The Baroque And Classical Periods

The Baroque musical period occurred throughout Europe from 1600 to 1750. The compositions during this period had certain characteristics. Some of these characteristics included unity of mood, continuity of rhythm and melody, and most compositions, in the middle to late Baroque period, included polyphonic textures (Kamien, 2011). Many musicians, such as Johann Sebastian Bach and Arcangelo Corelli, thrived during this period. They composed hundreds to thousands of compositions in various different musical forms and each piece holds the characteristics of the Baroque period uniquely. This paper will review the

Renaissance and Baroque composers were faced with the task of creating complex pieces that express both human emotion and ideas. While this is primarily one of the main purposes of all forms of music itself, including genres today, in the 15th through 18th centuries, this was largely done through the musical composition of a piece rather than the lyrics. Composers utilized several different techniques in order to portray to the listener the purpose and meaning of the piece. Renaissance composers were focused on furthering the texts in music, fully developing the lyrics Therefore, the use of word painting, the musical representation of a literal word, phrase, or poetic image, is clearly seen in many pieces. Baroque music, with the

Accordingly, the composers can start imagining about the inspiration the work of music has done as well as the starting point of the artwork. Throughout the Baroque era, the composers of the music earned a living through just writing the songs and were fortunate to be included in the payroll thus perform the religious and political works that they were presented with during the time. The needs of the institution in which the work was done dictated entirely which type of music that would be written by the composers. When the Baroque music has been fully used will dictate the way the history of the music can be perceived by the people and how gently they would be used to influence the belief of the majority of the people and how important they are to the society.

Opera is a type of drama that was entirely sung. Madame Butterfly is an example of an opera. An Operetta, like an opera also incorporates frivolous

The Classical time period, which spanned a length of seventy years, from 1750 to 1820, was very different in nature from its predecessor, the Baroque time period. The Baroque era featured works that were ornamentally elaborate, where the artists and composers centered their works on a big, bold style that was dramatic in its composition. Artists and composers transferred strong feelings of tension and emotion into their works and it was common for there to be some type of action or movement happening within the work. Those who lived in the Classical time period, valued simplicity and wanted to return to the ideals of the Greeks. Therefore, the Classical time period is characterized by clear structural clarity, simplicity, smoothness, and symmetry. However, though the works took a step back from the grand movement of the Baroque era, the composers and artists of the Classical time period did lay out a tuneful and elegant style in their music and art. Out of the Classical era came many renowned artists and composers, two of those whom are artist Sir Thomas Lawrence and composer Ludwig van Beethoven (“NYU”).

The baroque period brought forth the most ornamented art of all time. The musical field grew parallel to the fields of painting and sculpture, all three categories experienced a dramatic increase in interest. Consequentially, the sudden flow of finances allowed the musicians to examine, modify, and renew their standards’ and methods. Baroque music quickly developed into a very individual style. During the nearly one hundred and fifty years that the Baroque period lasted the basic style did not change, in fact it was simple built upon. Francis Schaeffer advises us that the arts are ways to understand the society and politics of the past, given the distinct correlation between the art world and music world we can tell that the Baroque period was a time of peaceful renovation. The driving ideology of Baroque music was the need to communicate.

Music during the Baroque period was diverse and composers began to rebel against the styles that were popular during the Renaissance. In the Baroque era music was driven by the text and the emotions behind it. Vocal and sacred music developed greatly during the Baroque period. During the mid-17th century the Italian phenomenon opera dominated most of the theatres in Europe. Sacred music was deeply influenced by the opera, contributing to the development of the oratorio and cantata genre. The opera, oratorio, and cantata contain musical similarities; among all three genres they feature recitative, soloist orchestras, and duet arias.

The scientific revolution is traditionally considered to be framed between 1543—the year of On the revolutions of the heavenly spheres by Nicolaus

These ideas of contrasting musical forces stems back to Lully’s operas in which some of the dances contained a solo section for wind trio accompanied my the string section. At this time in Rome composers were focusing on the orchestral concerto, then later the concerto and eventually the concerto grosso. Although the composer Giuseppe Torelli who was a major figure of the Bologna school composed pieces for all there types of genres which included the first concertos ever published. He wrote concertos for trumpet, violin and six concerto grossi. Most of his concertos were written in the fast-slow-fast form which was inspired by the Italian opera overture, which then became the standard pattern for the concerto. By the late seventeenth century Italian composers all shared a common goal; to write music that was pleasing to listen to, emotional connective and a show case for audiences to behold the abilities and virtuosity of the

The art form known as Opera, originated in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth centuries in Italy. One of the first masters of this art form was Claudio Monteverdi. “Monteverdi believed that opera should convey the full range of human passions” (Fiero). One way that he accomplished this was through the use of pizzicato. Pizzicato refers to the plucking of a bowed stringed instrument, which produces a very different sound from bowing, short and percussive rather than sustained. When a string is plucked, sound waves are generated that do not belong to the harmonic series as when a string is bowed. This complex timbre is called inharmonicity

Music has been categorized over time in different periods, each of which have their own characteristics, composers and music style. Two of those important periods were baroque and romantic, which had left an important musical legacy though history. The baroque was the period from about 1600 to 1750. It was called one of the best periods of the music history, because there was a huge change from the style of composition from antique and renaissance music which achieved great expectations about this music. Furthermore, Baroque music was written by great composers such as Bach, Handel, Rameau and Vivaldi who were the most representative composers of the period. In addition, Baroque music was characterized

A. concerto grosso – Extended composition for instrumental soloists and orchestra, usually in three movements: (1) Fast, (2) Slow, (3) Fast.

The beginning of the seventeenth century marked the start of opera in Italy. The earliest opera manuscripts to survive are the two settings of Euridici by Peri and Caccini (Grout 43). Although Euridici is the first known opera, Peri and Caccini were both not considered the founder of opera, that honor was instead given to Monteverdi (Grout 51). The reason for this may be because Euridici is said to contain many imperfections including: “weakness of characterization, the limited range of emotions expressed, the lack of clear, consistent musical organization, and above all the monotony of the solo style” (Grout 49). Grout explains that Monteverdi’s opera Orfeo “represents the first attempt to apply the full resources of the art of music to opera” (53). La morte d’Orfeo was the first secular opera performed in Rome in 1619 (Grout 62). This marked the beginning of serious secular opera. Opera continued to

The Baroque Period (1600-1750) was mainly a period of newly discovered ideas. From major new innovations in science, to vivid changes in geography, people were exploring more of the world around them. The music of the baroque period was just as extreme as the new changes. Newly recognized composers such as Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, and Monteverdi were writing entirely new musical ideas and giving a chance for new voices to be heard that were normally not thought of sounds. Their musical legacy is still recognized today, and is a treasured discovery of outstanding compositions being reiterated with every performance of them.

Opera is the combination of drama and music. Like drama, opera embraces the entire spectrum of theatrical elements: dialogue, acting, costumes, scenery and action, but it is the sum of all these elements, combined with music, which defines the art form called opera.