History Main / BaroqueMusic

* Jean-baptiste Lully

!!Examples of baroques composers with their own TV Tropes pages:

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But as the eighteenth century marched on, the Italian opera fell out of fashion, especially in England, where Händel went on to write oratorios instead. Many of them are still on the classical hit parade. In Germany Bach, who never wrote any operas, concentrated his efforts on church music and secular music alike, and produced enough music for a lifetime of studies. But he also produced a number of sons, who in their turn became composers. And more than one of those denounced their father as the new styles emerged. Bach's music became neglected for hundred years, and studied solely by scholars. Even so, Music/{{Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart}} owes much of his style to Vivaldi and Bach, especially in his last, and unfinished, requiem.

Apart from France, Italy, and Germany, the main composer of the period was Music/{{Henry Purcell}}, who defined the musical style for Britain under the late Stuart kings. Unfortunately, he died in his mid 30s, in 1695, and the torch was passed on to a German gentleman who came to England during the reign of king [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfHanover George I]]. His name was [[Music/GeorgeFredericHandel Georg Friedrich Händel]] (after moving to England, he anglicized the name to "George Frideric Handel"), and he was heavily influenced by Italian style and genres, and a self-promoting badass in many respects. Having previously worked at the opera in Hamburg, he took to the more modern and commercial ways of the music scene in London like a duck to water.

The music of the time was often incited by patrons, often princes of some wealth. But the times were also turbulent, and the golden age of baroque didn't occur until things settled down. And this happened with the establishment of absolutism, and the rule of UsefulNotes/{{Louis XIV}}. His time also established the ballet as art form, and the dancers got style like never before. In those years, the greater body of music tended to be made in France, but the style was still Italian. Jean Baptiste Lully, the most known composer of this period, was an Italian born Frenchman, in service of king Louis. More peaceful times made the orchestras bigger, and the weirdest instruments were scrapped. The more known instruments surfaced, and we still use them today: The oboe, and the trombone. Trumpets and horns still had to cope with natural intervals, but valves were developed slowly. Horns and trumpets without valves were in use all the way up to Bach, who wrote much of his trumpet music for valveless instruments.

The music of the era saw a gradual shift from vocal style (madrigal) to instrumental styles, and instruments evolved immensely over the years. Thus, a new and practical instrument was developed to suit the fancies of a new generation: the violin, who gained its modern shape almost at the right time. From this point and ever since, orchestral music grew, and so did the volume. Music/LudwigVanBeethoven may have broken the first sound barrier, but the foundation for his instruments were laid 200 years prior to his time. The shift is apparent in the development of the general bass line, setting up the first system of chords over a written bass. This principle is a valuable and necessary ingredient in all popular music.

The music of the era saw a gradual shift from vocal style (madrigal) to instrumental styles, and instruments evolved immensely over the years. Thus, a new and practical instrument was developed to suit the fancies of a new generation: the violin, who gained its modern shape almost at the right time. From this point and ever since, orchestral music grew, and so did the volume. Beethoven may have broken the first sound barrier, but the foundation for his instruments were laid 200 years prior to his time. The shift is apparent in the development of the general bass line, setting up the first system of chords over a written bass. This principle is a valuable and necessary ingredient in all popular music.

Apart from France, Italy, and Germany, the main composer of the period was Music/{{Henry Purcell}}, who defined the musical style for Britain under the late Stuart kings. Unfortunately, he died before he passed 30, in 1692, and the torch was passed on to a German gentleman who came to England during the reign of king [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfHanover George I]]. His name was [[Music/GeorgeFredericHandel Georg Friedrich Händel]] (after moving to England, he anglicized the name to "George Frideric Handel"), and he was heavily influenced by Italian style and genres, and a self-promoting badass in many respects. Having previously worked at the opera in Hamburg, he took to the more modern and commercial ways of the music scene in London like a duck to water.

->'''Fuzzyface''': Hold on, if you're really a huge nerd, who's your favorite Baroque composer?
->'''Becka''':...bawk.
->'''Fuzzyface''': Bach? Not Vivaldi?! You're insane!

-->-- ''WesternAnimation/BojackHorseman''

* '''Early baroque''': from 1600 to 1670, containing early opera, simple choral arranging and small ensembles.
* '''Middle baroque''': from ca. 1670 to 1720, heavily influenced by French ceremonial music and the rule of UsefulNotes/{{Louis XIV}}.
* '''Late baroque''': In short, the age of Music/JohannSebastianBach and [[Music/GeorgeFredericHandel Georg Friedrich Händel]]. Lots of pomp, great choruses and awesome musical effects.

Because of the long span, the term has no clear border, either to UsefulNotes/TheRenaissance or to the classical era: Late Renaissance music lived on and prospered for years, along with the musical tropes in question, all the way to 1660, while early classical tropes were well on the way in the last decade of Bach, when even he was considered old and out of fashion. So the years set are there mostly for convenience. Note that individual composers can be assigned to more than one period if they were adaptable and lived long enough; the incredibly productive and versatile Music/GeorgPhilippTelemann (1681-1767) for instance represents Middle and Late Baroque as well as Early Classicism. Baroque tropes surfaced in fact in the late Renaissance, as early as 1570, in an era called ''mannerism''. This covered visual art, literature and music, and was the {{Sturm und Drang}} period of the Renaissance.

'''Early Baroque Music''': ''Lots and lots of weird instruments''.

[[index]]

Because of the long span, the term has no clear border, either to the Renaissance or to the classical era: Late Renaissance music lived on and prospered for years, along with the musical tropes in question, all the way to 1660, while early classical tropes were well on the way in the last decade of Bach, when even he was considered old and out of fashion. So the years set are there mostly for convenience. Note that individual composers can be assigned to more than one period if they were adaptable and lived long enough; the incredibly productive and versatile Music/GeorgPhilippTelemann (1681-1767) for instance represents Middle and Late Baroque as well as Early Classicism. Baroque tropes surfaced in fact in the late Renaissance, as early as 1570, in an era called ''mannerism''. This covered visual art, literature and music, and was the {{Sturm und Drang}} period of the Renaissance.

It's also probably worth noting that, although you'll invariably find Baroque music on the "ClassicalMusic" shelf at your local record store, the InsistentTerminology of music scholars distinguishes between "Classical" as a broad genre category, and the Classical Period, which is what came ''after'' the Baroque era. That's why it can be a mild FandomEnragingMisconception to say, for instance, that Music/JohannSebastianBach wrote classical music. As the saying goes, "[[Disney/BeautyAndTheBeast If it's not Baroque, don't fix it.]]"

Instruments aside, the era produced two different modes, the first practice, derived from the renaissance, based on vocal forms, and then the second practice, based on the new instrumental ones. Not surprisingly, this practice leaned heavily on the contemporary dance music. This became the starting point for almost every instrumental form achievable the next hundred years. Much of the instrumental music had strong rhythm, and was part of an elaborate pattern of dances, usually put together in a suite. In time, this was refined into music for listening, and even the symphony seems to have it`s roots in this pattern. To give an example of what the instrumentalists at the time were up to, listen to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-r6lVM6QPic this!]]

It's also probably worth noting that, although you'll invariably find Baroque music on the "ClassicalMusic" shelf at your local record store, the InsistentTerminology of music scholars distinguishes between "Classical" as a broad genre category, and the Classical Period, which is what came ''after'' the Baroque era. That's why it can be a mild FandomEnragingMisconception to say, for instance, that Music/JohannSebastianBach wrote classical music. As the saying goes, "[[{{Pun}} If it ain't Baroque, don't fix it.]]"

The beginning of the baroque era tends to be placed in renaissance Venice, where the local lords, and the duke, hired a lot of musicians from 1560 and onwards. Here, some experimenting took place, and the composers of the day discussed how to revive the music of the classical period, which in this case meant {{ancient Greece}}. {{Madrigal}}s were the craze of the day and had been for years, but the style had been gradually more elaborate, and the combination of madrigals into a longer story with solo singing in between resulted in a new genre: the {{musical drama}}, or to be precise: the {{opera}}. The early operas snatched their plotlines from Greek myth, or roman myths, and a lot of the stories were remakes of the classical texts. They seemed to be rather fond of [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Orpheus]], as he was set to music several times over the years. The first surviving opera casts him in the leading role, with a {{happy ending}} nonetheless. The composer? UsefulNotes/{{Claudio Monteverdi}}, who couples as both a renaissance and a baroque composer. His fifth book of madrigals is often seen as a starting point for a new expressiveness (although this had been in making for years already).