Chapter 8 Prelude: The Late Baroque Period

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Chapter 8Prelude The Late Baroque Period

• Style Features of Late Baroque Music

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Key Terms

• Walking bass
• Harmonic rhythm
• Basic Baroque orchestra
• Festive Baroque orchestra
• Sequence

• Ornamentation
• Ritornellos
• Continuo
• Figured bass

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Style Features of Late Baroque Music

• Extravagance
• Many large-scale works for large ensembles
• Intense, dramatic emotional expression
• Control
• Thorough, methodical expression of emotion
• Composers extract maximum effect from small
  amount of basic material
• Many elements unite to create single affect

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Rhythm

• Rhythmic vitality energy
• Strong influence of dance rhythms
• Distinctive, recurring patterns play against a
  steady beat strong meter
• Freer rhythms in upper instruments
• Beat often emphasized by harpsichord walking
  bass
• Steady harmonic rhythm, too

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Dynamics

• Subtle expressive nuances common
• Overall dynamic level steady for a section or an
  entire piece
• When indicated, dynamics were either loud or soft
  (f or p)
• Composers preferred abrupt, dramatic dynamic
  changes, not gradual ones
• Terraced dynamics

6
Tone Color

• New interest in sonority, instrumental colors
• Distinctive sounds of harpsichord, organ,
  recorder, festive Baroque orchestra
• Idiomatic writingtakes advantage of unique
  capabilities of each instrument
• Yet some works treated flexibly
• Works for violin or oboe or flute
• Bach Handel rewrote earlier works (or works by
  others) for different performing forces

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The Baroque Orchestra

• Violin family instruments core of orchestra
• Louis XIVs orchestra was influential
• Called The Twenty-Four Violins of the King
• 6 violins, 3 groups of 4 violas, 6 cellos
• Continuo a standard part of orchestra
• Basic Baroque orchestra essentially a string
  orchestra
• Festive Baroque orchestra added winds, brass,
  even percussion

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Basic vs. Festive Baroque Orchestra

• Basic Orchestra
• Violins in 2 groups
• Violins 1
• Violins 2
• Violas
• Continuo
• Cellos Bass Viol (both play bass line an octave
  apart)
• Harpsichord or organ (play chords)

• Festive Orchestra may add
• 2 Oboes
• 1 Bassoon
• Up to 3 Trumpets
• 2 Timpani (kettledrums)

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Basic Baroque Orchestra
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Festive Baroque Orchestra
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Melody

• Often complex, ornate, virtuoso melodies
• Often difficult to sing or play
• Extended range, reaching high low
• Great variety of rhythmic note values
• Intricate, unpredictable twists turns
• Irregular phrase lengths
• Infrequent repetition, sequences common

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Ornamentation

• Addition of fast notes, motives, or effects to a
  melody
• Ornaments were improvised
• Added spontaneously in performances by virtuoso
  solo singers players
• Enough improvisations were written down to show
  us how they did it
• Even simple tunes were lavishly ornamented
• Other examples of improvisation
• Cadenzas or chording continuo instruments

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Texture

• Standard Baroque texture is polyphonic
• Frequent use of imitative polyphony
• Composers may use homophonic texture for contrast
  (cf. ritornellos or chorales)
• But this texture appears in pieces that feature
  polyphony elsewhere
• Sounds feel alive because every line is in
  motion, even in dense orchestral works
• Simple works for solo and continuo still feel
  contrapuntal due to active bass

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The Continuo (1)

• Melody or polyphony supported by solid harmonic
  scaffoldbasso continuo
• Polarized texture resultsstrong bass in low
  register vs. clear, high melodic line(s)
• Continuo used in most Baroque works
• Except those for one instrument
• Continuo provides same advantages as rhythm
  section in jazz or rock band
• Keeps steady beat, provides bass line, fleshes
  out harmonies

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The Continuo (2)

• Includes both bass line accompanying harmonies
• Bass line played by cello or bass viol, etc.
• Chords played by keyboard or plucked strings
• Chords must follow figured bass (Baroque chord
  symbols)

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The Continuo (3)

• Chording keyboard instruments
• Play bass line with left hand
• Improvise chords with right hand
• Performers can realize chords in simple or
  complex manner, according to ability

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Musical Form

• Forms clearer, more regular than earlier
• Standardized formal patterns made it easier to
  provide music for patrons ASAP
• Fugue, ritornello form, dance form, etc.
• Scientific urge to fill patterns in orderly,
  logical manner
• Entire fugues constructed from single theme
• Often symmetrical ordering of movements
• Baroque works could sustain rich musical
  experience over long time span