music history baroque one

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  • 8/3/2019 Music History Baroque One

    1/1

    Elisabeth Follman February 4, 2011

    Music History (Saturday) Baroque Assignment One

    2. To express emotion through their art, painters in the baroque era often concentrated on subjects

    involving physical action and psychological reaction. This format of content would supposedly stimulate

    the senses thus setting in motion the humors that eventually brought about the presence of the

    affections or emotions such as joy, love, sorrow, hatred, etc. Since facial expressions were so crucial to

    the success of the painting, painters would often set up an entire gallery of emotions and their

    corresponding facial gestures to serve as examples for other artists. Similar to baroque painters,

    composers of opera displayed a musical array of emotions in writing series of arias in every act. In

    music, a motion intended to represent and ultimately stimulate an emotion could be encoded in many

    ways, the most obvious of which being rhythm. (A slow, relentless rhythm in the bass could easily lend

    to a more melancholy feel, while a dancing dotted motive could just as easily give a lighter, happier feel

    to the music.)

    3. The basic difference between the Prima Practica and the Secunda Practica was that in the first

    practice Monteverdi emphasized that fact that the musical values prevailed over the words, while in the

    second practice he insisted that the text dominated and dictated the musical setting. Consequently,

    Monteverdi believed that his second, more unorthodox method of composition made his music more

    affecting.

    4. Monody is simply a term used to generalize the accompanied solo songs during the baroque era. It

    can, however, also refer to the musical texture of solo singing accompanied by one or more instruments.

    5. First and foremost the recitative was invented as a way to advance the plot of an opera in a way that

    imitated the Greeks. Peri sought a method of song that was halfway almost like speaking, but and the

    same time not interrupting the continuous flow of music that was required of an opera. By keeping long

    notes in the bass (freeing the voice of harmony) and keeping the text almost intoned, the singing almost

    sounded like the pitchless declaration of speech.

    6. As for instruments, it looks like there is a mandolin, a dulcimer, a viol de gamba, and a tambourine.

    The main difference between the recitative and the rest of the song is that the singer does not have as

    wide a range of pitches to sing. In addition the orchestration is much less complex than earlier in the

    piece and the rhythm in both the voice and instruments is less complex, and less embellished.

    7. The three main characteristics of Italian operas are: 1.) the concentration on solo singing rather than

    ensembles, 2.) the separation of the recitative and aria, and 3.) the introduction of distinctive styles of

    arias.