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Baroque Music refers to the music composed between about 1650 to 1750. Baroque composers had grown accustomed to make a sharp or flat to a note and the major-minor key system grew. The Violin family soon takes place and the orchestra started to take shape. The string section was self-contained and the composer may add one or two other instruments such as flutes, oboes, bassoons, perhaps horns, and maybe trumpets or timpani. One constant feature of Baroque orchestra was the harpsichord, cello or organ continuo, i.e. continue through the work and fill out the harmonies, decorate the textures and holding the ensemble together. |
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A strong characteristic of Baroque orchestra music is terrace dynamic. Terrace dynamic actually means there are sudden changes in volume level abruptly. Sometimes, the quiet phrase may be a repeat of the preceding loud phrase, creating an echo effect. The vocal music in Baroque began in monody - a single voice-line, supported by an instrumental bass-line. Sometimes the voice line rose and fell according to the meaning of the text and closely followed the natural speech rhythms of the words - half reciting, half singing - and the accompaniment was extremely simple. All the composer wrote down beneath the melody was a bass-line to be the basso-continuo since it continues throughout the piece. One larger form of vocal music was the oratorio. At first, an oratorio was very similar to the opera. The operas included brief choruses, dances and instrumental pieces in simple chordal style, involving a small orchestra. Also it consists of recitatives and arias - which actually mean songs. However, the oratorio ere made up of recitatives, arias and choruses, with scenery and costumes. Oratorio was based on a sacred story, usually taken from Bible. A famous oratorio is Handel's Messiah. |
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The instrumental music in the Baroque period became, for the first time, equal in importance to vocal music. However, most instrumental music was in contrapuntal style - based on the idea of imitation. In Baroque concerto grosso, the most exciting type of Baroque music, most composers used one or two solo instruments, called the concertino, sounded against the violin family, called the ripieno. The bass was filled by the continuo, usually harpsichord or cello, which support the harmonies on occasions when the concertino instruments played on their own. One main form in the baroque period is the ritornello form. Ritornello means "return" and it directly refers to the main theme which was played by the orchestra at the beginning of the movement then returned, more or less complete. Composers marked the ritornello with tutti (everyone) and were then accompanied by a solo (alone) section. There are also another forms used in the Baroque Period. They are the binary form (AB), ternary form (ABA). A famous composer of Baroque music is Johann Sebastian Bach (J. S. Bach). Now Listen to his Brandenburg Concerto No.X. |
