Baroque Choral Music
The Baroque period encompasses a change in style after the Renaissance in Art, Architecture and Music, consisting of highly ornamented work (in all art forms), dramatic expression and influences both from the Church and from the Ancient Greeks and Romans. In the world of music, major and minor modes were established, music became more ‘vertical’ than linear (concentrating on harmonies more than melodic ‘horizontal’ lines), and pulse became more important with the more constant use of time signatures and barlines.
General characteristics of Baroque music which make it different from other eras are:
- Terraced dynamics (only f and p; no gradual dynamics),
- Basso continuo (a keyboard instrument or lute) using figured bass,
- The use of unwritten ornaments,
- Counterpoint was important but not as important as harmony.
The influence of the Church in everyday life in Western Europe made choral music an obvious choice for many composers, as well as the fact that many were employed by religious establishments or royal courts. As a result of this, many different sub-genres of choral music emerged, all sharing some features but also giving the composers opportunity to excel in their ability to use voices and instruments together to create music which set the standard for composers of choral music in all subsequent periods of musical history.
Specific works
One or more examples of each genre is introduced here. Click on the links to hear examples of arias, recitative and chorus movements from each work.
Oratorio – Handel wrote a number of oratorios, including Judas Maccabeus, Israel in Egypt and Samson. His Messiah is probably the best-known oratorio, with movements often being performed as concert pieces in their own right.
- Recitative: There were shepherds abiding in the field (accompagnato)
- Aria: Comfort Ye
- Chorus: Worthy is the Lamb (ending in a fugue on ‘Amen’)
Cantata – J. S. Bach is the best-known composer of cantatas, having written a different one for every Sunday while he was Kantor at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig. His cantatas usually contain an opening chorus, recitatives, arias and chorales (although there are exceptions – some are written for soloists and he wrote some secular cantatas), and use texts relating to the liturgical text for the particular Sunday. The texts were usually written by poets, the two most important being Salomon Franck and Picander, and used extracts of Biblical text as well as reflective prose and rhyming poetry. Bach’s style of introducing da capo arias with recitative is influenced by Italian opera of the time.
Two excellent examples of Bach’s cantatas are BVW 140, Wachet auf, and BWV 147, Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben. BWV 140 was written for the Sunday before Advent and the text tells of the anticipation of Jesus.
- Chorale fantasy: Wachet auf
- Recitative & Aria: Er kommt and Wann kommst du, mein Heil?
- Chorale: Gloria sei dir gesungen
BWV 147 is a 2-part cantata written for the Visitation, outlining the story of Mary visiting her cousin Elizabeth, while she was expecting Jesus and her cousin was expecting John the Baptist. There is no straightforward chorale in this cantata; both parts of the work conclude with a chorale fantasy.
- Recitative: Gebenedeiter Mund (accompagnato)
- Aria: Schäme dich, o Seele nicht
- Chorale: Jesu bleibet meine Freude
Passion – Although other composers have written Passions, the two most famous surviving are J. S. Bach’s St Matthew and St John Passions. They both draw from the texts of the respective gospels , used mostly in the recitatives and choruses, with added texts in the reflective arias and chorales, which act as a commentary on the story. Both Passions use a Tenor as the Evangelist (the narrator, singing only in recitative) and a Bass as the character of Jesus, and employ the chorus to be a range of different characters in the story.
St John Passion is the smaller of the two works, written for performance in 1724.
- Chorus: Herr, unser Herrscher
- Recitative & Chorus: Jesus ging mit seinem Jüngern
- Chorale: Christus, der uns selig macht
- Aria: Es ist vollbracht (listen out for the viola da gamba obbligato)
St Matthew Passion is composed on a much grander scale, employing two orchestras and choruses.
- Chorus: Kommt, ihr Töchter
- Recitative: Da das Jesus merkete (secco and accompagnato)
- Aria: Erbarme dich and Mache dich, mein Herze, rein
- Chorale: O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden
Mass – The different sections of the Mass which are usually set to music are:
- Kyrie
- Gloria
- Credo
- Sanctus & Benedictus
- Agnus Dei
Although Protestant Germany and England were no longer using the Latin liturgies, occasionally composers still used the Latin settings (such as in Bach’s B minor Mass). Italian composers, such as Monteverdi and Vivaldi, set numerous masses to music.
Parts of the Mass which contain a large amount of text, such as the Credo, are often split into several movements when being set to music.
A well-known setting of the Gloria is Vivaldi’s 12-movement Gloria in D, written for the girls of the Ospedale della Pietá in Venice.
- Chorus: Gloria in excelsis Deo
- Aria (duet): Laudamus te
- Chorus: Cum sancto spiritu (a double fugue borrowed and improved from Ruggieri)
Anthem – Since the introduction of the Book of Common Prayer in 1549, many English composers were able to meet the need of new music for church services without competition from European composers. In the turbulent times caused by the ever-changing seventeenth-century monarchy and their different opinions on religion, Henry Purcell (as a musician of the Chapel Royal) found himself having to compose a wide range of sacred music to please the various monarchs. Rejoice in the Lord alway was written in 1683 under the reign of Charles II, a Protestant. The anthem is written for choir and strings, with an opening based on a ground of a descending scale (the reason the anthem to be subtitled the ‘Bell Anthem’).
Motet – Monteverdi was a key figure in the early Baroque period. He wrote numerous settings of masses and among the best-known are the Vespers of 1610. This is a collection of movements set to Biblical texts from the liturgy of Marian feasts. The Vespers include Psalms set to plainsong, hymns and motets. Duo Seraphim is a motet from the Vespers which employs excellent use of word-painting. It tells of two angels calling to one another; this is written for two tenors. When the text mentions the Trinity, a third tenor joins in. It is scored for the soloists and continuo.
Baroque instruments
The Baroque orchestra typically consisted of a small number of strings – up to about three pairs of each violin, two pairs of violas and up to four ‘cellos, as well as pairs of oboes, flutes or recorders and bassoons, and, for larger works, two horns and timpani. In addition to this, the continuo was a main part of the orchestra – harpsichord and an extra ‘cello and theorbo. Sometimes a chamber organ was also included as a continuo instrument and bassoon might be used for some continuo. The orchestra was led by the harpsichord player who, while playing continuo, beat time and ensured ensemble.
Baroque instruments were simpler than their modern-day equivalents, for example Baroque oboes have no keys, and were tuned at a slightly lower pitch. Players did not usually use vibrato when playing in orchestras. In the last fifty or so years, many musicologists and ensembles have strived to create ‘authentic’ performances of Baroque music; using instruments of the same designs, researching factors such as numbers of players or singers per part and attempting to eliminate the more Romantic tempi and emotions.
Compare http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHbOOe8n2gY with http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPAiH9XhTHc
