Music of the Baroque Period:  Handel and Bach

Trimester 1 -- Third Listening Assignment

Remember -- BAROQUE means "highly ornamented."  In music this means that composers used many musical "ornaments" -- different kinds of trills and mordants.  

In architecture, the structures --both inside and outside -- were very complicated in their looks -- like the music had complex melodies and ornaments.

Here's a picture of the interior of a Baroque Church:

                

Both Bach and Handel were musical geniuses, and both of them published a huge volume of music..

Click on this link to hear Handel's "Alla Hornpipe" from his larger work Water Music.

Alla Hornpipe from Handel's Water Music  (REQUIRED)

Click on this to hear the same piece but performed on a pipe organ.

Alla Hornpipe by Handel, but played on pipe organ.  

Click on this link to hear Handel's most famous composition, "The Halleluia Chorus" from his epic work, The Messiah.

Halleluia Chorus sung at Radio City Music Hall  (REQUIRED)

                                

Click on this link to hear Johann Sebastian Bach's most recognized organ piece, The Toccata and Fugue in D-minor.

Virgil Fox's Dynamite Rendition of a Fantastic piece of music!  (REQUIRED)

An interesting sidenote about this piece is that it is often associated with the Broadway Hit Musical, The Phantom of the Opera.  The reason for the association is that Eric, the real phantom, was playing the organ in his subterranean lair in the sewers beneath the Paris Opera House.  Christine Daea, whom he has kidnapped from the opera house, does the one thing forbidden by the phantom -- she removes the mask that covers his hideously ugly, scared face.  The scary drama of this music was perfect for what has simply come to be known as the "unmasking scene."



Extra Information about Baroque instruments:

The harpsichord was the most frequently used Baroque keyboard instrument.

It worked by having a small piece of a bird's feather, the quill (also used for                                                            

the pens of the day) "pluck" a string.  As long as the key was held, the string

would keep sounding until it died out.  If the key was released, a damper

would descend on the vibrating string and stop if from sounding.

Here is what the mechanism looked like:

The pipe organ was not as portable as the harpsichord. 
It required a wind supply (human hands or feet activating large bellows), a control console 

(which opened and close little valves beneath the pipes), and the pipes themselves (some of wood, some of metal, some very small, some very large).  Nowadays an electric motor powers a blower which fills the bellows.

Here is what the mechanism generally looked like (very simplified)



      
The Fugue is one of the Baroque Periods most important pieces of music.  
Bach was the Master of the Fugue.  He wrote many fugues, but the Toccata and Fugue in d-minor is very famous, especially the toccata portion.  The fugue is worth hearing as well.  Just as famous as the so-called Phantom of the Opera" fugue (d-minor) is another fugue by Bach called the Gigue Fugue.  The word gigue is translated into English as the "jig" fugue.  A "jig" is a very fast type of dance; this fugue got that name because the artist practically is "dancing a jig" on the pedals of the organ.

Watch this video of internationally acclaimed organist Paul Jacobs playing a mini-concert in his Manhattan apartment for NPR Radio.  You'll notice he has wide musical tastes when you see the Led Zeppelin music on his bookshelf in the background!  His footwork is amazing.  He is the chair of the organ department at Julliard.  He was a cathedral organist at the age of 15!
This is NOT required listening for a test -- but it's worth a listen to hear and SEE how a fugue is performed.

Bach's Jig Fugue  

Additional Material for the Baroque Period -- Not Required Listening

Antonio Vivaldi was an important Baroque era composer.  His background was quite different from that of Bach or Haldel.  Not a German or Austrian, Vivaldi spent his life in Italy. Vivaldi's health was problematic. His symptoms, strettezza di petto ("tightness of the chest"), have been interpreted as a form of asthma.^[3] This did not prevent him from learning to play the violin, composing or taking part in musical activities,^[3] although it did stop him from playing wind instruments. In 1693, at the age of fifteen, he began studying to become a priest.^[9] He was ordained in 1703, aged 25. He was soon nicknamed il Prete Rosso, "The Red Priest", because of his red hair.^[10] Not long after his ordination, in 1704, he was given a dispensation from celebrating Mass because of his ill health. Vivaldi only said Mass as a priest a few times. He appears to have withdrawn from priestly duties, but he remained a priest. 

Vivaldi wrote a great deal of music, but the music for which he is the most famous is The Four Seasons.

Here are some links to hear parts of The Four Seasons:

Itzak Perlman conducting "Spring"

Summer -- an excerpt

Fall -- with nice pictures as well!

Winter

Here is Bach being played by period instruments.  If you look at the instruments in the video, you will see that they are NOT modern.  The oboe is all wood, the various strings & viols don't have a chin rest, and the French horns don't have valves.  The keyboard is a harpsichord, not a piano.

Bach's Beautiful "Air on a G-string" with period instruments   (This is NOT required)