Music, Music for a while.

This blog post is about the characteristics of Baroque music. I personally love Baroque music and consider it my favourite period of music. Baroque is the name given to the period of music between 1600-1750. 1600 can be given as an estimated start to the period, in Italy at least, because this was the birth of opera. 1750 can also roughly be given as an end date as Handel, a Baroque giant, passed away in 1749.

            The word ‘Baroque’ is literally defined as ‘decorative’. I also found that, interestingly, synonyms for the word ‘Baroque’ are extravagant, bizarre, elaborate, ornate, embellished, and flamboyant. Antonyms for the word ‘Baroque’ are plain, unadorned and undecorated. I find this interesting because, in my opinion, these synonyms accurately describe the music of the Baroque period. Therefore, the period is named well and these words alone give an incline into the kind of music that was written.

The music written in this period had some very distinctive characteristics. The Appoggiatura, Trill, Mordent and Turn are the most commonly used ornaments in Baroque music and can be thought of as characteristics. One heavily important feature of this music is the use of ornamentation. It is thought that to be able to play or perform a good interpretation of Baroque music, a good knowledge of how these ornaments should sound is needed. However, a lot of these ornaments were not noted in the music and it was common for performers to improvise ornamentation on a given melodic line. A singer performing an Aria, for instance, would sing the melody relatively unornamented the first time, but decorate it with additional flourishes the second time through. For example in Music For A While From Purcell’s Opera Oedipus, a gentle descending line closes the middle section on the dominant, as preparation for the return to the tonic key. Purcell’s return to the home key brings with it a return of the opening melody and text. When performing this part for the second time, trills, mordents and auxiliary notes can be added.

However much one studies baroque ornaments, this instinctive placement of it is something that is hard to learn. These extra flourishes need to be thought about intensely to ensure that they fit with the time period and stylistic techniques. Basically, the music embellishment should not be applied thoughtlessly. It is merely opinion that defines whether embellishment is correct or not. 

Baroque composers used many Trills within their compositions. A ‘Trill’ is the name given to the rapid alteration between two notes, which are normally a tone or semitone apart from another. For example Bach’s Zerfliesse from his St John Passion contains many trills within the piano part, which are often placed at the end of the instrumental ‘breaks’. The singer also has a lovely trill in bar 48. The trills used in this era do differ from, for example, Jazz music. The standard baroque trill does not start on the principal note, but on the note above.

One of Baroque music’s most characteristic marks was the use of the basso continuo, also known as figured bass. This provided the harmonic structure of the whole piece of music. Any instrument that produced chords such as a harpsichord, organ, guitar, lute or harp or was the lowest sounding instrument such as a cello, bass, double bass or bassoon could perform the continuo. Often the harpsichordist played from a score or single bass line, with small numerals written under it. 

These figures below the music indicate what harmonies to use as the music unfolds. It was the job of the continuo player to ensure the required harmonies were complete and clear. It is worth noting that music founded on a clearly defined bass line puts a comparable emphasis on the melody above and the outer parts become slightly polarized. The understanding of basso continuo is critical to an understanding of how Baroque composers thought about their music.

The turn is a versatile ornament that revolves around the principle note and is similar to the first four notes of a descending trill. The interpretation depends largely on the tempo of the music; for example, a turn can be used instead of a trill in faster pieces of music. A turn can, however, be played slowly with a pause on the main note in slow movements.

Another stylistic convention of Baroque music is the use of vertical harmony. When listening to, for example, any mass by Palestrina (A renaissance composer), you can hear separate lines that flow horizontally in interwoven melodies. They of course create Vertical harmony, but their principle role is melodic. They can then be compared to, for example, Monteverdi’s Orfeo.

Monteverdi marked the transition from renaissance to the baroque period. You can hear the baroque sound developing with the clearly identifiable chords, which they then used in progressions. These extracts show the progression of vertical harmony.  This ‘vertical harmony’ way of thinking enabled the baroque composers to use dissonance in highly charged and expressive ways. 

 A significant trait of Baroque music is the dotted rhythms. Descending passages that descended in thirds would contain passing notes, which were unaccented appoggiaturas. Which would look like this:

Generally, the sound performed of the above would be this:

However, in Baroque music, composers such as Bach and Quantz would make appoggiaturas a part of the preceding note and notate them like this:

When performing the above notation, the actual sound would have the dots lengthened and the six-tenths shortened. This is a distinctive sound and a way of hearing the difference between, for example, Baroque and Classical music. This performed sound would be this:

Another stereotypical convention of Baroque music is the rhetorical power of music. Much of it reaches out to communicate strong passions and persuasive emotions. An example of this is an upward leap of exclamation, a rising scale to indicate a question, or a falling chromatic scale of sadness. Musical rhetoric was a way of creating specific passions such as fear, love, hatred, anger and joy.

Baroque music is supposed to move you intensely. This is something that needs to be thought about in depth when performing Baroque music because one aria or movement will normally focus on one emotion and once this mood is established, it will generally be sustained throughout. 

This week my blog has hit 20,000 views, so I want to thank everyone who reads this and I hope some people find it interesting or helpful! :) I have a performance of Baroque music tomorrow and I am hoping to post videos of this in a future post. On a personal note, I finish University tomorrow, so I look forward to having more time to blog over the summer. I also have a place to do teacher training in september and I will be posting about my journey to becoming a music teacher! (Scary, I know)