THE BAROQUE SPIRIT

The Baroque Era lasted roughly 150 years, and substantially contributed to our musical language. We mark the beginning of the Baroque Era around 1600, ushered in by composer Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643), who is attributed with writing the first opera that became widely popular. Many composers and musicians followed him, ending with the beginning of Mozart’s career. The Baroque Era ignited different ways of thinking about music and its purpose—beyond the sacred and liturgical. The composers contributed innovative instruments, musical structures, theories, and conventions— shaping the music and opera to follow.

The term Baroque comes from one of two sources—and is still disputed. The term’s most commonly accepted origin is the Portuguese barroco meaning “oddly shaped pearl;” and was cast as an insult by contemporary critics to the over-exaggeration of the art. Baroque wasn’t used as an accepted signifier of the artistic period until the 19 th century. Alternatively, it may have derived from the Italian barocca, which was used to describe “an obstacle to logic.” In other words, the music and art of the time were contrary to rational thinking, evoking emotions instead.

Defining the Baroque era, composers invented new compositional structures, including the concerto, sonata, suite, fugue, and the oratorio. The concept of designating a key signature for a piece of music began to be formally included in compositions (previously, it would have been agreed upon by the performing musicians). Composers began to designate specific instruments to a certain part, laying the groundwork for the modern day symphony. Growing trade and travel influenced composers as well, who began to learn and borrow from each other across regions and countries. Notable Baroque composers across Europe include Jean-Baptiste Lully (1662- 1687) in France, Henry Purcell (1659-1695) in England, Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) in Italy.

Harpsichord from c. 1749.

Unfortunately, there is no way to know what Baroque music truly sounded like, because modes of recording music had yet to be invented, and so only written accounts from critics, scholars and the composers themselves exist. However, many scholars and musicians have tried to authentically recreate the original sound by being specific about the following attributes:

Instruments: Some of the same instruments we know today were already invented and played widely during the Baroque period, but others such as the harpsichord—(an earlier version of a piano), lute, and viola da gamba—which looks similar to a cello but is tuned differently and has six rather than four strings—are not very common in modern orchestras. These instruments also sound very different. The instruments used in Giulio Cesare are 2 oboes, 2 violins, 1 viola, 1 harp, 1 viola da gamba, 1 tiorba (a type of lute), 1 cello, and 1 bassoon. Ensembles were also much smaller than the modern-day orchestra.

Gut strings on a violin.

Instrument Construction: Stringed instruments were made using strings out of animal intestines instead of metal, which gave a more mellow tone to the sound. As you might imagine, the woodwinds were made entirely of wood. Today they are often made of a combination of wood and metal, or entirely metal like a flute.

Instrument Tuning: In 1939, all orchestras agreed to tune their instruments to an A, which is a frequency of 440 hertz. , Before then however, there was no widely agreed upon fixed pitch standard. Therefore instruments in an ensemble would tune to each other in the moment of the performance resulting in a wide variety of possibilities.

Musical Technique: Baroque music scores contained little indication of articulation, ornamentation, and dynamics— specificities in performance that composers came to notate later. Much more of the interpretation of the music was left to the ensemble players and the conductor. In addition, musicians literally created sound differently than is standard training today. For instance, string players used their bows to create vibrato, rather than their fingers.

Generally, Baroque music is characterized as one seamless, forward-moving melodic texture and mood that is expanded upon over time. Simple polyphony was heavily ornamented, and underscored by a basso continuo unrelenting through-line. The instrumentalist or vocalist performing the melody was expected to show virtuosity. Borrowed from the Italian word meaning “full of virtue”, the word began to be used in the English language during this time period to describe musicians who were exceptionally skilled. Baroque music often described the tension between religious piety and human emotion, with emerging Enlightenment values weighing in on this epistemological quandary as the decades passed.