University of Wisconsin-Green Bay

Literature and Styles in Music I

1. Toccata
   • Retains improvisatory character in its use of abrupt contrasts in tempo, texture and harmony
   • But increasingly concerned with formal integrity
     • often includes section of strict fugal writing
     • even freer sections organized by use of sequential effects--less diffuse than previously
     • Major composers: Buxtehude, Pachelbel
2. Fugue
   • Begins to replace ricercare as principle imitation-based genre
   • Differences between fugue and ricercare
     • Fugue usually has more distinctive melodic material, livelier and more distinctive rhythmic patterns
     • Fugue shows greater sense of momentum and climax Fugue often includes sections that are clearly contrasting in texture (i.e., non-imitative)
     • Fugues tend to be based more on tonal relationships than modal relationships
     • With later development and spread of Equal Temperament, later fugues explore the possibilities inherent in using and modulating to a variety of remote keys (e.g., Fischer's Ariadne Musica (1715) employing 19 different keys)

3. Compositions Using Chorale Melodies: Three Types
   1. Chorale Variation (or Partita): Chorale melody used as theme for variations
      • Major composers: Sweelinck & Scheidt
   2. Chorale Fantasia: chorale melody used a subject for fantasia
      • Major composers: Reinken & Buxtehude
   3. Chorale Prelude: 4 types
      • each phrase given a short fugal development
      • First phrase fugal, others presented in long notes (Pachelbel-type)
      • Choral melody treated freely and with great variety from phrase to phrase ("Free" chorale prelude)
      • Unornamented chorale melody accompanied by a continuous rhythmic pattern unrelated to it (found more in later Baroque in compositions by J. S. Bach and others)
   B. Organ Music in Catholic Countries (Italy, Spain, southern Germany)
   • Most typical forms:
     • ricercare, variation canzona, cantus firmus pieces based on chant, toccata
   C. French Organ Music
   • contrapuntal works and antiphonal "dialogues" for three or four divisions of a large organ
   • distinctive use of ornaments (agrements), and distinctive use of coloristic possibilities of the organ
   • Major composer: Francois Couperin
   D. Clavier Music (Clavichord & harpsichord)
   • Theme and Variations
     • variations of the types found in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book continue, although original themes more likely to be used
   • French Suite
     • Published in "Ordres," collection of up to 20 pieces in stylized dance rhythm
     • Delicate melodies decorated with many embellishments; texture generally highly transparent ("Galant Style") (F Grout for example)
     • Major composer: F. Couperin ("The Art of Playing the Clavecin", 1716)
   • German Suite
     • Froberger establishes definite sequence for German suite:
       • Allemande
         • moderate duple time (4/4), often with short upbeat
         • frequently uses short running 8th note figures passed through the different voices to give "pseudo-contrapuntal" effect
       • Courante
         • French version: usually moderate 3/2 or 6/4 with hemiola effects; melodic interest shifts between voices
         • Italian version ("Corrente"): quick triple meter (3/8 or 3/4) with running 8th notes
       • Sarabande
         • slow triple meter; more homophonic,
         • often uses accented or prolonged note on 2nd beat
         • weak beat phrase endings typical
         • restrained, dignified style
       • Gigue
         • French version: compound duple (6/8 or 6/4); dotted rhythms' wide melodic intervals (6ths, 7ths, octaves); fugal writing (usually with inverted subject for 2nd section)
         • Italian version ("Giga"): non fugal; running passages over chords
     • Baroque Binary Suite Form
       • 2 sections
         • A section modulates to dominant or relative major and cadences there
         • B section begins in new key, modulates to one or two closely related keys, then returns to tonic
           • occasionally the opening measures would be recapitulated
       • Principle suite composers:
         • Froberger, Pachelbel, Fischer, Kuhnau, Purcell

1. Sonata da Chiesa
   • Movements often more polyphonic than Chamber sonata movements
   • Movements do not make obvious use of dance rhythms and do not use dance suite movements as titles
2. Sonata da Camera
   • Movements generally more homophonic
   • Movements clearly based on traditional suite dance movements

• Consists of two melodic instruments (e.g., 2 violins, recorders, flutes, oboes etc.) with basso continuo "realized" by harpsichord or organ (especially in trio sonatas in "Sonata da Chiesa" style) and bass instrument (e.g., cello, viola da gamba)

• form similar to trio sonatas but with more emphasis on virtuosity

• Major composers: Cazzati, Vitali

• Grout: example of "serene classical phase" of the Baroque
• Works (6 opus numbers): Over 40 trio sonatas; 12 solo sonatas (6 da Chiesa, 5 da Camera, 1 theme and variations); 12 concerti grossi (published in 1714 but composed earlier)
  • Corelli's trio sonatas
    • Unusual clarity in directional harmony and modulation, often achieved by use of sequence (diatonic and modulating)
    • Chromaticism generally limited to functional secondary dominant chords and Neapolitan Sixth chords
    • Two melody instruments equal in importance
      • lines often cross and create suspensions with each other or engage in stretto imitation
    • Technical difficulties usually avoided (except in solo sonatas)
    • All movements in same key in earlier works; in later works, one contrasting movement in relative minor possible
    • Melodic resemblances between movements rare, although some examples exist
    • Typical sonata movements has no contrasting themes
      • Instead, a continuous "spinning out" of one theme involving sequential expansion, development of motives etc.
      • Occasional repetition of a brief melodic idea is heard but no large scale recapitulations
    • Two principal types of movements:
      • Contrapuntal
        • Often the first movement in both Church and Chamber sonatas; moderate or slow tempo
          • First allegro movement of the Church Sonatas; the Allemande movement in the Chamber Sonatas may be partially contrapuntal
          • Final gigue movement usually fugal
      • Homophonic
        • e.g., courante or sarabande movements
        • often associated with shorter, more periodic phrases
      • Some movements combine both, e.g., those in the style of a French Overture

  • Corelli's Solo Sonatas
    • Comparable to Church and Chamber Sonatas although an extra fast movement added to Church Sonatas
    • 3-part contrapuntal texture of trio sonata sometimes suggested by use of multiple stops on violin
    • More virtuosic: rapid scale lines and arpeggios, "moto perpetuo" 8th note passages etc.
    • Example: La Follia, based on variations of a well known Portuguese melody
  • Improvisation in Corelli's Sonatas
    • Small melodic figures: trills, turns, appoggiaturas, mordents
    • Longer ornaments: scales, arpeggios connecting notes of melody or following general melodic contour (called "division," "diminution," "figuration," etc.)
    • Incorporation of the "Cadenza" (found also in opera), consisting of an elaborate improvisation over a tonic six-four chord before the final cadence of a movement

• Major composers: Purcell, John Ravenscroft, Handel (late Baroque)

• Trio Sonatas or Sonatas for Larger Ensembles by Georg Muffat, Reinken, Buxtehude, Graupner and others
• Some German trio sonatas show typical German fondness for elaborate fugal writing

• Major composer: Couperin
  • Two suites of trio sonatas entitled Parnassus, or the Apotheosis of Corelli and The Apotheosis of Lully show Couperin's interest in balancing influences from the Italian and French styles

• Solo sonatas by Johann Walther (1650-1717) known for their technical virtuosity
• Solo sonatas by Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber known for his unaccompanied, programmatic "Biblical Sonatas" employing "scordatura" tuning

• Composers continuing in Corelli's style:
  • Francesco Geminiani (1687-1762), who publishes "The Art of Playing on the Violin"
  • Also Francesco Maria Veracini (1690-1750), Pietro Locatelli (1695-1764), Giusppe Tartini (1692-1770)

• Jean-Marie Leclair (1697-1764)
  • combines "classic purity" of Corelli with French "grace and sweetness of melody" while incorporating typical French ornamentation

• Germany
  • Schein's Banchetto Musicale
  • Johann Rosenmuller (1620-84) Ensemble Suites for 5 parts and basso continuo

• France
  • Based on orchestral techniques perfected by Lully and the Paris Opera Orchestra
  • Suites usually began with French Overture, followed by a series of dances (often grouped in pairs)
  • Example: Florilegium (1695, 1698) by Georg Muffat
  • Other composers of orchestral suites: J. K. F. Fischer, Fux, Telemann, J. S. Bach

1. Orchestral Concerto (Concerto-Sinfonia or Concerto-Ripieno)
2. Concerto Grosso
3. Solo Concerto

• Orchestral work in several movements
• Emphasis on melody (usually first violins) and bass; "continuo homophony"
• Some soloist "highlighting" but no consistent use of contrasting bodies of sound

• Multiple movements, e.g., 3 - 5 (late Baroque concerti usually employ three movements, with first movement often having solo introduction)
• Form based on contrast of sonority between entire orchestra (in the "tutti" or "ripieno" sections) and the smaller solo group (often just 2 violins, usually with its own continuo)

• also based on contrast of sonorities, but solo group replaced by a single soloist

• Corelli's concertos do not differentiate between the style of material given to the full orchestra and solo group (although this differentiation begins to be made by later composers)
  • even Corelli sometimes gives first violin brief passages of soloistic material not shared with larger orchestra

• movements sometimes resemble dance movements of Sonata da Camera and employ fugal finales typical in Church and Chamber sonatas

• Works: 6 concerti grossi, 6 solo concertos
• Standardizes 3 movement works: fast-slow-fast (with first movement often having slow introduction)
• Sometimes differentiates between the type of thematic material given to soloist(s) and orchestra
  • Soloist(s) material typically more virtuoso: often involves "figuration" patterns (i.e., fast moving scale lines and arpeggiations) rather than more clearly thematic material
• Typical form
  • Ritornello sections featuring full orchestra presenting main thematic material alternate with solo episodes employing figurative material that usually doesn't resemble the main thematic material
  • Opening and closing ritornelli are in tonic (although first ritornello usually cadences in dominant)
  • Internal ritornelli in various keys and usually involve progressive modulations
  • All ritornelli draw on the thematic material presented in the opening ritornello but may do so in abbreviated form
  • Solo episodes often modulate freely using sequences
    • Final solo episode cadences on dominant to prepare for final ritornello in tonic
  • Overall form resembles a rondo to the extent it alternates main thematic idea with contrasting episodes

• Tomaso Albinoni (1671-1750)
• Evaristo Felice dall' Abaco (1675-1742)