Baroque
1600-1750

► Establishment of the Jamestown Settlement in North America - 1607

This is why there were any American Baroque composers
because America was not established yet...

► The Thirty Years War - 1618 to 1648

This was a really bad war that really
had an effect on Europe...

► Reign of Louis XIV - 1643

Ruled France for more that 30 years,
Louis XIV began ruling at 3...

Unity of Mood

If a piece began sad thats how it continued...

Contrast as a dramatic element

Composers used things like one part was
loud the next part is very soft.

Introduction of Basso Continuo

This brough about more emphasis on a melody...

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

He is both a child of his own time and a musician whose influence reaches beyond the Baroque to the present day.

Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)

But he was there at the birth of opera with L’Orfeo, first performed in Mantua in 1607, and in his later music he shows himself to be a masterly exponent of that favourite Baroque technique, the basso continuo.

Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706)

There is much more to Johann Pachelbel’s music than his celebrated Canon in D. He also composed fugues, chaconnes, preludes, fantasias and toccatas, all musical forms deeply embedded in the formal traditions of Baroque music.

Orchestral Suite no. 3 in D - Air

Messiah - Hallelujah Chorus

Canon in D

Vocal music

Opera: A drama that is primarily sung. The first surviving opera was Jacopo Peri’s Dafne, based on a libretto by Ottavio Rinuccini and performed in Florence in 1598; the earliest opera still performed today is Claudio Monteverdi’s Orfeo (1607).

Instrumental music

Suite: Based on the traditional pairing of dances in the Renaissance, the suite was the first multi-movement work for instruments.