Musical Forms and Devices: Baroque
Musical Forms and Devices in the Baroque Era
Overview
- The Baroque period of music lasted from approximately 1600 to 1750.
Styles of Composition
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The dominant style was contrapuntal music - using multiple, independent melodic lines.
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Baroque composers often used ornaments such as trills and mordents to decorate the melodic line.
Instruments and Ensembles
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Commonly used instruments included the violin, harpsichord, and organ. There was also increase in the use of brass, woodwinds, and percussion.
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The concerto grosso and the solo concerto were two primary forms of ensemble music during the Baroque period.
Key Composers
- Johann Sebastian Bach, Antonio Vivaldi, and George Frideric Handel were among the most prolific and renowned Baroque composers.
Form
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Baroque compositions often followed the binary (AB) or ternary (ABA) form.
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The fugue, a particularly complex form, is also found in the Baroque period. A fugue typically begins with a single voice stating a theme, and is then joined by other voices enter and develop it.
Harmonies and Tonality
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Harmonic progressions were based on major and minor tonalities, a shift away from the modal scales of the Renaissance period.
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The use of seventh chords and the tonic-dominant relationship also became more common in this era.
Melody and Rhythm
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Baroque melodies are generally elaborate and complex, often incorporating rapid runs and leaps.
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Rhythms were varied and complex, often featuring syncopation or the use of dotted rhythms.
Texture
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The main texture of Baroque music is polyphonic or contrapuntal, meaning that it consists of two or more equally important, independent melodic lines.
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However, homophonic texture, where one voice is the melodic lead and the others form a background of harmonic accompaniment, is also seen in some works.
Please refer back to these points in order to enhance your understanding and knowledge of Musical Forms and Devices: Baroque.