Chapter 20: Main Currents in Baroque Music
Study Plan
Key Points
- The Baroque era marks the introduction of a new style—monody, featuring solo song with instrumental accompaniment.
- Monody was developed by groups of writers and musicians (such as the Florentine Camerata) to recreate the musical-dramatic art of ancient Greece.
- Harmony was notated with figured bass, a shorthand that allowed the performer to supply the chords through improvisation. The bass part, or basso continuo, was often played by two instruments (harpsichord and cello, for example).
- The major-minor tonality system was established in the Baroque era, as was the equal temperament tuning system.
- While early Baroque music moved more freely, later Baroque style is characterized by regular rhythms and continuous melodic expansion.
- As musical instruments developed technically, the level of virtuosity and playing techniques rose.
- The union of text and music was expressed in the Baroque doctrine of the affections.
- Women musicians figured among the professional singers and instrumentalists of the Baroque era.
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