Chapter 9 Baroque Instrumental Music

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Chapter 9Baroque Instrumental Music

• The Dance Suite

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Key Terms

• Suite
• Baroque dance form
• Binary form
• Trio
• French overture
• Air
• Walking bass
• Inversion

• Allemande
• Courante
• Sarabande
• Minuet
• Gavotte
• Bourrée
• Siciliana
• Gigue

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The Dance Suite

• Dance music popular in Baroque era
• Customary to group dances in a suite
• All in same key fast dance at the end
• Composed dances usually stylized
• Written for listening, not dancing
• Retain many features of music for dancing
• Allow greater musical sophistication
• Written for various performing forces
• Orchestra, chamber ensembles, or solo harpsichord
  or lute

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Baroque Dances

• Many different Baroque dances
• Distinguished from each other by
• Specific dance steps
• A certain meter
• A distinctive tempo
• Unique rhythmic features (e.g., two-beat upbeat
  for gavotte)
• Most dances use Baroque dance form
• Also called binary form

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Baroque Dance Types

• Allemande 4/4 moderate flowing motion
• Courante 3/2 moderate uses 6/4 at times
• Sarabande 3/4 slow often accents beat 2
• Minuet 3/4 moderate straight rhythm
• Gavotte 4/4 moderate double upbeat
• Bourrée 2/2 rather fast short upbeat
• Siciliana 12/8 moderate gently rocking
• Gigue 6/8 fast short upbeat, lively

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Baroque Dance Form

• Most Baroque dances use binary form
• Two sections a b
• Each section ends with strong cadence
• Each section is repeated
• Symmetrical feela b sections often share same
  motives, cadences, other features
• b section usually longer than a
• Form can be diagrammed as
• a a b b or abbreviated as a b

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Dance and Trio (1)

• To create larger-scale dance works
• Composers grouped dances in suites
• Sometimes they grouped two dances of the same
  type e.g., two minuets or two gavottes
• Second dance of each pair called a trio
• Minuet Trio or Gavotte Trio
• Trio often scored for three instruments
• First dance returns again at the end
• Overall ternary form A B A

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Dance and Trio (2)

• Based on principles of contrast return
• Trio uses different melody rhythms, softer
  dynamics, lighter scoring
• Return of 1st dance creates satisfying conclusion
• Form can be diagrammed as

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The French Overture (1)

• Some suites begin with French overture
• Originally used by Louis XIVs orchestra
• The 24 Violins of the King
• Later used to begin many works
• Operas, suites, sonatas, oratorios (Messiah)
• Uses binary form, but with more contrasts than
  usual

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The French Overture (2)

• A section slow tempo, sharply dotted rhythms,
  duple meter, homophonic texture
• B section fast tempo, often compound meter,
  imitative polyphony

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Bach, Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D

• Likely written for student orchestra at
  University of Leipzig
• Scored for festive Baroque orchestra
• Strings, 2 oboes, 3 trumpets, 2 timpani,
  continuo
• Includes several dance types
• French overture, air, gavotte trio, bourrée,
  gigue
• Most are examples of Baroque dance form

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Bach, Air (1)

• French air aria (song)
• Bachs most famous, beloved melody
• Scored for strings continuo
• Uses Baroque dance (binary) form
• Spontaneous, singing melody uses irregular
  rhythms
• Rising sequences build intensity in b section
• Melody supported by stable walking bass

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Bach, Air (2)
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Bach, Gavotte (1)

• Scored for festive Baroque orchestra
• Trumpets create march-like feel
• Typical gavotte two-quarter-note upbeat
• Uses gavotte trio format
• Both dances use Baroque dance form
• Trio typical in providing contrast with Gavotte
  unusual in its use of full orchestra
• 1st gavotte returns at the end

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Bach, Gavotte (2)

• Example of inversion in b section of Gavotte (a
  learned device)

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Conclusions

• Contrasting dances were often grouped in
  large-scale works called suites
• Dances were typically in binary form
• Two short, subtly contrasted, sections that
  repeat
• Greater length contrast achieved by pairing
  like dances (e.g., gavotte trio)
• Stylized or not, dances relied on
• Clear melodies, simple textures, strong rhythms