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music of Europe from about 1600 to about 1750. are based largely on the natural inflections and
Critics applied the term baroque to the period long rhythms of speech.
after it ended, as a negative epithet. From the
perspective of the classical style, which followed the
baroque and was characterized by symmetry and Rhythm, controlled or measured flow of movement,
balance, many critics found the music of the either aural or visual, usually produced by an ordered
preceding period over-exuberant and somewhat arrangement of differing elements of the medium
grotesque. concerned.
COMPOSERS
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), German Harmony (music), the combination of notes (or
composer and one of the world’s greatest musical pitches) that sound simultaneously. The term
geniuses. His work marks the culmination of the harmony is used both in the general sense of a
baroque style. A man of inexhaustible energy and succession of simultaneously sounded pitches and for
imagination, a single instance of pitches sounding together. In this
second meaning, the term harmony is synonymous
George Frideric Handel (1685-1759), German-born with chord.
composer, who worked primarily in England,
considered one of the most important masters of the
baroque period (from about 1600 to 1750). Handel Types and Forms of Baroque Composition
and his German contemporary Johann Sebastian
Bach are considered the greatest composers of the A. Baroque Vocal Music
early 18th century. 1. Opera was developed as a continuously sung
musical drama by the Camerata during the
Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725), Italian composer, 1590s, with the intention of recreating the
who helped to establish the Neapolitan style of opera power of Greek drama to move the
that dominated 18th-century music. Born in Palermo, emotions, using music to heighten the
Sicily, he was probably trained in Rome under the communicative powers of the human voice.
Italian oratorio composer Giacomo Carissimi. His 2. Oratorios were devotional services that
earliest known opera, L'errore innocente, was featured dramatic dialogues based on
produced in Rome in 1679 biblical stories; they had their roots in Italian
religious song.
Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757), Italian 3. Cantatas, written for voice with instrumental
harpsichordist and composer. Giuseppe Domenico accompaniment, developed at the same time
Scarlatti was born in Naples. He studied first with his as operas and oratorios. Some were based on
father, Alessandro Scarlatti, and later with the Italian secular texts; others accompanied religious
composer Francesco Gasparini. Scarlatti first services.
attracted attention by his revision (1704) of the opera 4. Church Music, Composers of the baroque
Irene by the Italian composer Carlo Francesco
era continued to write Masses for the Roman
Pollarolo
Catholic Church. In Protestant services the
Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741), Italian musician, the chorale, or hymn, took the place of the
most influential composer and violinist of his age. A Mass.
prolific composer, he wrote nearly 500 concertos and
established the concerto form for the baroque period. B. Baroque instrumental music
Vivaldi’s best-known concertos are The Four
Seasons (1725). 1. Instruments.
a. Violin, bowed stringed instrument,
CHARACTERISTICS of BAROQUE music the highest pitched member of the
violin family. Other members of
1.Melody, the organized succession of musical tones the violin family are the viola,
of given pitches and durations. Melodies are cello, and double bass.
distinguished from one another by several traits. For
example, the opening of “Mary Had a Little Lamb”
falls and then rises in pitch (melodic contour), spans
the interval of a major third (range), and consists of
three tones, each a whole step from the next (scale).