Baroque Vocal Music: Monody, Opera, and Sacred Forms

Secular Vocal Music Composers

Secular vocal music composers still cultivated vocal forms inherited from the Renaissance. Voices weren't presented on top of each other with the same importance anymore; the superior voice was highlighted over the rest of the voices.

Accompanied Monody

This new composition technique was called accompanied monody, and it was part of both vocal and instrumental music. It represented a shift in the horizontal-melodic conception (counterpoint texture) towards a vertical-chordal conception (harmonic texture).

The prominence of a superior melody implied the appearance of a new low voice. It served as harmonic support and was called basso continuo.

• Composers Mentioned: Juan Hidalgo and Mateo Romero

Scenic Music

Tonadilla

A small piece, commonly introduced in the middle of great pieces.

• Composer Mentioned: Ramón de la Cruz.

Opera

Composed by Juan Hidalgo and Mateo Romero. It is a compound vocal form with a narrative nature that makes use of stage performance. It is written for orchestra, choirs, and soloists, and elaborated in three fundamental parts:

1. Overture: Instrumental introduction that begins the piece.
2. Sung Parts: For soloists and choirs.
3. Interludes: Instrumental sections inserted to join and connect the different parts of the opera.

Religious Vocal Music

(Composers: Joan Cererols, Francisco Valls)

Cantata

This word means 'music for singing' and it was born as a term opposed to sonata. The cantata appeared first as a secular form. It was later adopted by religious music, which introduced texts from the Gospels, the Psalms, or popular religious topics. It is a compound form written for orchestra, choir, and soloists, formed by a sequence of recitatives and arias.

Oratorio

It can be regarded as an opera with a religious theme but without stage performance. More elaborate and longer than the cantata, it is also a compound form written for orchestra, soloists, and choirs, and formed by a sequence of recitatives, arias, and choirs.

Passion

This is an oratorio about the passion and the death of Christ, inspired by the Gospels. The narrator is the evangelist, who tells the events in a recitative style. The characters of the gospel are interpreted by soloists, and the parts of the disciples and the people are performed by the choir.