Baroque Music Exploration: A Historical Overview

1. Lecture Slides THE ENJOYMENT OF MUSIC SHORTER EDITION Prelude 3: Music as Exploration and Drama 12TH EDITION by Kristine ForneyAndrew Dell’AntonioJoseph Machlis

2. Prelude 3 Music as Exploration and Drama

3. Music as Exploration and Drama • Composers in 1600s and early 1700s sought to develop approaches to “ramp up” emotional states • Interest in how music can enhance words • Opera • Expressive power of purely instrumental music • Early part of the period interest in extremes • Later emphasis on predictability

4. Prelude 3: Music as Exploration and Drama

5. Prelude 3: Music as Exploration and Drama

6. Prelude 3: Music as Exploration and Drama

7. “Baroque” Art and Culture • 1600–1750 • The New World, Galileo, Copernicus, Descartes, Spinoza, Harvey, Newton • “Baroque” means “misshapen” • David statues • Michelangelo’s is contemplative • Bernini’s is in mid-shot • Absolute Monarchs • Louis XIV • Musical culture of the middle class • Musical works created for specific, immediate use

8. Prelude 3: Music as Exploration and Drama

9. Main Currents in Baroque Music • Shift from polyphony to homophony • Florentine Camerata • Figured bass, basso continuo • Major-minor tonality • Equal temperament • Opera • Continuous expansion of melody • Dissonance as expressive device • Music ought to arouse emotions

10. Prelude 3: Music as Exploration and Drama

11. Prelude 3: Music as Exploration and Drama

12. The Rise of the Virtuoso Musician • Instrument builders improved instruments • Performers responded with virtuosic technique • Composers responded by demanding more advanced techniques • Vocal virtuosity • Castrati • Women expanded their role • Improvisation skills expected

13. An All-European Art • Voyages spawned exoticism • Operas set in faraway lands • Appeal to the imagination • Also much exchange among European national cultures • The best parts of local traditions blended together to create an all-European style

14. Lecture Slides THE ENJOYMENT OF MUSIC SHORTER EDITION http://digital.wwnorton.com/enjmusic12s 12TH EDITION by Kristine ForneyAndrew Dell’AntonioJoseph Machlis

15. Lecture Slides THE ENJOYMENT OF MUSIC SHORTER EDITION Chapter 20: Voicing the Virgin: Cozzolani and Italian Baroque Sacred Music 12TH EDITION by Kristine ForneyAndrew Dell’AntonioJoseph Machlis

16. Chapter 20: Voicing the Virgin: Cozzolani and Italian Baroque Sacred Music

17. Voicing the Virgin: Cozzolani and Italian Baroque Sacred Music • Today we try to acknowledge the importance of diverse voices and perspectives • During times when certain groups are excluded from equal opportunity, those creative voices can be extremely powerful

18. Nuns and Music in Baroque Italy • Baroque era few outlets for creative women • Professional singers’ morality often in question • Secret musical world within convents of seventeenth-century Italy • Benedictine convent of St. Radegona in Milan • Dignitaries and visitors filled the church to hear nuns sing • Chiara Margarita Cozzolani

19. Chapter 20: Voicing the Virgin: Cozzolani and Italian Baroque Sacred Music

20. Cozzolani’sMagnificat(LG10) • Chiara Margarita Cozzolani (1602–c. 1676) • Director of one of St. Radegona’s choirs and composed, published three wide-ranging collections of music • Men did not sing polyphony with the nuns • Special connection to Virgin Mary, Magnificat text • Cozzolani’s setting dramatic and mystical

21. Chapter 20: Voicing the Virgin: Cozzolani and Italian Baroque Sacred Music

22. Interface: The Musical World of the Convent • Women had few choices • Entering a convent only suitable alternative to marriage • Convent provided basic education, including music • Music primary vehicle for contact with outside world • Many convents became famous for their excellent musical establishments

23. Chapter 20: Voicing the Virgin: Cozzolani and Italian Baroque Sacred Music

24. Chapter 20: Voicing the Virgin: Cozzolani and Italian Baroque Sacred Music

25. Lecture Slides THE ENJOYMENT OF MUSIC SHORTER EDITION http://digital.wwnorton.com/enjmusic12s 12TH EDITION by Kristine ForneyAndrew Dell’AntonioJoseph Machlis

26. Lecture Slides THE ENJOYMENT OF MUSIC SHORTER EDITION Chapter 21: Performing Grief: Purcell and Early Opera 12TH EDITION by Kristine ForneyAndrew Dell’AntonioJoseph Machlis

27. Chapter 21: Performing Grief: Purcell and Early Opera

28. Performing Grief: Purcell and Early Opera • Opera not meant for realistic depiction, rather, “hyper-reality” • Strong emotions portrayed through music • Music still used to enhance narrative media

29. The Components of Opera • Opera: large-scale drama that is sung • Involves vocal and instrumental music, poetry, acting, scenery, and costumes • Plot advanced through speechlike recitative • Arias are tuneful emotional releases • Ensemble numbers and choruses • Orchestra provides an overture and sinfonias • Librettist writes the script of the opera

30. Early Opera in Italy • Early opera an outgrowth of Renaissance theatrical traditions • Lavish spectacles • Monteverdi’s Orfeo(1607) an example • By 1642 public opera houses open in Venice • Widespread entertainment • By 1700, Italian opera popular throughout Europe • Except in France

31. Chapter 21: Performing Grief: Purcell and Early Opera

32. Opera in England • Early seventeenth-century masques popular among aristocracy • Combined vocal and instrumental music with poetry and dance • Commonwealth period stage plays forbidden • Plays set to music could be passed off as a “concert” • This is the tradition behind England’s first operas

33. Dido and Aeneas (LG11) • Henry Purcell (1659–1695) • Various English court posts, masques and operas for several venues; assimilated Italian & French styles • First performed at a London girls’ school • Based on part of Virgil’s Aeneid • Last act features a lively hornpipe and concludes with a lament over a ground bass

34. Chapter 21: Performing Grief: Purcell and Early Opera

35. Chapter 21: Performing Grief: Purcell and Early Opera

36. Chapter 21: Performing Grief: Purcell and Early Opera

37. Lecture Slides THE ENJOYMENT OF MUSIC SHORTER EDITION http://digital.wwnorton.com/enjmusic12s 12TH EDITION by Kristine ForneyAndrew Dell’AntonioJoseph Machlis

38. Lecture Slides THE ENJOYMENT OF MUSIC SHORTER EDITION Chapter 22: Musical Sermons: Bach and the Lutheran Cantata 12TH EDITION by Kristine ForneyAndrew Dell’AntonioJoseph Machlis

39. Chapter 22: Musical Sermons: Bach and the Lutheran Cantata

40. Musical Sermons: Bach and the Lutheran Cantata • Protestant reformers Luther and Calvin thought worship (including service music) belonged to the congregation • Luther also believed professional musicians could supplement by providing polyphony • As sermons are elaborations of a bible reading, Lutheran cantatas were an elaboration of the weekly hymn

41. Chapter 22: Musical Sermons: Bach and the Lutheran Cantata

42. The Lutheran Chorale and Cantata • Congregational singing of weekly hymns (chorales) • Sung in unison by congregation and in four-part harmony by the choir • Eventually new poetry substituted for inner stanzas, elaboration of the message • Called Lutheran cantata

43. Bach and the Lutheran Cantata • During J. S. Bach’s time, the cantata was related to the Gospel reading for the day • Bach’s cantatas typically five to eight movements • The first, last, and usually one middle movement were full-ensemble numbers fashioned from the chorale tune • Interspersed were solo or duet arias and recitatives

44. Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) • Culminating figure of the Baroque style • From long tradition of Lutheran organists • Organist to duke of Weimar 1708–1717 • Wrote much important organ music • Composer for prince of Cöthen 1717–1723 • Suites, concertos, sonatas, keyboard music • Cantor at St. Thomas Church in Leipzig 1723–1750 • Supervised music at four churches and directed the collegium musicum

45. Chapter 22: Musical Sermons: Bach and the Lutheran Cantata

46. Wachet auf (Sleepers, Awake) • LG12 • Written in 1731 • Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins • Matthew 25:1–3 • Hymn by Philipp Nicolai, uses tune in three of seven movements • Chorale in AAB (bar) form

47. Chapter 22: Musical Sermons: Bach and the Lutheran Cantata

48. Chapter 22: Musical Sermons: Bach and the Lutheran Cantata

49. Chapter 22: Musical Sermons: Bach and the Lutheran Cantata

50. Lecture Slides THE ENJOYMENT OF MUSIC SHORTER EDITION http://digital.wwnorton.com/enjmusic12s 12TH EDITION by Kristine ForneyAndrew Dell’AntonioJoseph Machlis