Brian Guay Music History I Research Paper William Byrd was considered a great English composer of his time, one of the greatest. He wrote for several different genres including sacred music, and he also wrote secular vocal and instrumental music. Byrd lived during the Late Renaissance, a time of reformation and change. However, as people were breaking away from the Catholic Church, William Byrd remained Catholic. The church began to use English in services rather than Latin, however Queen Elizabeth allowed Latin to be used in some sacred music (Burkholder, Grout, Palisca, 222).
Texture: The four motifs are often paired together, 1 with 2, and 3 with 4. The piece uses a mixture of homophonic and contrapuntal passages. The entries of the different motives are often staggered. The orchestra often doubles the vocal parts. In the last few bars, the passage contains many block chords.
Hu Zhenqi 24 June 2011 MRLC Mr.Ryan HOW BACH’S STYLE IS DISTINCT FROM VIVALDI’S Bach and Vivaldi are two of the most well known composers in the Baroque period. They have similarities and differences in their style of composition. This essay would focus on their differences in style. Their styles are different in many ways and most people would focus on their use of melody, harmony or rhythm but this essay would focus on their use of basso continuo. The way Bach uses basso continuo in his music is what makes Bach’s style distinct from Vivaldi’s.
Dido’s Lament The Baroque period was a significant turning point for music; it began to be a separate form of art and not purely based in religion. The use of Recitative and Aria became a critical key factor to the development of opera, and is clearly used in “Dido and Aeneas” by Purcell. To enhance the characteristics of the Baroque opera, many techniques for manipulating Pitch, Duration and Dynamics were used. With these techniques it created more emphasis of the text with the use of word painting and string instruments. Throughout this piece the Recitative of the song is mainly sung in speech form, creating emphasis on specific parts of the text.
This feature is repeated throughout the piece. It creates clear structured phrasing, although it could be argued that there are two bar phrases of the same kind (splitting each four bar phrase). Another melodic technique Mozart uses is the fact that many of the phrases are scalic. He mainly sticks to the scale of the tonic note, in this case G minor. There are however accidentals throughout the piece, albeit rare.
- The Baroque gave rise to a remarkable variety of musical style, ranging from the expressive monody of Claudio monteverdi (1567-1643) to the complex polyphony of J.S. Bach (1685-1750). -Baroque also introduce many new musical genres--opera, cantata, oratorio, sonata, concerto, and suite -Despite the quick stylistic changes and all the new types of music created, two elements remain constant throughout the Baroque period: an expressive melody and a strong supportive bass. Expressive Melody: - In early Baroque music, the voices are no longer equal. Rather a polarity develops in which the musical emphasis gravitates toward the top and bottom lines.
Schoenberg also makes the instruments play at the extremities of their range either very high or very low. He also makes the instruments play in weird ways, for example, he makes the cymbal be played with a mallet and cello bow to produce an unfamiliar sound. He also uses instruments that are not used or not often used in an orchestra such as the tam-tam and the contra
It is one of the most distinct features of the Baroque Era as a whole. Basso continuo denotes musicians who thickened the textures in music of the Baroque era by augmenting the bass line with a combination of chord-producing and bass instruments. They appear in vocal and instrumental ensembles varying from trios to large ensembles. Continuo musicians also assumed an additional function in larger works by helping to keep the performers together. An important element of baroque instrumentation, the combination of a bass instrument (usually from the string family), such as the cello or double bass, paired with a keyboard instrument such as the harpsichord or the organ.
Ornamentation In Baroque The seventeenth century is know as an era of invention and discovery, an age of daring expansion.1 Ornamentation is the practise of adding notes to a melody to help add expression, not spoil it. It helps emphasize a note and prolong its length. Ornamentation is one of the most important things to be considered in the history of music in this period. Earlier instruments did not sustain notes as long, so using this tactic helped.2 There were two main types of ornamentation used which were written, and improvisational. These types of ornamentation were used not only for instrumental music, but for vocal music as well.
The two chromatic notes [notes not in the original key] of a sharpened 4th and a flattened 7th appear in both keys, and the vocal melody ends on the flattened 7th of D major [C natural]. The augmented 4th interval [forming a tritone] is used frequently in West side Story. The flattened 7th is a blue note [the influence from jazz]. The harmony is tonal, but the chords contain added 6th,7ths, 9ths and 11ths. There is a dramatic neopolitan chord [the flattened supertonic- Eb major 1st inversion] in bar 95.