Early Baroque Music (2) Flashcards
Early Italian Baroque: Vocal Music
General characteristics: reaction against polyphony, dramatic recitative, new treatment of dissonance, experimental.
Monody
Developed by members of the “Florentine Camerata” singers, composers, and poets who met together to discuss particularly ancient Greek drama and music and classical ideals and traditions.
Members of the Camerata: Giulio Caccini, Vincenzo Galilei, Girolamo Mei, Jacopo Peri, Count Giovanni de Bardi (the patron of the Camerata)
Results: development of a type of early recitative that they labeled stile rappresentativo
Giulio Caccini: Le nuove musiche (1601) containing short arias or “monodies” with basso continuo accompaniment. Described in the preface the practice of ornamentation: how to realize such figures as the trillo (the reiteration of a single note leading into a cadence), the gruppo the alternation between 2 notes, etc. Examples of monodies: Vedrò ‘l mio sol (in NAWM, I) Amarilli, mia bella (Most famous example)
Early operas
Earliest opera preserved complete: Euridice by Jacopo Peri (1600). (There was an earlier work by Peri entitled Dafne, but only fragments have been preserved. L’Euridice was performed at the Medici court in connection with the wedding of Maria de Medici and King Henry IV of France
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The first great composer of opera was Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)
Monteverdi
Born in Cremona; worked for court of Mantua 1590-1612; Hired at St. Mark’s, Venice 1613, where he remained until his death in 1643.
Output: Madrigals: 9 books; early madrigals similar in style to those of composers like Cipriano da Rore.
Book V (published 1605, composed by 1598): began to employ basso continuo; example: Cruda Amarilli: NAWM. It was in his commentary on these madrigals that Monteverdi articulated his concepts of the contrast between the prima prattica and theseconda prattica.
Book VIII: Madrigals of Love and War (1638); in the preface to this work he discusses the concept of the stile concitato, an excited, agitated style of text setting. He employs this in t he “warlike madrigals and later in his last opera The Coronation of Poppea (1642).
Book IX: includes famous setting of Zefiro torna scored for 2 tenors and basso continuo over a chaconne bass. The 2 measure bass melody is repeated 54 times!
Monteverdi (cont.)
Monteverdi’s first Opera: Orfeo (1607), Composed for the court of Mantua.
5 acts; based on same plot as Peri’s Euridice, but uses a different libretto.
Vocal forms: strophic variation, chamber duet
Instrumental forms: sinfonias, ritornellos, first operatic “overture,” a fanfare like introduction, which he labels a “Toccata.”
Most famous sections: Act II: Narration describing death of Euridice: “In fiorito prato;” NAWM
Orfeo’s lament: “Tu sei morta” NAWM
Act III: “Possente spirto” sung by Orfeo to oarsman Charon before he crosses the river Styx on his way to the underworld. The aria is in strophic variation form. Monteverdi supplies both a simple vocal setting and a more elaborately ornamented version.
Last opera: L’incoronazione di Poppea (1642, the year before his death. This was performed in a public opera house in Venice. It is based on Roman history about Emperor Nero’s affair with Poppea and his desire to depose his wife the empress and put Poppea on the throne. The musical style is highly varied.
Early Italian Baroque: Instrumental Music
General Characteristics:
- Forms made up of short sections
- Ground Bass forms: especially ciaccona (chaconne) and passacaglia; repeated melody in bass; triple meter; usually in minor mode.
- Variations on popular dance bass melodic patterns: romanesca, passamezzo, ruggiero
Keyboard Music
- Toccata: free forms; usually multi-sectional
- Ricercar(e): imitative (we would say fugal); generally poly-thematic in the 16th century; from 17th century on, it becomes monothematic. Originated in the 16th century as an instrumental transcription of a vocal motet (employing a series of points of imitation.
- Canzona: freely imitative, but multi-sectional and employing lively rhythms often employing “long, short, short” patterns. Originated as an instrumental transcription of a vocal chanson.
Girolamo Frescobaldi
Studied in Ferrara with composer Luzzascho Luzzaschi.
Worked in Rome as organist at St. Peter’s from 1608.
Greatest composer of keyboard music in the Italian Baroque. Influenced German keyboard music through his pupil Johann Froberger. Most famous collection of pieces: Fiori musicali (Musical Flowers), 1635. Contains firmus settings of chant for the Mass; also ricercars, canzonas, and toccatas to be used within the liturgy. Frescobaldi’s style in general: lyrical, rather chromatic, rhapsodic, rather introspective.
Netherlands
Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562-1621): born near Amsterdam; pupil of Italian composers such as the Gabrielis and composers of the English virginal school such as John Dowland, John Bull. Organist at the Oude Kirche (Old Church) in Amsterdam.
Keyboard music: variations on popular songs; variations on Psalm tunes and chorales; toccatas, ricercars, canzonas, and fantasias.
Germany
The Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648), a desperate political and religious struggle, had a devastating effect on Germany. After the war German composers continued to follow Italian models.
Protestant church music:
Chorale based works predominate:
Organ chorale preludes
Chorale motet: employ chorale as cantus firmus; treated in imitative counterpoint.
Chorale concertato: similar composition employing voices and instruments and basso continuo.
Early German Baroque Composers
Michael Praetorius (1571-1621): short chorale based works Published the Syntagma Musicum (1615-1619), one of the first large scale encyclopedias of music; particularly important for its treatment of musical instruments; featured engravings of musical instruments and their components.
Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672):
Studied in Venice with Giovanni Gabrieli and later with Claudio Monteverdi.
Served as Kapellmeister at the Saxon court in Dresden. Output severely curtailed during the Thirty Years’ War.
Important works: Psalms of David: large-scale antiphonal works reflecting the Venetian style of Gabrieli. In German.
Symphoniae Sacrae Parts I-III (1629-’47-’50) Early collections are small vocal/ instrumental concertos with continuo reflecting influence of Monteverdi; later collection reverts to larger scale practice influenced by Gabrieli. E.g. Saul, Saul, was verfolgst du mich? (Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? NAWM). Earlier collection is in Latin; the later two are in German. Kleine geistliche Konzerte: (1636 and 1639): Small vocal concertos with Basso Continuo only; reflecting the lack of resources in Dresden during the Thirty Years’ War. Passion according to St. Matthew (1666): one of the settings of the Passion in the Baroque.
Keyboard Music (German)
Keyboard Music:
Johann Jacob Froberger (1616-1654): German by birth, but served at the Austrian court in Vienna. In his middle years he travelled widely and visited Paris, where he met a number of famous keyboard composers. This highly influenced his composition of dance suites. He is credited with standardizing the dances of the suite: Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, and Gigue.
Samuel Scheidt (1587-1654) Most strongly influenced by Sweelinck. Tabulatura nova (1624): printed in open score instead of old keyboard tablature. Consisted of variations on songs and chorales, fugues, toccatas.
