Baroque Music: Forms, Composers, and Evolution
Baroque Music
1600
Musical Forms
Overtures: Introductory pieces. There are two main types:
- French Overture (3 sections)
- Neapolitan Overture (by Alexander Scarlatti): Slow-Fast-Slow
Suite: A combination of dances originating in the Renaissance. It typically includes:
- Allemande (moderate speed)
- Sarabande (slower and more solemn)
- Courante (faster)
- Gigue (fast)
These dances have different rhythms, origins, and characteristics. A Minuet could also be added.
Notable examples are the four suites by Johann Sebastian Bach.
Concerto: A very important musical form in the last two decades of the 18th century, with these key features:
- Relationship between melody and bass solo
- Tonal System
- Self-contained movements, contrasted in character and speed
- Color contrasts between different rhythmic groups
General rule: The concerto has several movements arranged in this order: Fast-Slow-Fast.
Types of Concertos
The Fugue
A musical form written in one movement and in a connotative way.
- It has two subjects: Ricercari and La Canzona.
- It reached its peak with Bach, author of “The Well-Tempered Clavier” (a two-volume collection of 48 preludes and fugues).
- It consists of a main theme accompanied by a secondary theme, which moves to other voices and is imitated.
Concerto Grosso
Late 16th and early 17th centuries.
- Concerto: Compositions involving groups of instruments with different sounds (also called Sinfonia or Canzona).
- The final form of the concerto was established after 1640 under the influence of Torelli and Corelli.
- Corelli’s 12 Concerti Grossi of 1714 are notable examples.
French Style
Characterized by short pieces.
- The harpsichord was the instrument that best represented this style.
- Composers: Rameau and Couperin.
- Works by Couperin: Precious and short musical portraits.
Instrumental Music in Spain
Keyboard music highlights include John [sic, probably Joan] Cabanilles and Correa [de Arauxo].
Instrumental Music in Germany
- The suite was the most popular form.
- Northern and Central German musical forms reached perfection with J.S. Bach and Handel.
Religious Music
18th Century. It had been influenced by Palestrina’s a capella polyphonic vocal style.
- In this century, under the influence of opera, religious music was infused with this style.
- New works: Oratorios and Cantatas (by Carissimi and Alessandro Scarlatti).
Religious Cantata in Germany
During the age of J.S. Bach, it had the following characteristics:
- Part 1 ended with the cantatas.
- Part 2 was preceded by a recitative. The compositions depended on the available instruments and voices, and the festivity being celebrated.
Oratorio
A musical form that uses biblical and religious texts, without scenic representation.
- It involves a narrator, solo voices, choir, and orchestra.
- It begins with an introduction, followed by a succession of arias and recitatives.
- It emerged in Italy from sacred representations in the mid-16th century.
- St. Philip Neri instituted youth meetings with apostolic motives at a church in Rome. They were called “oratorios,” hence the name.
- 17th Century: Two types were distinguished:
- Used texts from the Bible in Latin.
- Used texts in Italian.
- Authors: Carissimi (“The Judgment of Solomon”), Handel (“Messiah” and “Judas Maccabaeus”).
- Oratorios of the 18th Century: “Telemann’s Trial”.
Passion
An oratorio based on the theme of Christ’s death.
- Romanesque style.
- Composers preferred the text of St. Matthew over the other evangelists.
- At the beginning of the 18th century, passions in the north prevailed with recitatives, arias, and choruses on free texts.
- Passions of Johann Sebastian Bach: Only two complete ones are preserved: “Passion According to St. John” and “Passion According to St. Matthew,” considered one of the pinnacles of music.
Mass
It was one of the most used forms by composers, along with the cantata, oratorio, and passions.
There are two types of masses:
- Mass for chorus a cappella
- Polychoral Mass (2 or 3 choirs) with instruments.