5 SAMPLES OF BAROQUE

OPERA
Opera is a form of theater in which the drama is conveyed wholly or
predominantly through music and singing. Opera emerged in Italy around the
year 1600 and is generally associated with the Western classical music
tradition. Opera uses many of the elements of spoken theater such as scenery,
costumes, and acting. Generally, however, opera is distinguished from other
dramatic forms by the importance of song and conventions of vocal technique.
The singers are accompanied by a musical ensemble ranging from a small
instrumental ensemble to a full symphonic orchestra. Opera may also
incorporate dance; this was especially true of French opera for much of its
history.

ORATORIO
An oratorio is a large musical composition art form for orchestra, vocal
soloists and chorus, usually with a narration that unifies the dramatic story. It
differs from an opera in that it does not use theatrical scenery, costumes, or
acting stylizations. The oratorio, however, closely mirrors the opera in musical
style and form, except that choruses are more prominent in oratorios than in
operas. It was the use of the choruses which gave composers a unique
commentation for the depiction of Biblical stories. One of the most known of
the oratorios is the 'Messiah' by George Frideric Handel, a massive work
reflecting teachings from the New Testament. The peak periods for the
composition of oratorios were the seventh and eighteenth centuries when
the Baroque period was experiencing its height in the consummation of the
grandeur and splendor in its art forms.

Sonata

Type of musical composition, usually for a solo instrument or a small

instrumental ensemble, that typically consists of two to four movements, or
sections, each in a related key but with a unique musical character.

Suite
in music, a group of self-contained instrumental movements of varying
character, usually in the same key. During the 17th and 18th centuries, the
period of its greatest importance, the suite consisted principally
of dance movements. In the 19th and 20th centuries the term also referred
more generally to a variety of sets of instrumental pieces, mainly in forms
smaller than those of the sonata, and included selections for concert
performance of incidental music to plays (e.g., Felix Mendelssohns music for
Shakespeares A Midsummer Nights Dream [composed 1843] and Georges
Bizets LArlsienne suite [composed 1872]) and ballet music (e.g., Pyotr Ilyich
Tchaikovskys Nutcracker suite [1892] and Igor Stravinskys Firebird suites
[1911, 1919, 1945]).

Fugue
in music, a compositional procedure characterized by the
systematic imitation of a principal theme (called the subject) in simultaneously
sounding melodic lines (counterpoint). The term fuguemay also be used to
describe a work or part of a work. In its mathematical intricacy, formality,
symmetry, and variety, the fugue holds the interest of composers, performers,
and listeners of Western art music in much the same way as the sonnet
engages English-language poets and their readers.

RENISSANCE
Church Music

The style of renaissance church music is described as choral polyphony

(polyphonic, counterpoint, contrapuntal), meaning more than one part.
Homophonic means moving in chords. Monophonic means one melody line.
Choral polyphony was intended to be sung a cappella (without instruments).
The main forms were the mass and the motet. They had four parts, based on
modes, but composers gradually added more accidentals.
One of the most noticeable differences between Medieval and Renaissance
styles, is that of musical texture. Whereas a Medieval composer tended to
contrast the separate strands of his music, a Renaissance composer aimed to
blend them together. Instead of building up the texture layer by layer, he
worked gradually through the piece, attending to all parts simultaneously. The
key device used to weave this kind of texture is called imitation. Composers
were becoming more interested and aware of harmony (how notes fit against
each other).
German Chorales
German Chorales are Protestant hymns.

Secular Music

This was music independent of churches (i.e. none religious). The main type
was the song, lied (German), frottola (Italian), chanson (French), madrigal
(Italian) and villancico (Spanish).

Elizabethan Madrigals

In 1588 a collection of Italian Madrigals with English words was published in

England, and it sparked off an interest in English Madrigal writing. They were
performed in rich people's homes. There are three kinds of madrigal:

The Madrigal Proper - This kind was 'through-composed' (The music is

different all the time.) There is a lot of word-painting music that illustrates
words. E.g. Thomas Weelkes 'As Vesta was from Latmos Hill descending.
The Ballett - It was sometimes danced as well as sung. The texture is mainly
chordal. Whereas a madrigal proper is through-composed, a ballett is strophic
(two or more verses set to the same music. The most noticeable feature of a
ballett is the 'fa-la-la' refrain.
The Ayre - An Ayre could be performed in a variety of ways: By solo voice with
lute accompaniment; by a solo voice with other accompaniment (e.g. viols); all
the parts sung by voices (with or without instruments).