Lecture points

Review sheet for Baroque era

Baroque era background

• the Baroque is a reaction to Renaissance logic, order
  • the Renaissance revived interest in the classics (classicism) knowledge, exploration, and the sciences
• polyphonic texture: music with multiple melodic lines playing at the same time
  • another term for polyphony is counterpoint (pitting notes against each other “point against point”)
  • Renaissance music was full of orderly and rational polyphony, which persisted into the Baroque
  • however, the Baroque began a move from polyphony to homophony to portray…
• the Affections: affections are stylized emotions such as sorrow, jealousy
  • this idea came from ancient Greek and Roman (classical) rhetoric (how to speak in public)
  • each piece of music should be unified around a single affection, and the best way to convey this is…
• homophonic texture: music with a single melodic line and harmonic accompaniment
  • instead of writing full accompaniment parts, Baroque composers developed the technique…
• figured bass: a type of music notation involving a written bass line with numbers over the notes to indicate the intervals of the chord to play on top
  • the practice of playing, or “realizing”, the full part from the figured bass is known as…
• basso continuo: an accompaniment part that was primarily improvised over figured bass
  • typically played by keyboard instruments, and if multiple instruments are used they are part of the “continuo group”

Patronage

• most musicians were employed either by the church or the state
• the Roman Catholic Church was a huge political power in Europe that owned land and collected money (tithes)
  • musicians were needed to perform in Mass on all the important liturgical holidays of the year
• individual families and figures in nobility hired musicians as part of their staff
  • this patronage system guaranteed musicians a steady income in exchange for music around the household or court
• musicians were considered craftspeople producing goods to meet a demand
• music was a central part of life in the Church and among the nobility, but individual pieces were not highly valued