Baroque Music: Era, Forms, Composers, and Instruments

The Baroque Era (1600-1750)

The Baroque era, spanning from 1600 to 1750, was characterized by a departure from the strict logic and balance of previous periods. It cultivated a taste for dissonance, elaborate decoration, and dynamic movement. This period saw a wealth of new musical forms and styles emerge in both vocal and instrumental music.

Key Vocal Forms of the Baroque Period

• Cantata: A composition with religious or secular texts, featuring instrumental accompaniment for one or more soloists or a choir. It is typically divided into several parts.
• Opera: A dramatic work set to music, usually sung throughout, with orchestral accompaniment. Key components include:
  • Overture: An instrumental piece that begins the show.
  • Recitatives: Fragments that retain the declamatory style of earlier periods, advancing the plot through sung dialogue.
  • Arias and Duets: Lyrical, melodic vocal fragments for a single soloist (aria) or two soloists (duet), often pausing the dramatic action to express character emotions.
  • Chorus: Polyphonic sections sung by a group of singers, providing commentary or collective emotion.
  • Ballet: Instrumental pieces designed to be danced by a group of ballerinas, often integrated into the opera.

Prominent Baroque Vocal Composers

• Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750): The foremost exponent of music during this period. His religious passions and oratorios are among his most important vocal works.
• George Frideric Händel (1685-1759): A German-English composer, he excelled as a violinist and organist.
• Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687)
• Henry Purcell (1659-1695)

Baroque Instrumental Music

Baroque instrumental music featured ensembles of instruments or sections organized by families, with the string family often forming the basic core. A main feature was the basso continuo, a continuous harmonic bass line that sustained the melody uninterruptedly. Composers explored both polyphonic and homophonic textures.

Common Baroque Instruments

• Stringed Instruments: Harp, Lute
• Keyboard Instruments: Harpsichord (Clavecin)
• Wind Instruments: Crumhorn, Bombard, Flageolet
• Percussion Instruments: Cymbals

Major Instrumental Forms

• The Concerto: Typically in three parts (movements) that differ in character and tempo (e.g., Allegro-Slow-Allegro). Two main types are:
  • Solo Concerto: Features a single soloist accompanied by an orchestra.
  • Concerto Grosso: Features a small group of soloists (concertino) contrasted with a larger ensemble (ripieno).
  A notable example is Antonio Vivaldi's The Four Seasons.
• The Suite: A succession of various dances in a single work. Common movements include:
  • Allemande (German)
  • Sarabande (Spanish)
  • Courante (French)
  • Gigue (English)
• The Sonata: A musical form, often in four movements, characterized by contrasting tempos and moods between movements.
• The Fugue: A contrapuntal musical form, typically in one movement, characterized by the intricate weaving of various independent melodic lines. It is often interpreted by keyboard instruments. Notable composers include Johann Sebastian Bach and Antonio Soler.

Characteristics of Baroque Instrumental Music

• The appearance of the orchestra facilitated the interpretation of major works.
• The Fugue is one of the quintessential Baroque instrumental forms. It is usually interpreted preceded by a prelude or introduction, allowing the performer to make contact with the instrument. Once the prelude is completed, the fugue begins with the exposure of its main subject or theme. Other voices are then incorporated in succession at different pitches, often introducing a different melodic line known as a countersubject.