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1. Lesson 12: Baroque
Music – Its Vocal
and Instrumental
Forms
Jose Emmanuel Maningas
Jose Karlo Asturias

2. Lesson Outline
Baroque Music
1. Vocal Forms
 Opera
 Cantata
 Oratorio
2. Instrumental Forms
 Concerto Grosso
 Suite

4. What is Baroque Music?
Baroque Music is the music of Europe from about
1600 to about 1750. Critics applied the term
baroque to the period long after it ended, as a
negative epithet. From the perspective of the
classical style, which followed the baroque and was
characterized by symmetry and balance, many
critics found the music of the preceding period
over-exuberant and somewhat grotesque.

5. What is Baroque Music?
Not until well into the 19th century was the
baroque age viewed as something other than a
period of artistic decadence following the
Renaissance. (The term baroque, which may
derive from a Spanish or Portuguese word for
an irregularly shaped pearl, was also applied to
art and architecture of this time period.

6. Vocal Forms of Baroque Period
The vocal forms of the Baroque period were based on
the monadic style. The songs were accompanied by bass
instruments such as the viola da gamba and the
harpsichord
(early
keyboard
instrument).
The
accompaniment is called basso continuo or figured bass
that consists of a written bass line with numerals below
the notes.
The Baroque vocal forms are the opera, the cantata and
the oratorio.

7. Common Baroque Instruments
Viola da gamba
Harpischord

8. Baroque Vocal form: Opera
Opera is an art form where musicians (singers and
instrumentalists) perform a dramatic composition
putting the libretto (text) and the musical score
together accompanied by the orchestra or smaller
ensemble. Elements of the spoken theater like
acting, costumes and scenery are incorporated in an
opera. One example of an opera work is Monteverdi’s
greatest opera, ―Orfeo‖.

9. Baroque Vocal form: Opera (Orfeo)

10. Baroque Vocal form: Cantata
An Italian word cantata, which means ―sung‖, is a
vocal composition accompanied by an
instrument. It is a vocal music for soloist or
choir whose instruments are based on a narrative
poem of secular or religious, lyrical or dramatic
in nature. ―Awake, A Voice is Calling Us‖ is JS
Bach’s best known cantata.

11. Baroque Vocal form: Cantata (Awake, A Voice
is Calling Us)

12. Baroque Vocal form: Oratorio
Oratorio is a composition with narration usually
based on biblical subjects though not intended
for religious services. It is a large composition
for chorus, vocal soloists and orchestra. The
―Messiah‖ is the well-known oratorio of Handel
where Hallelujah Chorus was taken. It is meditative
rather than dramatic.

13. Baroque Vocal form: Oratorio
(“Messiah”)

14. Instrumental Forms of Baroque Period
The status of instrumental music came to equal that of vocal
music in the 17th century, in part because technical
improvements had given musical instruments more resonance
and truer tone, and in part because people had become more
aware of the potential of different instruments to create a
certain mood or effect. Thus, in the 17th century composers
started to write music with specific instrumentation—that
is, with designated parts assigned to particular instruments.

15. Instrumental Forms of Baroque Period
Also, instrumental music was written in increasingly
idiomatic styles, with composers taking the capabilities
of each instrument into consideration and exploiting
them to good advantage. With the concern for specific
instrumentation in composition came a greater
standardization of ensembles. Small orchestras began
to take shape; they were used to accompany singers in
operas and for purely instrumental works.

16. Baroque Instrumental form: Concerto Grosso
Concerto Grosso is the most important form of
orchestral music in the Baroque period. The
orchestra consists mainly of strings with fewer
solo instruments called the concertino which
plays in opposition to the whole orchestra called
tutti. The tutti is mainly composed of stringed
instruments with a harpsichord as part of the
basso continuo.

17. Baroque Instrumental form: Concerto Grosso
The concerto grosso consists of three movements: 1)
fast – the opening movement is vigorous and
determined, clearly showing the contrast between the
soloist and the tutti; 2) slow – the second movement
is quieter than the first, often lyrical and intimate; and
3) fast – the last movement has contrast in tempo and
character. An example of a famous concerto grosso is
the ―Brandenburg Concerto in D major‖ written by JS
Bach.

18. Baroque Instrumental form: Concerto Grosso
(Brandenburg Concerto in D major”

19. Baroque Instrumental form: Suite
Suite refers to a group of works held together by
story, mood or idea in the late 19th century. It is an
instrumental music with different movements in
the same key based on dance music to be
performed at a single sitting. Other terms for
Baroque group of dances include Partita, Overture
and Sonata da Camera. Water Music by Handel and
Badinerie from Suite No. 2 in B minor by JS Bach,
are examples of suite.

20. Baroque Instrumental form: Suite (Suite No. 2
in B minor)

21. Thank you
for
listening!