Baroque Music
music of Europe from about 1600 to about 1750.
Critics applied the term baroque to the period long
after it ended, as a negative epithet. From the
perspective of the classical style, which followed the
baroque and was characterized by symmetry and
balance, many critics found the music of the
preceding period over-exuberant and somewhat
grotesque.
Opera, drama in which the text is set to music and
staged. The texts of operas are sung, with singing and
stage action nearly always given instrumental
accompaniment. Many operas also feature
instrumental interludes (called intermezzi) and dance
scenes, even extended ballets that interrupt the action.
COMPOSERS
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), German
composer and one of the world’s greatest musical
geniuses. His work marks the culmination of the
baroque style. A man of inexhaustible energy and
imagination,
George Frideric Handel (1685-1759), German-born
composer, who worked primarily in England,
considered one of the most important masters of the
baroque period (from about 1600 to 1750). Handel
and his German contemporary Johann Sebastian
Bach are considered the greatest composers of the
early 18th century.
Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725), Italian composer,
who helped to establish the Neapolitan style of opera
that dominated 18th-century music. Born in Palermo,
Sicily, he was probably trained in Rome under the
Italian oratorio composer Giacomo Carissimi. His
earliest known opera, L'errore innocente, was
produced in Rome in 1679
Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757), Italian
harpsichordist and composer. Giuseppe Domenico
Scarlatti was born in Naples. He studied first with his
father, Alessandro Scarlatti, and later with the Italian
composer Francesco Gasparini. Scarlatti first
attracted attention by his revision (1704) of the opera
Irene by the Italian composer Carlo Francesco
Pollarolo
Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741), Italian musician, the
most influential composer and violinist of his age. A
prolific composer, he wrote nearly 500 concertos and
established the concerto form for the baroque period.
Vivaldi’s best-known concertos are The Four
Seasons (1725).
CHARACTERISTICS of BAROQUE music
1.Melody, the organized succession of musical tones
of given pitches and durations. Melodies are
distinguished from one another by several traits. For
example, the opening of “Mary Had a Little Lamb”
falls and then rises in pitch (melodic contour), spans
the interval of a major third (range), and consists of
three tones, each a whole step from the next (scale).
Recitative, style of musical composition for solo
voice, in which the melodic contours and note values
are based largely on the natural inflections and
rhythms of speech.
Rhythm, controlled or measured flow of movement,
either aural or visual, usually produced by an ordered
arrangement of differing elements of the medium
concerned.
Counterpoint, the simultaneous combination of two
or more melodies. The word counterpoint is derived
from the Latin punctus contra punctum—literally,
“point against point,” or note against note, but
meaning melody against melody.
Harmony (music), the combination of notes (or
pitches) that sound simultaneously. The term
harmony is used both in the general sense of a
succession of simultaneously sounded pitches and for
a single instance of pitches sounding together. In this
second meaning, the term harmony is synonymous
with chord.
Types and Forms of Baroque Composition
A. Baroque Vocal Music
1. Opera was developed as a continuously sung
musical drama by the Camerata during the
1590s, with the intention of recreating the
power of Greek drama to move the
emotions, using music to heighten the
communicative powers of the human voice.
2. Oratorios were devotional services that
featured dramatic dialogues based on
biblical stories; they had their roots in Italian
religious song.
3. Cantatas, written for voice with instrumental
accompaniment, developed at the same time
as operas and oratorios. Some were based on
secular texts; others accompanied religious
services.
4. Church Music, Composers of the baroque
era continued to write Masses for the Roman
Catholic Church. In Protestant services the
chorale, or hymn, took the place of the
Mass.
B. Baroque instrumental music
1. Instruments.
a. Violin, bowed stringed instrument,
the highest pitched member of the
violin family. Other members of
the violin family are the viola,
cello, and double bass.
 b. Organ keyboard musical instrument
in which compressed air vibrates
within tuned pipes to produce
sound. An organ consists of flue
pipes and/or reed pipes, an air
supply, and the keys and other
controls.

Wind instruments commonly used in the baroque

period were the flute, oboe, bassoon, trumpet, horn,
and trombone.
2. Sonata (Italian sonare,”to sound”), musical
composition for one or more instruments.
The term also refers to the musical form
typical of the first movements of 18th-
century sonatas and related genres. Since the
mid-18th century, the term sonata has
generally been used for works in a three- or
four-movement format for one or two
instruments, as in the piano sonata (for solo
piano) or violin sonata (for violin with a
keyboard instrument).
3. The concerto was one of the most important
types of works for small orchestra to emerge
during the 17th and 18th centuries. It
developed when composers merged
characteristics from several types of music
of the period in a new form. These traits
included the idea of contrast between large
and small groups of instruments, and the use
of homophony—the harmonization of a
melody through chords.
4. The fugue, a composition in which the
subject is repeated by successively entering
voices, originated during the baroque period
and was brought to its highest development
by Bach. Fugues could be written for any
solo instrument, or for instrumental or vocal
groups, but during the baroque era the form
was primarily associated with keyboard
music. Statements of the subject may be
separated by sections of freely invented
counterpoint called episodes.