Baroque music - characteristic characteristics of classical music era

The baroque style of the baroque was not limited to painting, sculpture and architecture. In addition to masters of baroque painting, such as Caravaggio and Peter Paul Rubens, baroque sculptures and baroque architecture (especially church buildings), classical music was in particular a famous form of baroque art in the 17th and 18th centuries.

The Baroque period (1600 - 1750)

The baroque period in music - also referred to as a general bass age - lasted from around 1600 to 1750. This era is part of the so -called old music and the renaissance preceded it. The classic followed the baroque.

The baroque style is characterized by the introduction of the general bass in many compositions and spread across Europe in the course of the 17th century, with remarkable baroque composers in Germany, Italy, France and England appeared on the scene.

The two best -known baroque composers are the German representatives Johann Sebastian Bach and Georg Friedrich Handel. Other German baroque composers are Dieterich Buxtehude (1637–1707), Johann Pachelbel (1653–1706) and Georg Philipp Telemann (1681–1767).

The English baroque composers include Byrd and Purcell. In Italy, Monteverdi, Corelli, Vivaldi and Scarlatti emerged. Prominent French representatives of the Baroque were Lully, Couperin and Rameau.

The music era (see article "Baroque Music-Features & Examples" on https://online-musik24.com/ ) can be roughly divided into three phases:

• Early baroque (around 1600 to 1650) - under Italian dominance
• High baroque (around 1650 to 1710) - with significant French influences
• Late Baroque (around 1710 to 1750) - with recourse to regional styles

The operating opera also found in this era . Solo singing and instrumentalized music with vocal accompaniment found the way to the big European stages.

What distinguishes the baroque? The most important features of baroque music

The following videos give you a brief introduction to the baroque era :

The YouTuber Fabian Zirkler delivers a somewhat more detailed contribution from the perspective of a musician:

The newly gained interest in the expanded dramatic and rhetorical possibilities of music led to a wealth of new sound ideals in the Baroque.

1. focus on dynamics

During the baroque, the pianoforte (an early version of the piano, also known as a hammer piano) replaced the harpsichord as a primary key instrument. The piano hit strings with felted hammers while the harpsichord plucked the strings.

This brought the new stylistic way to play both quietly and loudly, which opened new dynamic varieties.

Other new baroque instruments such as the valve trumpet and the violin also had an immense dynamic potential. In the Renaissance, prevalent instruments such as the sounds were still played, but their popularity was noticeably reduced by newer, more dynamic alternatives.

2. Contrast as a dramatic element

In order to create dynamics, contrasts are an important part in the drama of a baroque composition. The differences between loud and quiet, solo and ensemble (as in the concert), various instruments and timbres play an outstanding role in many baroque compositions.

Composers also began to design the instrumentation more precisely and filigree by often specifying the instruments in advance on which a piece was to be played instead of leaving the interpreter the choice.

Even light -sounding instruments such as trumpet and violin became increasingly popular.

3. Instrumental music and sound special features

Singing was strictly coupled with music in front of the baroque. Vocal shares were often used in liturgical framework.

While baroque composers still rely on singing elements in the form of choirs, cantatas and operas, pure instrumental music became increasingly popular. Some of the best -known pieces of baroque music, such as Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" or Bach's "Brandenburg concerts", are probably the most famous instrumental pieces of this era.

As part of the interesting interest over the past few decades, scientists and musicians have spent countless hours to find out which sound characteristics were very typical and unmistakable for the music of the 17th and 18th centuries.

Your work has uncovered some remarkable differences between baroque and modern ensembles :

3.1. pitch

In 1939, modern orchestras agreed on a standardized pitch of A '= 440 Hz (the Note A with a frequency of 440 Hertz). This replaced a previously lower pitch (a '= 435 Hz), which was defined in 1859.

Before 1859, however, there was no pitch standard. The grade on which the baroque ensembles voted was very different at different times and in different places.

As a result, the music listed in a score may have sounded half a tone lower than today.

3.2. Sound color

Some prominent members of a baroque orchestra are no longer represented in modern ensembles. The harpsichord was the primary keyboard instrument and an important member of the Continuo Group .

In the 16th and 17th centuries, important instruments such as louds and violin were still used, but modern variations of these instruments give a modern baroque ensemble a different sound than at the time.

Sait instruments such as violin, viola and cello used intestinal strings instead of the strings wrapped in metal, for example, with which they are equipped today. This change gives the string instruments a softer, sweeter tone.

3.3. Execution and technology

A baroque score contains only a few until no information about elements such as articulation , ornamentation or dynamics .

Therefore, modern ensembles have to make their own well -founded decisions before each performance.

Mechanical differences between baroque and modern instruments also indicate that the older instruments have sounded differently, which is why ensembles like Music of the Baroque frequently adapt their technology to enable this.

For example, since baroque and modern arches differ structurally, strings with modern arches often use a gentler attack on the strings and crescendos and diminuendos on longer notes.

The finger vibrato (a technique in which a stringer swings its fingertip on the string to enrich the sound) was used more economically, while the arch vibrato (a wave -shaped movement of the arch) was preferred.

4. Ornamentics, decorations and expression

The musical language and melodies were based on a rich system of tonal figures that tried to show human mood.

Similar to the architecture and sculpture of this era, baroque music is characterized by decorations, painting and flair. Even the simplest melodies were often decorated with musical ornaments such as trillers , acciaccaturas (short proposal), Appoggiadas (long proposal), murdered (short trill) and turns (double strike).

5. MONODIE and BASSO Continuo

In earlier musical epochs, a piece of music usually consisted of a single melody, possibly with improvised accompaniment, or several melodies played at the same time.

"melody" and "harmony" really began As part of the efforts to imitate old music, the composers concentrated less on the complicated polyphony, which dominated the 15th and 16th centuries, rather than a single voice with a simplified accompaniment or so -called monody .

Music has now been seen as a kind of rhetoric that needed a strong speaker. Who would be more suitable than a central vocal colist.

The new fusion of emotional expression and solo singer in Monteverdi's foreword to the "Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda" from his eighth book of the "Madrigale" (1638) is clearly expressed. There he writes: "It seems to me that the most important passions or inclinations of our mind are three, namely anger, equanimity and humility. Philosophers agree that the nature of our voice with its high, low and medium areas would depict this."

The early operas are an excellent example of this new interpretation of dramaturgy and aesthetics.
Together with the focus on a single melody, the Basso Continuo notation came up as a consistent, coherent bass line.

This form of music notation contains a complete bass line that is usually played by a cello in a baroque ensemble. A playing instrument such as harpsichord or piano then improvises chords in a figurative bass notation.

Solo organ players often play the Basso Continuo notation all by themselves.

Since the basso continuo or general bass remained until the end of the Baroque standard, the era is sometimes also referred to as the "age of the general bass" .

Masterpieces of baroque music

Further information

An epoch as significant and aftermeased into today's music can only be roughly torn down in such an article. I hope that the essential characteristics and characteristics of the music could be brought closer to them from this time and I was able to make them a little curious about the rich world of baroque music compositions.

Then there are certainly many more questions on your soul. The following contact points can help you here:

Which composers lived in the baroque period? → The article "The Music of the Baroque" of the web historians brings together the most distinctive and most important representatives of baroque music in a clear form.

How is Baroque played? → The article "Baroque era Music Guide: A letter History of Baroque Music" provides further information about the musical form of music and offers numerous master class lessons to learn the special playing method of this era directly.