Patricia Jimenez

SLM 521 – Web Drop #3

October 21, 2005

Vocal Music of the Baroque Era

This supplementary activity explores and compares the three main genres of Baroque

vocal music – opera, cantata, and oratorio.

We will concentrate on three main composers: Purcell, Bach, and Handel.

Henry Purcell (1659-1695) wrote the first great English opera, Dido and

Aeneas. He was the organist at Westminster Abbey and composed many

theatrical pieces. His pieces are recognized for his lyrical melodies and mastery

of counterpoint. Purcell often employed the device of the ground bass, in which

a bass melody is repeated while the upper parts pursue variations. Purcell’s

English music used elements of French and Italian innovation.

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) was born into a German family of musicians. He became famous as an organ virtuoso. As a devout Lutheran, he believed that music must serve to glorify God. Rather than creating new forms, Bach’s education, practice, and music mastery of counterpoint raised the standards of compositional performance. His sacred vocal works include over two hundred cantatas. He wrote over twenty secular cantatas as well as a plethora of orchestral, keyboard, and organ compositions.

George Friderick Handel (1685-1759) was born in Germany and took a job in his late teens as a violinist in an opera house. He wrote his first opera at age twenty. Handel was appointed as one of the musical directors of the Royal Academy of Music of London in 1720 with the purpose of producing Italian operas as well as writing his own. When the Royal Academy failed in 1728, Handel turned from opera to oratorio. Among his greatest achievements in this genre were Israel in Egypt, Messiah, Judas Maccabaeus, and Jephtha.

Visit Baroque Music (http://www.baroquemusic.org/index.html). This site explains the characteristics of Baroque music, offers portraits of major composers with biographies, and presents a Baroque music sampler. There you will collect data to complete the following chart on the similarities and differences of the Baroque opera, cantata, and oratorio.

Print out your work and save it in your music folder for class discussion.

[http://www.baroquemusic.org/index.html last visited October 21, 2005]

	OPERA Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas	CANTATA Bach’s Cantata 140: Wachet Auf	ORATORIO Handel’s Messiah
ELEMENTS	* * *	* * *	* * *
Place Performed church, theater, court, etc.
Audience
Instruments
Vocalists Soloists Chorus Ensembles
Text secular/ sacred language subject matter possible source
Melody range character polyphony counterpoint
Harmony consonant, dissonant drone ground bass modulation
Dynamic Changes abrupt or swelling
Form Repetition Contrast Variation Imitation
Prelude
Interlude
Ornamentation Melissmas Improvisation Trills

* Other notes: