Week 4: The Passions of the High Baroque
The Birth of Opera: 

Economic life of a musician: Chapel, Court or Theater

“Baroque” orignated as an art history term meaning a gaudy, extravagant pearl or flamboyant, ornamental, elaborate, (overly) emotional. The very Apollonian Age of Enlightenment felt that music of the previous  Baroque era was excessively complicated and emotional,  simply "too much!"

Caravaggio Conversion of St. Paul
Bernini Ecstasy of St. Teresa
Chiaroscuro- interplay of light and shadow
Rise of the Harpsichord and orchestra
The Baroque is an era of intricate balance between the "Apollonian" virtues of clarity, order, structure and elegance and the "Dionysian" ideals of intense emotionalism and wild spirit
Prelude- improvisatory, “unbuttoned”
Fugue, Chaconne, Passacaglia- extremely structured forms


Antonio Vivaldi: Four Seasons- "Winter"
Domenico Scarlatti: Keyboard Sonata in b minor, K.27: an example of "too much" repetition
G.F. Handel:   Ombra mai fu (from the opera Xerxes)
                         Lascia ch'io panga (from the opera Rinaldo)
                        Passacaglia in g minor
                        Suite in E Major: The Harmonious Blacksmith

J.S. Bach:         Brandenburg Concerto No. 6: Interplay of Homophony and Polyphony
                         The Well Tempered Clavier Book One: Preludes in  C# Major, Bb Major and Bb minor