SACRED VS. SECULAR

•SACRED: music composed to be performed in church; for God

•SECULAR: music composed for any other reason

•Sacred music considered highest form of music

•Before Baroque Era, secular music was all FUNCTIONAL (served a purpose like dance or storytelling)

•Baroque Era saw first evidence of secular music for artistic/concert value and pure enjoyment

Musicians and composers were taken seriously for the first time

ABSOLUTISM

•ABSOLUTISM: “Music for Music’s Sake”;

Music that does not tell a story

•First era in which composers wrote music purely to be enjoyed in a concert setting

•NOT FUNCTIONAL music (music that serves a specific purpose – like dance, religion, or ceremony) or PROGRAMMATIC music (music that tells a story)

CONCERTO

•Emerged as a popular style in Baroque Era

•CONCERTO: solo for one instrument with orchestral background

•Usually multi-movement (similar to a symphony)

•CONCERTO GROSSO: solo for multiple instruments with orchestral background

RITORNELLO

•RITORNELLO: A full orchestra statement of a theme between solo sections

•Popular in Baroque Era

•Full orchestra plays a melody
Soloist(s) do their thing
Full orchestra same melody
New solo music
Etc.

DANCE SUITE

•Renaissance dances had specific steps with styles of music to accompany (usually same tempo/speed and time signature/beat)

•In Baroque Era, music for this dance music was “concertized” (listened to in concert setting rather than actually danced to)

•SUITE: collection of short, related movements

Allemande: stately German dance
Courante: fast French dance
Sarabande: slow Spanish dance
Gigue: fast English dance

HIPP

•HISTORICALLY INFORMED PERFORMANCE PRACTICES: modern musicians selecting instruments and/or ways of playing to maintain the authenticity of the era in which music was performed

•HIPP allows audiences to enjoy music from the past in the way it was intended by the original composers

•“REIMAGINING” happens when a musician or director purposely changes something about the music to modernize it
(Examples: adding electronic instruments or updating the plot/scenery/costumes of an opera)

OPERA

•Started in Italy

•First opera performed:
Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo (1607) in Mantua (Italy)

•Opera originally very serious, meant for court

•Eventually added comedy and dance to attract lower class

•Split into OPERA SERIA (serious opera for the upper class) and OPERA BUFFA (comic opera for the lower class)

•Plots mostly biblical or mythological (Greek)

•German sacred composer, keyboardist, choir director

•“Father of Classical Music” – established most of the rules for counterpoint and standard harmony

•Composed for keyboard (organ, harpsichord), concerti, chamber music, and choral music; very prolific

•Had 21 children, several became composers

•German-born English secular composer

•Moved to England because his composition style was more popular there

•Composed operas, oratorios, cantatas, concerti, instrumental works

•Celebrity in his lifetime

•Italian sacred/secular composer, choir director, musician

•Broke many composition rules to establish new harmonies and musical styles

•Wrote first performed opera (L’Orfeo)

•Many works have been destroyed/gone missing

•French composer and music theorist

•Wrote Treatise on Harmony (1722) text about composition

•Composed operas, cantatas, songs, and instrumental works

•Master of French Baroque opera

•Italian secular composer and singer

•Most published composer of the Baroque Era

•Wrote mostly songs for soprano voice; wrote own lyrics as well

•May or may not have been a courtesan (as evident by her musical training and ability to compose/publish music in the time as a woman)

•Italian sacred/secular composer, violinist, teacher

•Wrote concerti, sinfonia, opera, and sacred choral works

•Vivaldi developed violin technique and heightened the contrast of harmony in classical music

•Wrote music for all-female music ensemble at orphanage