Chapter 8: Prelude: The Late Baroque Period
Style Features of Late Baroque Music
Key Terms
• walking bass• harmonic rhythm• basic orchestra• festive orchestra• sequence
• ornamentation
• ritornellos
• continuo
• figured bass
• affects
Style Features of Late Baroque Music
• extravagance– large-scale works for large ensembles– intense, dramatic emotional expression
• control– thorough, methodical expression– extracting maximum effect from material– uniting many elements to depict a single
emotion
Rhythm
• highly regular, determined motion
• distinctive rhythms against a steady beat– freer rhythms in upper voices– walking bass
• steady harmonic rhythm
Dynamics
• rarely indicated; usually steady• dramatic contrast preferred
– either loud or soft (f or p)– change at end of entire section, if at
all
• performers still created subtle nuances
Tone Color
• new interest in sonority – distinctive Baroque sounds and
instruments– idiomatic writing—taking advantage of
unique color of each instrument
• flexibility– works “for violin or oboe or flute”– rewriting earlier works for different
performing forces
Basic Baroque Orchestra
a string orchestra with continuo
Festive Baroque Orchestera
augments the basic with brass, woodwinds, and percussion
Melody
• tends toward complexity and difficulty– extended range– variety of rhythmic note values– intricate, unpredictable twists and turns– irregular phrase lengths
• frequent use of sequence for forward motion
Ornamentation
• addition of fast notes, motives, or effects to a melody– cadenzas; chording continuo instruments
• improvised during performance– sometimes written down to guide lesser
performers– even simple tunes lavishly ornamented
Texture
• standard Baroque texture is polyphonic– sometimes homophonic texture, for
contrast only
• dense orchestral works use many moving contrapuntal lines
• simple works for solo and continuo still feel contrapuntal (active bass)
The Continuo
• provides framework and support for melody and polyphony– bass line played by cello or bass viol– chords played by keyboard or plucked
strings
• creates “polarized” texture• often written as figured bass
Playing the Continuo
• bass line played with left hand
• chords improvised with right hand
• chords “realized” in simple or complex manner, according to ability
Baroque Musical Form
• more standardized formal patterns– fugue, ritornello, dance form, etc.– easier to compose on demand for patrons
• patterns filled in orderly, logical manner– entire fugues constructed from single theme– often symmetrical ordering of movements
• meant to sustain rich musical experience over long time span
Emotional Expression
• powerful yet impersonal
• Baroque composers thought music should– mirror a wide range of emotions
(affects).
– depict those emotions consistently.
– take on a theatrical quality.
Affects
• Scientists studied and classified emotions.
• Composers catalogued musical elements for each “affect.”– keys: D minor = serious; E minor = pathos,
etc.– melodic and rhythmic figures– instrumental and vocal types and genres
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