Genres of Baroque Instrumental Music

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Genres of Baroque Instrumental Music Efford Major Mus223 Prof. Crowley Introduction The Baroque era in music presented the time when instrumental music became as successful as vocal music. In this time, the instruments could be played to imitate and sometimes surpass vocal renditions. The most popular instruments in this era were the keyboard, harpsichord and the pipe organ. This paper looks at the genre known as the Fugue. This genre has some distinctive characteristics that can be seen in the composition known as “The Little Fugue” or the “Fugue in G minor” by Johann Sebastian Bach. This is an organ fugue with all the characteristics of Baroque era fugues. “The Little Fugue” opens with a short exposition of the key melody that is played over and over during the piece. The exposition is a lone melody that serves the purpose of introduction. It has the characteristic of testing the organ before the other voices join in the first episode. The fugue is done by playing individual notes rather than in chords. It is a fugue with four voices. Just like a vocal choir, the voices are soprano, alto, tenor and bass. The soprano forms the prelude and remains the dominant voice throughout the composition. It carries the subject of the composition. The prelude also has the characteristics of Chorale preludes. This is because it forms a piece of music that is repeated over and over in the piece. Alto, tenor and bass enter in the episodes each with a theme that contrasts the original subject. On the other hand, the soprano carries on with the subject albeit on different notes for the episodes. The ability of John Sebastian Bach in imitating vocal choral music by the use of instruments is a distinctive characteristic of Baroque era music. The episodes are composed of the voices going in a round i.e. they repeat
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