The Characteristics Of Baroque Music

Music of the baroque period was considered very complex and similar to the other forms of art of this time. Additional brass, woodwind and string instruments had been created to add additional depth to the works of this time. Composers of this time attempted to give voices to their works and invoke emotions. The works were created to tell a story.

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

Music during the Baroque era was regarded as a powerful form of communication that could invoke any emotion in the audience members. This philosophical belief was derived from a revival of the ideas of the Greco-Roman culture. As a result of these ideas, composers believed that they could also affect their listeners through the power of melody, harmony, rhythm, and stylistic details. The emphasis on communication was reflected in the major styles and components that were used throughout Baroque compositions. Baroque music is characterized by the composers’ attention to detail, such as contrast in dynamics, ornamentation, and the emphasis on bass line. These characteristics of the Baroque era of music are reflected in Antonio Vivaldi’s compositions. Known as one of the most popular pieces in Baroque repertoire, Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons reveals how composers of the Baroque period used different techniques, such as ritornello and contrast, to invoke emotion through the powerful communication of music. The Four Seasons perfectly represents the Baroque period because of Vivaldi 's style, techniques, and theme.

Baroque music is characterized through contrasts as dramatic elements, monody and the advent of the basso continuo, and different instrumental sounds. Contrast is an essential feature in the production of baroque arrangements. The alternations between bold and flamboyant and soft, solo and ensemble, different instruments and timbres all constitute a key portion in various baroque compositions. Composers similarly created more precise instrumental arrangements regularly stipulating the instruments on a musical piece that ought to be executed instead of allowing the performing musician to select.

Studies show physical evidence that college athletes deserve to be paid. Many studies were conducted to prove that athletes deserve to be paid. If student athletes have to balance their school work with their sports, they deserve some type of award. Some athletes do not go to the professional league and will not always get an award for moving on to the next level, some have to find a job, instead of still playing sports. Athletes deserve to receive money because they work harder than some professional athletes to get the recruiter's attention.

In our world, people who bring in money with their talents are usually compensated for their efforts. It makes complete sense right? Well for college athletes, they bring in billions of dollars worth of revenue for their school, but do not get compensated for their talents whatsoever. Most people argue that only professional athletes should be paid because it is their profession, but people do not take in account for all the hard work and effort these student athletes put in. Just like professional athletes, college athletes put their body on the line, and a free bachelor's degree is not worth their body they put on the line. Someone that could potentially injure their body for life deserves more

Every human is selfish. It's part of our sinful nature so we can't escape it. We all have to deal with it in one way or another and some are more prone to it than others. What we often forget is that selfishness often hurts the people who get in the way of our desires. This is something that we see throughout history, individuals have fought and destroyed each other over want of power, pleasure, and wealth, all self centered desires.

The Baroque time period was a time of artistic style extravagant motion and clear, simply interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, excitement, and magnificence in sculpture, painting, architecture, literature, dance, theater, and music. Opera is an arrangement in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining libretto (text) and musical score, typically in a theatrical setting. Opera came out of the baroque period of people wanting to make music that was more expressive. A group of people in Italy decided that a single line of melody with simple accompaniment would be much more expressive than words. This caused the creation of recitatives, which early operas consisted entirely of. This also caused arias, duets, and

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.

In regards to the decoration of Baroque music, amateurs often think that Baroque music is extremely ornamented. This practice is a more recently acceptable practice: scholar Ronald

First, in the baroque period vocal and instrumental music had the same importance, this allowed that the composers had a wide range in composition types. Some composers chosen more vocally style and others preferred the instrumental style, which generated an amount of balance in composition during this period. In addition, instruments were created with specific features to perform the baroque music, they presented a sound and form characteristic, they were built to sound full and rich, but in small-type-sized, mainly strings instruments. The bow and the technique to play this kind of music required a careful and distinct method which caused that its texture and timbre were unique and special for that era. The most representative instruments of baroque period were organ and harpsichord, however, in most of the compositions of this period strings, woodwinds and brass instruments were also used by the compositors, and these instruments were important for the baroque orchestra. Some instruments used in the baroque period were: violin, viola da gamba, lute, violoncello, oboe, bassoon and trumpet. Moreover, baroque orchestra was characterized as small number of instrumentalists, and it was form mainly by strings instruments with a few woodwinds and brass, which gave the colorful contrast in the orchestra, this was called chamber orchestra. On

The Renaissance and Baroque era entailed very different characteristics, due to the Renaissance composers writing more freely and being more individual then those of the Baroque era where they followed more ‘rules’ and experimented less. This essay will show the difference in two pieces by different composers, even though they were written less than a century apart.

The second concert I attended was performed by the Richardson Symphony Orchestra. The orchestra performed “Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 582” by Bach, which is part of the Baroque era. The string instruments of the orchestra performed with the hair of the bow, in other words, arco (7). By using lots of motion or most commonly known as mosso (8), the orchestra increased the tension of the piece. The orchestra played at a pretty fast tempo (9), probably allegro. The piece had a distinct part where the harp played. The ensemble was large, in order to attain the full sound of the piece. The instruments played in the orchestra did not comply with the typical orchestras of the Baroque era because it did not have a distinct part where were the main instruments were the piano and the bass, or more commonly known as basso continuo (10).

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.

•The use of the basso continuo, also known as thoroughbass, is a bass line running