巴洛克时期TheBaroqueEra1600-1750.pdf

The Baroque Era
1600-1750
Characteristics of the Baroque Era
Spanning the period from 1600 to 1750, music of the Baroque Era (as well as architecture, sculpture and painting) was elaborately ornate in design and conceptually grandiose; a dramatic contrast to the simplistic instrumental and vocal music of the Renaissance. Modality was replaced by major and minor tonalities and composers came to indicate form and tonal centers in their titles (i.e., Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in A Major, etc.), and authentic cadences (V7-I) replaced the previously preferred modal cadences.
While Baroque music remained predominantly contrapuntal, counterpoint became harmonically oriented and reached its paramount in the hands of Bach. Two new and distinctly Baroque styles came into existence; Stile Concertato (the concept of a performer, or group of performers, playing in opposition to, or alternation with, each other or an ensemble), and Basso Continuo (a part written in the bass clef with numerals and accidentals below the notes designating a musical shorthand known as figured bass), in which the viola da gamba, cello, or bassoon would play the written part and the keyboard or lute would fill in the harmony indicated by the numerals.
Composers began to indicate tempo (e.g., allegro, presto, etc.) and dynamics (e.g., forte, piano, etc.) for the first time in history. Improvisation became an important part of performance technique, and musicians became highly skilled in melodic variations, ornamentations, cadenzas, and the realization of figured bass parts. New musical forms that emerged during the Baroque included the fugue, chaconne, passacaglia, toccata, concerto, sonata, oratorio, opera, suite, oratorio and cantata.
TEMPO
Prior to the 17th-century, tempo (Tactus) for a composition in a given style (i.e., madrigal, motet, etc.) was fairly uniform, and any variances from the traditional tempos were indicated by notation. Beginning in the Baroque period, composers indicated tempo through the use of terms (i.e., Allegro, Largo). The practice began in Italy, and though it quickly spread throughout all of Europe, the conventional tempo indications were usually expressed in Italian (see the glossary for terms and definitions). While these terms gave composers greater control over the interpretation of their works, the terms were still ambiguous enough to cause some confusion. For example, andante (Italian for “walking” or “going”) is a moderate tempo, between moderato and adagio. Since it is usually regarded as a slow tempo, pui (more) andante would indicate a tempo slightly slower than andante, while meno (less) andante would indicate a tempo slightly faster than andante. However, some composers (such as Brahms) consider andante to be a fast tempo, in which case the interpretations of pui andante and meno andante would be reversed. The invention of the metronome allowed composers become very precise with their tempo markings, however most conductors and performers still tend to regard tempo as a matter of interpretation.
Glossary of Tempo Terminology
Accelerando. Becoming faster.
Adagio. Slow tempo, between andante and largo.
Allargando. Slowing down and increasing in volume.
Allegretto. A tempo between allegro and andante.
Allegro. A fast tempo.
Allentando. Slowing down.
Andante. A moderate tempo between allegretto and adagio.
Andatino. Diminutive of andante, usually interpreted to be slightly faster than andante.
A tempo. Return to previous tempo, usually follows some deviation of tempo.
Larghetto. Slightly faster than largo.
Largo. Very slow, a tempo slower than adagio.
Lento. Slow.
Meno. Less
Moderato. Of moderate speed.
Molto. Very.
Mosso. Quickly.
Poco. Little.
Poco a poco. Little by little.
Prestissimo. Quickest possible tempo.
Presto. Very fast, faster than allegro.
Pui. More.
Ritardando. Gradually slowing.
Ritenuto. Same as ritardando, but usually indicates a more drastic slowing.
Rallentando. Same as ritardando.
Rubato. Perform freely, expressively, without strict tempo considerations.
Vivace. Brisk tempo, as fast or slightly faster than allegro.
Vivacissimo. Slightly faster than vivaci.
Composers of the Baroque Era
Johann Sebastian Bach
Born: 21 March 1685 in Eisenach
Died: 28 July 1750 in Leipzig
Though Bach enjoyed wide recognition as a virtuoso organist, he was
little known as a composer during his lifetime and very few of his works
were accepted for publication. It was not until 1829, when a twenty-year-
old Felix Mendelssohn chanced across a manuscript of the Passion According to St. Matthew and captivated the music world by conducting the first performance of the oratorio-style, multi-movement work since Bach's death, that the compositional genius of J. S. Bach began to gain the recognition it so richly deserved.
J. S. Bach was the progeny of possibly the most musically prolific family in history as no less than seven preceding generations of Bachs had held posts as town musicians and/or organists. The Bach tradition would continue as a plethora of nephews, cousins and sons followed "The Great Bach" in musical pursuits (among them, Karl Philipp Emanuel, Johann Christian and Wilhelm Friedemann Bach).
Orphaned at age ten, he became the ward of his older brother, composer and organist Johann Christoph Bach, who gave him his first musical instruction. At age fifteen, his well-trained soprano voice won him a tuition-paid scholarship to become a chorister in St. Michael's Church at Lüneburg. It was during his musical studies at St. Michael's that Bach permanently damaged his eyes by copying the manuscripts of "radical" and "forbidden" composers by moonlight.
In his adult years, he held posts as court or church organist at Arnstadt, Mühlhausen, Weimar, Anhalt-Cöthen (in the court of Prince Leopold) and Leipzig. His enormous compositional output (much of which was part of his official duties) includes hundreds of sacred, secular and comic cantatas (nearly 300 in all), the Christmas and Easter oratorios, the St. John, St. Luke and St. Matthew Passions, voluminous instrumental works, including the forty-eight preludes and fugues of Das Wohltemperirte Klavier (The Well-Tempered Clavier), the Goldberg Variations and other works for harpsichord and clavichord, many preludes and fugues for organ, the six Brandenburg Concertos, sonatas for violin, cello, flute and other instruments, and Four Suites for Orchestra.
In 1749 Bach underwent two operations in an attempt to restore his sight that had been further weakened by strenuous process of engraving his Art of the Fugue. The surgeries not only left him totally blind but subsequently his health began to fail. On 10 July 1750, his sight miraculously returned but less than three weeks later he would die of a paralytic stroke. Recommended Listening:
Brandenburg Concerto No. 5
Suite No. 3 for Orchestra
Toccata and Fugue in D Minor
George Frideric Handel
Born: 23 February 1685 in Halle, Saxony (Germany)
Died: 14 April 1759 in London
Handel's father, a Saxon barber-surgeon, was determined that his son
would become a lawyer and discouraged his son's musical ambitions.
Handel secretly taught himself to play the organ and spinet and at age
seven was heard by the Duke of Saxon-Weissenfels playing the chapel organ. The Duke persuaded Handel's father to allow young George to pursue the study of music (in conjunction with the study of law.) Handel's musical studies included theory and composition as well as instruction on the oboe, spinet, harpsichord and organ. He soon began composing sonatas for two oboes and bass, and for three years [while serving as the assistant organist at the Halle Domkirche (cathedral-church)] he composed a motet for every Sunday. In 1696, at the age of eleven, Handel visited Berlin, where, at the court of the Electress Sophia Charlotte, he first came in contact with Italian music and musicians. The Princess wished to send the young Handel to Italy for further musical studies, but his father intervened and took him back to Halle to continue his "well-grounded" education. Though his father died in 1697, Handel, respecting his father's wishes, entered the University in 1702 and completed his study of law. In 1703 Handel left Halle for Hamburg where he would serve his musical apprenticeship playing violin and harpsichord in the opera orchestra. In 1704, Handel was almost lost to posterity when he engaged, for reasons since obscured, in a duel with fellow musician, Johann Mattheson. He was supposedly saved by a button on his waistcoat.
Handel's first opera Almira was produced in Hamburg in 1705 and later that same year his second opera, Nero, premiered. The following year Handel completed two more operas (Florindo and Dafne) but with virtually no money at all he decided to leave Hamburg and journey to Italy. There he enjoyed mild success as a composer of Italy operas and lived for a brief time in Florence, Rome, and Naples.
Offers of employment soon came to Handel from Hannover and from London. He chose to accept the offer of Elector Georg of Hannover upon the stipulation that he was free to visit England on leave. After serving as the Kapellmeister to the court of Hanover only a few weeks he took his leave and went to London. Two weeks later he completed the opera Rinaldo that was successfully produced at the Haymarket Theatre. This success proved irresistible and in little more than a year, he again asked for and was granted a leave from Hannover to visit London a second time. He was to remain in England for the rest of his life, Anglicizing the spelling of his name (originally Georg Friedrich Händel) and becoming a naturalized British subject in 1726.
When public enthusiasm for opera began to fade, Handel turned to the composition of oratorios (large-scale, dramatic musical settings of religious or mythological tales sung in the vernacular and presented in concert style) and established a long tradition of that form in England. Considered the culmination of Baroque oratorio, Handel's eminence in the field rests on his superb mastery of choral technique. Among his best-known oratorios are Samson, Israel in Egypt, Judas Maccabaeus, Solomon, and the famous Christmas oratorio, Messiah (1742). Messiah was an enormous success and so inspiring to King George II that he rose to his feet at the "Hallelujah Chorus." To this day, it is customary for audiences to stand at this part of Messiah performances.
The last years of his life were plagued by illness and blindness, but at the time of his death, he was one of England's most popular and respected musicians. He was buried among England's elite in Westminster Abbey.
Recommended Listening:
Messiah
Water Music
Royal Fireworks Music
Antonio Vivaldi
Born: in Venice (possibly as early as 11 June 1669 or as late as 4 March 1678
- however, most sources list an indeterminate year between 1675 and 1678)
Died: 28 July 1741 in Vienna
Comparatively little is known of Vivaldi's life (as substantiated by the
inconclusive and often conflicting information concerning his date of birth).
His father, Giovanni Battista Vivaldi, was a violinist at San Marco in Venice and is presumed to have been his first music instructor. Though the young Antonio was prodigiously musical, he chose to enter the Roman Catholic priesthood and sometime before 1703 he received the holy orders.
In 1703 Vivaldi became a teacher at the Seminario Musicale dell' Ospitale della Pietà (a famous school for foundling girls) in Venice and six years later was appointed Director of Concerts at the Ospitale (a position which he retained until 1740 despite widespread travels throughout Italy, Germany and possibly France). During his tenure at the Ospitale, Vivaldi composed an astonishing quantity of music including forty operas and other theater pieces, plus many choral works. Though these vocal works are impressive, it is Vivaldi's instrumental compositions, which have gained him greatest notoriety. Among his vast instrumental output are L'Estro armonico, op. 3, consisting of twelve concertos for one, two, or four solo violins, solo cello, strings, and continuo, Le quattro stagione ("The Four Seasons"), op. 8, four concertos for solo violin, strings, and continuo, La Stravaganza, op. 4, twelve concertos for solo violin, strings, and continuo, La Cetre, op. 9, twelve concertos for solo violin, strings, and continuo, more than three dozen concertos for bassoon, dozens of concertos for flute, many for oboe, viola d'amore, and other combinations of instruments (Vivaldi was required to deliver two concertos per month to the seminary even if he were traveling). In 1740 he relocated to Vienna where he hoped to win favor as a composer to the court of Charles VI. He was to die there one year later, unsuccessful in his attempt and apparently in poverty due to his lavish, spendthrift lifestyle.
Vivaldi's music slipped into obscurity following his death and it was not until the Baroque "revival" of the mid-twentieth century that scholars exhumed his long forgotten works from libraries and various archives. This rediscovery of Vivaldi's mastery has established him in a position second only to that of Johann Sebastian Bach as the most recorded composer of the Baroque period.
Recommended Listening:
The Four Seasons, Op 8.
L’estro armonico
Other Prominent Composers of the Baroque Era:
Jean-Baptiste de Lully,
(1632-1687)
Italian-born French composer, who spent most of his life working in the
court of Louis XIV of France.
Dietrich Buxtehude (c.1637-1707)
German composer of organ music
Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713)
Italian composer of keyboard music.
François Couperin (1668-1733)
French composer of organ music.
José Elias (c.1680-1746)
Spanish composer of organ music
Denis Gaultier (c.1603-1691)
French composer of lute music.
Matthew Locke (c.1621-1677)
English composer of string music.
Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706)
German composer of organ, choral, and chamber music; the most famous of which is the Canon and Gigue in D Major for 3 Violins and Basso Continuo.
Henry Purcell (1659-1695)
English composer of string music.
Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764)
French composer of harpsichord music.
Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757)
Extremely influential in the development of the Classical period in music through his individual style, though he lived mostly during the Baroque era.
Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767)
Versatile and prolific German composer of instrumental music in all media and forms.
Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)
Master of the early baroque opera.
Prominent Artists of the Baroque Era:
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606–69)
The Blinding of Samson (1636)
Aristotle with a Bust of Homer (1653)
Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598–1680)
Abduction of Proserpina (1621–22)
David Slaying Goliath (1623)
Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640)
Adoration of the Magi (1634)
The Judgment of Paris (c. 1635–37)
Prominent Writers of the Baroque Era:
William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
Hamlet (1600)
MacBeth (1606)
Miguel de CERVANTES SAAVEDRA (1547- 1616)
Don Quixote (1605)
Persiles Y Sigismunda (1616)
From: A Survey of Classical Music
By R.J. Miller
Copyright © MMII by Appassionata Music Publishing
All Rights Reserved。