Comps: Baroque (1600 AD - 1750 AD), Classic (1750 AD - 1825 AD), Romantic (1825 AD - 1900 AD), Twentieth Century

fugue

"flight." The most fully developed procedure of imitative counterpoint in which the theme is stated successively in all voices of the polyphonic texture. Typicalfour voice form: In the exposition, the fugal subject is presented alone in one voice, then imitqated or answered, usually in the dominant by a second voice. It can be tonal (different intervals) or real (exact intervals). Usually the third voice enters on the tonic and the fourth in the dominant. After statements of the subject, each voice continues with a countersubject until a cadence. An episode follows, borrowing material from the subject. The subject enters again, either in alone or in a complete reexposition. The episodes and subject presentations can alternate several times until a final section with the subject in the tonic.The supreme examples are Bach's Well Tempered Clavier and Art of Fugue.

air de cour

("court song") A short, strophic, and homophonic chanson, often with refrain, which first appeared in France around 1550. Initially called vaudeville, it was usually performed as a solo or duet with lute accompaniment. Some were used as chamber music, while others were used for court ballets. Characteristic of the air de cour is the constant shift between duple and triple meters. Airs de cour traditionally applied the practice of "doubling," or varying the second statement of each section.

chorale prelude

(1) In a general sense, the same as an organ chorale. (2) A short setting for organ of one strophe of a chorale, which serves as an introduction to a congregational rendering of the chorale. The melody, which may be embellished, is presented over a polyphonic accompaniment. The chorale prelude was developed in the late 17th C, mainly by North German composers (e.g. Böhm, Buxtehude, JC Bach) and reached its culmination in JS Bach's 45 examples in the Orgelbüchlein, mostly written in the decade 1710-20. Several of Bach's pupils continued the tradition, but the term was not much used after 1750. It was revived in the 19th C by Brahms and Reger. chorale variation: Variations on a chorale melody, usually for keyboard. The form was popular in the early 17th C, and there are several by such composers as Sweelinck and Scheidt. Later, the term chorale partita was used, for examle by Bach. Buxtehude wrote a set of variations on "Auf meinen lieben Gott" employing the secular dance forms of the suite, and his example has been followed in the 20thC by Ernst Krenek.

Bardi

(1534-1612) member and host of the Camerata in Florence starting in the 1570's. (see "Camerata," Renaissance terms.) Wrote that the melody and rhythm should follow the text.

Artusi

(1540-1613) Composer and theorist. In his dialogue, L'Artusi overo delle imperfettioni della moderna musica, (1600), Artusi criticizes Monteverdi's contrapuntal licenses, particularly his apparent freedom with dissonances, which Monteverdi considered part ofthe "second practice."

Caurroy, Eustach du

(1549-1609). A French composer who became sous-máitre of the royal chapel. His Victimae Paschali laudes is marked by a number of French traits. The work is written for two choirs, one a full four-voice choir and the other comprising three soloists. These choirs eventually unite at the end of the work. The alternation of grand choeur and petit choeur became a norm in seventeenth-century France for most of the music written for many voices. The work is composed using faultless stilo antico counterpoint. Caurroy was also an adherent of the tenets of musique mésurée à l'antique and as such strove to retain the qualities rather than the stresses of the Latin text. his music is also marked with a thick web of syncopations and suspensions and a tendency to avoid cadneces until the ends of double versicles.

Caccini, Giulio

(1551-1618) Le nuove musiche (1601); singer and composer who was one of the creators of early opera. Like Peri, he set Rinuccini's L'Euridice. Peri, Caccini, and Cavalieri all strove for a kind of song that was intermediate between spoken recitation and singing (this led to the recitative style). Caccini developed a mainly syllabic style that, while aiming for clear and flexible declamation of words, nevertheless admitted certain embellishments of the melodic line, adding an element of vocal virtuosity. Caccini wrote two types of songs: airs, which were strophic, and madrigals, which were through-composed.

Forme, Nicholas

(1567-1638) Favorite composer of Louis XIII in France. Important contributions of French sacred music. Lightened the style with chasonlike rhythms, madrigalistic word painting, and metrical freedom.

Gibbons, Orlando

(1583-1625) Often considered the father of Anglican church music. The Anglican Church separated from the Roman Catholic church in 1532, but it wasn't until later that English was used in the liturgy and worship. One of the "virginalists" (English keyboard composers of the late 16th century like Bull and Byrd)

Rossi, Luigi

(1597-1653). Italian composer, singing teacher, lutenist and keyboard player; was a conspicuous figure on the musical scene both in Italy and, for a time, in France; he was one of the finest composers of chamber cantatas in the Baroque period and the leading composer of vocal music in the Rome of his day. About 300 cantatas survive; Rossi played a significant part in the development of opera. Two features in particular: one as grand, festive, extravagant spectacles, choruses, ballets, many characters and scenes, much intrigues and comic episodes; the other as a new, warm lyricism in many arias. Emotive, well-shaped and beautiful melodies prevail, especially in Orfeo.

Rospigliosi, Giulio

(1600-1669). It. librettist; the most important librettist of his day for Roman opera. He created the genre of sacred opera and wrote the librettos of the earliest significant comic operas. His libretti are celebrated for the quality of poetry, skillful adjustment to the demands of staging and music, introduction of comic roles, and a human realism derived from late medieval literature (i.e. Dal male il bene is based on Boccaccio) and from Spanish drama.

Gaultier, Denis

(1603-72) Represents the culmination of lute music in the early 17th century. The collection La Rhétorique de dieux (The Rhetoric of the Gods) contains twelve set of dances. Each set has an allemande, courante, and sarabande. Ennemond Gaultier (1575-1651) was another important lute composer. Famous example is La Poste.

Froberger, Jakob

(1616-67) The most renowned German keyboardist of his day. He was a cosmpolitan, being influenced by the Italians (student of Frescobaldi) and the French. The pieces showing Italian influence are the toccatas, ricercares, and canzonas. The French influence is evident in the suites of clavier. The suites are among the first to use the standard group of dances: allemande, gigue, courante, and sarabande. The gigue was moved to the end of the suite and this became the classic Baroque dance suite.

Lully, Jean-Baptiste

(1632-1687) A native of Florence who travelled to France at fourteen, Lully composed instrumental music for Louis XIV and was a member of the 24 Violons du Roy before he led his own petits violins. Lully thus quickly absorbed the rich French heritage of orchestral music. As a dancer, Lully also compsed a number of ballets de cour, including overtures, airs and récits. Lully collaborated with Molière and Corneille in a series of ballet comedies and one ballet tragedie which combined French and Italian styles. His real area of mastery, however was the opera. His librettist, Quinault, also achieved a satisfactory union of French and Italian elements. Lully's music features a sharp contrast between recitative and air, though the middleground of arioso also appears. Quinault's verse often necessitated a changing meter with alternating bars of 3/4 and 4/4. Lully also wrote empassioned speeches in a type of recitative that featured halting rhythms and augmented and diminished intervals. Lully's airs are usually pleasant but not emotionally charged. They often feature only solo voice with basso continuo, though a two-violin ritornello is sometimes included. Lully's instrumental writing in the operas featured a five-part orchestra (rather than the traditional Italian scoring for two treble voices plus bass) and distinguished between the petit choer (the counterpart of the Italian concertino) and the grand couer (the ripieno which included the twenty-four violins and occasional wind and percussion instruments). Lully and Quinault eventually moved away from the Italian tragicomedy and developed a new French genre, the tragédie lyrique.

Quinault, Philippe

(1635-1688). French dramatist, librettist and poet; was in the select group of poets chosen to pay continual homage to Louis XIV; 15-year collaboration with Lully. By both temperament and artistic inclination, Quinault was ideally suited to collaboration with Lully; generally more galant than heroic or tragic; Armide's librettist; he was expected to observe unity of action.

Pachelbel, Johann

(1653-1706). German composer and organist; one of the leading progressive German composers of his time; Hitherto admired mainly as a composer of organ and other keyboard music he can, as a result of recent research, be seen also as a leading composer of Protestant church music; He was one of the few 17th-century composers whose name was never entirely forgotten. His fame as a teacher was not local, and though he never left Germany he was revered far beyond it; composed liturgical/non-liturgical organ music, chamber, and vocal music. Some are designated as 'organ' music uncommon to the Baroque era.

Ariadne musica

(1715) a collection of keyboard preludes and fugues in nineteen different major and minor keys by J.K.F. Fischer. Pieces such as these served as training in composition and performance. This set of pieces did not imply equal temperament, as certain keys were avoided.

Purcell, Henry

(1659-1695). Composer, organist and bass and countertenor singer; one of the greatest composers of the Baroque period and one of the greatest of all English composers; technically mastered canon and ground bass. His early music tends to be conservative like Monteverdi's: he never abandoned chromaticism, but as he became acquainted with the directness and relative simplicity of Italian music he tended to use it much more as a melodic feature within the framework of diatonic tonality. He drew particular attention to the Italians' use of the diminished 7th and the Neapolitan 6th, both of which are basically modifications of diatonic harmony. The range of Purcell's invention/compositional diversity is remarkable, but little of it is performed now.

Scarlatti, Alessandro

(1660-1725). Italian composer, noted especially for operas and cantatas; reputed founder of the Neapolitan school of 18th-century opera; the melodic range of an aria seldom exceeds a 9th or 10th; prevailing movement by step; chromatic inflection of the line at the approach of an important cadence, especially in slow arias; composed serenatas, oratorios, masses, cantatas, instrumental music; was a teacher and theorist as well.

Fux, Johann Joseph

(1660-1741) Wrote Gradus ad Parnassum (Steps to Parnassus; 1725). This treatise is a codification of Palestrianian counterpoint. Represents "stile antico" in opposition to Monteverdi and "stile moderno."

Couperin, François

(1668-1733). A French composer of works for keyboard. Couperin tittles all of his pieces ordres. These were collections of shor pieces which may have been intenede for suite-like performance. Pieces in the same ordre are linked by key and in particular, Couperin used the under-utilized sharp keys (A,E,b, and f#) in his music. Many of the pieces in the ordres bear programmatic titles. Many are also recognizable dance movements, though others are more abstractly linked to the dance. Echoes of the Lullian opera, the theater of the fairs, and popular music all occur in Couperins ordres, filled out iwth copious use of French ornaments.

Rameau, Jean-Philippe

(1683-1764). Fr. composer/theorist. A close contemporary of J.S.Bach, Handel, Domenico Scarlatti and Telemann, he was the leading Fr. composer (particularly of dramatic music) of his time and an important innovator in harmonic theory; among his 65 keyboard pieces many sound well on the piano because of his attempts to use his keyboard as a sustaining instrument; most works are in binary form; his sacred music is the least important part of his output except for his cantatas; wrote large number of different dramatic genres: tragédie lyrique (i.e. Castor et Pollux, Hippolyte), comédie-lyrique, opéra-ballet, comedie-ballet, pastorale, acte de ballet, and divertissement.

Bach, Johann Sebastian

(1685-1750) Bach served as organist at Arnstadt (1703-07) and Mühlhausen (1707-08), as court organist and later concertmaster in the chapel of the duke of Weimar (1708-17), as music director at the court of a prince in Cöthen (1717-23), and as cantor of St. Thomas's school and music director in Leipzig (1723-50). He composed in almost all forms of his time, except for opera. During his time at Arnstadt, Mühlhausen, and Weimar, he wrote mostly organ compositions, including chorale preludes, several sets of variations on chorales, and some toccatas and fantasias which show influences of Buxtehude. At Cöthen, he wrote no church music, but rather clavier (The Welll-Tempered Clavier, Part I, 1722), or instrumental works (including the Brandenburg concerti, and the works for solo violin and solo cello), music for instruction and for domestic or court entertainment. At Leipzig, he wrote his cantatas and other church music, as well as the Goldberg Variations. His style exhibits a mastery of counterpoint and a fusion of Italian, French, and German characteristics. Other elements of his style include the concentrated and individual themes, the copious musical invention, balance between harmonic and contrapuntal forces, strength of rhythm, clarity of form, grandeur of proportion, imaginative use of pictorial and symbolic figures, intensity of expression always controlled by a ruling architectural idea, and the technical perfection of every detail. (Grout).

Handel, Georg Friederich

(1685-1759) A German composer who studied in Italy and eventually settled in London. His musical career was begun in Hamburg where he staged his first opera, Almira (1705). This opera featured German recitatives and airs with Italian arias! Bilingual operas were actually quite normal during this era of international musical styles drawn from a number of national traditions. Four years in Italy converted Handel almost wholly to the lyric Italian style of writing. In 1710 he ventured to London and staged over forty operas there between 1711 and 1741. Famous operas by Handel include Guilio Cesare (1724) and Alcina (1735). Most are in the Italian style and feature as libretto subjects: Roman history, mythology and legend, medieval romances, and Renaissance epics. In 1728 Handel began facing financial ruin when his supported George I died and the new genre of ballad opea (John Gay's The Beggar's Opera) gained in popularity. Though Handel continued writing operas until 1741, he never enjoyed the financial successes of his early years. Handel also composed numerous oratorios ranging from those lacking in dramatic thread (Messiah, Israel in Egypt) to virtual operas (Semele). The chorus is featured more in the oratorio than in the opera and its English style grew out of Handel's familiarity with the English anthem. Handel also composed a number of instrumental works, including Concerti Grossi based on those of Corelli, instrumental suites (Water Music, Royal Fireworks Music), and keyboard works (he taught figured bass realization to the princess Anne).

Geminiani, Francesco

(1687-1762) One of Corelli's pupils who had a long career as virtuoso and composer in London. He published The Art of Playing on the Violin, which embodies the techniques of Corelli and other Italian masters of the early 18th century. He wrote solo sonatas and concerti grossi in the style of Corelli.

LeClair, Jean Marie

(1697-1764) A French composer who, like Couperin, combined the new style of Corelli with a native flair for simple melody, nourished by the air de dance and tastefully laced with turns and trills. This style is featured in his instrumental sonata writing.

di Capua, Rinaldo

(1705-1780). Italian composer. Information about his life is scarce and sometimes unreliable; mainly lived and worked at Rome; 32 stage works: opera seria, comic opera; His qualities as an instrumental composer are revealed in his sinfonias, or ouvertures, in which he contributed to the development of the Classical symphony-sonata. The first movement departs from the old binary form of the Baroque and tends to have bithematic structure, with signs of a subsidiary thematic group, and tripartite structure with a sizable central development section. The second movement becomes a bipartite song form.

Biber, Heinrich

(Bohemian, 1644-1704) Composer and violinist, the most famous virutoso of his age. 1670- service of the Kapelle of the Archbishop of Salzburg, evenutally becoming Kapellemeister in 1684. An important precursor of JS Bach- he used high positions, new modes of bowing, multiple stopping, and unconventional tunings (scordatura) to produce the illusion of counterpoint (in his violin compostions). 16 Mystery Sonatas are notable, not so much programme music as evocations of the moods of biblical scenes. One opera is extant. His church music employs a capella and concertato forces, the latter being used to especially good effect in the F minor Requiem, scored for trombones, strings, solo and ripieno voices, and solo violin.

Bernhard, Christoph

(Born in present-day Poland/Germany, 1628-1692) German composer, theorist. 1649- singer in the court under Schütz in Dresden. Stayed in Dresden most of life, eventually becoming Kapellmeister. Composed a funeral motet at the request of Schütz and was performed at the ceremony in 1672. Most important: musical treatises (The Treatises of Christoph Bernhard and An Augmented Treatise on Composition or Tactatus compositionis augmentatus), noteworthy for their classification of the styles of Baroque music according to purpose- church stylus gravis, the "Palestrina style," and the new chamber style of Monteverdi stylus luxurians, where language is master of the music.

Buxtehude, Dietrich

(Danish, 1637-1707) Organist and composer. 1668- organist of St. Mary's, Lübeck, a post he held until the end of his life. There he continued the series of Abendmusiken (evening concerts taking place on 5 Sundays in the year) which Tunder (his predecessor at St. Mary's) had begun in the 1640's. Buxtehude's fame as a virtuoso organist was such that Bach travelled more than 200 miles (apparently on foot!) to hear him play. Buxtehude's style was an important influence on many young North German composers, especially Bach, who took Bux's sacred vocal and instrumental music as his principal model. Bux wrote 120 sacred vocal pieces, including oratorios for the Abenmusiken, cantatas, chorales, and arias: his cantatas (In dulci jubilo and Jesu meine Freude are probably the best known) follow the tradition of Schütz. His organ works- preludes (toccatas) and fugues, chaconnes, a passacaglia, chorale preludes, chorale fantasia, and chorale variations- are unsurpassed and represent a perfect fusion of the complex contrapuntal North German style and the brillian keyboard style of Froberger. His other keyboard pieces (suites, canzonas, variations, etc.) are less important. His instrumental chamber music includes 14 trio sonatas.

Affektenlehre

(Doctrine of the Affections) Baroque composers (in general) strove to "affect" the emotions of the listener through musical means. One movement was devoted to stirring up one affect. (Affects were seen as a physical as well as an emotional phenomenon.) This aesthetic can be seen as an extension of the Renaissance musica reservata, and later developed into the more dynamic and unstable emotionalism of Empfindsamkeit.

Byrd, William

(English, 1543-1623) One of the greatest English composers of the 16th century. Throughout a difficult religious period in England as a catholic, he remained in favor with the court, composing both Protestant and Catholic service music. He studied with Thomas Tallis, with whom he published the first of 3 Cantiones Sacrae, collections of Latin motets. He also wrote In nomines, song, consort music, and virginal music. Possibly his most important contributions were his motets, many of which were in the Netherlandish polyphonic style. His Protest Motets are good examples and reflect his struggle as a Catholic in Protestant England

Blow, John

(English, 1649-1708) Composer. Organist of Westminster Abbey in 1668 and royal "musician for the virginals" the following year. 1674 - Master of the Children at the Chapel Royal until his death. Taught Purcell. May have earned the first Doctor of Music by the Archbishop of Canterbury (1677). Fluent composer of anthems and services, master of the festive verse anthem. Contrapuntal style, using English false relations and "old-fashioned" harmonies, is frequently extremely expressive. His odes contain powerful music, especially the masterly Ode on the Death of Mr. Henry Purcell (published 1696) for countertenor duet, two recorders, and continuo. (Anthems by Blow: ?????)

Chambonnières, Jacques Champion de

(French, 1672-?) Composer of harpsichord music and famous as harpsichord player. Retired from the court of Louis XIV due to intrigues. He is a founder of the French school of harpsichord composers. In 1670 two books of his Pièces de clavessin were published. They consist mainly of dances in the style brisé arranged in suites. Some have titles, but there is no suggestion of program music. Their delicate and elegant style reveals much o f the man whose "beauty of rhythm, fine touch, lightness and rapidity of hand" were admired throughout Europe.

Charpentier, Marc-Antoine

(French, c. 1645-1704) Composer of church music, sacred dramas, cantatas. Studied in Rome with Carissimi at the German College. On returning to Paris he was seriously hampered by French nationalism, which was opposed to his Italiantate style- Lully, especially, saw him as a serious rival throughout his own lifetime. Employed by Molière (after Lully's collaboration ended) and wrote incidental music for the Comédie Française. Worked also for the royal family, the Jesuits, and the church St. Louis, before becoming maître de musique at Saint-Chapelle in 1698. He was Lully's most important contemporary in France, and his church music is especially attractive- splendid grand motets (often using double choir), 11 Masses (from rich polyphony of old, to the harmonization of carol tunes in the well-known Messe de minuit pour Noël, early 1690s). His dramatic cantata Orphée descendant aux enfers shows what he might have done with opera had he been given the chance.

Carissimi, Giacomo

(Italian, 1605-1674) Composer. One of the finest of the 17th century and of great importance in the history fo the oratorio. Maestro di cappella at the German College in Rome from 1630 until death (declined to be Monteverdi's successor at St. Mark's!). His reputation rests on his religious dialogues and oratorios, in which he adopted the operatic idiom of Monteverdi to the purpose of sacred drama. For the most part he set Latin texts, taking Old Testament stories and bringing the characters alive with remarkable vividness. The seascape in Jonas and the elegiac beauty of the sacrifice in Jephte are good examples of his dramatic power, in which he uses not only the expressive aria and arioso developed by Monteverdi in his later operas, but also the sonorous madrigalian choruses favored in Rome. He also composed Masses and motets, some quite old-fashioned (as in his Missa L'homme armé- the last work to be based on this 15th-C tune) and some in the more modern concertato style. He also wrote 100+ cantatas.

Bononcini, Giovanni Maria

(Italian, 1642-1678) Father of Giovanni Bonocini. Wrote some attractive chamber music and was one of Corelli's most important predecessors in the composition of trio sonatas and the development of idiomatic writing for the violin. Wrote a treatise on counterpoint which was widely known in Germany in the 18th c.

Corelli, Arcangelo

(Italian, 1653-1713) Violinist and composer. 1675 moved to Rome where he remained the rest of life. By 1700 he published 5 volumes of chamber music which were to make him one of the best-known composers of his time (0pus 1-5: trio sonatas and violin sonatas). At the end of his life, he prepared his Op. 6, a set of 12 concerti grossi, for publication, but they may date from much earlier, being stylistically offshoots from his sonatas. He was one of the 1st composers to vary the keys in a binary mvt in a meaningful way.

Bononcini, Giovanni

(Italian, 1670-1747) Eldest son of GM Bonocini. Primarily an opera composer. Worked in several cities: Modena, Bologna, Naples, London, Paris, short visit to Lisbon, final years in Vienna, but died back home in Modena. He was one of the resident composers of the newly founded Royal Academy of Music (London, 1720's). Operas written in London were very successful (Griselda) and were competitive with Handel's at the time. The styles of the two were quite distinct- Bonocini's arias are at their best when simple and tuneful, while Handel tended to write in extended forms and with elaborate orchestral accompaniments. One of the first perpetrators of plagiarism: tried to pass off a composition by Lotti as his own. The scandal forced him to leave London.

Cherubini, Luigi

(Italian, 1760-1842) Italian composer who spent most of his career in France (also died in Paris). Educated in Florence (wrote several Masses and an oratorio there), London, (2 operas), then lived in Paris for rest of life. Known principally as a composer of operas, Lodoïska (1791) made him famous. After Fr. Rev., which he dutifully supported, he joined the faculty of the Paris Conservatoire (then just formed in 1793 for the training of military bands). 1805 visited Vienna and met Beethoven and was greeted enthusiastically by Haydn. Several of his operas were staged there, but when Napoleon invaded Austria, Beethoven ordered Cherubini to return to Paris. In 1809 and following, all of his important works are sacred except for an opera, a set of string quartets, and a symphony. With the fall of Napoleon Cherubini's material situation began to improve. 1816 was appointed, with Le Sueur, to the chapel of Louis XVIII. He was made director of the Conservatoire in 1822. After 1837, he abandoned composition to devote life to teaching- pupils include Auber, Halévy, and Boieldieu.

Moulinié, Etienne

(ca. 1600-1669) a French composer of motets. Mouline wrote the first collection of sacred music pubished in France to have a basso continuo. This collection, Meslanges de sujets Crestiens...avec une basse continue, was published by Ballard around 1650. Some of Mouline's motets were influenced by the air de cour, while others show decidedly Italian traits, derived from the music of Viadana, the inventor of figured bass. The motets are scored for alternating chorus and soloists, but many of the solo récits are left bare in terms of accompaniment which is why figured bass worked well to provide harmonic support to these solo lines.

partita/chorale partita

1. In the late 16th and 17th c., a variation, usually one on a traditional melody such as the romanesca or passamezzo. This meaning was continued in the chorale partitas of Georg Böhm and Bach. 2. In the Baroque period, a suite. The earliest known use of the term in the sense occurs in Johann Kuhnau's Neuer Clavier Übung erster Theil, bestehend in sieben Partien (1689). The best-known are Bach's solo violin and keyboard partitas. 3. In the early Classical period, a type of multimovement instrumental work. Many Classical partitas consist of abstract movements. Mostly for solo instruments, but a fair number of orchestral partitas also exist.

Frederick the Great

18th century King of Prussia. Adhered to the humanitarian ideals of the Enlightenment. C.P.E. Bach served in his court in Berlin from 1740-1768. Here he published the Prussian Sonatas for clavichord. The North German school of composers (Graun and C.P.E. Bach) centered around Frederick the Great who was also a composer. They were important in initiating thematic development and contrapuntal textures into the three movement symphony.

orchestral concerto

20thC version of the concerto grosso; a Neoclassical concept- Bartok Concerto for Orchestra(1944), Berg Chamber Concerto

Bay Psalm Book

: the first American Psalter, and the first book printted in the New World in 1640.

Das Wohltemperirte Clavier

A collection written by J.S. Bach in two volumes. Each volume contains an prelude and fugue in all twenty-four major and minor keys. Many of these pieces appear to have grown out of pedagogical exercises Bach set for his children and students. The title itself probably does not refer to equal temperament as we know it. Rather, it refers to a version of mean-tone tuning used during Bach's time. Bach's work obviously inspired later composers like Chopin, Hindemith, Shostakovich, etc. who wrote similar collections in all twenty-four keys.

cantata

A composite vocal genre of the Baroque era, consisting of a succession of recitatives, ariosos, and set-pieces (e.g. arias, duets, and choruses). A cantata may be either secular or sacred in subject matter and function, and its treatment may be lyrical, allegorical, or dramatic (although almost never actually staged). Cantatas range from intimate, small-scale works for solo singer or singers and restricted accompanimental forces (sometimes called chamber cantatas, e.g., A. Scarlatti's secular cantata for soprano voice with continuo acc., Lontan' dalla sua Clori) to large ones with chorus and orchestral acc (JS Bach's Cantata No. 80, Ein'feste Burg ist unser Gott for singers [SATB] and soloists, 2 oboes, strings in 4 parts, 3 trumpets, 2 oboes, and timpani). Such large cantatas were often composed to celebrate or commemorate specific events. The cantata originated early in the 17th c in Italy, where the term was first used simply to indicate a piece to be sung (as oppoesed to "sonata," to be played on instruments). The most frequently performed cantatas today are those of Bach; they are sacred works with German texts and were intended for performance during Lutheran church services. The typical Bach cantata employs several soloists and chorus and is accompanied by a small orchestra.

passacaglia

A continuous variation form, principally of the Baroque, whose basso ostinato formulas originally derived from ritornellos to early 17th-c. songs. These passacaglias or ritornellos were played on the guitar between stanzas or at the ends of songs, where they were repeated many times, probably with improvised variations; the practice began in Spain [Sp. pasacalle] and quickly moved to Italy and France. The passacaglia then developed in a way quite similar to the chaconne. Its four-bar ostinato became the basis for long sets of continuous variations as well as vocal pieces. Early differences between chaconne and passacaglia were the particular chord progressions: the passacaglia tended to be in minor, with a I-IV-V or I-IV-V-I pattern. The bass lines themselves might change in successive phrases, or extra harmonies might be inserted, but these variants fell within a limited set of formulas. One of these formulas is the descending tetrachord used in so many operatic laments but appearing as well in pieces titled passacaglia (i.e. Biber, Passacaglia in G minor for solo violin). Bach's Passacaglia in C minor for organ BWV 582 is well-known 18th-century passacaglia. This format was picked up by 20th-century composers in non-tonal or serial pieces (i.e. Webern, Passacaglia op. 1; Schoenberg, Pierrot lunaire op. 21, "Nacht"; Berg, Wozzeck, act 2, sc. 4; Stravinsky, Septet).

Gradus ad Parnassum

A counterpoint textbook written by J.J. Fux geared toward writing music in the prima prattica style. The lessons in the book follow the species approach to counterpoint and are given by means of a dialogue between Aloysius (the Master) and Josephus (the student). This book has remained in print until the present day and was used as a training manual for a number of Classic-era composers including Mozart and Haydn.

chitarrone

A large lute with extra bass strings, the chitarrone was the preferred instrument for realizing the thoroughbass accompaniment to a recitative or aria in the early 17th c.

Fitzwilliam Virginal Book

A manuscript containing nearly 300 wokrs for virginal (small harpsichord) from ca. 1562 to ca. 1612. It includes dances, arrangements of songs and madrigals, preludes, and set of variations by the principal English composers of keyboard works of the period like William Byrd and John Bull.

Orfeo

A mythical figure/story to be selected for several operas from Baroque through Romantic periods. Monteverdi composed La Favola d'Orfeo (Mantua, 1607: a prologue and five acts; libretto by Alessandro Striggio on the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice), Gluck composed Orfeo ed Euridice (Vienna, 1762: opera in three acts; libretto by Raniero de Calzabigi; revised in 1774), and Offenbach's Orphée aux Enfers [Fr. Orpheus in the Underworld] (Paris, 1858: operetta in two acts; setting: Greek legend; revised in 1874).

meantone temperament

A type of tuning in which perfect fifths are tuned slightly low (1/4 of the syntonic comma, or 22 cents) in order that five fifths (c-g-d-a-e) will arrive at an in-tune third (c-e). This system works well as long as one stays within the key with only one or two accidentals in them. However, more remote keys sound increasingly out of tune, and one fifth in particular, the wolf fifth (often Eb - G#) is quite bad. This system of tunig was in effect from ca. 1500 onward through the end of the Baroque and necessitated some of the Baroque developments in instrument-making (such as the divided keyboards on Baroque organs) which allowed for good intonation in all keys.

La Pouplinière

A wealthy Parisian msuic sponsor who provided for a long-lived semipublic series of concerts in the 1730s. Among his musical directors were Rameau, Stamitz, and Gossec. These concerts existed alongside other Parisian traditions, like the Concerts Spirituels of Philidor. These originally began as an outlet for the performance of proper devotional music during Lent, they quickly became a vessel for a dazzling display of both vocal and instrumental genres, French and foreign. These concerts maintained a standard of excellence until the Revolution.

Il Combattimento di tancredi e Clorinda

A work by Monteverdi in stile rappresentativo, performed at Venice in 1624. It is a setting of a portion of Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered, describing the combat between the crusader knight Tancred and the pagan heroine Clorinda, ending in her death. Most of the original text is straight narrative, which Monteverdi gives to the tenor soloist in recitative. The few short speeches by the main characters are sung by a tenor and soprano who are instructed to mime the actions described during the singing of the narrative. Monteverdi makes useof instrumental interludes and stile concitato in this work.

oratorio

An extended musical drama with a text based on religious subject matter. The oratorio originated in the 17th century. Throughout most of its history it was intended for performance without scenery, costume, or action. As a result, most oratorios place special emphasis on narration, on contemplation, and , particularly in the 18th, 19th, and 20thcenturies, on extensive use of a chorus. The Baroque oratorio finds its significant roots in certain late 16th- century motets, which, like some madrigals of the period, contain elements of dramatic narration and dialogue. This includes Haydn's The Creation, Mendelsshon's Elijah, Brahms' Requiem, and Britten's War Requiem (1962).

chorale fantasia

An organ work in the free style of a fantasia based on a chorale melody. Chorale fantasias, many of the large-scale works, were composed by many north German composers of the 17th and 18th Cs, notably Buxtehude and Bach, and the genre was revived in the late 19th C by such composers as Reger.

French overture

An overture is originally an orchestra piece intended for an introduction to an opera or ballet or other dramatic works. In the French style, there are two parts: a stately slow section in duple meter with dotted rhythms and then a faster fugal section in triple meter. Sometimes there is a return to the slow section. These overtures first appeared in Lully's ballet Alcidiane and remained the standard type during the reign of Louis XIV. It was adopted by Germans and English.

motto aria

Baroque aria beginning with a brief and usually emphatic phrase from the singer (the 'motto'), preceding the opening orc. ritornello. Normally the same phrase follows the ritornello, beginning the aria proper. The device is used to avoid, in a strong dramatic situation, the tautology of a long ritornello before the singer expresses himself. Ex.: include Eduige's aria 'La farò' from Act 1 of Handel's Rodelinda and Oberto's 'Barbara!' from Act 3 of Alcina.

Italian Opera (mid 17th c.)

By the mid-17th c., Italian opera had asumed the main outlines it was to maintain without essential change for the next two hundred years: 1) concentration upon solo singing with (for a long time) comparative neglect of ensembles and of instrumental music 2) separation of recitative and aria, and 3) introduction of distinctive styles and patterns for arias. This development was accompanied by a complete reversal in the relation of text and music: the Florentines had considered music accessory to poetry, while the Venetians treated the libretto as hardly more than a conventional scaffolding for the musical structure.

chorale

English term for the strophic congreational hymns of the Protestant Church in Germany. The German word, Choral, from which it is derived, originally signified a plainchant melody sung chorally, but from the late 16th century its meaning was widened to include vernacular hymns. However, the term most commonly used for such hymns in early Reformation times was geistliche (or christliche) Lieder. Strictly speaking, the word "chorale" means both the text and the melody of a hymn, as a single unit, but not infrequently the term is used to describe the music only- either a single-line melody or a fully harmonized version as in the 4-part settings of Bach. Texts of Luther's 34 chorales are drawn from Psalms, Gregorian seasonal hymns, antiphons, Mass Ordinary, German sacred song, and nonliturgical Latin hymns. Tunes are adapted from secular sources or are composed on similar models. (Some secular songs even had rather vulgar overtones.) A great many chorale melodies are in bar form, and some show a relationship to the melodic procedures of the Meistersinger.

L'Art de toucher le clavecin

François Couperin's treatise (1716) on clavecin performance, with detailed instructions for fingering and execution of the agréments. (ornaments?)

concerto

From Italian "concertare," to joing together; also related to Latin "concertare," to fight or contend. A piece for soloist and orchestra. Conceived in the concertato contrast between opposing vocal and instrumental groups in the works of G. Gabrieli, the concerto concept took more definite form in the 17th-C sonatas and sinfonias for divided orchestra. Throughout the early Baroque period, the term concerto wascommonly used for Italian and German church music for voices accompanied by instruments, as in the Symphoniae sacrae of Schütz. The history of the concerto proper begins with the concerti grossi of Corelli:

baroque organ

Gottfried Silbermann (1683-1753) was an early 18th century organ builder who was trained in France and was influenced by the French full organ or plein jeu. German organ builders were also influenced by instruments in Antwerp and Amsterdam, which were based on the division of the pipes into various Werke. These organs had a richer sound and higher wind pressure than the sweeter Italian organs. Organ music reached a golden age in Germany during the late seventeenth and early 18th centuries, with composers such as Böhm at Lüneburg, Buxtehude at Lübeck, Zachow and Kuhnau in Saxony and Thuringia, and Pachelbel in Nuremberg.

Rinaldo

Handel's first London opera, produced in 1711. The opera is in the Italian style.

Almira

Handel's first opera, composed at the age of nineteen, and performed at the Hamburg opera house in 1705. He remained in Hamburg, the principal center of German opera then, from 1703 to 1706, after which he went to Italy (1706-1710), where his opera Agrippina was performed in 1709.

Kuhnau, Johann

His death in 1722 opened up the cantor position at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig that JS Bach filled.

monody

a type of solo song that developed about 1600 in reaction to the polyphonic style of the 16th c. and that is characterized by recitative-like design of the voice part and by thoroughbass accompaniment. Some of the earliest examples of true monody were published in Caccini's Le nuove musiche (1601).

bel canto

In Italian this literally means "beautiful singing." It is a term which applies to 18th-century vocal technique, with its emphasis on beauty of sound and brilliance of performance rather than dramatic expression or romantic emotion. Its early development is closely tied up with Italian opera seria (Scarlatti, Jomelli, et al). This term has also been used to apply to the compositional styles of Rossi and Carissimi, who cultivated a simple, melodious vocal style of songlike quality, without virtuoso coloraturas. Finally, the term also applies to the compositional style of the 19th-century Italian bel canto composers - Bellini, Rossini, and Donizetti.

cadenza

In music for soloist, especially a concerto or other work with accompanying ensemble, an imporvised or written-out ornamental passage performed by the soloist, usually over the penultimate or antepenultimate note or harmony of a prominent cadence. During a cadenza the accompaniment either pauses or sustains a pitch or chord. Although a cadenza may appear elsewhere, it most typically ornaments a prominent tonic cadence, such as one before a final ritornello or coda. If improvised, it may be indicated by a fermata in all parts, as in Mozart's Piano Concerto in Bb major (and many others by Mozart and other Classical composers, and even as late as Brahms). Improvised cadenzas were fine when the composer was also the performer; however, when others attempted to create their own versions, it was not always successful because of the disparity or conflict in style (Ex: Clara Schumann's cadenzas to Mozart's D minor Piano Concerto, though delightful, are too near her husband's manner not to seem out of place). Virtuosic cadenzas gained importance beginning in the Baroque era. Corelli often notated cadenzas in the first movements (Allegro) of his Violin Sonatas, Op 5. Torelli, Vivaldi, and JS Bach occasionally wrote them out in concertos. Italian opera singers placed cadenzas at any of the three vocal cadences in the standart 3-part aria, particularly the last. CPE and Quantz discussed the improvisation of cadenzas at length in their treatises on performance. As cadenzas became more elaborate, their thematic reference to the composition increased: late Mozart wrote optional cadenzas and Beethoven, too (Piano Concerto #3); Beethoven wrote obligatory cadenzas in his 5th "Emperor" Concerto. In the 19th C, obligatory cadenzas, often placed in unorthodox positions (e.g. Mendelsson Violin Concerto- changes position from end of Recap to end of Dev in 1st mvt), became a common feature of vocal and instrumental music, notably in piano works of Chopin and Liszt and the later operas of Verdi.

sacred concerto

In the 17th century, sacred works for voices and instruments were typically called concertos; secular works of similar character were more often entitled airs, musiche, cantatas, and so forth. Large-scale sacred concertos for chorus, soloists, and instruments were particularly common in Venice, appearing in collections by A. and G. Gabrieli and Monteverdi from the late 16th C. onward. More widely cultivated was the small sacred concerto for 1-4 solo voices, continuo, and (frequently) additional solo instruments.

canzona

It. for "song," but in fact the canzona was the most important instrumental genre of the late 16th c. Common practice for lutenists and keyboard players to make instrumental arrangements of the chansons of the Fr. composers who flourished 1520-1550. These chansons were especially good material for playing: lively rhythms (especially the common half note-quarter-quarter pattern), and tunes, coupled with a simple distinctive structure. At first the arrangers did little more than add a few trills at cadences, but later they embellished their models quite elaborately, thus transforming their nature completely. From the 1570s several composers in northern Italy wrote such pieces. They could be played either by an ensemble (typically consorts) or on a keyboard. The instruments offered greater range than voice, offering the potential for more complexity. By the 1590s the canzona was extremely popular, notably those by G. Gabrieli, who wrote for the large ensemble at St. Mark's, adapting the idiom of "cori spezzati" (split choirs) to bring a grand scale into instrumental music. Some of these works are extremely complicated in form, using rondo and even simple concerto patterns, with virtuoso parts for such instruments as cornetts and violins.

The Beggar's Opera

John Gay, 1st perf. London, 1728. An English ballad opera which enjoyed tremendous success, this piece poked fun at Italian opera. It consists mainly of popular tunes and some numbers parodied from familiar operatic airs. Its success was indicative of the English reaction against foreign opera, which led Handel to turn from opera to oratorio in the latter part of his life.

Royal Academy of Music

London association of nobleman, supported by the king, founded in 1718-19 for the promotion of Italian opera (in London at Handel's time).

Florilegium

Muffats' collection of orchestral suites (1695 and 1698). The second part includes an essay about French bowing and ornaments. The dances of the suites are patterned after Lully.

Humphery, Pelham

One of the first Englishmen to be admitted to the new Chapel Royal in 1660. Humphrey went abroad (France and Italy) to study composition and his style reflects these foreign influences. He composed many anthems, most of which open with short instrumental preludes akin to French overtures (dotted rhythms, rich harmonies full of suspensions, and majestic cadence). Humphrey's text setting features the melodic continuity, steady rhythm, and harmonic momentum of récitatif mesuré. Italina influences are obvious in his chromaticism, free use of dissonance, and short-breathed exclamations. His O Lord My God is a good example of this mixed style.

anthem

Settings of the Morning and Evening services, of psalms, and of pieces for the Offertory, Communion, post-Communion, and for special occasions. During the second half of the sixteenth century, two types appeared: the verse anthem, with "verses" for solo voices and instrumental accompaniment, alternating with "choruses" for hte full choir; and the full anthem, which was a choral motet in English.

Rousseau, Jean Jacques

Seventeenth-century philospher and author, as well as composer (he penned an opera entitled, Le Devin du village). Rousseau penned many of the music-oriented entries in the new encyclopedie of Diderot, including the definition of baroque (which he speciously derived from the Italian, baroco, meaning confused and unnatural). Rousseau also sided with those favoring Italian opera in the guerre des bouffons over Pergolesi's La serva padrona.

Fortspinnung

Spinning-out." A compositional process in which melodic materical is continuously derived from a brief figure, possibly by sequence to creat a continuous melodic line. Typically applied to Baroque textures, and clearly understood when contrasted with the balanced and regular phrasing of the Classical period. Many examples could be drawn from Corelli, Bach, Telemann, etc.

Die Kunst der Fugue

The Art of the Fugue. This was the composition J.S. Bach worked upon. It features a series of fugues, all of which use the same subject. This work embodies the contrapuntal genius of Bach, as many of the fugues are double or even triple fugues and they feature a number of contrapuntal gmaes like inversion and retrograde. In a sense this was Bach's contrapuntal magnum opus - a veritable compendium of late Baroque fugal technique.

récitatif mésuré

a type of vocal writing in which the passages involved approach the air in having a uniform meter but lack the repetition and closed form of the aria. This style of writing is abundant in the later operas of Lully.

concertato

The characteristic medium of the seventeenth century, which consisted of the mingling of voices with instruments such that the instruments are not merely doubling the voices but have independent parts.

collegium musicum

The earliest example of concert-giving in Germany and Austria. Founded in the 17th C, it was associated with the court- notably in Berlin (Frederick the Great, whose fine orchestra included Johann and Carl Graun, CPE Bach, and Quantz), and Mannheim (Elector Carl Theodor, whose orchestra was the model for the rest of Europe for 30 years under the leadership of Stamitz and others). It is similar to the Concert Spirituel which later occured in France in 1725; the big difference is that the concerts in France were for the public, not the court.

solo concerto

The last type of concerto to develop, it had far reaching effects on virtuosity, manufacture of/improvements for instruments, construction of concert halls, and audience attendance. Became more of a show piece in the Romantic era- strictly to demonstrate virtuosity- than its more homogeneous beginnings in the Classical period.

masque

The masque was the English counterpart of the ballet de cour and emphasized dance and musical spectacle. Masques were given both publicly and privately in England during the 1630s-1650s. The masque was basically a theatrical event and served both as a deterrent, and later, as a forerunner of English opera (cultivated soon after the era of the masque by Henry Purcell. Cupid and Death by the poet James Shirley is an example of a representative masque. Music for this piece (produced a number of times) was written by both Matthew Locke and Christopher Gibbons.

ritornello

The recurring tutti section of a concerto movement or a da capo aria. "Ritornello form" is common: typically in the 1st and last mvts of a late-Baroque or Classical concerto, based on an alternation of tutti and solo sections. Sometimes the principal formal event is the recurrence of the main theme in various keys.

Nuove Musiche

This phrase has two meanings. Specifically, it is the title of a collection of arias and madrigals published by Gulio Caccini in 1601 featuring music with the new, monodic style of recitative with basso continuo. Generally, in refers to the style of music becoming popular in the 17th c. This new style grew out of Monteverdi's seconda prattica and the musings of the Florentine Camerata. It marked the beginnings of opera, oratorio, and cantata, as well as the Baroque period in general.

Ladies of Ferrara

Three women singers at the court of Ferrara who were famous for their virtuosic expressivity. The principal composer for three ladies was Luzzasco Luzzaschi, a pupil of de Rore. Their prominence is indicative of the rise of the solo singer after 1570.

chaconne/passacaglia

Two ground bass patterns which were not associated with any poetic form. The chaconne was probably imported into Spain from Latin America; it was a dance song with a refrain that followed a simple pattern of guitar chords, which in Italian variations upon it were transformed into a bass line. The passacaglia originated in Spain as a ritornello, that is music having a certain pattern of guitar chords, played before and between the strophes of a song. It too evolved into a variety of bass formulas that were suitable for making instrumental or vocal variations. It was usually in triple meter and minor mode. 17th c. composers write both forms with a continually repeating four-bar formula in triple meter and slow tempo. In the 18th c.., the forms began to be confused.

concerto grosso

Written for several soloists who often form a concertino (or little concerto) in the texture of the trio sonata and orchestra. Baroque and Classical periods. Antecedents: Canzona, sonata, and trio sonata. Texture alternates bewteen ritornello and soloists. Evolved to solo concerto. (Ex: Exactly 20 years apart and bearing the same opus number: 1714, Corelli Concerti grosso, Op. 6; 1734, Handel's Grand Concertos, Op. 6)

Luther, Martin

a Catholic priest, whose journey to Rome prompted him to nail his ninety-five theses on the door of the church in Wittenburg. His reaction to simony and nepotism in the corrupt Catholic church lead him to unwittingly spearhead the beginnings of the Protestant Reformation in Germany in the sixteenth century. Luther enacted a number of changes in the mass and church service which included a vernacular translation of the Bible and the inclusion of music sung by the congregation (rather than solely by professional musicians). Luther also penned a number of monophonic settings of Psalms for the congregation to sing. These modal settings were later used by Baroque composers (most notably J.S. Bach) as melody lines for four-part chorales.

basso seguente

a bass line which is not figured, and which simply reproduces the lowest note of the texture at any moment, (and therefore is expendable).

San Petrino in Bologna

a large cathedral that had long been a center of conerted music (since the beginning of the 17th c.). Cazzati was choirmaster there in the later part of that century (1657-1673)

Dafne

a poem by Rinucci, which was set to music by Peri. This was produced in Florence as the first dramatic pastoral fully set to music in 1597.

consort

a term used in the 17th C for a small instrumental ensemble. A consort is said to be "whole" (e.g. a chest of viols or a nest of recorders) or "broken" (an ensemble with contrasting instruments).

romanesca

an air for singing ottave rime, consisting of a treble formula with a standard harmonization, accompanied by a bass. In many compositions based on the romanesca, only the bass is recognizable, so it is often referred to as a ground bass.

de Lalande, Michel-Richard

one of the four composers who won positions as sous-máìtre of the royal chapel in the famous national competition or concours of 1683. As the others died or retired one by one he took over their quarter-years and by 1714 was in complete control of the chapel. His sixty-four grands motets constitute the core of surviving repertory in this genre. One of the most famous is the De profundis. This work was written in 1683 for the repose of the soul of the Queen Marie-Thérèse. It's text features Psalm 129/130 (Out of the depths I cry to thee, O Lord!). The addition of verses Requiem and Et lux perpetua made this grand motet suitable for funeral and memorial services. de Lalande's writing shows a number of Italian traits (perhaps learned from his predecessor Charpentier) such as: frequent dissonant suspensions, freely-introduced dominant seventh chords, rich instrumental harmonies independent of the vocal parts, and ritornello-like introductory symphonies.

menestriers

one of the reasons France under Louis XIV resisted foreign musical influence was due to the menestriers. These were strong guilds of musicians whose strict rules of apprenticeship and accreditation made it difficult for outsiders to enter the musical profession. The central socail function ofthese musicians in France during the Baroque was to accompany court dancing and ballet entertainments.

L'incorinazione di Poppea

opera by Monteverdi (1642). The libretto was by Francesco Busenello. The work is a masterpiece for the stage and one of the best early-Venetian works. The chorus has all but disappeared in this work and aria, arioso passages, madrigal-like duets, and comic ariettes make up the bulk of the material. The drama is deeply passionate and concerns the Roman Emperor, Nero, his wife Ottavia, and his lover, Poppea. Monteverdi used the recitative as a vessel for the loftiest moments of drama and emotion (Ottavia's farewell to Rome), moving easily between it and aria texture. Monteverdi also uses stilo concitato to great effect to express anger in this work.

mannerism

style used by deRore where the homogeneity of style valued in the Ren. was sacrificed for a melange which aimed to make the representation of the text more vivid and moving. De Rore would change from one rhythmic scheme to another, from diatonicism to chromaticism, from root chords to 6th chords, and from sharp keys to flat keys.