Music in the Baroque Era: Part II

1600-1750

The Middle Baroque

(1650-1700)

France in the Middle Baroque

Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687)b. Florence

(Giovanni Battista Lulli)

under Louis XIIIItalian music was

patronized

Louis XIII dies 1643 Louis XIV born 1638

Italian cardinal Mazarin in power until 1661

Lully enters court in 1650s

How did an Italian become the most important French composer of the 17th century?

• Lully wrote dances and airs for ballet de cour and danced with Louis XIV

• ballet de cour—court ballet– like Italian intermedio– staged, singing, large audience

• air de cour—court air– monody w/lute accompaniment– no regular meter—metric shifts– meter matches syllables– Gabriel Bataille, Ma bergere non lègere

• Dance in French Music– late 16th c.—pavane, galliard, allemande

—each have their own particular type of music, corresponding to dance steps

– 17th c.—courante, sarabande, minuet, gigue, others

Dance

Le Roi Danse—King Dancing

• 1660s—Louis XIV began to rule• French aristocracy was required to pay homage to Louis XIV @ Versailles,

which became center of artistic activity• Lully was head of court musicians• collaborations w/Molière called comedies-ballets• directed the “24 violins”

Music at Versailles

Lully in the 1670s and 80s

• dir. Royal academy of Music, exclusive rights to present operas in France, averaged 1 opera per year; no other composers were allowed to rival his works

• opera w/Phillipe Quinault—11 operas (tragedies en musique)

Le Roi Danse—Death of Lully Phillipe Quinault

Lully’s operas:

prologue addressed to King

Arias and Recitatives

• short airs (like air de cour)• recitative– suited French language– changing time signatures to fit speech patterns– clear rhythm/definite tempo– not as speech-like as Italian; not much lengthy

recitation on a single pitch• Enfin il est en ma puissance from Armide

scoring

• no high voices for men’s roles• no alto voice• 24 violins for overture, ballet

– Armide, Overture• recit and air accompanied by continuo• wind (recorder, oboe, bassoon) for special effects

How was it different from Venetian opera?

• French opera featured:– few comic scenes– dances from royal court ballet– chorus– divertissements• dances/chorus play prominent roles (like intermedi)• diversion from main plot

How did French baroque music sound?

• Conventions of Tempo and Rhythm– overdotting/double-dotting—applies to opening sections

of overtures– notes inégales—lengthened 1st note in certain pairs of small

note values• ornaments (agrements)– not free embellishment (elaborate melodic decoration

whose patterns can be indicated only by writing out the notes; embellishment is more common in Italian music)

– standardized melodic decoration which can be notated through symbols (see chart p. 369)

What could other French composers do?

– 1st movement—improvisatory prelude– other movements—stylized dances

• tempo, rhythm, style borrowed from court dances– Allemande—slow, 4/4, improvisatory, arpeggiated, French word for

“German”– Courante—moderate, 6/4 or 6/8, hemiola,– Sarabande—slow, 3/2 or 3/4, strong 2nd beat, block chords, simple– Gigue—lively 6/4 or 6/8, in English “jig”, skipping rhythms– other dances

• Gavotte—2/2, music starts on beat 2• Minuet—3/4, regular phrases

– Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre, Suite in a minor– Johann Jacob Froberger (1616-1667)

• German, probably a student of Frescobaldi• combined prima prattica and seconda prattica• wrote almost exclusively for keyboard• Italian toccatas—but had longer contrapuntal section, fugues• established the traditional format of the French Suite

Harpsichord suites

Sacred Music

• Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1645 or 1650?-1704)– probably studied w/

Carissimi– also wrote comedies– singer– chapel– oratorios, cantatas, airs

England in the Middle Baroque

Henry Purcell (1659-1695)• English composer• 1677 (age 18!)—composing for King Charles

II• 1679—organist at Westminster Abbey• wrote anthems, court odes, welcome songs

(multi-movement works), keyboard works, chamber music

• imitative counterpoint• seconda prattica dissonance• songs included in plays—recit and aria• opera—Dido and Aeneas

• Dido’s Lament – lament

» from venician opera—Cavalli

» ostinato» descending bass

• opera did not develop as a tradition in England until 1800s

Germany in the Middle Baroque

Johann Pachelbel• German composer

and organist• Canon in D