Practices of the Baroque Era

accompaniment. The idea of an accompaniment subordinate to a principal voice or instrument, while not totally new in 1600, was an important part of early baroque theory (see seconda prattica). It was the main reason for the development of basso continuo. See also obbligato.

antiphonal singing: singing that alternates two halves of a choir, typically in chanting the psalms. Some English anthems employed this practice (see anthem).

arioso: a style of writing for solo voice that is midway between recitative and aria; tuneful, but in no set form.

articulation: the degree of separation between successive notes of a melody, shown in modern scores by slurs (indicating a smooth join or legato), dots (indicting separation or staccato), and other marks. Such notations were little used in the baroque era, and in recent times scholars have sought to reconstruct baroque articulation practice from writings of the time, and made performers aware of the differences from recent practice. This, as much as any other factor, accounts for the distinctive effect of “historically aware” or “early music” performances.

basso continuo: a fundamental practice of the baroque era, found in almost all music written for more than one performer. It is a form of accompaniment consisting of a bass plus harmony, which at the same time keeps a group of musicians together and in time. The basso continuo, or figured bass, is notated as a series of notes with figures above or below the staff. It is interpreted by at least one instrument that can play chords (such as an organ, harpsichord, lute, theorbo); in addition, the bass notes are usually played by a melody instrument such as a cello or bassoon. The viola da gamba can perform both functions simultaneously.

binary form: a structure derived from the practice of court dancing, found in most baroque dances and certin other kinds of music. It is in two parts, the second either the same length as the first or longer by a simple mathematical ratio. The first usually ends in a complimentary key (such as the dominant).

bowing: baroque bowing style differed from that of modern playing, because the bow hairs were not held tight by a screw. The “attack” is gentler, and on a long note is often followed by a crescendo and diminuendo. This bowing style has been revived by some modern players and groups seeking historical authenticity.

cadence: the end of a phrase or section, recognizable as such by one of a small number of melodic and harmonic formulas.

cadenza: a free passage inserted by a singer just before the final cadence of an aria, or perhaps elsewhere. The accompaniment stops and waits for the singer to end the cadenza with a trill, then completes the cadence. The practice was imitated by instrumental soloists, especially in concertos.

canon: the strictest form of counterpoint, where the melody of one voice is imitated, note for note, by another voice or voices after a short time interval. To write a canon so that all the voices fit harmonically is a technical challenge: hence the canon is associated with academic learning and the Church. A canon can be sung or played with one musician to a part, or it can be played by a single performer on a keyboard instrument. Bach’s “Musical Offering” and “Goldberg Variations” offer a variety of species of canon.

chromatic scale: a succession of notes which, if played on a keyboard, includes every note, black or white, in contrast to the diatonic scale which used only the white notes or their equivalent. Thus every step in the chromatic scale is a “half step”. Chromaticism (the use of notes outside the diatonic scale) slowly increased during the period, but was constrained by tuning problems.

coloratura: high and elaborate melody, chiefly designed for vocal display.

common meter: a metrical scheme of four beats to a measure (indicated as 4/4 or C).

compound meter: a metrical scheme in which every beat is subdivided into three parts (indicated as 3/8, 6/8, 9/8, 12/8, etc.). concerts were attended only by invitation of the king or other patron through most of the baroque period. Public concerts, for admission by ticket, were first given in London taverns in the 1670s. In Paris, the Concert spirituel opened in 1725, but in Italy and Germany concerts remained solely court institutions.

concertino: a group of solo instruments in a concerto grosso.

continuo: a fundamental practice of the baroque era, found in almost all music except unaccompanied solos. It is a form of accompaniment consisting of a bass plus harmony, which at the same time keeps a group of musicians together and maintains the beat and tempo. The basso continuo, or figured bass, is notated as a series of notes with figures above or below the staff. It is interpreted by at least one instrument that can play chords (such as an organ, harpsichord, lute, or theorbo); in addition, the bass notes are usually played by a melody instrument such as the cello or bassoon. The viola da gamba can perform both functions simultaneously.

contralto: a female singer with a low voice, rarely used in the baroque era. The range is called “alto” (Italian “high”) because most alto parts in the baroque period were taken by a castrato, countertenor, or high tenor.

contrapuntal: the adjective from counterpoint.

counterpoint: the combination of distinct melodic lines in a coherent fashion. It originated in ensembles for voice and/or instruments, each performing one melody, but was also imitated on a single keyboard instruments or even a lute, guitar, or solo violin. Counterpoint, highly developed during the Renaissance, was condemned both by the Protestant Reformation and by the humanistic theorists who introduced the seconda prattica at the beginning of the baroque era, on the grounds that it obscured the text and weakened the effect of text and music on the listener. But it survived in many kinds of music, and continued to be a vital tool for any serious composer. The ultimate contrapuntist iwas J.S. Bach.

couplet (French): one of the episodes in a rondo.

crescendo: a gradual increase in volume, as opposed to diminuendo. It was impossible on the harpsichord or organ, and was rarely indicated by any mark in a baroque score. Neverteless it was likely an important tool of expression for voices and melodic instruments. See dynamics.

da capo (Italian: “from the neginning”): a direction placed at the end of a section of music, indicating that the first section is to be repeated. Many arias in middle and late baroque music were in da capo form: see aria, embellishment.

diatonic scale: the white notes of the keyboard, or any set of notes that preserves the same sequence of half and whole steps. The baroque era saw a gradual embracing of the remaining notes of the chromatic scale (five in each octave). The change was largely motivated by expanding ideas of harmony and tonality, which produced difficulties for wind instruments and for the tuning of keyboard instruments.

diminuendo: a gradual decrease in volume, as opposed to crescendo. It was impossible on the organ, and unavoidable on the harpsichord, where each note has the same volume on impact and then dies away rapidly. For voices and melody instruments it was probably used frequently, especially on long notes. See dynamics.

dotted rhythms: pairs of notes notated in the time ratio of 3:1, with the longer note on a beat and the short one just before the next beat; they are pervasive, for example, in the famous Andante in F from Handel’s “Water Music”. The interpretation of dotted notes is controversial (see overdotting).

duets: vocal duets are found in many operas, sometimes at a climactic moment. Their forms do not differ significantly from those of the aria. Separate chamber duets, on the same lines as solo cantatas, were developed around 1700 by Steffani.

duple meter: a metrical scheme of two beats to the measure (indicated as 2/4, 2/2, or ¢).

dynamics: the dimension of loud and soft. Some scholars believe that the only dynamic variation in baroque music should be between complete phrases or sections (called “terraced dynamics”), or in echo effects, since those are the only kinds indicated in scores of the period. But although crescendo and diminuendo were impossible on the organ or harpsichord, they were natural enough for singers and players of bowed instruments, and were doubtless used for expressive purposes (see mesa di voce).

echo: the repetition of a phrase by quieter voices, instruments, or manuals of an organ or harpsichord, a popular special effect of the period. It could be imitated by playing more quietly on the same instrument or voice. Some modern performers use this effect in baroque music, even when not indicated, whenever a phrase or section is repeated.

embellishment: the variation of a melody, going beyond the addition of ornaments , amounting to an actual reworking, making the melodic line more ornate and more brilliant. Performers of the period often improvised embellishments when repeating a melody already heard, as in the da capo of the first section of an aria, or in a repeated section in binary form, and the practice has been revived by modern performers of baroque music.

equal temperament: the modern method of tuning instruments, where every step of the chromatic scale is exactly 1/12 of an octave. It was used for fretted instruments (lutes, guitars, and viols) in the baroque, but was long resisted for keyboard instruments, especially the organ, because it spoiled the natural frequencies of such combinations as the fifth (C-G) and the major third (C-E).

figured bass: see basso continuo.

galant(erie): a lighter, more elegant style that followed the end of the Baroque period and led on to the Classic style of Haydn and Mozart. Signs of it are already in evidence before 1750, for instance in the works of F. Couperin, Telemann, Pergolesi, and C.P.E.Bach.

ground (bass): a short series of bass notes, repeated throughout a piece while the upper parts changed. Of all baroque composers Purcell was most adept in the use of ground basses, which he sometimes tranposed to different keys or to upper parts of the texture. Dido’s Lament in Did and Aeneas is written on a ground bass. It was also the basis of the related genres of chaconne and passacaglia.

harmony: the effect of successive chords, each formed by two or more pitches in combination. Harmony was more consciously studied in the baroque period than before, and is epitomized by the practice of figured bass. Many baroque composers, notably Purcell, Rameau, and Bach, expanded the range of harmony by exploring the chromatic scale.

homophony: a texture in which one voice or instrument clearly stands out, the rest being perceived as accompaniment with little significance as melody. The texture is characteristic of much baroque music and especially of the seconda prattica. The opposite texture is polyphony.

hymn: a sacred metrical text, usually sung to a simple strophic tune. Hymns were central to the Protestant Reformation, and also had a long history in the Roman Catholic church. But the use of the hymn tune in art music was largely confined to Lutheran Germany, where it was called a chorale.

imitation: the repetition of the beginning of a phrase in a second voice or part, either at the same pitch level or a different one. Imitation is a common device of counterpoint, reaching its most structured level in such practices as fugue and canon.

improvisation: a skill once expected of professional musicians, especially keyboard players. Naturally, most baroque improvisations are lost, but some masters wrote them out as models for their pupils. The manner of improvisation was imitated in many forms: prelude, toccata, tiento, fantasia, toccata, voluntary.

key: a sense of stability created by the consistent use of a certain scale, which enables the listener to unconsciously identify the keynote (“do”) and predict a cadence on that note. Keys are major or minor, depending chiefly on the the third scale degree (the key of C major has E for its third step, while C minor has E flat). Baroque music moved steadily in the direction of regularized use of keys (tonality), to the point where a piece could change key, by temporarily altering the scale in use, without destroying the sense of overall key which predicted a return to the original scale and a final cadence in the home key. Of the 12 major and 12 minor keys available today, only about 8 of each were commonly used in the baroque era, because of problems of tuning.

keyboard: the range of most manual keyboards on both stringed keyboard instruments and organ was at least four octaves (C to c") and by 1700 covered the full chromatic scale. Some keyboards extended beyond those limits in either direction. Pedal keyboards on organs covered at least the two lower octaves (C to c") and sometimes a few higher notes.

legato: see articulation.

libretto: the text of an opera or oratorio, generally based on pre-existing sources which the librettist turned into verse suitable for music.

major and minor: two modes that survived into the baroque era. They used different sequences of whole and half steps, the most distinctive difference being in the third note of the scale (for instance, in C major the third step is E, in C minor it is E flat). By the middle baroque the minor mode was fairly strongly associated with negative feelings such as grief, anger, remorse, and anxiety. The major mode, convenient for trumpets, was more likely to be chosen for positive expressions of feeling, and especially for public celebrations of victory and power.

mes(s)a di voce: a crescendo followed by a diminuendo on a single long note, recognized as an ornament in many baroque treatises.

meter (“time” in British English): the temporal framework of a piece, defined by the number of beats in a measure and the way those beats are subdivided. See common meter, duple meter, triple meter, and compound meter.

mode: a consistent use of the diatonic scale characterized by the pitch range and the final note. Different modes use the same scale, but have different notes for the final or keynote, so that each mode has its distinctive sequence of whole and half steps as one moves upwards from the keynote. There were eight medieval modes, but their persistence in baroque theory was less and less relevant in practice as tonality became deeply established. Two modes survived: major and minor.

modulation: the contradiction of one key by the establishment of another. In late baroque music, long movements were often organized around a series of modulations, each marked by a cadence in the new key, until the final return to the home (tonic) key of the movement. In shorter movements, such as dances, there were often only two modulations: one to the dominant key (e.g., G major where the tonic was C major), reached at the end of the first half; the other back to the tonic key, in the course of the second half. In concertos, the solo sections often modulate from the key of one ritornello to that of the next. In operas, recitatives often modulate from the key of one aria to that of the next.

monody: a texture of solo voice and continuo, which flourished especially in Italian songs of the early baroque period. The accompaniment was simple and was designed to follow spontaneous expressive changes of tempo by the singer.

movement: a distinct portion of a composition, separated in performance from adjoining movements by an unmeasured silent pause. In the baroque era, what had been sections tended to separate into movements, for instance in the canzona.

notes inégales (French: “unequal notes”): pairs of notes that are written as equal in length, but performed unevenly, with the first of each pair lengthened by an indeterminate amount. This style was used in certain kinds of French music, and has been revived in some performances.

obbligato: an accompanying part that cannot be omitted. It referred either to a keyboard accompaniment that was fully written out rather than notated as a figured bass, or to a solo instrumental part in an aria, where the instrument frequently played a kind of duet with the voice.

orchestra: distinguished from other instrumental ensembles by the use of more than one string player to each part. In this sense the orchestra dates from the 1620s, when Louis XIII of France founded a string group called Les vingt-quatre Violons du Roi. The orchestra was well established in Italy by the time of Corelli, when concertos began to be played in which a group of soloists were contrasted with the larger body of strings (see concerto). The continuo always formed part of the baroque orchestra. Wind instruments, when present, were well exposed and used for particular effect rather than blending with the strings as in more modern orchestration.

ornaments: formed an essential part of baroque performance, generally added to a single note. They were used chiefly in melodies rather than accompaniments. Some were marked in the score, others added by convention. Among the most common ornaments were the trill, the turn, the mordent, and the appoggiatura. Repeated sections often called for more elaborate decoration (see embellishment), and it was customary also to improvise at cadences, a practice that led to the cadenza.

overdotting: the practice of exaggerating the time difference between the long and short notes in dotted rhythm. Overdotting was certainly practiced in the baroque era, but scholars disagree as to how much and in what contexts.

part: one of a number of melodic strands performed simultaneously. Each part may be performed by an individual voice or instrument or a group of similar voices or instruments, or, by extension, all parts may be played by one performer on a keyboard instrument. Sometimes a part in instrumental counterpoint is called a “voice”, by analogy.

pastoral: a favorite topos of the baroque period, dealing with an idealized rural life free of anxieties and inhabited by shepherds, nymphs, and the like. Many madrigals, cantatas, and dramatic works are set in this world. Musical expressions of the pastoral include the siciliana, the use of flutes or oboes (representing shepherds’ pipes), and an unchanging drone bass (imitating bagpipes), as in the musette. Because of the association of shepherds with Christmas, “pastoral symphonies” are found in Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, Handel’s Messiah, and Corelli’s “Christmas Concerto”.

pedal point /pedal bass: A single, unchanging bass note held under changing harmonies, most naturally on the organ. The device was frequently used at or near the end of a long movement such as a fugue, and also or pastoral effect.

performance practice: Knowledge of the way music was performed in a remote period requires more than music notation, for there were always conventions taken for granted at the time (and thus not notated), but later forgotten. In the “early music movement” of the 20th century scholars attempted to recover lost traditions of performance practice, from the baroque period among others, by studying instruments and treatises of the time, annotated scores, descriptions of performances, and other evidence. The result has been a neo-baroque code of performance practice that, it is hoped, is truer to the meaning and effect of the music. For some of the issues involved see articulation, bowing, dynamics, embellishment, notes inégales, organ, ornaments, overdotting, pitch, tuning, vibrato.

phrase: a short musical unit, often ending with a cadence.

pitch: International pitch standards did not exist in the baroque period, and pitch levels varied widely from place to place. After 1700 there was more uniformity, and notes tended to sound about half a tone lower than at present. When early wind instruments are used it is best to play them at their intended pitch. For this reason, an arbitrary “baroque pitch” standard has been adopted by some modern players, setting the note a' at 415 cycles per second (as opposed to the modern standard of 440 cycles).

pizzicato: “plucked”, a direction to players of bowed instruments. This was occasionally required by baroque composers.

prima prattica: from the point of view of Italian musicians after 1600, the traditional style (now termed “Renaissance”) which was built chiefly on polyphony. It was also termed stile antico (old style). See also seconda prattica.

quodlibet: a composition combining several popular songs; the most famous example is the last variation of Bach’s “Goldberg” Variations.

recitative: a form of singing introduced around 1600, intended to imitate speech and to maximize opportunities for dramatic and emotional expression. It contained no structured “tune”, and left the singer free to modify the rhythm of the written notes according to spontaneous feeling, since the harmony was provided by a basso continuo which could follow the singer. Recitative lasted throughout the baroque period and beyond in opera, oratorio, and cantata, and it even penetrated liturgical works such as passions and anthems. In the early baroque it was a vehicle for passionate expression, but towards 1700 it became more perfunctory, repeating standard patterns and cadences. In 18th-century opera seria, the more important soliloquies and dialogues were accompanied by the orchestra (recitativo stromentato, “orchestrated recitative”), also used in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion for the utterances of Christ. Ordinary recitative with continuo was then termed recitativo secco (dry recitative). In French opera, the term récit was used for a similar style which tended, however, to be somewhat more tuneful, approaching arioso.

registration: the choice of stops in playing organ or harpsichord, each stop bringing into play a complete set of pipes or strings. In most baroque keyboard music, registration is left to the player’s discretion. Today many organists play on replicas of baroque organs and use registration modeled on that of the period.

Renaissance: in the history of music, the period preceding the Baroque era, roughly 1420–1600. Naturally, ideas and practices from the Renaissance period overlapped and persisted into the baroque era (see prima prattica).

responsorial chanting: a practice in which the priest and congregation chanted alternate verses of the liturgy. By the baroque period, the congregation’s verses were often replaced by a choir or even an organ, and thus compositions survive in which only alternate verses of the liturgical text were set by the composer (see mass).

ripieno: the full string orchestra (also called tutti), as distinguished from the concertino group in a concerto grosso, or from the solo instrument in a solo concerto.

ritornello: the opening section, for orchestra or a group of instruments, of a movement that will introduce one or two solo instruments or voices, as in the A section of a da capo aria or the first movement of a concerto. It is generally repeated without change at the end of the movement, or between stanzas of a strophic song, and sometimes in the course of the movement as well: see ritornello form.

ritornello form: In the late baroque, a standardized structure was evolved for arias and concerto movements, where in addition to the opening and final statements of the ritornello in the home key, there were intermediate statements in the dominant or other related keys, each one following a solo section that contained a modulation to a new key. Some statements of the ritornello might be shortened or modified versions. Examples of ritornello form are abundant in Bach’s cantatas and Handel’s operas and oratorios, and in the concertos of Vivaldi and Bach. It is sometimes found in works for keyboard solo as well, for instance in the outer movements of Bach’s “Italian Concerto”.

scale: all the pitches in use in a particular mode or key, set out or played in upward or downward order of pitch. (See diatonic scale, chromatic scale).

seconda prattica: the new style developed around 1600, also called stile nuovo (new style), based on homophony and the freely expressive performance of vocal music. (See prima prattica.)

sequence: the more or less exact repetition of a musical phrase at a higher or lower pitch. Sequence, with its attendant harmonic progression, was a backbone of musical form in later baroque music.

sinfonia (symphony): a short instrumental piece or section in a primarily vocal work. In the late baroque it became the standard term for the overture to an Italian opera.

staccato: see articulation

stile antico: see prima prattica.

stile concitato (Italian, “agitated style”): 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.

stile nuovo: see seconda prattica.

stile rappresentativo (Italian, “expressive style”): a general term for the style of singing and accompaniment introduced in the early baroque period, including recitative and monody.

stop: a mechanism on an organ or harpsichord that activates a complete set of pipes or strings, one to each note, to produce variety of tone. Some stops sound at an octave above or below the note played, or (on the organ) produce higher harmonics. Some organ stops, such as trumpet, flute, or cornet, imitate particular instruments. The buff stop on some harpsichords brought a set of soft leather pads into contact with the strings to mute their tone.

strophic repetition: the use of the same music for each stanza of a poem, as in “strophic song”.

style galant: a lighter, more elegant style that followed the end of the Baroque period and led on to the Classic style of Haydn and Mozart. Signs of it are already audible before 1750, for instance in the works of Couperin, Telemann, Pergolesi, and C.P.E.Bach.

subject: a principle theme (tune) in a piece of music, more especially the opening theme of a fugue.

Tafelmusik (table music): a court entertainment played by musicians sitting round a table; it is roughly equivalent to the modern term “chamber music”, though vocal music was included.

temperament: a modification of strict tuning, designed to mollify (“temper”) the severe mistuning of certain chromatic notes that results when the notes of conflicting diatonic scales are tuned exactly according to their simple frequency ratios. One such compromise much used in the baroque era was called mean-tone temperament , which permitted the use of some seven or eight keys (see key) but made the others virtually intolerable. Bach’s Wohltemperierte Clavier (Well-Tempered Keyboard) used all 12 keys, in both major and minor forms, thus demonstrating the advantages of another system of temperament that approached the modern system of equal temperament.

tempo: the speed at which a piece is played, defined by the number of beats per minute and measurable by a metronome. In the baroque era, before metronomes existed, there were no precise indications of tempo, only vague Italian terms such as lento (slow), adagio (at ease, i.e. slow), andante (walking pace), moderato (moderate pace), allegretto (rather fast), allegro (fast), vivace (lively), presto (very fast). Since these terms often appear at the head of a movement, in the absence of any other title they are sometimes used as movement titles.

ternary form: a musical structure of three parts, the last being identical to the first (ABA). In the baroque period it was used in many contexts, most notably the da capo aria. The third section, like any other repeat, was subject to embellishment.

texture: a term that embraces both the number and character of voices and instruments involved in a piece of music, and their relationship with each other as the music proceeds. See homophony, monody, polyphony, counterpoint, accompaniment.

tonality: a system of composition depending on the regular use of key. Scholars disagree about just when tonality was established, but in the course of the baroque era it gradually replaced the older system of modes.

triple meter: a rhythmic structure of three beats to a measure (indicated as 3/2, 3/4, or 3/8).

tuning: the adjustment of strings or pipes in advance of performance to insure their correct relative pitch. Traditional tuning systems were based on simple arithmetic frequency ratios: 2:1 for an octave, 3:2 for fifth, 5:4 for a major third, and so on. In the baroque era, the increasing use of chromatic notes made these tunings untenable, and the tuning had to be modified by some system of temperament.

variations: varied repetitions of a tune (the “theme”), generally a popular tune already in existence. Each “variation” goes through the complete tune in modified form. Some of them treat it as a subject for embellishment; others may introduce counterpoint and imitation while maintaining the harmonic structure of the theme; others again may change the tempo, meter, or mode (major/minor), but enough of the theme is present to ensure recognition. The supreme baroque work in variation form was Bach’s “Goldberg” Variations. A more continuous type of variations on an unchanging ground bass is found in the kindred forms chaconne and passacaglia.

vibrato: a deliberate wavering of pitch practiced by singers and by players of bowed and some wind instruments. Now a normal part of a professional musician’s technique, in the baroque period it was treated as an occasional ornament, to be used for special intensification. For this reason, performers seeking historical authenticity today frequently suppress their vibrato when playing baroque music, producing a hard, clear tone very different in quality from Romantic playing and singing. But the subject remains controversial.

walking bass: a bass consisting of a series of notes of the same length, approximately that of a normal walking pace, which proceed with perfect regularity, providing a framework for more varied music above.

word-painting: the use of music to illustrate a particular word, often in a punning fashion (such as a sharp note for the word “sharp” or “pain”). Much used in the late 16th-century *madrigal, the device was frowned on by the reformers and inventors of opera, who wanted music rather to express the underlying emotion of a text. Nevertheless, word-painting is found throughout the baroque era, especially in traditional religious contexts such as ascendit in coelis (“he ascended into heaven”) in the Credo of the Mass.