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2. religion in New World
a. Protestant refugees settle on East Coast of
North Amer i ca
b. Catholic Spanish and French colonies
3. Martin Luther, call for religious reform
4. Counter- Reformation: Catholic response
F. Artists in society
1. employment:
a. royal or princely patronage
b. church or city administration
2. direct contact with their public
3. musical works for specific occasions, immediate
use
III. Main Currents in Baroque Music
A. Early Baroque: shift from polyphony to homophony
1. “new style”: melody over simple chords
2. Florentine Camerata: aristocratic humanists
a. aimed to resurrect ancient Greek drama
b. music heightens emotional power of the text
B. New harmonic structures
1. figured bass: musical notation, indicated chords
2. basso continuo: instrumentalists provide harmony
3. establishment of major- minor tonality
4. functional harmony, helped shape musical
structure
5. equal temperament tuning system: increased
harmonic possibilities
C. Baroque “expressive style”
1. continuous melodic expansion, highly expressive
2. driving rhythms
3. dissonant chords: emotional intensity, color
4. nuanced dynamic contrasts: expression of
emotions
5. dramatic forte/piano contrasts, echo effects
OUTLINE
I. Baroque Era Emphasizes Emotion
A. Expressive power of musical instruments
1. development of new instrumental genres
2. refinement of instrument building and per for-
mance techniques
3. musical extremes, intense expression
4. later Baroque: greater predictability of musical
form and procedure
II. “Baroque” Art and Culture (1600–1750)
A. Period of change, adventure, discovery
1. age of discovery: conquest of the New World
2. intellectual milestones: Galileo, Copernicus,
Descartes, Spinoza, Harvey, Newton
3. empires clashed for control of the globe
B. Poverty, wasteful luxury
1. idealism, oppression
2. Baroque art: vigor, elaborate decoration, grandeur
a. projected pomp and splendor
b. “baroque” Portuguese derivation, “misshapen,”
“distorted” (applied in retrospect)
c. love of the dramatic
C. Era of absolute monarchy
1. Louis XIV “I am the State”; Palace of Versailles
2. elaborate musical establishments: opera
troupes, chapel choirs, orchestras
3. opera: favorite aristocratic diversion
D. Middle- class culture
1. excluded from aristocratic salons
2. music- making in the home
3. comic opera, novel: witty observations on life
E. Religion: intensely devout period
1. battlefields: Catholics and Protestants
PRELUDE 3 Music as Exploration and Drama
LECTURE SUGGESTIONS
1. To introduce students to the Baroque style of visual art,
compare medieval, Re nais sance, and Baroque render-
ings of David and his slingshot. Ask the class to build
on their knowledge of medieval and Re nais sance styles
to determine the characteristics of the Baroque. Below
are links to a sampling of images:
2 . Compare excerpts from a Re nais sance madrigal (Farmer’s
Fair Phyllis or Monteverdi’s Si ch’io vorrei morire) and
an example of the “new music” (a solo madrigal from
Caccini’s Le nuove musiche or Strozzi’s Amor dormi-
glione). Ask students to identify the similarities and dif-
ferences between the “old” music of the Re nais sance and
the “new” music of the Baroque.
ASSIGNMENT SUGGESTIONS
1. The Würzburg Residenz in Bavaria, Germany, is a
striking monument to the sumptuousness of Baroque
art and architecture. A UNESCO World Heritage
site, the Residenz maintains an interactive website
that allows visitors to take virtual tours of the
grounds and interior rooms. One of the most spec-
tacular is the Imperial Hall (Kaisersaal), completed
in 1752, which features impressive ceiling frescoes
by the Venetian Baroque artist Giovanni Battista
Tiepolo. After “touring” the Imperial Hall, write a
brief essay that explains how this space exhibits the
hallmarks of Baroque art as reviewed in the Prelude
to Part 3.
Link to the Imperial Hall tour: www . residenz
- wuerzburg . de / englisch / residenz / kaisers . htm
6. later 17th century, “affections”: music built on a
single affection
IV. Per for mance Matters
A. The rise of the virtuoso musician
1. instrumental virtuosity
a. refinement of instrument building
b. more advanced playing techniques
2. development of vocal technique
1. exoticism in opera: reference to faraway lands
2. exchange among national cultures
3. internationalization: combined qualities into one
style
a. Italy: sensuous melody
b. France: precise dance rhythms
c. Germany: polyphony
d. England: choral song
OVERVIEW
Music of the Baroque era is introduced as vehicle for explo-
ration and drama in the Prelude to Part 3. The conquest of
the New World, scientific discovery, and the new search for
dynamism and movement in the visual arts find parallels in
the rise of opera and the virtuoso musician, exploratory forms
of harmonic expression and improvisation, and an interest in
defining regions both near and far- away through musical
stylization.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. To understand the Baroque era as a time of scientific dis-
covery, dazzling forms of entertainment and art, and
the ourishing of middle- class vitality
Music as Exploration and Drama | 75
SUPPLEMENTAL BIBLIOGRAPHY
Hill, John Walter. Baroque Music. New York: Norton, 2005. A
introduction to Baroque musical aesthetics (Chs. 1 and 2, “The
Baroque Ideal” and “Origins and Foundations,” pp.1–29) by one
TEACHING CHALLENGES
For students with no background in art or painting, recogniz-
SUPPLEMENTAL REPERTORY
