The Baroque Era
(1600 to 1750)

The Baroque era was the era of experimentation. New instrumental forms were created, the violin was used often in baroque music. Baroque is Portuguese for, “a pearl of irregular shape,” which was just like the Baroque era. It was a time of experimenting and expanding the musical roles, and the full equality of the instrumental music. It was during the Baroque era where opera was started in Europe. The Baroque era is very different from the Renaissance era, from the clean and ordered Renaissance, to the ability to convey the filling of available space, sound, and movement. This time period had many defining characters such as the basso continuo and the doctrine of affection. It allowed composers to express their emotions in there composition. Baroque music emphasis on its contrast on volume, texture, and pace of music.

It was very different from Medieval and early Renaissance music. Homophonic method was widely use and became dominant in the instrumental forms of music too. The musical works would mostly contain an organ or harpsichord and a bass instrument which would usually be a bassoon or cello to help convey the harmonic support of chords under the melodic lines.

Homophonic music was becoming popular but polyphonic music was also developing. Two highly strict forms of polyphonic are cannons and fugues. To prove their expertise they improvised complex fugues at a moments notice.

During the 1600s, opera and the orchestra were created. Opera was created in Italy to recapture the Greek drama in which music played a key role. The homophobic musical style played a important role in opera and solo musicals.

Also during the 1600s the orchestra evolved. The orchestra was growing into its own entity and concerto, it was very popular form of music. The concerto had a featured solo instrumentalist or small soloist.

Operas
Opera was stories of ancient Greek tragedies. Italian opera composers expressed emotions from there tragedies. An opera is made up of the music, an orchestra, performers, scenery, and costuming. There is always a solo, duet or, trio part, and always opens with the orchestra playing.

The home of Italian opera was Florence, in the Medici court. The Camerata, created the stil rappresentavio, a theater style. It was the earliest forms of opera.

Roman opera became the center of opera during the 1630s. It was different from Italian opera. Roman opera focused more on religious subjects then the Greek mythology. Roman chorus was to a greater extent. The intermizzi, was a comedic interlude between acts and was the model for future comedic opera styles.

Venetian opera was the center of Italian opera in the early 1600s. The Venetian opera used less choral and orchestra music and emphasized on formal arias as well as on elaborate stage machinery. The bel canto started to appear, so they placed more focus on vocal elegance than facial expressions. Two final characteristics are the opera was too complex and improbable plots and a short instrumental fanfare was performed in the beginning of the opera.

French Opera didn’t develop until the second half of the 1600s, it was inspired by French dramas and formed court ballet. They took the opera to there own hands and put unique characteristics into the basic Italian opera mainframes. The French overture was common and it placed a unique spin and made up of two repeating sections, a slow tempo then a dotted rhythm, then a lively tempo and fugal texture.

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