Essay on Ensemble Music During the Baroque Period

When King Louis XIV was in need of some critically acclaimed harpsichord music, he would look no further than Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre, nominally his favorite. Jacquet de la Guerre dedicated almost all of her pieces to the King. At the age of twenty-two, this child prodigy issued her first publication entitled Pieces de clavecin, a collection that included four pieces exclusively for harpsichord. At the time, these suites were designed for amateurs to have fun with, playing with friends and family. Dances with specific styles were mostly what it consisted of. These were written in binary form, with two sections, each repeated, the first moving from the tonic to a cadence on the dominant, and the second returning to close on the tonic. Jacquet de la Guerre’s Suite No. 3 in A Minor is a perfect example of this genre and has all the features of a dance in this type.

A multimovement piece composed for the lute or keyboard with the style, tempo, and rhythmic patterns of a particular dance

Later on in his life, Bach composed the Orchestral Suite No.3 in D Major. This work's second movement was appropriately titled Air, because it was an aria for the orchestra. Bach wrote music for single instruments, duets, and small ensembles. Bach's works for solo instruments include the six sonatas and partitas for violin (BWV1001-1006), the six cello suites (BWV 1007-1012) and the partita for solo flute (BWV1013). Bach's best-known orchestral

The second piece that is discussed is Toccata in F major, by Johann Sebastian Bach. It is a solo piece that was performed in a unison and dissonant harmony. Surreal coordination and impressive pedal solo was extremely impressive and gave this particular piece a broad spectrum of dynamic change and tempo. Ascending and descending theme constantly repeated throughout this performance, alternating in crescendo and decrescendo, which brought life and movement to a classical piece.

Since the Baroque era, the concerto has played a vital role in the music world. According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, a concerto is “a composition for one or more soloists and orchestra with three contrasting movements.” There are two main types: the concerto grosso and the classical concerto; both will be discussed later. While the term concerto is relatively easy to understand in context, when put into use the term becomes more complicated to define.

Britannica explains the sonata form as coming from the binary form, however, the sonata form is more complex. The binary form has two parts and the form is held together by the ”themes… tonalities, or keys, the particular sets of notes and chords used in each part” (Britannica). The first part is played twice and it ends in the same key as the second part starts with, which makes the second part complete the first part.

Composers since the early classical era have used sonata form to express through music ideas which are at once complex and unified. This form contains a variety of themes and permutations of these themes, but is brought together into a comprehensible whole when these excerpts reappear. Beethoven, in the first movement of his Piano Sonata Opus 2 Number 3 utilizes this form to its full potential, modifying the typical structure in his characteristic way.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had endless ideas for writing piano sonatas and like his other works, his sonata style has evolved dramatically over the years. His early works have been constantly compared with other well-known composers at the time. For example, it has been suggested that Haydn’s F Major Sonata, Hob. XVI: 23 as a model for Mozart’s K. 280 in the same key.

Rarely in the documented history of music can we found a collection of compositions more perfectly tied to an instrument, than that of the Baroque school of French organ composition. Looking at the earliest examples of music from this period (which stem from even earlier vocal polyphony), one will find forms and techniques indubitably connected to the organ. By the start of the sixteenth century, the establishment of colloquial categories of organ composition, and independent vocal forms, were finally acknowledged. For the following two centuries the technical progression of the organ in conjunction with musical development, resulted in every stop on Baroque French organs being given a standardised function. This function was almost always outlined at the beginning of a score by the composer.

Among the most famous Baroque works for the cello are J. S. Bach's Unaccompanied Suites for Cello (or as they are more commonly known, The Bach Cello Suites). An example of a Classical-era piece would be Haydn's Cello Concerto #1 and #2. Standard Romantic era repertoire includes Dvorak's Cello Concerto in B Minor, Cello Concerto in E Minor by Sir Edward Elgar, and two sonatas by Johannes Brahms. Modern compositions within the early 20th century include unaccompanied cello sonatas by Paul Hindemith and Zoltán Kodály. Recordings within the Avant Garde have revitalized the instrument's perceived versatility. One example is Night of the Four Moons by George Crumb.

There were a total of four music pieces performed. They were “Overture from the Singspiel”, “Concerto in e minor”, “Concerto on b minor,opus 104”, and “Symphony#2 in b minor, opus 5”. I think pieces were performed belong to classical style.

The Chamber Winds had a forty-one personnel ensemble, which played Mother Earth by David Maslanka, Hymn to a Blue Hour by John Mackey, and Symphony in B Flat by Paul Hindemith. My personal favorite in which I would like to emphasize on was Symphony in B Flat by Paul Hindemith wrote in 1851. The Symphony in B Flat was absolutely remarkable, this piece had three different movements in it. The three movements in the Symphony in B Flat had different textures, themes, and rhythms. The first movement was moderately fast with vigor is in allegro tempo and begins with one beat that shifts to a duple ending in a B flat major chord. The second movement was andantino grazioso which begins in a melody with a sax and cornet then corresponds to movement

The sonata in the baroque era was made of multiple movements, and was either secular or sacred. The sonata da chiesa was designated for performance in church. It was typically comprised of three movements for a stringed instrument. The first movement was most often an adagio with a legato melody, the second movement was a fugal allegro, perhaps three voices to represent the trinity, the third was choralic and the fourth movement was a finale in two part form. The court sonatas were a bit longer sometimes containing as many as six movements.

During the Baroque era, Bach compositions represented unity because he maintained to keep melody through rhythm. Furthermore, Cello Suite No.1 in G major, BWV 1007 has 6 parts. Kouyoumdjian stated, “ Prelude has 3 layers, the bass, then the melody which is the treble and the middle” (Kouyoumdijan commentary). Afterwards, the rest of the composition. When Kouyoumdjian transcribed Violin Sonata No. 2 in A minor, BMV, he used the violin and harpsichord as a source to transcribe the composition for the guitar. Fuga in the composition is an imitation from the previous composition, Andante is the poetic moment and Allegro shows “fiery.”

The name ' Sonata ' or known as first movement appeared in the early 17th century, when instrumental music began to separate instrument or composition of the piece from vocal music. ‘Sonata ' means a work to be played, which is derived from the Italian word suonare. At first, Sonata form is made for dance movements and used as a church music, but eventually this form changed and became really popular among composers of classical music from the 17th century until the early 20th century.