Baroque Music

The Baroque music period dates from 1600 to 1750. The Baroque period was a transition from the Renaissance which included masses and madrigals. Some Baroque composers continued to write masses, but the focus was on developing counterpoint, with stronger rhythmic elements that music in the previous period, and greater stress on emotional content. The fugue is most charateristic of the Baroque period. Bach is one of the most well known composers from the Baroque period, and he is my personal favorite as well. Bach was famous for his counterpoint style. Bach wrote over 1,000 musical pieces. However, in order to understand Bach's music, you must understand counterpoint. The definition of counterpoint is the compositon os two melodies played at the same time, and developing chords together. Other examples of Baroque music that are most familiar to us are Pachelbel's Canon and Vivaldi's The Four Seasons. Many of the well-known composer from the early Baroque period were from Italy. Also, many of the forms from the Baroque period such as the cantata, concerto, sonata, oratoria and opera. As the 1600's progressed , all of the different music forms took shape , and the period of 1700 to 1750 is seen as the "high baroque".

The Baroque period also favored the harpsichord, in which the strings are plucked and the player can't control the tone through touch. After 1750, the piano came into play offering touch sensitivty. In the words of baroque composer and theorist Johann Joseph Fux: "A composition meets the demands of good taste if it is well constructed, avoids trivialities as well as willful eccentricities, aims at the sublime, but moves in a natural ordered way, combining brilliant ideas with perfect workmanship."