Baroque Art and Music
1. What are the generally accepted dates of the Baroque Period? 1600 to 1750
2. If there are two words that would summarize the Baroque art, architecture, and music they are Excessive ornamentation
3. What is the “Doctrine of Affections”? Aesthetic Theory, musical moods could and should be used to communicate to the listener a specific emotion.
4. The single most important NEW GENRE of the Baroque Period was opera.
5. The two primary elements that were constant in most music from the Baroque Period were melody and a strong bass.
6. In Renaissance music, all vocal parts (soprano, alto, tenor, bass) were considered equally important. However, in the Baroque, the soprano and bass were usually much more important than the alto and tenor.
7. A new kind of solo singing called monody was common in the early Baroque.
8. The harmonic support for the elaborate solo melodies was provided by the bass line which usually consisted of two instruments, the bass and the piano. NOTE: This same pattern is paralleled in 20th Century Jazz when the piano and the string bass form the rhythm section to support the soloist which could be a solo voice or instrument (clarinet, trumpet, saxophone, etc.).
9. Barbara Strozzi was a female composer who published more sets of Chamber Cantatas than any other person in the early Baroque Period.
10. What is a “Chamber Cantata”? “sung thing” meant for a solo voice and a few accompanying instruments
11. In Baroque solo music, usually only the melody and bass lines were written. The harpsichord player would fill in the chords by reading a numerical shorthand called figured bass. This was the forerunner of modern day chord charts or “fake books”.
12. The “father of opera” was Claudio Monteverdi. His first opera was composed in the city of Mantua, Italy in the year 1607.
13. The first opera was a revival of a story from classical Greek mythology titled Orfeo.