The Baroque Era: 1600 – 1750 Introduction:The Long SeventeenthCentury

• Scientific revolution

• Colonialism

• Capitalism

• Patronage

Europe: Seventeenth Century

Baroque Era: 1600–1750

Original meaning: “abnormal,” “bizarre,” “grotesque”

flamboyant, theatrical, expressive tendencies

diversity of stylesArtemisia Gentileschi, ca. 1620, Judith Slaying Holofernes

From Renaissance to Baroque…

Drama• Literature

Shakespeare, Milton, Cervantes

• Art/architecture Bernini

Ecstasy of St. Teresa, 1647 – 1652

• the affections emotion, humour, passion opera sensory, physical,

psychological

The Musical Baroque

conservatives vs. innovators• prima pratica v. seconda pratica

Instrumental music• ostinato basses• harmonic patterns • recurring tutti sections

Order v. Disorder – dialectic of control/freedom

The Musical Baroque (cont’d)

Concertato medium

Harmony • Chords/dissonance• Chromaticism• from modal tonal

Homophonic textures• melody + bassline

(firm, figured, ground, thoroughbass)

The Musical Baroque (cont’d) Italian trends dominate

• basso continuo (Caccini, Vedrò ‘l mio sol NAWM 72)

• unprepared dissonances• solo voice (florid) + bass line

(firm, figured)• recitative

Regular, flexible rhythms• barlines to mark measures

Homophonic textures• melody + bassline (firm,

figured, ground, thoroughbass)

Forerunners of Opera music and drama – Ancient

Greece• choruses, principal lyric

speeches• Renaissance plays: songs,

offstage music Renaissance antecedents

• intermedio, pastoral drama, Greek tragedy

Florentine Camerata (1570s)• academy, performance,

discussion (ancient v. modern)

The First Operas

Recreate ancient genre in modern form• Bardi in Rome, 1592• Peri and Rinuccini’s Dafne

(1598) pastoral poem, staged drama,

sung throughout

L’Euridice, 1600• NAWM 73 – recitative style,

dialogue Monteverdi’s Orfeo (1607)

• NAWM 74d, ‘‘Tu se’ morta’’

“Tu se’ morta” (NAWM 74d)

Opera in Rome and Venice

Rome: center for opera, 1620s• subjects : lives of saints, episodes from Italian epics,

comedy• spectacular stage effects • recitative and aria

recitatives: speechlike arias: melodious, strophic

• castrati women prohibited from stage in Rome female roles sung by castrati

Opera in Rome and Venice (cont’d)

Venice: • 1637 first public opera

house, Teatro San Cassiano

• audience diversity supported by rich merchants wealthiest families rented

boxes• L’incoronazione di

Poppea (The Coronation of Poppea), 1643