• 3 musical institutions- church, court, opera house

  • Only the court was big for instrumental music

  • Everything else had vocal music!

• Checklists of musical devices corresponding to certain “affects” (emotions)

• Word painting! Emotion easily portrayed

Opera

• Principal genre of secular vocal music in the Baroque era, also the most influential genre overall

• Multimedia experience! Addresses the Baroque fascination with theatre

• Special effects of spectacle with elaborate sets

• Opera guests gossiped and gambled pre-show- it was a social event

• Coloratura: singing technique with “fast, brilliant runs, scales, high notes, vocal cadenzas, all stressing technique” (showed off virtuosos)

Italian Opera Seria

• Opera seria: serious opera with plots derived from ancient history

Mainly sung by sopranos and mezzo-sopranos, which were considered superior to lower voices, which played subordinate roles

Recitative

• Technique of theatrically “declaiming words”

• Follows the rhythm of natural emotional speech (speech-like song)

• Used for plot action, dialogue, etc.

• Secco recitative: “dry” recitative with only continuo accompaniment

• Accompanied recitative: recitative with some type of orchestra accompaniment

The Castrato

• In Baroque Italian opera, men in starring roles were often castrati, men with alto or soprano ranges due to young castration

• Though it was an odd situation, it was accepted (mostly) at the time because people thought their performances were great

• Most sung in churches

Aria

• Set piece for solo singers w/ musical elaboration, melody, and emotion

• Orchestral accompaniment

• Most commonly in da capo form (ABA) for Baroque Italian opera arias

  • Could also be free da capo form, ABA’

  • Composer wrote A and B, and the performer would ornament A for the repeat

Handel, Julius Caesar (1724)

• Handel wrote a few German operas for the Hamburg opera company in youth, and about 40 Italian operas for London later in life, including Julius Caesar

• Opera seria

• Draws on Roman history of Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, and Ptolemy

• Aria, "La giustizia": Means justice, Sextus promises revenge on Ptolemy, set up by recitative, anger affect, da capo form

Oratorio

• Most vocal music was for church services, type depended on which church

• General important factors of Baroque sacred genres

  • Participation of choir

  • Borrowing from secular vocal music (opera)

• Oratorio was basically an opera on a religious subject

  • Not part of a church service

  • No scenery, costumes, or acting

  • Uses chorus, unlike most Italian opera

  • Substitute for opera during Lent

Handel, Messiah (1742)

• Handel’s most famous oratorio (and work in general)

• Sung at Christmas and Easter even today

• No Biblical characters as in most oratorios

• Text taken from Bible

• Recitative

  • Part 1 (secco): Boy soprano narrator and continuo

  • Part 2 (accompanied): Apperarance of an angel, high strings, cadence formula played by continuo

  • Part 3 (secco): Angel speaks

  • Part 4 (accompanied): “beating wings”

• Chorus, “Glory to God”: High voices, orchestral accompaniment, concise

• “Hallelujah” Chorus: Monophony, homophony, and polyphony, very famous

• George II of England stood at the first London performance, everyone else did too

George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)

• Born Georg Friedrich Händel, anglicized after settling in England

• Not from a family of musicians

• Studied law before joining the orchestra at Germany’s Hamburg

• Liven in Venice, Florence, and Rome before London

• Wrote many Italian operas and was a “opera impresario” (promoter)

• “Made and lost several fortunes”

• After opera, he popularized oratorios

• Quite a character

• Blind later in life

The Church Cantata

• A cantata is a piece of moderate length for voices and instruments

• Many Baroque ones are secular

• In Germany, written to be performed during Lutheran church services

• Bach made cantatas for the entire year as a cantor

  • Made over 200, plus some seculars

The Lutheran Chorale

• Structure of Bach’s cantatas varied

• Nearly all Lutheran cantatas use hymns

• Lutheran hymns are called chorales

• Martin Luther (father of Protestant Reformation) placed an emphasis on hymn singing by the congregation

• Most people just knew the chorales by memory

Women in Music

• Options for women were very limited

• The theater provided women with rare career opportunities

• Women in the opera were often not very respected

• Prima donnas of the time included Anna Renzi, Faustina Bordoni, and Francesca Cuzzoni

• Female instrumentalists were rare

• Elizabeth-Claude Jacquet was a notable harpsichordist-composer (quite the exception)

Bach, Cantata No. 4, “Christ lag in Todesbanden” (1707)

• Easter chorale

• About mankind’s struggle with Death

• Minor mode

• 7 stanzas

• Gapped chorales after a short prelude called a “sinfonia”