Music in the Baroque period
The word Baroque comes from the Portuguese word for pearl and links to the highly decorated and progressive music of the time. During the 1600 - 1750. most composers were servants who worked for wealthy families providing music for weekly church ceremonies, parties and special occasions. Composers wrote a lot yet were paid little. This process of composers working for a wealthy individual is known as Patronage.
Below is a timeline of the Western Europe musical periods which includes the point in time that Bach was actively composing.
Baroque music has some very distinct characteristics. It often featured:
- Notes added to decorate a melody.
- contrasting sections, eg dynamics from loud to soft
- Two or more melodies or parts that play at the same time, weaving in and out of each other. writing
- Interweaving melodic parts, also known as polyphonic. texture
- the harpsichord The bass part in Baroque music - typically played by a cello, and used by chordal instruments such as the harpsichord.
The harpsichord
The harpsichord is a keyboard instrument where the strings are plucked rather than hammered, like on a piano. The harpsichord sounds tinnier than the piano. The harpsichord has no sustain pedal so players have to add trills to long notes in order to lengthen the sound. Dynamic contrast is not possible on a harpsichord.
The continuo
A continuo is an accompanying part given to an instrument that reads the bass line and plays chords over the top to add The arrangement of two or more pitches sounding together to create chords., but the performer will sometimes improvise and decorate what they play. Only instruments that can play chords can play the continuo part. These instruments would have been the harpsichord, organ or lute in the Baroque period. Often the chords are realised from a system of numbers called A form of notation where numbers are added to a bassline indicating intervals to be added above the bass note to create a chord., which indicates the pitches to add above a starting bass The pitch and duration length of a sound. .