History of Baroque Era Music
Perhaps the most celebrated aspect of the Baroque era was the grandiose style of music first introduced in Italy in the early seventeenth century and popularized by composers such as George Frideric Handel, Johann Sebastian Bach and Antonio Vivaldi. While the church continued to support the musical arts, the Baroque age also produced a proliferation of secular music. In addition, the period brought the introduction of such vocal forms as opera, oratorio, and cantata, as well as orchestral forms as the sonata, concerto, and overture. As opera, in particular, became widespread in its popularity, the divas, virtuosos, and castrata of the age gained epic adoration from the masses.
The Baroque Era began at the end of the 16th century and lasted to about 1750. This era reflects a period of time when great changes occurred in music and culture. The Baroque era artistically bridged the gap between the spiritually pure music of the renaissance era and the formalized music of the classical era. The music of the early baroque was composed in a style that was very similar the music of the renaissance era. The baroque era culminated with the exalted music of J.S. Bach, whose three sons were among the first exponents of the new music of the classical era: the era that followed the baroque. The Bach sons greatly influenced classical-era composers Haydn and Mozart.
The baroque style of music represented a complete departure from that of the renaissance era. Sacred music during the renaissance period was sung in the a cappella choral style that was its trademark. If instruments were used at all, they simply copied the parts sung by the choirs instead of introducing separate melodies. In the baroque era, however, instruments gained a place of their own in sacred as well as secular music. Another innovation of the baroque era was the introduction of a solo style. In the renaissance period, all sacred music was performed by choirs; in the baroque, individual parts were assigned to soloists. To backup the singing by these soloists, the concept of the thoroughbass (baso continuo or figured bass) was introduced. This technique allowed a bass part to be assigned to the music, and chords were designated for improvisation above the bass part. Opera first appeared in the early baroque era. The introduction of opera with its solo singing helped form the baroque style, and this style was introduced into the sacred music. Thus the sacred music of the baroque era was composed in a more secular style than was the lofty, celestial choir music of the renaissance.
Among the early composers of the baroque era were two outstanding figures: Giovanni Gabrieli (c1557-1612) and Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643). Gabrieli was an organist at Saint Mark's Cathedral in Venice, Italy. There he wrote compositions for two or more choirs. A number of these are masterpieces of great music, for example his O Magnum mysterium, the Plaudite Psalite, and the beautiful In Ecclesiis. Gabrieli composed a number of masses, but only sections of these works have survived. These mass movements, however, are profound, moving compositions that must have transformed listeners experiencing the music sung by three distinct choirs from the lofts of Saint Mark's in Venice.
History of Baroque Era Dance
Dance during the Baroque era in Europe was closely linked with Baroque art and Baroque music. Numerous paintings and writings show the importance of dance, and several dance manuals survive today.
Performance dance during the Baroque era was used in theater, and during social occasions. Ballet is one example of a dance used in theater; the Minuet was a performance dance performed at the beginning of social dancing, often followed by social dancing such as English Country Dance, the Couranto, and many other kinds of dances.
Dancing masters or publishers whose manuals survive to the modern era include John Playford, Raoul-Auger Feuillet, John Essex, and John Weaver.
Minuet
A minuet is a dance for two persons, usually in 3/4 time. The word was adapted, under the influence of the Italian minuetto, from the French menuet, meaning small, pretty, delicate, a diminutive of menu, from the Latin minutus; menuetto is a word that occurs only on musical scores. The word refers probably to the short steps, pas menus, taken in the dance. At the period when it was most fashionable it was slow, ceremonious, and graceful.
The name is also given to a musical composition written in the same time and rhythm, but when not accompanying an actual dance the pace was quicker. Minuets written in music from Lully onwards. One or more minuets were optional in the Suites of Handel and Johann Sebastian Bach. It eventually became a standard movement in those four-movement suites that evolved into the symphony, with Johann Stamitz the first to employ it in this way with regularity. In the hands of Ludwig van Beethoven it becomes the scherzo.
Among Italian composers, the minuet was often considerably quicker and livlier, and was sometimes written in 3/8 or 6/8 time. A minuet was often used as the final movement in an Italian overture.
The other dances that made up a Baroque suite dropped out of use, but the minuet retained its popularity.
The usual form is ABA (ternary form), with a contrasted middle section, the familiar minuet and trio. The "trio" section is a contrasting mid-section, lighter in orchestration. A common French "trio" scoring in the 18th century consisted of a pair of oboes and a bassoon.
An example of the true form of the minuet is to be found in Don Giovanni. The 'Boccherini' minuet has often provided the conventional background music when an air of stilted formality and decorum was being emphasized.
Updated: December 10, 2006
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"Badaniere"
by Johann Sebastian Bach
