Music 3

1600 to 1750

George Frideric Handel and Johann Sebastian Bach

Bach

Opera

A drama sung to orchestral accompaniment with their melodic lines imitated the rhythms and inflections of speech. Began in Italy in the 1600's

Homophonic - they felt that words could be projected more clearly by using just one melody with a chordal accompaniment.

The rhythms and inflections of speech.

Polyphonic

Dissonance with a new freedom, but voices were accompanied by melodic lines designed for instruments.

All over Europe

The new importance of instrumental music - the violin family being the most popular.

Many aspects of harmony arose including an emphasis on the attraction of the dominant chord to the tonic. Emphasized homophonic texture and late composers gloried polyphony.

One basic mood- what starts joyful stays joyful.

emotional states or moods of music

Vocal music

Repeated throughout the entire piece

A feeling of continuity

Dynamic expansion- short phrase then a long phrase with an unbroken flow of rapid notes.

sudden and dramatic shift from loud to soft or soft to loud

Organ and harpsichord

Could make gradual dynamic changes but only within a narrow range - from about ppp to mp - makes sounds by means of brass blades striking the strings

Predominantly polyphonic; two or more melodic lines compete for the listeners attention. Usually bass lines and sap rank are most important.

Inclined towards a consistently polyphonic texture

Used more contrast between polyphonic and homophonic sections.

The bass part

Baroque accompaniment made up of a bass part usually played by two instruments: a keyboard plus a low melodic instrument.

The bass part

Improvised chords following the indication of numbers above the bass part.

Bass part of a baroque accompaniment with figures(numbers) above it indicating the chords to be played. Specifies only basic chords.

Upward motion

The reverse, usually associated with pain or grief

The violin family

Small; consisting of about ten to forty players.

Flexible

The churches and aristocratic courts

A small German court in 1717

Supervised performances and composed much of the music and in charge of discipline of the other musicians. High payed but still a servant who couldn't quit or take a vacation.

In the church - there were few concerts and the poluace were rarely invited to the palace

Composition for several instrumental soloists and small orchestra; common in late baroque. Presents a contrast of texture between the tutti and the soloists. Consists of several movements that contrast in tempo and character.

The soloists because their parts were more difficult than those of the other players.

We're frequently performed by private orchestras in aristocratic palaces.

In Italian, all; the full orchestra, or a large group of musicians contrasted with a smaller group. Occurs during a concerto grosso

Three movements - fast, slow, fast - opening movement is usually vigorous and determined, second is quieter than the first(lyrical and intimate) and the last is lively and carefree (dancelike)

A Baroque musical form based on recurrences of a ritornello. The tutti plays a ritornello, or refrain, alternating with one or more soloists playing new material.

In italalian, refrain; a repeated section of music usually played by the full orchestra, or tutti, in baroque compositions.

A polyphonic composition based on one main theme or subject

Different melodic lines called voices, imitate the subject.

The soprano voice

Three to five voices

The bass

Second presentation of the subject in a fugue, usually in dominant scale.

A melodic idea that accompanies the subject fairly constantly.

Transitional section in a fugue between presentations of the subject, which offers either new material or fragments of the subject or countersubject.

A compositional procedure used in fugues, in which a subject is imitated before it is completed; one voice tries to catch the other.

Single tone, usually in the bass, that is held while the other voices produce a series of changing harmonies against it; often found in fugues.

Inversion Retrograde Augmentation Diminution

If it can be turned upside down - if subject moves upward in leaps the the inversion will move downward the same distance and vise versa

Beginning with the last note of the subject and proceeding backward to the first.

the original time values are lengthened

With shortened time values.

Short piece usually serving to introduce a fugue or another composition; a short piece for piano.

Higher class entertainment.

Text of an opera

Dramatist who writes the libretto, or text, of an opera.

Song for solo voice with orchestral accompaniment, usually expressing an emotional state through its outpouring of melody; found in operas, oratorios, and cantatas. Has a definite beginning, high point and end.

Vocal line in an opera, oratorio, or cantata, that imitates the rhythms and pitch fluctuations of speech, often serving to lead into aria.

In opera, a piece performed by three or more solo singers.

A group of singers performing together, generally with more than one to a part.

Short musical composition, purely orchestral, that opens an opera and sets the overall dramatic mood. Orchestral introductions to later acts of an opera are called preludes.

In Italian, a fellowship or society; a group of nobles, poets, and composers who began to meet regularly in Florence around 1575 and whose musical discussion prepared the way for the beginning of opera. Wanted to create a new vocal style modeled on the music of Ancient Greek tragedy.

Male who sings in a female pitch range using a special kind of voice production.

1678-1741 - was a teacher and composer and is best known for his 450 or so conerti grossi and solo concertos. Four seasons.

Got a job playing Wilhelm Ernst, Duke of Weimar. Composed music in Leipzig till his death

In baroque music, a set of dance-inspired movements all written in the same key but differing in tempo, meter, and character.

Common opening piece in baroque suites, oratories, and operas; usually in two pare: the first slow, with characteristic dotted rhythms, full of dignity and grandeur; the second quick and lighter in mood, often starting like a fugue.

a concerto that contrasts a soloist and an orchestra