BAROQUE ERA

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BAROQUE ERA

• 1600-1750

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Baroque Literature
Shakespeare Hamlet Cervantes Don
Quixote Milton Paradise Lost Defoe Robinson
Crusoe Swift Gullivers Travels
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Baroque Art
Rubens Rembrandt
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Baroque Politics

• King James Bible 1611
• Galileo 1610 Earth revolves around the sun.
• Thirty Years War (1618-1648)
• Newton Principal Mathematica
• Witchcraft Trials in Salem 1692

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Louis XIV1638-1715 (reigned for 72 years)
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The Palace at Versailles

• Hall of Mirrors
• Extravagance

• Versailles
• Landscaping

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Baroque Music

• Composers
• Monteverdi
• Arcangelo Corelli
• Henry Purcell
• Antonio Vivaldi
• George Frideric Handel
• Johann Sebastian Bach

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Baroque Orchestra

• 10-40 musicians
• Upper Strings
• 1st and 2nd Violin,
• Viola
• Basso Continuo
• harpsichord plus cello,
• double bass
• or bassoon

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Woodwinds

• flutes
• oboes
• recorders

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• Brass
• trumpets
• horns
• trombones
• Percussion
• timpani/kettle drums)

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Baroque Opera

• began as a combo of dance scenes, lyrical music
  and plot based upon courtly love.

• a French critic, late 1600s said
• Opera is a bizarre affair made up of poetry and
  music, in which the poet and the musician, each
  equally obstructed by the other, give themselves
  no end of trouble to produce a wretched work.

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How evil is opera??
Opera was illegal in Rome in the early 1700s.
an English critic, 1872 Opera is to be regarded
musically, philosophically, and ethically, as
an almost unmixed evil.
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Baroque Instrumental Music

• This is the first time that we see instrumental
  music sharing the same stature as vocal music.
• For the first time, there was a clear separation
  of Vocal and Instrumental music

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Baroque Instrumental Practice

• There were no classics, so contemporary
  composers were very prolific
• Virtuosity (music that shows off the technical
  skills of the performer)

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Keyboard Music

• Equal tempered tuning

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Keyboard Instruments

• Three main instruments
• Organ sacred venues and some home chapels
• Tracker Action
• Great, positive, and portative organ
• Harpsichord basso continuo for orchestra and
  dance music. Solo instrument. Strings plucked by
  a Plectrum.
• Clavichord strings struck by hammers made
  originally from bone. Precursor to the piano.

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Positive organ Portative organ
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Baroque Organs
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Harpsichord
Harpsichord, ca. 1675Made by Michele
TodiniRome, Italy
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Clavichord
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Innovations

• Instrument building families
• Stradivarius, Guarneri, and Amati
• Strings
• Cat gut
• Slightly different playing technique.bowing
• Woodwinds mellow sound as opposed to a more
  brassy sound in modern times.

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Innovations

• Brass
• Originally a military instrument for signals
• Without valves
• Key changes made by inserting longer or shorter
  crooks in the horn.

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Violin, 1693Made by Antonio Stradivari
(16441737) Cremona, Italy
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Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
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The Life of J.S. Bach

• Born in Eisenach, Germany, which was also the
  birthplace of Martin Luther.
• Bachs family supplied musicians (agents)
• The Bach family was made up of more than 70
  composers and performers in Germany from the 16th
  to the early 19th centuries.
• Orphaned at age of 10, raised by his older
  brother.
• Brother was an organist and Bachs first music
  teacher (family apprenticeship)

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Bach as a young man
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Bach prolific complex

• Wrote over 1000 musical pieces in every genre
  except opera
• Cantatas (1 per week for 8 years)
• Public complained for his flowery music
• Musicians felt his
• music too difficult

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Bachs Signature
J.S.Bach (musical) cross. Bach signed himself
with a single note (using 4 different
pitches) B Left staff (treble clef) A Upper
staff (tenor clef) C Right staff (alto clef)
H Lower staff (treble clef)
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Bachs Work

• Church Musician
• Write music for services
• Play organ
• Teach choirs
• Teach soloists
• Conduct orchestra, choirs
• Court Musician
• Wrote music for entertainment
• Wrote commissioned pieces
• School teacher
• Organ teacher
• Organ construction consultant
• Composersacred secular music
• Husband/father

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This is a picture of one of the churches in
Leipzig where Bach worked. He was responsible
for all music in all 4 churches in the town.

• St. Thomas Church and School

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• Since the best man could not be obtained,
  mediocre ones would have to be accepted.
• -Leipzig town council member commenting on the
  hiring of Bach

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• In 1707, Bach married his cousin, Maria Barbara.
  They had 7 children. She died in 1721.
• The same year, he married Anna Magdalena Wilken,
  who was a professional singer. They ended up
  having 13 more children during their marriage.

It is interesting to see that Bach did not travel
much during his lifetime and stayed within a
small area of Germany.
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Germany
Bachs life and work
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• By 1748 Bach was nearly blind from cataracts.
• In March and April of 1750, he was operated on by
  the English oculist John Taylor. The operations
  and the treatment that followed them may have
  hastened Bach's death.
• Johann Sebastian Bach died on July 28, 1750.

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• Did you know?

Bach shares his birth year with G.F.Handel.
Handel also had cataract surgery performed by
oculist John Taylor. American composer, Edward
MacDowell said, "Bach and Handel were in every
way quite different, except that both were born
in the same year and killed by the same doctor.
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George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)
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George Fredric Handel

• born in Halle, Germany
• Father was a wealthy barber/surgeon that believed
  that Handel should never enter the music field.
• Born Georg Friedrich Händel, Handel anglicized
  the spelling of his name after becoming a British
  citizen in 1727.
• Handel never married.

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Hanover

• He traveled to London to stage his opera, which
  was very well received
• The next time he went to London, he just stayed
• He was dismissed by the Elector of Hanover
• The elector of Hanover, was crowned King George I
  of England in 1714.
• Oops!

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Handels Water Music 1717

• An offering to King George I after irritating His
  Serene Highness.
• Music for an outing on the Thames river.
• His former salary (in Hanover) was doubled

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Oratorio

• Baroque vocal piece.
• Multi-movement
• First oratorios were sacred operas.

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Oratorio

• Eventually stripped of staging and costumes etc.
• At the end of the Baroque it was simply a
  non-staged event.
• Middle and late oratorio used no acting, staging,
  costumes. -- Concert version.
• Based upon a biblical story

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Messiah (1742)

• Premiered in Dublin, Ireland.
• Composed in 24 days.
• Has been performed every year since its premiere
  in 1742.
• Libretto Biblical verses divided in three
  parts Christmas, Easter, Redemption

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Concert etiquette for Messiah

• Why stand at the Hallelujah Chorus.
• Tradition or Religious significance?
• King George

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the Top 10 (possible) reasons

• the king was awakened by the loud chords of the
  beginning of the chorus
• he was tired of sitting
• he was hard of hearing and thought they were
  playing God Save the King
• he had gout and stood for relief
• he arrived late and all stood when he entered

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• he had hemorrhoids and stood for relief
• he had to go to the bathroom
• he mistook the words And he shall reign forever
  and ever to be a personal tribute
• he thought the chorus was so splendid that he
  assumed it marked the end of the show
• he was actually moved and inspired to stand

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Handels last years

• he lost his eyesight during the last years of his
  life
• He had the same physician who treated Bach!

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Handelburied in Westminster Abbey

• Note the wrong date on the grave marker.

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• Handel is the greatest composer who ever lived.
  I would bare my head and kneel at his grave.
• - Ludwig Van Beethoven

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Antonio Vivaldi 1678 1741

• Composer in one of four of the most important
  music schools of Italy (and Europe)
• Called The Red Priest because of his red hair

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Vivaldis Musical Style

• Vivaldi is credited for helping to free
  instrumental style from vocal style.
• Each piece is used as a teaching tool to create
  virtuosity in the players of the orphanage and
  music school.
• Most famous piece The Four Seasons