baroque study guide Essay

Beginning solely by a haut instrument, Susato successfully conveyed a bright sonority to the first dance [Susato, Three dances. 0:00-0.06]. Added percussion instrument at the seventh second, the music was given its first touch to be vivid and plump. It was performed by outdoor woodwind bands including tabor, cornetto, sackbut, shawn, and tambourine. Though there are three dances contained in Susato’s work, and dances flowed from one another, it is not hard to distinguish because of their clearly full-stops between each part. Three dances, composed during Renaissance period(1551) by Susato, is a three rondes music in binary form(A-A-B-B). Its repeated melodies were played by permeant improvisers at that time to help enrich the music with colors

23.  Define a classical sonata. A musical composition for solo instrument or a small number of instruments typically in three or four movements in contrasting forms and keys.

1.  What does “musical style” mean? Genre is the type of music. Style is how you sing it.

The second movement, Andante con moto, however has two main different interpretations that it could be analyzed as song form or sonata form. The third movement, Con moto moderato, was composed in form of minuet and trio. Finally, for the finale, which consists of the Roman saltarello and the Neapolitan tarantella dance rhythm, contains characteristics of both sonata and rondo form.

To assign the first movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony the sonata form would truly be a subjective judgment. I will first explain how this movement fits thesonata form; then I will discuss how it diverges from this form in rather fascinating ways.

A popular form among composers was the suite, a series of movements based upon the rhythm and style of a particular dance. The suite could be written for a solo instrument, for example the harpsichord or violoncello, or small instrumental ensemble, and usually included the German Allemande, the French Courante, the Sarabande (originally from Spain), and the English or Irish Gigue (Jig). Many also included the Gavotte, originally a French folk dance characterized by the raising rather than the sliding of the feet. At times, non-dance movements such as the Prelude were also employed. This series of movements was designed to offer interesting contrasts in meter, tempo, and texture.

Sonata form is the musical form is the form that has been most widely used then any other form. It really toke shape as a main form during the Classical period. It is usually used a first movement in a multi-movement piece and is commonly referred as Sonata-Allegro form. The concept behind it was to try and find a way to organize or categorize musical ideas into a movement based on a particular “key.”

This work was composed during the Classical period, 1750- 1820. One aspect of the classical music style beign applied to this work includes the reoccurance of two or more contrasting themes. Another is the use of short and clearly defined musical phrases. Lastly, this piece, on a purely musical level, was simply more to hum along to. This type of melody took over the complex polyphony of the Baroque period.

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.

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.

The motet was one of the most important forms of polyphonic music from 1250 to 1750. The Italian mottetto was originally a profane polyphonic species of music, the air, or melody, being in the Tenor clef, taking the then acknowledged place of the canto fermo or plainchant, theme. It originated in the 13th century resulting from the practice of Pérotin and his contemporaries in Paris. The term "motet" can be translated as "the word of movement". Sometimes two upper voices had different words. In the beginning, Latin texts involving topics of the Virgin Mary were used. Later, French secular pieces became common due to the fact that the motet terminated its connection with church and liturgy.

This concerto is made up of three movements, with the second movement entitled Larghetto e spiritoso in between two Allegro movements.  Originally intended for two solo violins, violin I, violin II, viola, cello, and bass, this piece has been transposed in various forms and is now commonly performed with two solo violins and piano.  While the other two movements are lively and exciting, the second movement provides a great contrast.  It is in a different key and has a completely different feeling, one of heaviness and melancholy, though its chord progressions and harmonies make it appealing to audiences.  This composition in its entirety gained Vivaldi his greatest popularity as it spread throughout Europe and became a standard for 18th century composers.

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 “first practice” was just the style of vocal polyphony that was established in writing by Zarlino. The “second practice” was just Claudio Monteverdi’s way of being adventurous. He said that the first practice was music that the text prevailed, and that the second practice the text overpowered the music. In Monteverdi’s cruda amarilli he demonstrates the use of his second practice. Since Monteverdi used this second practice Composers start to see instrumental music as a different medium from vocal music and because of this they started to see them separately as two components, now borrow vocal idioms in instrumental writing, and vice versa. While trying to express the affections in man, they wanted to bring about the arousal of emotions like excitement, broadness, being a hero, and wonder. While doing this they also focused on a new idea of basso continuo which was a concentration of the bass where the chord was structured on the bass, and later the inversions became known as figured bass. With this new bass a new contrapuntal system was used where the melodic lines now had to fit into the pattern of chords set up by the continuo.

•There wasn't a fixed, standard orchestral group. Ensembles were usually composed of strings, a few woodwinds, percussion, and the harpsichord providing the basso continuo.