Introduction
Baroque is often used to describe the style of music which is composed during the era that coincides with the period of Baroque art. There are still a lot of arguments when it comes to the principles of baroque music especially its contribution to the Baroque period. One highlight seen on the style of music is its love of ornamentation. Originally Baroque is known for architecture and the term was just used for music in 1919. A lot of forms of music were discovered during the classical period such as the concerto and sinfonia. Talking about baroque, it is largely comprised of different forms like the cantata, sonata and oratorio (Panofsky, 1995).
The music of baroque is also known in the era of music after the renaissance which was followed by the era of classical music. Baroque literary means the misshapen pearl that is defined in the sense of architecture and later applied for music (Panofsky, 1995). It paved the way for some parts of music cannon and largely regarded as an important detail of the history as it was being studied, listened and performed. Composers like Claudio Monteverdi, Antonio Vivaldi, George Frideric Handel, Arcangelo Corelli, and Johann Sebastian Bach have been regarded in the era of Baroque. Its period discovered the progress for the importance of tonality and applied its principles (Christensen and Dejans, 2007).
Basically, the word concerto means concert. It prevails to be in the era of 1580s until the 1750s and particularly emerged in Venice. Baroque period have revealed many different styles of music on which classical composers have created their masterpieces. The emergence of concerto had been dominant only until the 1700s was reached though many historians argued about it. The varying types of music were actually predisposed by a lot of factors. An important factor goes to the religious side and beliefs during the period with the perspectives of people toward politics. The factors are considered to be the main influencers of Baroque music and largely account for the concertos that happened during the period. In general, concertos use instrumental music only but then it evolved into the use of voices which accompanies the music and makes a good harmony (Christensen and Dejans, 2007). Also, instrumental playing techniques have been developed as the musical ornamentation has been widely used by the composers as well as the performers. Baroque music made the use of instruments to expound its size, range and be more complex. It has also made the foundation for the opera as a genre of music and still prevails in the contemporary music.
Discussion
Describing the music of baroque depicts a large area of music styles from its era. After the era of Baroque, which is the classical period, it covered the influences of baroque and somehow dismissed the ornamentation of music. The masterpieces have been focused into the internal structure of the music and specifically applied to the forms of sonata.
Going back to the features of baroque music, one highlight was put on the strength of the contrast and the disagreement of sonorities. Usually, it can be accomplished by the separation of the instrument used in the performance into two groups or more and this is termed as the stile concertato (Stauffer, 2006). It began in the late 16th century and emerged as it reached the ext century which attributes the progress of using new forms of instrumental ornaments that stroke the significant ideas in the composition of baroque composition.
Baroque music is composed of different styles. There are influences of Italian, French, German and English Baroque music. Also, there are categorized early, middle and late Baroque music. Differences between secular and sacred baroque should also be distinguished and the personal styles of a lot of composers during its periods of emergence. Consequently, these differences marked a difficulty in describing the Baroque music with regard to its elements. But there are characterizations which fall into its general description such as the use of musical instruments, the stylistic elements and the Baroque musical esthetic (Stauffer, 2006).
The baroque concerto is actually one of the genres in western music that lasted long. A group of composers has formed some dramatic masterpieces during the 16th and 17th centuries wherein the alternation of two or more performing forces has been catered to as the main element of the work. In Europe, concertato style can be reflected through the architectural design of the big cathedrals with the use of their extraordinary acoustical elements. As such, the Venetian schools initiated the use of the principles of concerto and symphony as its identification of the symbols that were used before and are still prevalent today. The terms widely describe the concert itself and the use of instruments.
The musicians during the period of Baroque are known to be servants of patrons or the state and sometimes the church. Working with Baroque influences have been independent just after eighteenth century and started to separate from them as independent composers and performers. All the composers have done well indeed. When you say Baroque music, it goes beyond time and place however, it still gets a many ideas from the social and cultural senses of the world where it started (Schulenberg, 2001). The development of financial, commercial and professional classes made them discover the art of music at home, church and in artistic schools where life can be the best way to convey the message of music. And hence, this is led by the Dutch masters like Rembrandt and Jan Vermeer.
When the 18th century came, concerto stands for the instrumental work of a solo concerto just for a soloist and an orchestra, a concerto for two or more soloists and an orchestra which is called grosso, or an orchestral concerto for the undivided orchestra. The first category has been greatly used though the grosso type was the ones which essays were patterned. The different types of concerto are basically made of three kinds of arrangements which are constrained to fast, slow and fast pattern of movement (Stauffer, 2006).
One example of the solo category that has been known in the established era of Baroque is the concertos of Antonio Vivaldi. Vivaldi studied in Venice and a composer of many concertos. He had published his collections which has 84 of his concertos that gives a background of what the path of his career was and how it was developed. Accordingly, for the 500 works that he has, two thirds accounts for the solo instruments, 230 for the violin which is his native and favorite instrument and the bassoon which he used often. There are also concertos which are written for the cello, oboe, and flute. He had been influenced by Torelli who was known for the three-movement form and Albinoni who used operatic versions with a melody (Stauffer, 2006). Though Vivaldi was not really a good at creating a unique masterpiece such as being innovative, his works are still described with intricacy. The drastic conflict between the solo and tutti usually gives the idea of the composers for the completion of the concertos made by Vivaldi. His compositions reflect the way of driving the vitality of rhythm, different textures and the related continuous sounds of melodic principles.
Vivaldi indeed was known for his concertos that mostly used solo instruments. Also, these are in the three-movement from which is the fast-slow-fast pattern mentioned earlier. The links between the keys in the movement is moderately supple and one third of the slow movements served as the external movements. To some extent not as much of a repeatedly use is done in selection of the relative major or minor, and in also smaller chances of the instances in the dominant or subdominant is being used. E minor though is a one of the most commonly used for highly expressive slow movements (Schulenberg, 2001). Almost all of the start of the movements is in the form of ritornello of which Torelli had introduced. This form of Ritornello was used as a conference in opera arias as which is said to be the best way of focusing on the voice of the soloist and giving uniformity with the use of persistent thematic materials used in the orchestra.
In the concertos made by Vivaldi during the period of Baroque, the soloists are given the most important roles rather than its precursors. They are commonly given high ornamental passage, lightly accompanied and creating a contrast with the sections of thematic tutti. The contrasts put a highlight on the role of the soloist and reveal its dramatic effects more. It is not firm though but it is said that Vivaldi was one of the first composers to use terminal cadenza that kills the performer in the last part of the leading tone trill for an Allegro movement. There are nine moderate broad cadenzas by Vivaldi of which some are simple and with the series of broken chords on a leading pedal, while some of the more intricate cadenzas comprise thematic quotations from the three movements. This kind of cadenza was normally put before the last recurrence of the ritornello which serves as an ornamentation of the one that leads before the tonic cadence during that time, and specifically the goal of the cadenza was to show the intelligence of the performer and the instrument as well (Christensen and Dejans, 2007).
It is always discussed that Baroque music began in Italy and its period have seen renaissance of Rome being known as the center of Catholism in the world after it was turn down. Music is still associated in the forms of sonata and concerto. Another name that prevailed to be in the Baroque period is Arcangelo Corelli. Corelli was known for his famous Concerti Grossi in 1714 and upon building the form of concerto as a composition for many players. This is composed of a smaller group of instrumentalists or concertinos which is against the larger orchestra or ripieno (Stauffer, 2006). The larger orchestra is the one that takes the theme and its development is through the alternation. In particular, this idea is the extension of the older tradition of Italian churches like the antiphonal singing of the verses and responses which is echoing one other.
Conclusion
Baroque concerto is one of the most common forms of music during the period of Baroque and actually is the main point of the Baroque music. Baroque concerto largely attributes the whole concept of music and have revealed that Baroque period was an era of impressive development of knowledge. It was also the era where scientific discoveries have been prevalent such as the discoveries of Newton and Galileo, and the explorations of Locke, Descartes and Spinoza (Stauffer, 2006). The emergence of Europe was distinguished by this emergence of intellectual and artistic ambience in various ways. Composers of Baroque are regarded as a craftsman instead of recognizing them as an artist compared to the later art music in Europe which has a principle of writing Baroque music for particular occasions. Also, the musical scores are usually tagged with intricacy but somehow the posterity for some Baroque musicians is overlooked.
Generally, Baroque concerto can be classified as the influencer of the classical era though some of the principles are dismissed in the later century. The use of instruments has been the trademark for the Baroque era and the start of operatic music. The voice of the soloists is given importance as well as the accompaniment of instruments. Today, the influence of Baroque still prevails in some of the musical works especially in opera houses.
References
Panofsky, E. (1995), “What is Baroque?” Three Essays on Style, the MIT Press, pp. 19
Christensen, TS, and Dejans, P. Towards Tonality Aspects of Baroque Music Theory. Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2007.
Schulenberg, D. Music of the Baroque. New York: Oxford UP, 2001.
Stauffer, GB. The World of Baroque Music New Perspectives. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006.