The Baroque Period

Question 1

Characteristics of Baroque Music

Answer 1

• Ornamentation
• Long melodies
• Basso continuo
• Tonality
• Standardization of forms

Question 2

Ornamentation

Answer 2

• just like the architecture of the period, Baroque music is extremely ornate
• elaborate melodies
• embellishment of melodies through trills

Question 3

Long Melodies

Answer 3

• Baroque melodies are often lengthy and somewhat rambling
• do not reach cadences (harmonic resting points)
• Bach’s Organ Fugue vs. Mozart’s Piano Sonata

Question 4

Basso continuo

Answer 4

• continuous bass line supports the long, elaborate melodies in the higher voices

Question 5

Tonality

Answer 5

• the system of tonality was established during the Baroque period
• can describe music as major or minor

Question 6

Opera Seria

Answer 6

• “serious opera”
• dominated Europe during the late Baroque and early Classical periods
• arose in Italy, and often sung in Italian
• Subjects = limited to tales the noble deeds of historical characters

Question 7

Castrati

Answer 7

• male singers who had been castrated before puberty, so that they could retain the high register of their voices

Question 8

Da capo aria

Answer 8

• “da capo” means “from the beginning”
• texts of da capo arias have two contrasting stanzas
  
  1. 1st stanza is sung
  2. 2nd stanza is sung
  3. then, 1st stanza is sung again but with more ornamentation, allowing singers to demonstrate their vocal prowess
• ABA’

Question 9

The Fugue

Answer 9

• A fugue is a Baroque polyphonic musical form
  
  • at the outset a subject , a melodic theme, is presented in one voice and then imitated in the rest turn by turn
• most baroque keyboard fugues are written either for a harpsichord or an organ

Question 10

Exposition

Answer 10

• the portion during which a subject is presented in each voice
• may contain a second phrase called the countersubject that is introduced during the exposition

Question 11

Episode

Answer 11

• after the subject has been presented in each voice, a section of free polyphony follows
• an episode may contain some allusions to the subject, but not its entirety

Question 12

Parts of an Opera

Answer 12

1. Overture
   
   • instrumental opening that precedes an opera
2. Recitative
   
   • musically heightened speech
3. Aria
   
   • melodic reflection