Baroque

Early Baroque

Monteverdi bridged the gap between the modal Renaissance and the early tonal Baroque era. He invented opera (or, to be more specific, invented good opera.) He wrote many books of madrigals, and wrote several sacred works as well, including the Vespers of 1610. Which, you just have to listen to. Monteverdi was fascinated by how many different ways the interplay of texture, melody, harmony and texture could be fashioned to sever the expression of whatever text he was setting at the time.

Check out this one movement of the vespers. The melody is a chant-derived quotation, and notice how in the opening, there is an echoing canon in the violins over the slow melody. The canon works even though the harmony is changing under the floating melody. Then there are alternating ritornellos and variations on this same texture -- with the floating, chant-derived melody accompanied by some kind of canonic, echoing, reharmonized duet. The one at 4'45" is especially beautiful.

Or, check out the movement Sancta Maria Ora Pro Nobis (score also here.) Here, a chant derived melody is repeated over and over again with antiphonal counterpoint swirling around. Notice how there starts to be a sense that there is either some kind of sequence or some kind of approach to a tonal cadence. Also notice how many basic contrapuntal tricks (the old 66/33/66/33/66 parallel stuff) is frou-froued up to the max. And remember it was written in surround sound. No, seriously.

As for secular material, check out almost any of his madrigals. Here is A un giro sol from Book IV. Check out the translation at the same time. The textural changes are goofy but very fun. So romantically serious, but, you know, not. And talk about preparation of dissonance! oh yes . . . . And here's another two-part madrigal that is mostly over a ground (repeating, simple) bass with a lot of canonical writing. purty, no?

Finally, though it's not within the scope of this class, his best opera, Orfeo is simply incredible. Find the Emmanuelle Haim recording if you can.

The Gabrieli brothers -- hey tired of all this vocal music? Try this. Yes, it's 10 parts. Divided into different brass choirs. Standing at different parts of the cathedral. Or this. (Score here.)

And one of my favorite composers, Heinrich Schütz. He spent a good deal of time in Venice and picked up the antiphonal style of St. Mark's Cathedral, using it for his own colloquial German purposes, the better to fit in with his Lutheran beliefs. His Requiem (Musikalische Exequien) is one of the most moving large scale works of the early Baroque. It is a great example of clear, Italian-inspired, imitative counterpoint floating over a sea of coalescing tonality. I highly recommend reading along with the scores. (downloadable here)

_________

Middle Baroque

My cantankerous take:

Frescobaldi: enough G major already. I can't listen anymore.

Buxtehude: nothing you'd ever put on to listen to for pleasure.

Biber: yay ! I have met several Biber fanatics (Belibers!) over the years. He even has a facebook page. (see -- popular!) ON the flip side, I have never met a Buxtehude or a Frescobaldi fanatic ever. That might be my fault, of course . . . .

_____________

Late Baroque

We just don't have time in this class to cover the baroque in any serious way, and, as I mentioned, we are going to just skip pretty quickly to Mr. Bach. We will do some comparisons with Handel and Teleman and Mr. Vivaldi, but there is tons of cool stuff we won't really cover (have you ever heard of Jan Zelenka? like, check it out. Especially that last one, especially if you're a horn player (whaaaaat?) Who knew? Well, the Czechs, I guess.) And if you want lighter fare, the Italian tradition kept on going strong for a long time, and there is lots and lots and lots of music like this. Very pleasant stuff by one of thoe Baroque compoers whose name ends in 'i'. Really, there are more than a hundred -- no kidding. It's certainly easier listening than Bach, and there's definitely something to be said for that. Speaking of which, there's the Red-headed Priest. Notice how the music is much more transparent than Bach, but that that transparency exists to give room for virtuosic expressivity, often with wild contrasts and flavors. If you hear a boring Vivaldi performance it is not following 'original' performance practice. Bach loved Mr. V, and the Brandenburg concertos are his germanified homage to V's Italian style.

As for Bach, do download or purchase:

•the two part inventions

•both books of the Well Tempered Clavier

•the Goldberg Variations

•the Art of Fugue (in clefs if you're bold) (which, of course, you are.)

We will be looking at excerpts from all of these pieces in the next few weeks and I will assume that you have them.

As for performances of those pieces . . .well . . .there's Glenn Gould. And did I mention Glenn Gould? Also, I really like Glenn Gould. I hear there are other people who have played them, though. Keith Jarrett for one.

____

Those keyboard pieces listed above, however, are etudes. Impressive, musical creations, but etudes in the best sense of the word. JSB wrote in many other genres, and it's interesting to see how he uses fugal textures and other contrapuntal devices throughout his other works. Almost everything he writes has some imitative contrapuntal density, but he does use those textures with a fair amount of variation that helps build larger scale structures. Check out the first chorus of Cantata 39, 'Brich dem Hungrigen dein Brot" and listen to how there are some canons, some homophony, and at least two fugues. They are all combined to add expressivity to the words and construct a larger form. (and if you can find the Ton Koopman recording, it's much better than that one . . .)

Other Bach pieces we will look at include parts of his Keyboard Suites and his B-minor Mass

And heck this is just pretty. And, er, a double canon. It almost makes me like the organ. Almost.

______

Non Bach links --

Here is the equivalent of a 2-part invention by Handel. Notice how it's juuust a bit more wander-y especially from bars 4-7.

Here is what is probably Vivaldi's most famous fugue. Maybe. It's quite thick for Vivaldi, but also noticeably less dense than Bach.

And while we're talking about Handel he did write, er, quite a few fugues. He is also great at using fugal textures with homophonic punctuation.