WebFacts Chapter 24 WebFacts    WebFacts 2 Renaissance composers sometimes use melodic patterns and rhythms to represent bird cries or other natural sounds, making the music sound like what the text describes. Or they might depict a reference to "heaven" or "ascending" with a rising melodic line. This technique is called "text painting." Baroque composers were also interested in conveying emotion, but did so in ways that might seem restrained when compared with Romantic-era chromatic harmonies. Some Baroque composers employed chromaticism to convey pain or death (see, for example, Bach's settings of "O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden"). These chromatic alterations typically involved inflections within a melodic line or other types of chromaticism (for example, secondary dominants or diminished seventh chords), rather than mixture chords Bach also used suspensions and other types of accented dissonance to help portray pain and death. In what other ways did Baroque composers convey the intended mood of a work? During the Baroque period, musicians did not tune their instruments according to the equaltempered standard prevalent today. In these older tunings, different keys sounded distinctive; thus the key or mode used by a composer was, on its own, enough to convey an emotion. Finally, the types of rhythms and meter selected by the composer were also an important key to the "affect," or mood, of the piece. For example, long-note durations (whole and half notes, indicating a slow tempo) might represent majesty or grandeur; short-note durations (indicating a quick tempo) might represent gaiety. In some locations, particular melodic embellishments (added by the performer) were meant to portray particular emotional states.

Copyright 2005 ©    W. W. Norton | Credits | Site Feedback | Technical Support | Print This Page