gave him
responsibility for instrumental
performances at the court.
❖ Bach copied and transcribed works
of Vivaldi, and began to write
original works in the Italian manner.
❖ Also wrote the Orgel-Büchlein, a
collection of chorale arrangements
for the organ.
Bach in Cöthen (1717-1723)
❖ Moved to the court of the very
musical prince at Cöthen.
❖ Served for six years as
Kapellmeister, with duties in the
secular rather than sacred
sphere.
❖ Wrote a lot of his chamber and
orchestral music, including
concertos and orchestral suites.
❖ Also wrote a lot keyboard music,
including the first book of the
Well-Tempered Clavier (1722).
 Fugue

❖ Builds on the imitative polyphonic ricercar or fantasia.

❖ By the end of the century, fugue subjects became
progressively sharper in both rhythm and pitch contour.
❖ Manipulation of the subject through inversion or
rhythmic augmentation or diminution.
❖ Once the key centre was asserted, the fugue could
depart from it, achieving forward motion and tension.
❖ Terms: episode, middle entry, stretto, pedal point.
Clavierübung (Keyboard
practice)
❖ The first part (1731) is a set of six
partitas (suites) for harpsichord.
❖ The second part (1735) combines
harpsichord pieces in two national
styles, a French overture and
dance suite, and an Italian
concerto.
❖ The third part (1739) is a collection
of chorale preludes framed by a
prelude and fugue.
❖ The fourth part (1741-1742) is a
set of thirty variations, the so-called
Goldberg Variations.
 The Ensemble Sonata
❖ In Italy the most important multimovement instrumental
genre was the sonata.
❖ Usually two violins and basso continuo (the trio sonata),
though other combinations were possible.
❖ Two classes of sonatas: the sonata da camera, or
chamber sonata, and the sonata da chiesa, or church
sonata.
❖ The sonata da camera is a suite of dances; the sonata
da chiesa does not (officially) include dances and often
featured fugal writing.
Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713)

❖ Trained in Bologna, worked in Rome

❖ An outstanding composer of sonatas
and concertos.
❖ Published five sets of twelve
sonatas:
❖ opp. 1 (1681) and 3 (1689) are trio
sonatas da chiesa
❖ opp. 2 (1685) and 4 (1694) are trio
sonatas da camera
❖ op. 5 (1700), solo sonatas da chiesa
and da camera
Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713)

❖ The first ‘modern’ composer, who

established a new harmonic
syntax.
❖ Two upper lines in counterpoint of
thirds and sixths, basso continuo in
contrary motion, leading to
cadential unisons or octaves.
❖ Developed standard tonal
progressions.
 Concerto

❖ In the late 17th century composers developed the

concertato principle further by adapting the sonata for a
larger orchestral ensemble, thereby producing the
concerto.
❖ The concerto is related to the sonata, but with parts that
are doubled, tripled or quadrupled in some sections by
additional players.
❖ The size of the orchestra was around twenty players.
 Types of Concerto
❖ In the concerto grosso, a small solo group called the
concertino plays throughout, and the full ensemble –
called tutti (all) or ripieno (full) – reinforces certain
passages.
❖ Another option was the solo concerto, with only a
single solo player with intermittent support from the
ripieno.
❖ There was also the ripieno concerto, without soloists
but exploiting various combinations within the full
ensemble.
Guiseppe Torelli (1658-1709)

❖ Based in Bologna
❖ Standardized the three-
movement plan, alternating
fast, slow, and fast tempos.
❖ Developed the contrast
between harmonically stable
ritornello passages for the
ripiena, and modulatory,
virtuosic episodes for the
soloist or concertino group.
Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)

❖ Learned to play the violin from

his father, a musician at St.
Mark’s Basilica in Venice.
❖ From 1704 he worked as a
teacher, composer, and music
director for the Ospedale della
Pieta, an orphanage for girls.
❖ Wrote five hundred concertos,
as well as church music and
operas.
Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)

❖ His concertos build on those of

Corelli and Torelli.
❖ Individual movements are longer
and more developed.
❖ His ritornellos begin with a bold,
memorable gesture that focuses
on the main key.
❖ This allowed for abbreviation of
the ritornello at subsequent
appearances, tightening the form.