Baroque Music Forms and Genres

Posted on Apr 24, 2025 in Music

Secular Vocal Music

Accompanied monody is a texture in which the voices are not presented on top of each other with the same importance. The superior voice is highlighted over the rest of the voices, which are subject to the accompaniment of the main voice.

The Birth of Opera

Characteristics:

  • Compound vocal form with a narrative nature.
  • Stage performance.
  • Written for orchestra, choirs, and soloists.

Fundamental Parts:

  • Overture: Instrumental introduction.
  • Sung parts: For soloists and choirs.
  • Two types of singing:
    • Aria style: Expressive melodies, emotional texts.
    • Recitative style: Declaimed text, progress of the action.
  • Interludes: Instrumental sections.

Types of Opera:

  • Opera seria:
    • Plots based on mythological and heroic topics.
    • In Italian.
    • Favourite genre of aristocracy.
    • Evolved in Italy.
  • Opera buffa:
    • Plots based on daily life.
    • In the language of each country.
    • Characters closer to the audience.
    • Popular character and simpler music.
  • France:
    • Opera was called Tragédie lyrique.
    • Always included a ballet or a danced section.
    • Main composer: Lully.
  • England:
    • Opera laid its foundations with Dido and Aeneas.
    • Main composer: Purcell.
  • Germany:
    • Opera buffa was called Singspiel.
  • Spain:
    • We have the zarzuela, which is NOT exactly a type of opera.
    • Main composer: José de Nebra.

Religious Vocal Music

Religious music continued having great importance. Although chorale (Protestant Church), anthem (Anglican Church), mass, and motet (Catholic Church) continued to be cultivated, new religious vocal forms appeared:

  • Cantata
  • Oratorio
  • Passion

Cantata

Means “music for singing”. It appeared as a secular form, but later adopted religious topics.

  • It is a compound form for orchestra, choir, and soloists with arias and recitatives.
  • In Germany, it includes a chorale.
  • Main composer: Johann Sebastian Bach.

Oratorio

Is like an opera but with a religious theme and without stage performance. It is a compound form for orchestra, choir, and soloists with arias, recitatives, and choirs.

  • It makes use of a narrator and reinforces the role of the choir.
  • The stories are based on the Old and New Testaments.
  • Main composer: Georg Friedrich Handel.

Passion

It is an oratorio about the passion and death of Christ.

  • The narrator is the evangelist, the disciples and people are the choir, and the gospels are the soloists.
  • The passion, besides recitatives, arias, and choirs, can include a chorale.
  • Main composer: Johann Sebastian Bach.

Instrumental Music

Main instrumental forms:

  1. Suite

    Is a compound instrumental form made up of a sequence of dances. A suite can be written for solo instrument or for a whole orchestra.

    The most common structure of a Baroque suite is:

    • Allemande
    • Courante
    • Sarabande
    • Gigue

    Main composer: Johann Sebastian Bach.

  2. Sonata

    Compound instrumental form divided into four movements or sections:

    • Slow
    • Fast
    • Slow
    • Fast

    The sonata can be composed for a solo instrument, a duo, or a trio. Always accompanied by a keyboard instrument.

    Main composer: Domenico Scarlatti.

  3. Concerto

    Compound instrumental form divided into three movements or sections:

    • Fast
    • Slow
    • Fast

    The concerto can be:

    • Concerto grosso

      For a group of soloists and the orchestra.

      Main composer was Arcangelo Corelli.

    • Concerto a solo

      For a soloist and the orchestra.

      Main composer: Antonio Vivaldi.