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Baroque: Music
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Baroque music was often a melody with a bass line at the bottom. This could be, for example, a singer and a cello. There was ... a harpsichord or organ that played the bass line as well, and made up chords in between. Often the composer did not bother to write out all the chords (harmonies) but just showed some of the chords by figures, leaving it to the performer to decide exactly which notes to play. This is called “figured bass” or “basso continuo”. The soloist, who played or sang the melody on top, often put in lots of ornamental notes.
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The popularity and success of the "Baroque" was encouraged by the Roman Catholic Church when it decided that the drama of the Baroque artists' style could communicate religious themes in direct and emotional involvement. The secular aristocracy ... saw the dramatic style of Baroque architecture and art as a means of impressing visitors and would-be competitors. Baroque palaces are built round an entrance sequence of courts, anterooms, grand staircases, and reception rooms of sequentially increasing magnificence. Many forms of art, music, architecture, and literature inspired each other in the "Baroque" cultural movement.
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One of the most popular Baroque instrumental works, Vivaldi's Four Seasons is fundamentally a concerto grosso for solo violin. It is ... an example of program music, that is, music that tells a story, often with the mimicking of everyday sounds. This excerpt (the first movement of the Autumn concerto) tells the story of an autumn harvest festival. The fast passage work in the violin and orchestra, representing the celebratory atmosphere of an autumn harvest festival, gives way to the ingesting of spirits, which yields to an atmosphere of slumber; then, a wakeful and lively mood finishes the celebration.
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In Renaissance , harmony was the master of the word; in Baroque music... the word is the master of harmony or, music is subservient to the words. The outermost voices (bass and soprano) acquired a dominant position forming the skeleton of the composition. The rest could be filled in by the improvising continuo player in this structural contour. Choral music had risen to its apogee in the 16th century and the turn of instrumental music had come.
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The middle Baroque is separated from the early Baroque by the coming of systematic thinking to the new style and a gradual institutionalization of the forms and norms, particularly in opera. As with literature, the printing press and trade created an expanded international audience for works and greater cross-pollenation between national centers of musical activity.
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Baroque music is full of these same conflicts, contrasts, and overblown distinctions. It contrasts everything with everything. A Baroque concerto is typically in three movements or sections that traditionally go fast, then slow, and then fast again. It contrasts solo instruments or small groups with large orchestras--think of Dueling Banjos, with a single kazoo player against an entire philharmonic orchestra. It even contrasts volume. First it is loud, then it goes soft, then it goes loud again.
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