prelude

• growth in instrumental music just means more was being written down

• music without voices was now more often deemed worthy of preservation and dissemination in written form

• independence from vocal music

  • new instruments

  • more styles idiomatic to instruments rather than voice

  • different styles for each instrument

• became vocal music's equal in quality and quantity

• instrumental composers borrowed vocal elements and styles

• organs, double-manual harpsichords, improved wind instruments, violin family

• basic compositional procedures divide the works into five broad categories

  • variations - work that varies a preexisting melody (set of variations, partitas) or based on traditional bass line or progression (partita, chaconne, passacaglia)

  • abstract types - improvisatory works (toccatas, fantasias, preludes), continuous works (fugues), sectional works (canzonas, sonatas)

  • dance music - dances (intended for dancing) and other pieces in stylized dance rhythms (unsuited for dancing)

variations

• most popular forms were chaconne and passacaglia

  • both essentially bass or harmonic progressions rather than melodies

• appeared in france, germany, italy to designate variations over a ground bass

• progressions usually four measures long, triple meter, slow tempo

• appeared in solo keyboard music, chamber music, theatrical dance music

abstract instrumental works

improvisatory genres:

• toccata was principle improvisatory lute and keyboard genre

  • played on harpsichord or organ

• girolamo frescobaldi was the most important composer of toccatas

• succession of brief sections, each focused on a figure that is subtly varied

• each section ends with a weakened cadence to sustain movement to the end

• players can end at any appropriate cadence - music was written to be performed rather than to adhere to text

continuous genres:

• ricerare was a serious composition for organ or harpsichord in which one subject or theme is developed continuously in imitation

• early 17th century german composers started referring to a genre of serious pieces that treat one theme in continuous imitation as fugues

• keyboard fantasia was a larger imitative work with a more complex formal organization

  • sweelinck and scheidt

  • scheidt started writing out each part on a separate staff instead of using tablature

• viol consort was an english staple

  • imitative fantasia/fancy treated one or more subjects in a fugal fashion

  • ferrabosco and coprario

sectional genres:

• sonata referred to a type of composition resembling a canzona in form, scored for one or two melody instruments with basso continuo

  • imitated modern vocal style - less formal than canzonas

• venetian sonata consisted of a series of sections each based on a different subject or variant on a subject

• used at mass for intros or postludes or for significant rituals

• one of the earliest instances of dynamic markings in music

• marini

  • served as violinist at st. mark’s under monteverdi and then held various posts in italy and germany

  • wrote instrumental monody with contrasting sections full of embellishments and fancy stuff

• sonata was eventually used to refer to canzona and sonata

music for organ

• buxtehude was one of the best known composers of the late 17th century and influenced bach

  • composed organ music, sacred music, organ solos

• most organ music written for protestant churches usually served as a prelude to something else

• often chorale settings, toccatas, preludes

• buxtehude's toccatas present a series of short sections in free style that alternate with longer ones in imitative counterpoint

  • have lots of motion and climaxes

  • exuberant

  • uses deliberately irregular rhythm to simulate improvisation

• in the 18th century, the two types of section, fugal and free, grew in length and became separate movements

  • typical structure consisted of a long toccata or prelude in free style followed by a fugue

• organ chorale enhanced tune by harmony and counterpoint

  • chorale variation/partita - chorale tune served as the theme for a set of variations

  • chorale fantasia - composer fragmented the chorale melody and developed motives through imitation and ornamentation

  • chorale prelude - short work in which the entire melody is presented just once

music for lute and harpsichord

lute music:

• flourished in french court

• denis gaultier

  • la rhetorique des dieux

• all of the leading french lute composers served louis xiv and printed collections of harpsichord music

• agrements - ornaments designed to lend a charming/graceful quality and emphasize important notes while giving the melody shape and character

  • sign of refined taste

  • french composers worked out precise ways of notating them

• influenced the texture of harpsichord music using style brise (sketched in melody, bass and harmony by sounding appropriate notes at different times in different registers)

dance music:

• core of lute and keyboard repertory

• mostly intended for the enjoyment of the player and a small audience rather than dancing

• most 17th century dances were in binary form - two roughly equal sections, each repeated, going from the tonic to the dominant to the tonic

• series of stylized dances could be grouped into a suite

  • begin with a prelude in toccata style

  • allemande was moderately fast with continuous movement and style brise

  • courante has a moderate triple or compound meter

  • sarabande is a slow, dignified dance in triple meter with the emphasis on the second beat

  • gigue is a movement in fast compound meter with leaps and lively rhythms

  • gavotte is a duple meter dance with a half measure anacrusis

ensemble music

chamber music: the sonata:

• term first used to describe any instrumental piece, later for independent instrumental compositions

• early 17th century sonatas consisted of small sections differentiated by material, texture, mood, character, meter, tempo

• sections became longer and more self-contained until they were eventually separated into movements with thematic independence

• sonata da camera/chamber sonata - stylized dances with prelude

• sonata da chiesa/church sonata - abstract movements with usually at least one using dance rhythms or binary form

• two treble instruments with basso continuo

  • three part texture - called trio sonata even though it usually features 4 or more players

• corelli

  • wrote violin music instead of vocal

  • emphasized lyricism over virtuosity - no frills, two equal violin parts use suspensions and imitation to create forward momentum, walking bass with steady eighth notes

  • church trio sonatas contain four movements, slow-fast-slow-fast

  • chamber sonatas begin with a prelude followed by two or three dances

  • solo violin sonatas are divided into church and chamber but allow for more virtuosity

  • steady spinning out of a single theme

  • music marked by sense of direction

  • almost completely diatonic

music for orchestra

• french court had the first string ensemble and more spread afterwards

• most 17th and early 18th century music could be played as chamber music or orchestra

• german stadtpfeifers were town musicians who had the exclusive right to provide music in the city, proficient at many instruments, often a family business

• amateur music making was a prominent part of german social life