The Baroque Period (1600 - 1750) The art and architecture of the Baroque period reflects an often bizarre

style characterized by ornamental decorations. Especially noted in churches, palaces and other buildings of the period is the profusion of worldly splendour apparent in grandiose designs and elaborate decorations. The music of the period reflects the decorative art in the use of ornamentation to embroider melodies. Thick and complex polyphonic texture prevails in many composers works. A sense of drama and urgency is incorporated into in vocal forms such as the cantata, mass, opera, oratorio and passion, and in instrumental forms such as the concerto, concerto grosso, prelude, fugue, toccata sonata and suite. Vibrant rhythms and expressive dissonances heighten tension in many Baroque works. Much of the Baroque keyboard music written for the harpsichord and clavichord was written in suites comprising separate dance pieces, changing in tempo and meter but maintaining key unity throughout. The suite (Italian: Partita, Sonata da Camera; German: Suite, Partita, Overture; French: Order, Suite; English: Lessons) consists of dances such as the allemande, courante, sarabande, gigue and others such as the gavotte, musette, bouree, minuet and pavane. Each dance movement is usually written in two sections called Binary form, and is generally performed with each section repeated. Other forms of keyboard music from the Baroque period are theme and variations, passacaglia, chaconne, invention, prelude, fugue, choral prelude, ricercare, fantasy, toccata and concerto. The two best known Baroque composers are Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frederick Handel, both Germans. Other German Baroque composers include Buxtehude, Pachelbel and Telemann. English Baroque composers include Byrd and Purcell. Italian Baroque composers include Monteverdi, Corelli, Vivaldi and Scarlatti. Prominent French Baroque composers were Lully, Couperin and Rameau.

Some general characteristics of Baroque Music are: MELODY: RHYTHM: TEXTURE: TIMBRE: DYNAMICS: A single melodic idea. Continuous rhythmic drive. Balance of Homophonic (melody with chordal harmony) and polyphonic textures. Orchestral - strings, winds and harpsichord with very little percussion. Abrupt shifts from loud to soft - achieved by adding or subtracting instruments.

An overall characteristic of Baroque Music is that a single musical piece tended to project a single mood or expression of feeling.

Characteristics of Baroque Music

The word baroque comes from the Italian word barocco meaning bizarre. However, when describing the music of the Baroque period, a better definition might be exuberant.

The Baroque period lasted from about 1600 to 1750. The death of J.S. Bach, the Baroques greatest composer, marks the end of the period.

Some of the characteristics of the Baroque are as follows:

The Basso Continuo (Figured Bass): Figured Bass is a sort of musical shorthand that provides a framework for playing the bass line of the piece. The bass parts were usually played by the string bass along with either the harpsichord or the organ, which also played an improvised chord part. While most of the orchestra played parts that were written out note-by-note, the basso continuo was simply sketched out in a Figured Bass notation.

One mood throughout the entire piece: This is called the Doctrine of Affections. Composers in the Baroque period attempted to communicate pure emotion in their music. There was nothing autobiographical in their compositions, meaning that a composer never tried to write a happy song because he was happy that day. Rather, they were trying to write music that perfectly expressed the range of human emotions.

Important String sections: During the Medieval period, the human voice was the predominate instrument and nearly all music was written for voice. Gregorian chants had no accompaniment. The motets and madrigals of this period had some accompaniment, usually an organ or harpsichord. However, Baroque composers began giving greater attention to the violin, viola, cello and string bass and wrote many pieces that brought these instruments to the forefront of the orchestra.

Modes were replaced by the Major/Minor key system: Medieval music was written in modes that did not allow for changes from one mode to another. If a song started in Mode 1, it ended in Mode 1 with no possible way to shift to Mode 2. With the invention of the Major and Minor key system, it became possible for composers to modulate from one key to another related key.

Many different forms are used (e.g. Binary, Fugue): Chants, motets and madrigals were written in a single form and allowed for very little variations. Baroque music was a time of experimentation and expansion. Composers began writing pieces in many forms, most of which followed some kind of fastslow-fast format. Binary music was two forms, fast and slow. Fugues were complex and complicated variations on a single melody that build organically from that single melody into rich and varied musical tapestries.

Many types of music, e.g. The Chorale, Opera, the Dance Suite: Prior to the Baroque period, most music was written exclusively for use in religious services. Some these pieces, the masses, were formed in such a way to allow for very little experimentation or variation. As the Baroque progressed, musicians began writing more and more religious music for use in services other than the mass. Secular music, pieces written either for royalty and the courts or for the general public, became popular during the Baroque period. Baroque composers wrote thousands of pieces for both sacred and secular use.

Energetic rhythms (Exuberance), long melodies, many ornaments, contrasts (especially dynamics, but also in timbres): The music of the Medieval period; chants, motets and madrigals, was mostly slow and fairly uniform in style and mood. The voice still dominated as the main instrument, with a few harpsichords and organs thrown in as accompaniment. That changed dramatically in the Baroque as composers began experimenting with new rhythmic structures, long complicated melodies, trills and other musical ornaments and a wide variety of contrasts, both dynamically (volume) and in the timbre, or texture, of the music. Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750) With Bach, the Baroque era went out with a bang. Though the seeds of classicism were very much sown during his lifetime, his sons being some of the prime shapers of that movement, Johann Sebastian Bach remained largely fixed in the Baroque traditions yet was able to fashion them as no-one else, either before him or since, into a towering peak of structural grace and formal perfection. It is this supreme craftmanship, largely unrecognised at the time, which has earned Bach an enormous stature in later years among composers and musicians. Johann Sebastian Bach was born on March 21st l685, the son of Johann Ambrosius, court trumpeter for the Duke of Eisenach and director of the musicians of the town of Eisenach in Thuringia. For many years, members of the Bach family throughout Thuringia had held positions such as organists, town instrumentalists, or Cantors, and the family name enjoyed a wide reputation for musical talent.

The Bach family

Though his contemporary Handel moved to England, Bach remained for most of his musical career in his native Germany. He had held a number of posts in various locations as musician or music director to a number of Dukes and Princes, when his first wife died leaving 7 children. In the early 1720s, Bach married his 2nd wife, Anna Magdalena Wulcken (herself a musician) and took up the post in Leipzig where his duties included directing the musical requirements of the local church and associated school. While employed there, the couple extended the family by another 13 (though 7 children did not survive into adulthood) as well fulfilling the demands of the employment. Unsurprisingly the family were all musically gifted, Bach's eldest son (Wilhlem Friedermann Bach) was a great organist like his father, Carl Philipp Emanuel became a musician in the court of the future Frederick the Great, and Johann Christian was also an organist and moved to London in the employ of Queen Charlotte. Those latter two sons were very influential in the development of classical forms from their precursors in baroque forms such as the Suite. But while his sons were to help found the new school, it was the old school training from the father which sowed this seed. By all accounts, the Bachs became a nerve centre for all things musical in the area, with their extended family of relatives, friends and musicians both local and visiting.

Johann Sebastian Bach's music It was as a performer that Bach was perhaps best-known in his day. He was a master of the keyboard instruments of his day, particularly the Organ, Harpsichord and Clavichord. When the "well-tempered" method of tuning was adopted for the early stringed keyboard instruments, Bach was inspired to compose his 48 preludes and fugues (now usually played on the modern piano). He was a prolific composer of keyboard works for these instruments, of suites and other works for orchestras and cantatas and other works for singers. Although he occasionally traveled to entertain and meet other musicians, much of his life was spent heading up a cottage industry creating works required for various occasions as demanded by his employment at the time. As per the baroque style, much of his music is contrapuntal in nature meaning that several independent voices are used to weave a tapestry of sound. The king of this polyphonic style is the fugue where rules dictate a certain structure to the interaction of the voices, yet the skill is within these confines to exhibit creative invention. In some ways this theme of freedom within an ordered world mirrors Bach's lifestyle, and he himself became the supreme master of the fugue. His final work, called the Art of Fugue, demonstrating how he could construct a wide variety of fugues with different numbers of voices from a single musical idea. The 6 Brandenberg concertos are of a form known as "concerti grossi" which is something a little more unified than a suite, and later to evolve into the symphony, concerto and other works based on sonata form. These concertos are fairly early works in Bach's career yet they exhibit much invention in the use of different instrumental colours. Bach's legacy

Bach is often regarded as being self-taught to a large extent and relatively uneducated. While this may have some basis in truth it is surely something of an exaggeration, likewise the claim that Bach was an unrecognised talent in his own lifetime. Though Bach's works were known to composers such as Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, it was not until Mendelssohn played the St. Matthew Passion in 1829 that Bach's previously hidden talents as a composer began to get a more widespread recognition. Since then Bach's music has frequently inspired musicians such as Chopin, many composers arranging and adapting his works. In terms of classical composers, Gounod used the first prelude from book 1 of the 48 as the basis for his "Ave Maria", Busoni created a supremely elegant piano version of Bach's Chaconne from a violin work, andLiszt and Rachmaninov both transcribed Bach works for piano. Many composers have studied his work in much detail and Shostakovich has written his own set of 24 Preludes and Fugues. Even in today's world of popular music, you can still hear singles based on say his Toccata and Fugue in Dm for organ, or his "Air on a G string" taken from a suite. A superb tribute to Bach's undiminished ability to inspire today's musicians is the film Bach & Friends. Most piano students of Bach will learn much from playing his Preludes and Fugues, and the 2-part and 3part Inventions. Bach created an arrangement of a melody by an earlier German composer and organist called Hans Leo Hassler (1564-1612). The melody is now best known as the hymn tune O Sacred Head, Now Wounded and Bach's arrangement appeared in his "St. Matthew Passion" and (with different words) twice in his "Christmas Oratorio". A version of Bach's arrangement is often included in hymnals as the "Passion Chorale", and the melody has been used by several other composers. Hassler's original melody was in fact a love song called "Mein G'mut ist mir verwirret" until it was borrowed as a hymn tune, initially in German and then in English. Bachs Death In these last years of his life, Bach's creative energy was conserved for the highest flights of musical expression: the Mass in b minor, the Canonic Variations, the Goldberg Variations, and of course the Musical Offering displaying the art of canon. His last great work is the complete summary of all his skill in counterpoint and fugue; methods which he perfected, and beyond which no composer has ever been able to pass. This work is known to us as 'Die Kunst der Fuge' ('The Art of the Fugue', BWV 1080). Bach had overworked in poor light throughout his life, and his eyesight now began to fail him. The Leipzig Council started looking around as early as June 1749 for a successor. On the advice of friends, Bach put himself in the hands of a visiting celebrated English ophthalmic specialist, John Taylor (who also operated on Handel) and who happened to be passing through Leipzig. Two cataract operations were performed on his eyes, in March and Apri1 1750, and their weakening effect was aggravated by a following infection which seriously undermined his health. He spent the last months of his life in a darkened room, revising his great chorale fantasias (BWV 651668) with the aid of Altnikol, his pupil and son-in-law. It was in these circumstances that he composed his last chorale fantasia, based fittingly on the chorale "Before Thy Throne O Lord I Stand". He was also

working on a fugue featuring the subject B-A-C-H (B in German notation is B flat, while H in German notation = B natural). He had often been asked why he had not exploited this theme before, and had indicated that, despite its thematic possibilities, he would consider it arrogant to do so. Appropriately, perhaps intentionally, it was left unfinished at his death. (This incomplete fugue, normally appended to the Art of the Fugue in performances, has no discernible connection with the Art of the Fugue, though the Art of Fugue theme can be made to fit, as Gustav Nottebohm pointed out in 1880.) The last great Triple Fugue of the Art (Contrapunctus XI) may also have been written during his final days. Then, on the morning of the 28th of July, 1750, he woke up to find he could bear strong light again, and see quite clearly. That same day he had a stroke, followed by a severe fever. He died 'in the evening, after a quarter to nine, in the sixty-fifth year of his life, yielding up his blessed soul to his saviour'. Bach was buried in St John's Cemetery which stood one block outside the town's Grimma Gate in the early morning of July 31, and in the absence of any tombstone his grave was soon forgotten. When St John's Church was rebuilt in 1894 a few Leipzig scholars and Bach admirers succeeded in having what were believed to be the composer's bones exhumed. Partial identification was established by a series of anatomical and other tests. The bones were laid to rest in a stone sarcophagus next to the poet Gellert in the vaults of the Johanniskirche, and many people went to pay homage to this tomb until the church was destroyed by bombs in WW2. Once more his remains were rescued and in 1949 buried, this time in the altar-room of the Thomaskirche where they remain to this day.