Main Characteristics Of Baroque Music

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What are the main characteristics of Baroque music? Elizabeth Morgan The term “baroque” comes from the Portuguese word “barroco” to describe a misshapen pearl. In 1768, Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote: ‘A baroque music is that in which the harmony is confused, charged with modulations and dissonances, the melody is harsh and little natural, the intonation difficult, and the movement constrained’ (Pratt, 2002, p.3). Baroque music brought about a new emphasis on the use of vocal and instrumental colour. Imitative polyphony remained an important factor in writing and playing music, while homophonic writing was becoming a more dominant form in instrumental music. Alongside this, however, new forms of polyphonic music were developing simultaneously. Vocal Music Around 1600, opera came about because Italian intellectuals wanted to recapture the spirit of ancient Greek drama in which music played a key role (Dent, 1910, p.95). Opera and oratorios were thought of as decorative or rhetorical genres to demonstrate a story, and were seen as self contained, ornate pieces of art. Monadic songs were popular as both dialogue and exposition would be conveyed in music clearly and with flexibility for dramatic expression (Grout & Palisca, 1988, p.362). In the 1630s, Roman opera focussed more on religious subjects, than the Greek mythology focus of the early opera. Venice became the centre of Italian opera in the early to mid 1600s, and 1637 saw the first public opera house open its doors in Venice. It used less choral and orchestral music, placing emphasis on vocal elegance than on dramatic expression. Compositional Ideas In 1605, Monteverdi wrote of prima prattica and seconda prattica, which drew a distinction between the styles of composition and acknowledged stylistic difference between an older and newer practice (Bukofzer, 1948, p.4). Prima prattica represented

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