Baroque Instruments and Voices

alto (contralto): a voice in the lower part of the female range. However, most alto parts in the baroque period were taken by a castrato, countertenor, or high tenor

bass: the lowest part in a vocal or instrumental texture. Instead of being simply a low-pitched melody, increasingly in the baroque era the bass was conceived as the root of a series of harmonies, hence becoming less tuneful. In this function it was often supplemented by figures to identify the harmonies (see basso continuo). The solo bass voice, when it appears in opera or oratorio, is often tied to this harmonic bass, and is not free to perform the kinds of virtuoso feats enjoyed by higher voices. In opera seria, bass roles were often assigned to villains, priests, kings, and fathers.

bassoon: a low-pitched double-reed instrument, often forming the bass of a group of woodwind instruments or forming part of the continuo.

brass: There was no brass section of the orchestra in baroque music. Each of the main brass instruments in use — horn, trumpet and trombone — had special functions, and they were combined with the orchestra only for specific purposes. Brass ensembles were sometimes used for ceremonies, or in combination with voices.

castrato: a castrated male singer. Castrati were originally employed to take high parts in the papal choir, then adopted in opera for the leading male roles. Their range could be sopranos or alto. Their tone is said to have been brilliant and powerful. Castrato roles today are taken by sopranos or countertenors.

cello (violoncello): a low-pitched instrument of the violin family, used primarily as a bass instrument to support continuo harmony or in an orchestral texture. In the later baroque period the cello began to emerge as a solo instrument.

cembalo (Italian): see harpsichord.

chitarrone: an extended lute, similar to the theorbo.

clavecin (French): harpsichord.

clavichord: a small keyboard instrument in which a hammer strikes the string but remains in contact with it, producing an extremely quiet tone that renders the instrument unsuitable for public performance. Unlike the harpsichord, the clavichord allows for some variation of volume, controlled by the finger. It was specially popular in Germany for private domestic use.

Clavier (German): keyboard [instrument]. The Clavier-Übung was Bach’s monumental collection of keyboard studies.

concitato: (Italian, “agitated”): a style used by Monteverdi in some of his later works, using rapidly repeated notes and chords to stir up aggressive feelings as before a battle.

contrabass (double bass): the lowest bowed string instrument, having some characteristics of both viol and violin families. In the baroque period its sole function was to double the cello at the lower octave in large ensembles.

countertenor: a male singer who uses falsetto tone, or what is more politely called the “head voice”. His range is similar to that of a female alto, but with greater strength in the low part of the compass. Countertenors were most widely used in England, in cathedral music, oratorio, glees, and theater songs. In modern performances of opera they sometimes take roles written for castrato singers, though their tone quality is different.

double bass: the lowest instrument of the string family, having some characteristics of both viol and violin families. In the baroque period its sole function was to double the cello at the lower octave in large ensembles.

drums: kettledrums (timpani) were used in ceremonial music, generally playing with the trumpets.

flute: Often called the “transverse flute” (Italian flauto traverso) or “German flute” to distinguish it from the “common flute” or recorder , the flute gradually replaced that instrument in the 18th century, due to its superior expressive range, and became a popular alternative to the violin in sonatas and concertos. The flute was also often used as an obbligato instrument, usually to establish a particular mood or context such as pastoral serenity or pathos. Pairs of flutes sometimes appear in operas and orchestral suites.

gamba: short for viola da gamba.

guitar: A plucked stringed instrument much used in the home. The four-stringed guitar, or gittern, prevailed in France and England; the six-stringed guitar, similar to the one used today for classical music, emanated from Spain.

harp: The baroque harp had extra sets of strings to vibrate in sympathy with those plucked by the harpist. Harps were occasionally introduced into operas for special purposes (as in Monteverdi’s Orfeo); Handel composed a harp concerto.

harpsichord: The principal stringed keyboard instrument of the period, much used both alone and as the mainstay of basso continuo. It is based on plucked strings actuated by pressing the keys. The volume is not affected by the manner of playing the key, and dies away rapidly. Other means, such as ornaments and delayed attack, are used for emphasizing individual notes. Some instruments have several sets of strings controlled by stops. The largest harpsichords had two manuals, allowing for contrast of tone and volume. Small harpsichords were called virginals or spinets. Harpsichord making died out in the 19th century, but was revived under the impetus of renewed interest in baroque music. Replicas of old instruments are made in some quantity today.

horn (“French horn”): the horn was largely limited to its natural scale in this period. Pairs of horns were used in wind ensembles, and, in the late baroque period, to provide color and harmonic support in the orchestra (for instance, in Bach’s “Brandenburg” Concerto No. 1). A horn was sometimes used as an obbligato.

Klavier: modern spelling of Clavier.

lute: a plucked stringed instrument with a somewhat drier tone than the classical guitar. Still an important instrument in the early baroque, it was used for accompanying songs and as an alternative to the harpsichord in the continuo.

oboe (French “hautbois”): a double-reed instrument of piercing quality, used in wind ensembles, as an obbligato instrument, in a solo sonata, or as one of the melodic instruments in a trio sonata.

oboe d’amore: an extended oboe of slightly lower pitch.

organ: an instrument in which wind under pressure passes through pipes controlled by stops and by the keys of the keyboard. By the baroque period, especially in northern Europe, some church organs had become extremely large and elaborate, and could overawe the listener. Some had as many as five keyboards (four manuals and one row of pedals), each with its own independent stops and sets of pipes. A great variety of sounds was available to the player by drawing different stops. French organs were smaller and quite different in character to German and Dutch ones. English organs, different again, lacked pedals and were more modest in tone. Spanish organs often had reed stops with the pipes protruding horizontally from the front of the instrument. Organ sound is “on-off”: each note maintains its full volume so long as the key is depressed. Much contrast is available, however, by using different manuals, for instance to bring out the chorale melody from the surrounding counterpoint in one of Bach’s chorale workings. Today, mechnical (“tracker”) organs have been revived, since it is considered that electric or pneumatic organs of recent development change the character of baroque organ music.

percussion instruments: including drums, cymbals, and triangles, were rarely played from notated music in the baroque era. Where available they reinforced the beat in dances, or played along with trumpets in ceremonial music.

pianoforte: Though the piano was invented around 1700, and was well known to J.S. Bach and Domenico Scarlatti, little music was written for it until the 1760s. Although there is no valid objection to playing baroque music on the modern piano, its tone quality and decay characteristics differ so markedly from those of baroque keyboard instruments that it tends to distort the meaning and intended effect of the music.

recorder (German: Blockflöte): a family of flutes in which the player blows into one end of the pipe, as opposed to the transverse flute. The sound is gentle, with little capacity for varied expression. Consequently, baroque recorders generally played in groups of different sizes rather than mixing with more powerful instruments, but a recorder was sometimes called for as an obbligato or as a solo instrument in a sonata or concerto.

regal: a reed organ, used, for instance, to accompany Charon in Monteverdi’s Orfeo.

soprano: the highest voice range, generally sung by a woman or a castrato in serious Italian opera, by a woman in opera buffa and non-Italian opera, and by boys in church music and oratorio. The hero of an opera seria is generally a soprano castrato, rather than a tenor as in the more familiar Romantic opera.

spinet: see harpsichord.

tenor: a male voice of medium to high range, which traditionally had sung the leading part in the choral texture, frequently a portion of plainsong or other pre-existing melody. In the baroque period the leading role was gradually yielded to the soprano voice. Tenor heroes are rarely found in opera seria: a tenor is more often a villain, as in Handel’s Rodelinda.

theorbo: a bass lute, having in addition to the stopped strings, a series of open strings that resonate and enhance the notes produced by the stopped strings. It was an important continuo instrument through much of the baroque period.

timpani (kettledrums): used in ceremonial music, generally playing with the trumpets.

transverse flute: see flute.

treble: a high voice, particularly of a boy; see soprano.

trombone: a family of brass instruments in which the pitch is determined by a sliding section of tubing. Trombones were used to double voices in some church choirs. Occasionally a group of trombones was given an independent role in an opera, such as Monteverdi’s Orfeo, generally to evoke awe of supernatural forces, or in a funeral march such as that in Handel’s Saul.

trumpet: a brilliant brass instrument of high register, associated with royalty and state ceremonial. Pairs or groups of trumpets were frequently used to herald the arrival of a king or ambassador, or to announce a royal event (an example is the introduction to Monteverdi’s opera Orfeo). The sinfonia of a middle or late baroque opera was often essentially a trumpet concerto (see overture). Incorporated in the orchestra, pairs of trumpets were used to give an added splendor to moments of rejoicing, as in Bach’s “Christmas Oratorio” or the “Hallelujah chorus” of Handel’s Messiah.

vihuela: a plucked instrument, the Spanish counterpart to the lute until superseded by the guitar during the 17th century.

viol (pronounced “vile”): a bowed stringed instrument, or family of instruments, with a fretted fingerboard for stopping the strings. It came in various sizes representing different pitch ranges. Invented in Spain, it was particularly cultivated in England in the 17th century when many fantasias were composed for a "consort of viols". It gradually gave way to the more versatile violin family, and played little or no part in the rise of the orchestra. The last member to survive was the viola da gamba (“leg viol”), of similar range to the cello.

viola (pronounced “vee-OH-la”): despite the fact that the name is Italian for “viol”, this is a member of the violin family, somewhat larger and lower in pitch than the violin. Its size and pitch range remained indeterminate through much of the period and it played no prominent part in baroque music, but it was present in the orchestra, sometimes with a distinct part to play, sometimes doubling the bass line.

viola da gamba (Italian: “leg viol”): a member of the viol family of similar range to the cello, often called simply “gamba” in modern parlance. Capable of playing chords and thus of sustaining a basso continuo alone, it also survived well into the 18th century as a solo instrument. Bach wrote three gamba sonatas, and used it as an obbligato instrument in the St. Matthew Passion and several cantatas.

viola pomposa: a German term for a five-string viola of uncertain construction.

violin: perhaps the most characteristic instrument of the baroque era, with its ability to equal the human voice in its range of expression and to dazzle the hero with brilliant passagework. Violin manufacture reached its all-time summit at Cremona in the later 17th century; at the same period, Bologna was the leading center for violin playing. The violin was the leading instrument of the orchestra, where it was normally entrusted with the principal melody, and it frequently doubled or echoed the solo singer in arias. The violin was also the leading exponent of the sonata and the concerto. Bach’s sonatas and partitas for unaccompanied violin remain at the zenith of the instrument’s repertory.

violino piccolo: a small violin of slightly higher pitch than the normal instrument.

violoncello: see cello.

virginals: see harpsichord.

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