Transcription
Hello, everyone. Today, before I go any farther, I'm talking about the different genres of music. So we've covered opera pretty well so far, but I just wanted to give you an overview, as I usually do, on all of the different genres that we're going to cover during the Baroque era, because there's kind of a lot of them.
This is something I normally have done on the blackboard, but since we don't have the blackboard, I have made these awesome visual aids using advanced technology. And I'm going to do this again as much as possible, like I usually do in class. Now, in class, what I will do is I'll take these different genres and I'll separate them. So far, I've separated them according to whether they are sacred or secular types of music, but that distinction is not really as important anymore as we move past the Renaissance.
As we get into the Baroque era and into the Classical era, I think the more meaningful distinction, the better way to start organizing them, is by thinking of vocal genres versus instrumental genres. Okay, so vocal and instrumental are our two major categories. Let's go back to vocal here for a moment. Okay, so we are going to—we're going to learn about three vocal genres. Obviously, there are more than three, but we're focusing on the three most important, and we've already talked quite a bit about opera. So opera, I've already covered.
And one thing to remember is the vocal genres of the Baroque, unlike the Middle Ages or the Renaissance, tend to include instruments as well as singers. In order, they are not a cappella. What we—what we see in the Baroque era is voices with instruments combined. Okay, so that's one thing to keep in mind when we move into the Baroque era. The old a cappella style is simply kind of thought of as being kind of old-fashioned. There are some composers who continued to write Renaissance-style a cappella vocal music, but they are kind of the—the conservative, old-fashioned composers of their day. And the cutting-edge, avant-garde type of composers, like Monteverdi and Purcell and others going forward, tend to combine vocal and instrumental forces together.
So, for example, in opera, which we talked about quite a bit of course, in addition to the singers, we have a pit orchestra. Now, what I've got here, since I only have limited space on the paper, I've just got like a brief few sentences about each of these genres. But if I were—for example, if I were taking the class and I were making notes for myself, I might include terms with definitions, such as recitative, aria, overture, libretto—all these kinds of terms that I talked about and that are in your book. Basically, any of the terms in the book that are in bold print or italics. Okay, but the basic definition of opera is it's a musical drama that is sung from beginning to end, sung throughout; no spoken dialogue. In most opera, it features acting, sets, scenery, costumes, etc. And early operas were—they tended to be based on ancient Greek or Roman myth or history, because remember, opera was invented by the sort of late Renaissance humanists who were really into the Greek and Roman culture. And their whole idea, remember, was to sort of reinvent Greek drama—an updated, modern—that is modern, you know, around the year 1600—modern form of Greek drama in Italian rather than Greek, but otherwise staying true to that—or that original conception. As opera evolves and as time goes on, it's not just ancient Greek or Roman myth or history anymore; really anything could be the subject of an opera; any story could be turned into an opera.
Oratorio. Now, we're going to get to these other two—oratorio and cantata—a little bit later, because what I'm going to do is I'm going to talk about instrumental music this week, and then toward the end of this unit, I will come back to these other two genres. But for today, I'm just giving an overview of all of these different genres. So, staying on the vocal side, oratorio is just like opera musically; it's really the same. We have arias and recitatives; we have a chorus; we have the equivalent of a pit orchestra. So if they're not playing in a pit, because we don't need to hide the orchestra because this oratorio is not staged, meaning we don't have any acting going on; people are not moving around on stage; they're not wearing costumes; there are no sets. Okay, so it's really just sort of a visual and presentational difference; musically, it's not really any different. The other difference between oratorio and opera is that oratorios are almost always based on biblical subjects—stories from the Bible, usually the Old Testament, because that's where most of the—the stories are, but not always. Okay, so, for example, by far the best-known oratorio—and it's maybe not actually a typical oratorio—but the best known is Handel's Messiah, which—which is based on excerpts from all over the Bible—the Old Testament, the New Testament. There's a lot, for example, from the book of Isaiah, because that's where you find a lot of these prophecies of the coming of the Messiah. So oratorio—the two main differences: unlike opera, it is not staged; and unlike opera, which tends to be, in the early days, based on ancient Greek or Roman myth or history, oratorio is always based on biblical subject matter. But one thing to remember about oratorio is it is not necessarily—in fact, it's not usually—performed as part of a church service, even though it is based on biblical subject matter; it is not meant to be performed in church as part of a church service. Right, it's more like entertainment; it might be performed in a church building, but it's really entertainment.
A cantata, on the other hand, is meant to be performed as part of a church service. Cantata is a sort of a broad term; it actually means a piece that is sung or chanted—that's where the "cant" comes from. It's basically the—the Italian version of the word "chant." Cantata is a piece that is sung or chanted, but the specific type of cantata that we are going to look at the most—that the best-known type, the most important type—is the Lutheran Church cantata. And what the Lutheran Church cantata is, it's like a mini oratorio, which is performed during the Lutheran Church service. So we will—again, we will look at both oratorio and cantata in a little bit more detail toward the end of this unit, because that's where the textbook puts them. But the—the cantata that we are going to look at is the type that, for example, J.S. Bach was the absolute master of, because he was the music director in a Lutheran Church for almost 30 years; he composed something like 300 cantatas.
Alright, so moving away from the vocal genres over to the instrumental, there are a lot of different genres here, and because there are so many, we tend to organize them according to—are they types of pieces that are generally played by a solo instrument, especially a keyboard instrument? Are they genres that tend to be played by a small group? Now, any kind of instrumental music for a small group we refer to as chamber music. Chamber music is, by definition, music for a—instrumental music for a small group where we have one player per part, meaning unlike in an orchestra, for example. If you watch an orchestral performance, you might have a dozen people playing first violin and another dozen people playing second violin and maybe eight people playing the viola part, eight people all playing the same cello part, etc., etc. In chamber music, each individual player has their own unique notes to read; there is no duplication. So chamber music is—tremendous music for a small group where there's one player per part and there's no duplication. All right, and then, of course, we have orchestral music. And I put here in parentheses, something to keep in mind: the Baroque Orchestra—the standard Baroque Orchestra—was simply the bowed stringed instruments plus a keyboard, and that keyboard was usually a harpsichord. This is different from the modern orchestra. Now, we're kind of looking backward at the orchestra as it evolved beginning about 400 years ago, and we—you know, we—if you think of an orchestra today, you think of these different sections—the strings, the woodwinds, the brass, the percussion—but the original orchestra is just the bowed stringed instruments—basically the members of the violin family plus a keyboard instrument. And the keyboard instrument's job was to play the chords in the basso continuo part. Remember basso continuo—a little bit of review for you. Basso continuo is like the rhythm section of the Baroque era. Anytime you have a group of people playing together—a group of instruments—you've got to have that rhythm section. The rhythm section is simply the chords and the bass line, so you need a keyboard player to play the chords in that basso continuo part.
Alright, so let's start with genres that are usually for solo instruments. And actually, the first of these—a sonata. Right, we see over on the chamber side as well, because there's such a thing as a solo sonata, and there's also such a thing as a trio sonata. And this is where I'm going to—to begin our—our examination of instrumental music with the sonata. A sonata is simply an instrumental piece; that's really all the term means. And it has to do with the word "sound" or "sonar"—anything "son"—the root there has to do with sound. And back in the old days, like 400 years ago or more, the word that they tended to use for playing an instrument was not the word "play"; they tended to use the word "sound" as a verb, like, "I am sounding on the violin," or, "I am sounding on the keyboard." It's kind of an archaic usage which we don't see anymore, but that was—even in the English language, but also in Italian—and these tend to be Italian terms—that's the word you would use: you're "sounding" on the flute, "sounding" on the cello, whatever. So a piece that was "sounded" on an instrument could have this generic title "Sonata," and that's all that it means—a piece that is sounded. By the way, in contrast, remember a cantata is a piece that is sung or chanted, so it's again sort of a very broad, general title. There are different types of cantatas, and the one that we're going to look at is the Lutheran Church cantata. Right, but that's just a broad term; it means vocal piece, whereas sonata means instrumental piece. Right, so we will look at—mostly the trio sonata, which is a sonata for a chamber group, but it's also possible to have a solo sonata. And, by the way, do you see that asterisk after the—the word "solo"? Hmm, what does that refer to? Well, it's a—it's a potentially confusing term, because when you think "solo," you think of one individual, but in reality, usually instruments like the flute or the violin would be accompanied by keyboard. So, for example, a solo sonata for flute isn't just for flute alone; it's for flute with keyboard accompaniment. And that keyboard accompaniment is—being accompaniment—it's not as important; it's background; it's there to support the—the flute part. But the key thing to remember is it's not strictly speaking solo. There are some strict solo pieces, for example, for solo keyboard, because the—the keyboard is an instrument which can kind of accompany itself; in other words, you could play the melody with the right hand and the accompaniment with the left hand. There are also, like, for example, in the case of the violin, there are some pieces for violin which are solo but accompanied, meaning for violin and keyboard. And then there are other pieces which are solo unaccompanied—so truly for violin all by itself. All right, so just keep in mind that "solo" doesn't necessarily mean all by itself; it could mean for a—an instrument with keyboard accompaniment, backed up by keyboard.
Okay, so we have the sonata; we'll talk more about sonatas a little bit later; I'm just giving a general overview today. So sonata just means an instrumental piece. A suite—and there's actually more than one type of suite. You could have a suite for a solo instrument; you could have a suite for a small group—we call it chamber suite—and you could also have an orchestral suite—a suite that is played by an orchestra. So a suite is not a piece that is particular to any specific performing medium. What a suite is—and we will get to it probably two lectures from now—it's a multi-movement piece consisting of different dance-like movements. And the idea is to have different—actually different ethnicities or nationalities of dance, because of course there are different dances that are particular to different countries within Europe. And these dances would have different tempos, different meters—that has different numbers of beats per measure—because of course they're corresponding to different specific dance steps. And these different dances had different names, like the allemande, the courante, the jig, the minuet, the gavotte, etc., etc. So there are certain sort of standard dances that everybody knew—at least at all—certainly all middle-class and upper-class people in Europe knew these dances very well. Now, the thing about a suite is it's not music that you are actually going to dance to; it is dance-like music for listening to. So it's music that you sit and listen to that makes you think of the dance—that reminds you of the dance. And again, I can't stress enough: any educated, cultured person—any person who wants to have a social life in the 17th and 18th century—would have been a good dancer. Dancing was an important social activity back then, and dances had specific steps; people danced in groups; you had to know these steps in order to—in order to be a good dancer and in order to be socially successful. It's not like today where you just kind of go out on the dance floor and move around in a vaguely funky way; you had to know these specific steps. And the suite was a multi-movement piece which kind of reminded you of the dance—made you think of the dance.
The fugue is again a piece that is not necessarily for a solo instrument; it's just that it turns out that most fugues were composed for solo keyboard—for instruments like the harpsichord and the organ. Now, it is possible to play the fugue on some other instruments; it's possible to play a fugue on a violin or a guitar. But as we look at the fugue in more detail, probably three lectures from now, you'll see that it is not possible to play a fugue, for example, on a flute; it is not possible to sing a fugue all by yourself. Because the key thing to know about a fugue—the definition of a fugue—is a fugue is a polyphonic composition which is based on one main theme called the subject. The subject is the main melody of the fugue, but the fugue is, by its very nature, polyphonic. So in order to perform one of these things, you either have to be playing a solo instrument that is capable of playing more than one note at a time or you have to have multiple performers. And, by the way, that means that a fugue is not necessarily an instrumental piece either; you can sing a fugue, but you can't sing it all by yourself; you have to have multiple people. So a chorus could sing a fugue; a chamber group could play a fugue; an orchestra could play a fugue; a solo performer on an instrument could also perform a fugue, so long as it's an instrument that is capable of playing more than one note at a time. And, of course, the instruments that are best at playing more than one note at a time tend to be the keyboard instruments like the harpsichord and the organ, so those tend to be the instruments for which most fugues were written. So, for example, J.S. Bach—by far the greatest composer of fugues—the vast majority of his fugues are written for keyboard—for organ or for harpsichord.
Okay, a prelude is a piece that is meant to come before something else. And, for example, when we learned about opera, we learned that another word for an overture, which is the purely instrumental piece that comes before the opera actually starts—and, by the way, an oratorio can have an overture or a prelude as well—so it's the first movement of a—of a multi-movement piece. And we might find it at the beginning of an opera, although in that case we usually call it an overture instead of a prelude, but it has the same function. Sometimes the first movement of a suite has the title "Prelude." Sometimes a composer—this is very common—will compose a two-movement work consisting of a prelude followed by a fugue. So a fugue might be a one-movement piece all by itself, or it might be part of a two-movement work—"Prelude and Fugue"—very common combination. J.S. Bach wrote many, many, many preludes and fugues, and the prelude and the fugue would both be composed in the same key, and they would be meant to follow one another, but otherwise they might be very different. There is no particular style to a prelude; it could be really in any style, any mood, any tempo, whatever. It's just a title that tells you that more will follow—that this is the first movement of some kind of a multi-movement composition.
Toccata. Now, this is a type of piece that the book doesn't really describe, but it is kind of important, and I am going to talk about the toccata a little bit. What a toccata is, literally, is a "touch piece," and this is because the—the word "toccata" comes from the Italian word for "touch." In fact, it's a—you can see a little bit—some of the same letters—"toc"—right? The Italian word for "touch"—the verb "to touch" is "toccata." So a toccata is a piece that shows off your touch or your technique, specifically on a keyboard instrument. A toccata really is a keyboard piece, and again, sometimes you have a two-movement piece—a toccata followed by a fugue—that's a very popular combination. J.S. Bach—maybe one of his most famous compositions—is the Toccata and Fugue in D minor, which I think I provided a link to; if I didn't, then I will in my saved videos on the YouTube channel. So a toccata is just a—it's sort of a technically flashy piece—a piece that is meant to show off your dexterity, your touch, your technique on a keyboard instrument. Now, there are other types of solo pieces, but those are—you know, I don't want to give you guys too much—so those are the most important ones.
Moving over to chamber—okay, by far the most important chamber piece—that is a piece for a small group of instruments in the Baroque era—is the trio sonata. So remember, sonata just means an instrumental piece. The trio sonata—okay, well, it must have three of something, right? Well, it does, but this is potentially confusing, because in a trio sonata, it refers to the instrumentation. There are two melodic instruments—usually two violins—in other words, there's a first violin and a second violin. Now, there are other instruments possible—like flute as a substitute for one of the violins, or maybe oboe—but what you have are two high-pitched, let's say, melodic instruments—two melodic instruments sort of in the—in the singing range—plus basso continuo. So that's the other part—so meaning there—that's the other layer of melody or—layer of music that is going on—two melodic instruments, usually two violins, plus basso continuo. Here's the thing, though: remember, basso continuo consists of two components or two performers; you have a cellist—that's the—you know, the big string instrument that sits between your knees—that the cello is playing the bass line, and the keyboard is playing the chords. The basso continuo is like one part; it's one written part in the music, but you need two people in order to perform it. So that means that a trio sonata actually requires four people to perform. Trio sonata has three parts—three layers written into the score—but you need four people to play it. Okay, and, by the way, that trio sonata is also usually a four-movement work—four different movements in a trio sonata. We will look at a trio sonata in the next lecture by the composer Arcangelo Corelli, and there's a link to two of those four movements of one of Corelli's trio sonatas in the saved videos.
Alright, so another possibility for chamber music is the chamber suite. So again, a suite is an assortment of—it's a multi-movement piece consisting of an assortment of different dance-like pieces. And there's really no difference between a chamber suite and a solo suite or an orchestral suite; the only difference is—is that suite being played by a solo instrument or by a small group or by an entire orchestra. Right, that's the only difference. Okay, then we have orchestral music—music for a large group. There—the most important piece for orchestra by far is something called a concerto. A concerto is a three-movement work. Right, and, by the way, in these multi-movement works, the thing that distinguishes the different movements is—is mostly the tempo. Right, and usually we alternate between fast movements and slow movements. So, for example, in a three-movement work like a concerto, the first movement is fast, the second movement is slow, and the third movement is fast again. And, by the way, I guess I should—I should review once again the concept of a multi-movement work. The way to think of a movement in a multi-movement work is it's sort of like a chapter in a work of literature. Right, if you're reading a novel, that novel might be broken up into chapters, and each chapter has its own beginning and end, and sometimes—you know, certain books—that each chapter could—could almost stand by itself as sort of like a short story—like it could be published separately and it would make sense—but it is, of course, actually part of a larger work. That's pretty much the same thing with different movements in a multi—multi-movement composition. This is something we're not used to in popular music; popular music is not usually multi-movement, but classical music very often is. So in a concerto—so, for example, there are three different movements, and each movement has its own beginning and end. First movement will be fast; second will move slow and provide contrast of mood; and then the third movement will be fast again. There are two types of concerto—the concerto grosso and the solo concerto. The only difference between the two of these is a concerto grosso is a work not just for orchestra; it's a work for a small group and orchestra. And sometimes we hear just the small group playing, and sometimes we hear everybody—the entire orchestra and the small group—all playing together. So the idea is to have this interesting contrast between a small group and an orchestra. The solo concerto is a piece for an individual soloist and orchestra, and that individual soloist is kind of like the star, and the—the soloist will have a part which is very demanding—in other words, the melody or whatever he's playing is—is usually going to be sort of technically challenging and flashy, because that's—that's kind of the idea. A concerto is kind of a showpiece for either a soloist, if it's a solo concerto, or the small group if it's a concerto grosso. And the orchestra's role is mostly to sort of back up the small group or the soloist. The soloist or the small group is kind of front and center, and the orchestra is a little bit more of a supporting role. So that's the only difference between a concerto grosso and a solo concerto. Grosso, by the way, just means "big," so the "big concerto" has a small group and orchestra; the solo concerto has an individual soloist, and that soloist might be a violinist, might be a keyboard player, could be a flute player—really could be any instrument. So, for example, when we look at a solo concerto, we will look at one by Vivaldi. The composer Antonio Vivaldi composed over 450 concertos for various instruments plus orchestra; some of the—most of them are for violin, but some of them for cello, for guitar and orchestra, for bassoon and orchestra, for flute and orchestra—you name it; any instrument pretty much could have the—the role of soloist. And then, of course, finally, the orchestral suite. As I said, there's really no difference between an orchestral suite and any other kind of suite; it's just a suite—it's played by orchestra.
Okay, so once again, we should have this kind of in our minds—this is the big picture of the different instrumental genres. And what I'm going to do over the next few lectures is pick one of each of these and go into it in more detail. But it's important to kind of keep the big picture as we focus in on various elements of that big picture. We have to keep that big picture in mind, be able to focus back out again, and kind of keep it all organized. So there's our instrumental genres over here—again, our vocal genres—and we're going to spend the next…
At least five or six lectures looking at these different genres and talking about the major composers along the way. So we've already talked about Monteverdi and Purcell. And so that leaves Corelli, Vivaldi, Handel, and Bach. Alright. So we'll see you for our next lecture, which is going to be on the trio sonata.