Music Exam 3

Pachelbel

Canon in D major

Purcell

Dido and Aeneas

Monteverdi

Orfeo

Handel

Water Music

Recitative

(something recited), is musically heightened speech, through which the plot of the opera is communicated to the audience. Generally, recitative is performed without a perceptible meter or beat- you can't tap your foot to it. And because recitatice attempts to mirror the natural rhythms of everyday speech, it is often made up of rapidly repeating notes followed by one or two long notes at the ends of phrases, as in the following example from act II of Orfeo. Reecitative in Baroque opera is accompanied only by the basso continuo which consists, as we have seen, of a bass line an accompanying chords.

Makeup of the Baroque orchestra

-Suite -Violin -Terraced -Orchestra Strings- -violin 1 -violin 2 -cello -bass woodwinds- -oboe -flute -bassoon brass- -trumpet percussion- -timpant

Trio Sonata

1. A multi-movement chamber work 2. solo inst and (basso) continuo or a solo continuo an ensemble of the Baroque period consisting actually of four performers, two playing upper parts and two on the basso continuo instruments

Date of the Baroque period

1600-1750

Ostinato/Basso Ostinato

A melody, harmony, or rhythm that repeats continually throughout a musical composition is an ostinato. When the repetition occurs in the bass, it is called a basso ostinato. In baroque operas and cantatas, performers often sang laments accompanied by a basso ostinato that descended, as here, in stepwise motion. Such a descending bass consequently became a symbol for grief or lamentaion, especially when presented in a minor key. -repeated bassline

Pedal Point

A pedal point is a note, usually in the bass, that is sustained (or repeated) for a time while harmonies change around it. Such a sustaining tone in the bass derives its name, of course, from the fact that on the organ the note is sounded by having the foot hold down a key on the pedal keyboard.

Solo Sonata

A solo sonata might be written either for a solo keyboard instrument, such as the harpsichord, or for a solo melody instrument, such as the violin. If for a solo melody instrument, three musicians were actually needed: the soloist and the two basso continuo sonata- is a type of instrumental chamber music (music for the home with just one player per part). A baroque sonata consists of a collection of movements, each with its own mood and tempo, but all in the same key.

Aria

An aria is more passionate, more expansive and more tuneful than recitative. It also tends to have a clear meter and more regular rhythms. If a recitative tells what is happening on stage, an aria conveys what the character feels about these events. An aria usually halts the actin to focus a spotlight on the emotional state of the singer. An aria will work through text at a more leisurely pace, words are repeated to heighten their dramatic effect and important vowels are extended by means of vocal melismas.

Opera

An opera, is a stage play (a drama) expressed through music. The term opera means literally "a work" and it first appeared in the italian phrase opera drammatica in music, "a dramatic work set to music." Opera demands singers who can act or, in some cases, actors who can sing.

Oratorio

An oratorio is literally "something sung in an oratory", an oratory being a hall or a chapel used specifically for prayers and sometimes prayer with music. Thus the oratorio in seventeenth century italy had something in common with todays gospel music: it was sacred music sing in a special hall or chapel, intended to inspire the faithful to greater devotion. Becae a Quasi religious genre

Church Cantata

Bach and his contemporaries created the church cantata, a multimovement sacred work including arias, ariosos, and recitatives, performed by vocal soloists, a chorus, and a small accompanying orchestra. The church cantata became the musical soul of the sunday service of the lutheran church, the protestant religion that dominated spiritual life in german speaking lands.

General characteristics and origins of Baroque art

Baroque is the term used to describe the arts generally during the period 1600-1740. a rough, bold instrumental sound in music. Thus, originally, baroque had a negative connotation: it signified distortion, excess, and extravagance. The baroque era also saw the introduction of many new musical generes-- opera, cantata, oratorio, sonata, concerto and suite. Yet despite the quick stylistic changed and all the new types of music created, two elements remain constant throughout the Baroque period: an expressive, sometimes extravagant, melody and a strong supporting bass.

Composers of the Baroque period

Claudio Monteverdi , Arcangelo Corelli, Antonio Vivaldi, Jean-Baptiste Lully, George Frideric Handel, Johann Sebastian Bach, Henry Purcell

Name of the first true opera

Claudio Monteveri's Orfeo

Ground Bass

English composers called the basso ostinato the ground bass, because the repeating bass provided a solid foundation, or grounding, on which an entire composition could be built.

Vivaldi

Four seasons

Essential info on Antonio Vivaldi

He became a skilled performer on the violin, he also entered Holy Orders, ultimately being ordained a priest. He concertized on the violin throughout Europe; he wrote and produced nearly fifty operas, which brought him a great deal of money, and he lived for fifteen years with an Italian opera star. The red haired priest eventually provoked a response from the authorities of the Roman Catholic Church. Vivaldi was forbidden to practice his musical artistry in papally controlled lands, which then constituted a large portion of italy.

Style features of Baroque melody

In early Baroque music, then, all voices are not created equal. Rather, a polarity develops-the highest and lowest sounding lines shine forth, while the middle voices do little more than fill out the texture. The new structure facilitated a new kind of solo singing called monody ( from the Greek term meaning "solo song"). A single singer stepped forward supported only by a bass line and a few accompanying instruments, to project highly charged text. With the spotlight squarely on the soloist, a more elaborate, indeed showy, style of singing developed. Two different melodic styles began to develop: a somewhat mechanical style, full of figural repetitions, in instrumental music; and a more dramatic, virtuosic style in singing. Baroque vocal music is marked by flourishes in which the voice luxuriates as it projects a single syllable as metrical phrases, but expands lavishly over long musical spans.

Essential info on Jean-Baptise Lully

Lully controlled the string-dominated court orchestra with such dictorial powers that he might have said "La musique, c'est moi." Not only did Lully write much of the music, he also selected the players, led rehearsals, and made sure all performers executed the notes exactly and in strict time. While thumping the floor with his conducting stick he stabbed himself in the foot and died of gangrene a few weeks later. Jean-baptise Lully can claim credit for creation of a new musical genre: the French overture.

Handel

Messiah

Toccata

Montercerdi called his musical preamble a toccata. The term toccata (literally, "a touched thing") refers to an instrumental piece for keyboard or other instruments requiring great technical dexterity of the performers. It is, in other words, an instrumental showpiece. Here the trumpet races up and down the scale while many of the lower parts rapidly articulate repeating pitches. It theatrical function, of course, is to call the audience to attention, to signal that the action is about to begin. -touched piece, name of the overture written to orfeo

Bach

Organ Fugue in G minor

Essential info on Barbara Strozzi

Professional composer, woman in early baroque were cloistered nuns who received their sustenance from the church. Only performance within the home was then thought to be an appropriate musical activity for ladies. She was steeped in the traditions of opera composer claudio monteverdi, for her teacher had been one of his pupils. Strozzi did not write operas, but excelled in composing CHAMBER CANTATS that she herself could sing in the fashionable homes of Venice's elite.

Plot basics for Dido and Aeneas

Purcells Dido and Aeneas was among the first operas written in the English Language.It was for a private girls boarding school. They sang numerous choruses and danced in the equally frequent dance numbers. All nine solo parts save one were written for female voice. The story- the solidier of fortune aeneas, who seduced proud dido, a queen of carthage, but then deserts her to fulfill his destiny--sailing on to found the city of Rome. Betrayed and alone, Dido vents her feelings in an exceptionally beautiful aria. In virgils, orignal sotry, dido stabs herfself with the sword of aeneas. In purcells opera, she dies of a broken heart: her pain is poision enough. -As the voice twists chromatically downward, we feel the pain of the abandoned Dido. By the end, she has slumped int o the arms of her servant Belinda. -The ground bass purcell composed for Dido's lament consists of two sections 1) a chromatic stepwise desent over the interval of a fourth 2) a two measure cadence returning to the tonic G -In the liberetto, didos lament consists of a brief one stanza poem with an aba rhythm scheme.

Essential info on Arcangelo Corelli

The composer virtuoso who made the Baroque solo and TRIO SONATAS internationally popular was Arcangelo Corelli. He had moved to Rome , where he remained for the duration of his life as a teacher, composer, and performer on the VIOLIN. One of the first superstars of the violin. "Functional Harmony" because each chord has a specific role, or function, in the overall succession of chords.

Terraced Dynamics

This practice of shifting the volume of sound suddenly from one level to another is called terraced dynamics. Terraced dynamics went hand in hand with clear contrasts between major and minor keys, as well as with abrupt changes in orchestration.

Corelli

Trio Sonata in C majr

Strozzi

Voglia morire (I want to die)

J.S Bach

Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme

Essential info on J.S Bach

Was largely self taught. To learn his craft, he studied, copied and arranged the compositions of Corelli, Vivaldi, Pachelbel, and even Palestrina. He also learned to play the organ, in part by emulating others, once traveling 400 miles round trip on foot to hear a great performer. Bachs first position of importance was in the town of Weimar, Germany, where he served as organist to the court between 1708 and 1717. Bach was the master of COUNTERPOINT. Bach wrote many FUGUES for the ORGAN.

Concerto Grosso

When a small group of soloists works together, performing as a unit against the full orchestra, the piece is called a concerto grosso. A concerto grosso consists of two performing forces that work together: a larger group forming the basic orchestra, called the concerto grosso (big concert), and a smaller one of two, three, or four soloist, called the concertino ( little concert) -Virtuoso -Texture -Difficulty -Range -Dynamics

Essential info on G.D handel

Wrote operas and in Rome, he composed mainly CHAMBER CANTATAS. London became the site of his musical activity and the place where he won fame and fortune. Music tutor to english royal family. Refused to speak english. Only would speak german. He formed an opera company, the Royal Academy of music, in which he served as composer, producer and performer.

Fugue, including the majors sections of

a composition for two, three, four, or five parts, played or sung by voices or instruments, which begins with a presentation of a subject in imitation in each part (exposition), continues with modulation passages of free counterpoint (episodes) and further appearances of the subject and ends with a strong affirmation of the tonic key.

Monody

a general term connoting solo singing accompanied by a basso continuo in the early Baroque period

Chorale

a spiritual melody or religious folk song, of the lutheran church. Chorals, like hyms were meant to be easy to remember; indeed many of the melodies had begun life as folk songs and popular tunes. AAB form

Basso Continuo

defining feature of Baroque music, which consists, as we have seen, of a bass line and accompanying chords

Doctrine of Affections

each piece would center in on one specific emotion, held that different musical mood could and should be used to influence the emotions , or affections, of the listener--be it rage, revenge, sorrow, joy or love.

Chamber Cantata

meant to be played in small room, is a "sung thing" for solo voice and a few accompanying instruments, intended to be performed at home or a private chamber; thus it is a type of chamber music. This a chamber cantata might be called a "mini opera" except it lacks costumes and scenery and involves only a single solo character. The most proflific composer of chamber cantatas in the early baroque was the venetian Barbara strozzi

Concertino

smaller one of two, three, or four soloist, called the concertino ( little concert) the group of instruments that function as soloists in a concerto groso

Best Baroque instrument for playing counterpoint

the organ

Libretto

the text of an opera