Spotlights

Baroque Musical Examples

Old vs. New--"Prima Pratica" vs. "Seconda Pratica":

"Prima Pratica" (careful control of dissonance--Late Renaissance style)

Giovanni da Palestrina: "Agnus Dei" from Missa Papae Marcellus [Cyclic Mass] (1562)--[click here to see score excerpt ]

https://www.wmich.edu/musicgradexamprep/Palestrina_Agnus_Pope_Marcellus_Mass.mp4

Performance Notes:
This is one of Palestrina's most famous masses, wriiten in honor of Pope Marcellus II, who reigned for three weeks in 1555. Recent scholarship suggests the most likely date of composition is 1562, during the third and closing sessions of the Council of Trent (1562-63), during which a debate occurred over whether polyphony should be banned outright in worship. Concerns were raised over two problems: 1) the use of secular songs about drinking or lovemaking being used as a cantus firmus with new devotional words; 2) whether imitation in polyphonic music obscured the words of the mass, interfering with the listener's devotion. As a result, Palestrina's setting does not use a cantus firmus, and is in a declamatory style so that the text can clearly be heard in performance, unlike many polyphonic masses of the 16th century. In the tradition of the "Prima pratica," Palestrina also carefully controlled his use of dissonance (placing it on weak beats, not leaping to dissonant pitches, or using them as passing tones, neighbor notes, or suspensions).

Like most Renaissance masses, the Missa Papae Marcelli (Pope Marcellus Mass) consists of a Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus/Benedictus, and Agnus Dei, though the third line of the Agnus Dei prayer is a separate movement (designated "Agnus II"). It is a six-voice mass, but voice combinations are varied throughout the piece, and Palestrina even scores Agnus II for seven voices--the use of the full forces is reserved for specific climactic portions in the text.

[Translation]

(Agnus Dei I)
Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.
Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.

(Agnus Dei II)
Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, grant us peace.

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"Seconda Pratica" (freer use of dissonance to express the meaning of the text--early Baroque style)

Claudio Monteverdi: "Tu sei morta" from L'Orfeo [early opera] (1607)--[click here to see score excerpt ]

https://www.wmich.edu/musicgradexamprep/Monteverdi_Orfeo.mp4

Operatic Scenario:
In Greek mythology, Orpheus ("Orfeo" in Italian) was a mortal shepherd who was fathered by the sun-god Apollo. Because of his lineage, Orpheus had a god-like singing voice that had special powers he did not quite understand. In this scene, Orpheus has just married his childhood sweetheart, Euridice, but when she goes off with a companion to gather flowers for her wedding garland, she is bitten by a poisonous snake, dies, and is taken to the land of the dead which is controlled by Pluto--the god of the underworld. Orfeo sings "Tu sei morta" to vow that he will go to the underworld to try to bring Euridice back, or he will stay there and die with her.

Performance Notes:
In this example, Monteverdi musically illustrates Orpheus' pain by giving him many unprepared dissonances (such as leaping down to the F# which sounds against a G minor harmony on the word "se" at the very beginning--see the score example).

[Translation]
You are dead, you are dead, my beloved, and I still breathe?
You have left me, you have left me forevermore,
Never to return, and I remain?
No, no, if my verses have any power,
I will go fearlessly to the deepest abysses,
And, having melted the heart of the king of shadows,
Will bring you back to me to see the stars again,
Or, if pitiless fate denies me this,
I will remain with you in the company of death.
Farewell earth, farewell sky, and sun. Farewell

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Carlo Gesualdo: Moro, lasso al mio duolo [madrigal] (1611)--[click here to see score excerpt]

https://www.wmich.edu/musicgradexamprep/Gesualdo_Moro_lasso.mp4

Performance Notes:
In the score example, there is extreme chromaticism (10 of the 12 possible chromatic notes in just the first four chords on the words "Moro, lasso"). The lower voices depict Gesulado's pain in slow, rhythmically free, agonizing dissonances, while the high soprano is depicting his unfaithful wife having the time of her life in rapid passages on the word "vita" (means "life" in Italian). There are many other examples of direct "word-painting" (expressing the meaning of specific words with this kind of musical symbolism).

[Translation]
Wearily I die in my agony,
Yet she who could give me life,
Alas, kills me and will not help me.
O sorrowful fate,
She who could give me life,
Alas, gives me death.

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Other Early Baroque

Heinrich Schütz: Die mit Tränen säen [German motet] (c1620)--[click here to see score excerpt ]

https://www.wmich.edu/musicgradexamprep/Schutz_Die_mit_Tranen.mp4

[Translation: Text from Psalm 126 in the Old Testament of the Bible]
They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.
They go out with weeping, bearing precious seed,
and come back in joy, bearing their sheaves.

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Mid-Baroque Composers

Arcangelo Corelli: Trio Sonata in D major, Op. 3 No. 2, third movement [trio sonata] (1689)--[click here to see score excerpt from movement 3]

https://www.wmich.edu/musicgradexamprep/Corelli_Trio_Sonata.mp4

Performance Note:
This work is played by two violins and basso continuo (keyboard + cello), and has four short, contrasting imitative movements:

-Movement 1: Slow 4/4 (starts at 0:00 of video clip)
-Movement 2: Fast 4/4 (starts at 2:10 of video clip)
-Movement 3: Slow 3/2 ("chain suspensions" in the score example; starts at 3:08 of video clip)
-Movement 4: Fast 6/8 (starts at 5:15 of video clip)

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Henry Purcell: "Dido's Lament" from Dido and Aeneas [opera seria in English] (1689)

https://www.wmich.edu/musicgradexamprep/Purcell_Didos_Lament.mp4

Operatic Scenario:
The story of Dido and Aeneas is from the ancient Greek epic poem The Aeneid by Virgil. After being defeated in the Trojan War, Aeneas is instructed by the Gods to find a safe port and rebuild his fleet. After being thrown off course by a storm, his ship is wrecked off the coast of northern Africa. There, he falls in love with his rescuer, Dido--the Queen of Carthage. Later, as the two decide to be married, some wicked sorceresses hoping to achieve Dido's downfall send a false messenger to tell Aeneas before the wedding that the gods are furious with him for staying in Carthage, and they command him to leave immediately and speak to no one. As Aeneas makes his way to his repaired ship and leaves without saying a word, Dido is left dumbfounded and distraught, unable to ever trust again. She commits suicide, and sings this aria to her sister, Belinda, as she is dying.

Performance Notes:
This begins with a free-rhythm "recitativo secco", followed by an aria in binary form (A vs. B). There is a repeating "ground bass" (ostinato) in the basso continuo, symbolizing her fatal destiny. The instruments make the commentary on her death, by a long series of descending chromatic suspensions.

[Text]

(recitative)
Thy hand Belinda darkness shades me
On thy bosom, let me rest
More I would but death invades me,
Death is now a welcome guest.

(aria)
[A] When I am laid in earth, May my wrongs create no trouble in thy breast...
[B] Remember me, remember me, But, ah, forget my fate

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Alessandro Scarlatti: "Mi rivedi, o selva ambrosa" from La Griselda [opera seria] (1721)

https://www.wmich.edu/musicgradexamprep/AScarlatti_La_Griselda.mp4

Operatic Scenario:
Griselda is a commoner who the king has married, in hopes that his people will see that her virtue makes her deserving of the crown she wears. The people, however, reject her as unworthy. As a means to prove her worthiness, the king banishes Griselda to her forest home--hoping to prove that she will respond by accepting his command without complaint. This aria is sung just after the king has delivered the news to her without explanation.

Performance Notes:
This is a "da capo aria", which has two contrasting sections "A" and "B" (shown below), but after the "B" section, the singer goes back to the start ("da capo") and sings the "A" section again
--this time with vocal ornaments that intensify the drama.

[Translation]

[A] Shady forest,you see me once more,
But no longer as queen and spouse:
You see me as a wretched,
Despised shepherdess.

[B] Here are my native hills,
The friendly fountain,
The meadow and the stream:
Only I am no longer the same.

(da capo) [A]-ornamented Shady forest,you see me once more,
But no longer as queen and spouse:
You see me as a wretched,
Despised shepherdess.

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François Couperin: Vingt-cinquième ordre [keyboard suite] (c1730)--[click here to see score excerpt]

https://www.wmich.edu/musicgradexamprep/Couperin_Vingt-cinquieme.mp4

Performance Note:
Vingt-cinquième ordre means "25 ordered pieces." At the bottom of the score excerpt, a piece begins that is entitled "La muse victorieuse" ("the victorious muse"). That is an example of the colorful descriptive (programmatic) titles Couperin gave many pieces in this collection, and which make his pieces different from the traditional Baroque suite of movements with international dance titles (allemande, courante, sarabande, gigue). Notice the special symbols that occur on certain notes in the upper line--these are French ornaments that are stylistically necessary and help sustain a note that would otherwise die out on a harpsichord. Couperin wrote a treatise describing what each ornamental symbol means and how to play it.

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Late-Baroque Composers

Antonio Vivaldi: "Spring" movement 1 from The Four Seasons [solo concerto] (1723)--[click here to see score excerpt ]

https://www.wmich.edu/musicgradexamprep/Vivaldi_Four_Seasons_Spring_1st.mp4

Performance Notes:
The Four Seasons is a collection of 4 three-movement solo violin concertos--one for each season of the year (Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall).

The work features spectacular idiomatic writing for the violin soloist, and the pieces programmatically depict the images of the four seasonal poems that Vivaldi wrote and included with the original score.

Each concerto has the following structure:
-1st movement: Fast in ritornello form (alternating Tutti vs solo sections in "Big" vs. "Small" contrast)
-2nd movement: Slow with reduced scoring (no ritornello form)
-3rd movement: Very fast in ritornello form(alternating Tutti vs solo sections in "Big" vs. "Small" contrast)

Here is the poem depicted by the first movement of the "Spring" concerto [with ritornello design shown in brackets]:

-Joyful spring has arrived [Tutti-all players]-Big
-The birds celebrate her return with festive song [Solo]-Small
-Joyful spring has arrived [Tutti-all players]-Big
-and murmuring streams are softly caressed by the breezes [Solo]-Small
-Joyful spring has arrived [Tutti-all players]-Big
-Thunderstorms, those heralds of Spring, roar, casting their dark mantle over heaven[Solo]-Small
-Joyful spring has arrived [Tutti-all players]-Big
-Then they die away to silence, and the birds take up their charming songs once more [Solo]-Small]
-Joyful spring has arrived [Tutti-all players]-Big

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Jean-Philippe Rameau: "Tristes apprêts" from Castor et Pollux [tragédie lyrique] (1737)--[click here to see score excerpt ]

https://www.wmich.edu/musicgradexamprep/Rameau_Castor.mp4

Performance Notes:
Castor and Pollux are famous heroes from ancient Greek mythology (and eventually joined eternally as the symbolic twins of the zodiac--Gemini). Despite being twin brothers, Pollux is immortal and Castor is mortal. They are both in love with the princess Telaira (Télaïre), but she loves only Castor. The twins have fought a war against an enemy king, Lynceus (Lyncée) which has resulted in disaster: Castor has been slain. The opera opens with his funeral rites. Telaira expresses her grief to her friend Phoebe (Phébé) in "Tristes apprêts", one of Rameau's most famous arias. Pollux and his band of Spartan warriors interrupt the mourning bringing the dead body of Lynceus who has been killed in revenge. Pollux confesses his love for Telaira. She avoids giving a reply, instead asking him to go and plead with his father Zeus, king of the gods, to restore Castor to life.

Rameau's operas were theatrical spectacles, and his tragédie lyrique were the most serious and dramatic in nature. This aria is from Act II Scene 2:

[Translation]
Sad preparations, pale torches,
Day more frightful than the night,
Lugubrious stars of tombs,
No, I shall not see anything but your funereal lights.
You who see my heart dismayed,
Father of the day, O Sun! o my Father!
I no longer wish a blessing that Castor has lost,
And I renounce your light.
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JS Bach: "Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme" from Cantata No. 140 [cantata] (1731)--[click here to see score excerpt]

https://www.wmich.edu/musicgradexamprep/JSBach_CantataNo140_mvt4.mp4

Performance Notes:
This movement of Cantata No. 140 (BWV 140) refers to the allegorical watchmen and vestal virgins who wait as lookouts upon the road to Jerusalem to alert everyone when Jesus returns. The "midnight hour" infers that His return is near, and the "bridegroom" refers to Jesus who in the "wedding" will "marry" his believers. In the score excerpt, you will see that this is a piece for chorus and orchestra. The choral text is German, and the sopranos are singing a prominent melody in long notes (this is the Lutheran chorale tune "Wachet auf"). The layout of the score from top to bottom is:

1) Horn [playing the chorale melody whenever the soprano singers enter]
2) Oboe I
3) Oboe II
4) Taille (older tenor oboe, but this part is played today by an English Horn)
5) Violin I
6) Violin II
7) Viola
8) Chorus (soprano voice)
9) Chorus (alto voice)
10) Chorus (tenor voice)
11) Chorus (bass voice)
12) Basso continuo (melodic line played by double bass; figured bass numeric symbols "realized" by an organist)

[Translation]
Sleepers wake! calls the voice to us
of the watchmen high up in the tower;
awake, you city of Jerusalem.
Midnight the hour is named;
they call to us with bright voices;
where are you, wise virgins?
Indeed, the Bridegroom comes;
rise up and take your lamps,
Alleluia!
Make yourselves ready
for the wedding,
you must go to meet Him.

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JS Bach: Toccata and Fugue in D minor [organ music] (c1707)--[click here to see score excerpt ]

https://www.wmich.edu/musicgradexamprep/JSBach_Toccata_and_Fugue.mp4

Performance Notes:
The Toccata and Fugue in D minor [BWV 565] is one of JS Bach's most famous organ works, but no one is sure exactly when or why it was written. It begins with an rhythmically-free "toccata" section that has fast passages requiring a delicate "touch" by the organist, and ends with a strict 4-voice fugue in which the hands play the three upper parts and the feet play the lowest part on the organ pedals. The animation of the video video shows the virtuoso playing required of the organist, and the melodic/harmonic complexity of the fugue.

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JS Bach: French Suite No. 5 in G major [keyboard suite] (c1720)--[click here to see score excerpt ]

https://www.wmich.edu/musicgradexamprep/JSBach_French_Suite_No5_Gigue.mp4

Performance Notes:
The French Suite No. 5 [BWV 816] is a great example of JS Bach's secular dance music for solo harpsichord. It has seven movements based on contrasting international dances in binary form. The video example shows the final movement.

1. Allemande (a German dance in moderate duple meter)
2. Courante (a slow homophonic French dance in triple meter)
3. Sarabande (a slow Spanish dance in 2/2 meter)
4. Gavotte (a French peasant dance in quick duple meter)
5. Bourèe (a quick French dance in double time)
6. Loure (a slow/moderate French dance in either 3/4 or 6/8)
7. Gigue (a lively French dance in 12/8 meter)

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JS Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D major [concerto grosso] (c1721-22)

--[click here to see score excerpt ]

https://www.wmich.edu/musicgradexamprep/JSBach_BrandenburgNo5_mvt1.mp4
(only Movement 1 in this example)

Performance Notes:
JS Bach wrote six concertos for the Margrave (aristocratic mayor) of Brandenburg in 1721 hoping to secure a position there (none was offered to him). Each concerto has a completely different instrumental combination and design. The Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 [BWV 1050] is a concerto grosso for 3 solo instruments (transverse wooden flute, violin and harpsichord), a small string orchestra, and basso continuo.

In the score excerpt , the flute and violin soloists are on the highest staves (bracketed together on the left), then the four string parts of the large "tutti" group are listed next (violin, viola, cello, violone [ancestor to the double bass]--bracketed on the left as a group--with the cello and violone playing the bass melody of the basso continuo), and then at the bottom is the harpsichord (which the label "cembalo concertato"indicates that the instrument will be a featured soloist in addition to playing the basso continuo harmony.

The first movement is in ritornello form--constantly alternating the full ensemble ("tutti") with entrances by the three solo instruments individually and combined. The harpsichord (which is part of the basso continuo) is elevated to the role of soloist with several spectacular passages in which Bach could show his abilities as a keyboardist. This concerto has three contrasting movements:

Movement 1: Fast (D major 2/2 meter, ritornello form)
Movement 2: Slow (B minor 4/4 meter, featuring just the three solo instruments with basso continuo)
Movement 3: Fast (D major 4/4 meter, ritornello form)

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Georg Frideric Handel: "V'adoro pupille" from Giulio Cesare [opera seria] (1724)--[click here to see score excerpt]

https://www.wmich.edu/musicgradexamprep/Handel_Giulio_Cesare.mp4

Performance Notes:
Giulio Cesare ("Julius Caesar") is a three-act Italian opera seria written for the Royal Academy in London when Handel was the royal composer for King Georg I. It is a large fully-staged dramatic work featuring solo singers, chorus, and orchestra, and tells the story of the love interest of two of the most powerful people in history: Julius Caesar and Cleopatra, and the politics between them and Cleopatra's brother, Ptolemy. In "V'adoro pupille" from Act II, Cleopatra is disguised as one of her attendants goes to Caesar's chambers to gain his trust by entertaining him as the character "Virtue", but her intent is to seduce and take control of him. Instead, she falls in love with him, and Julius Caesar is equally captivated.

[Translation]
I adore you, eyes,
lightning bolts of love,
your sparks are welcome in my breast.
My sad heart desires you (to be) compassionate,
(my heart) which at every hour calls you its dearest beloved.
I adore you, eyes, etc.

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Georg Frideric Handel: "Hallelujah" from Messiah [Oratorio] (1741)--[click here to see score excerpt ]

https://www.wmich.edu/musicgradexamprep/Handel_Hallelujah.mp4

Performance Notes:
Messiah is a large work with 52 movements that were written by Handel in just three-and-a-half weeks!. Even though the work is not staged and acted like an opera, the music itself is dramatic in its depiction of the various stages of the life of Christ (prophecy, birth, life, death, resurrection, and second coming). The "Hallelujah" chorus is No. 44 out of 52 and marks the moment of Christ's Resurrection in the story. As seen from the score excerpt, it features a large orchestra (woodwinds, trumpets, timpani, SATB chorus, strings, and basso continuo. Solo singers are featured in some of the other movements. Handel's writing is awe-inspiring and shows the inherent dramatic expressive power of the late Baroque style.

[Text]

Hallelujah! For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Hallelujah!
The kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ.
And He shall reign forever and ever.
King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
And He shall reign forever and ever. Hallelujah!

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Early Classic ("Pre-Classic" while the late Baroque is still happening c1730s)

John Gay: "My Heart Was So Free" from The Beggar's Opera [ballad opera] (1729)-

-[click here to see score excerpt ]

https://www.wmich.edu/musicgradexamprep/Gay_Beggars_Opera_My_Heart_Was_So_Free.mp4

Performance Notes:
The Beggar's Opera is an English ballad opera featuring common characters telling a story through SPOKEN street dialect interspersed with a few dozen popular English songs set to new words. This work with it simpler, more direct approach, is one of the earliest reflections of Classic style, and became so popular that it soon made the ornate late Baroque operatic style of Handel obsolete in England and eventually in Europe.

The main characters of this opera are street people (common thieves), who are just doing what they must in their struggle to survive as lower-class citizens. The story centers around their organizer (Mr. Peachum), his common-law wife (Mrs. Peachum), and their still-virgin teenaged daughter (Polly), who they hope will be able to marry a wealthier man. Instead, the parents discover Polly has fallen in love and secretly married the head thief ("Captain" MacHeath). One of the funnier moments in this opera is the moment Mrs. Peachum sings "Our Polly Is a Sad Slut", saying that she is a pig because she married for love--not money.

MacHeath sings "My Heart Was So Free" as he professes his youthful undying true love for Polly during a brief secret rendezvous with her. From the score excerpt and the video excerpt, it can be seen that there is spoken dialogue between Polly and MacHeath, followed at 1:20 of this video clip with this short "Air" (English term for a light song), which is simple in nature and features just the singer with basso continuo in a short, two-verse ditty.

[Text to "My Heart Was So Free"]
My heart was so free, it roved like a bee, 'til Polly my passion requited.
I sipt each flower, I changed ev'ry hour,
but here ev'ry flower is united.

Come fair one be kind, you never shall find a fellow so fit for a lover.
The world shall view my passion for you
but never your passion discover.
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Baroque Musical Examples