The Baroque Era Essay example -- essays research papers

THE BAROQUE AGESocial and Cultural terra firmaBaroque is a term borrowed from the visual arts and one that is employin many different senses. The Baroque Era applies to the years amongst1600 and 1750. The most famous composers of this age were Bach, Handel,Vivaldi and Teleman.Politically it was an age of magnificent unassailable Monarchs. The mostmagnificent of all was Louis XIV of France. Louis ruled from 1634 until 1713. During this time the need to create a national culture or a regional stylethat would match or surpass the elsewhere created heathenish models waspressed for.When looking at Baroque architecture it is noticeable that thesculptures and paintings are never still they are twisted, moving, struggling,and dramatically lighted. Paintings of the Baroque Era cerebrate more ondramatic subjects and experimented with dramatic lighting.The Baroque Era was bear on with feelings, the robuster thebetter. This could be seen through surface the churches. In church struct urethe proportions are grandiose, they are designed to impress and awe theobservers. Gold and rich textures and surfaces can be seen all through thechurches.All of these themes that I have discussed are withal clear in the harmonyof the Baroque period. It paints pictures of vibrant colours and triggersstrong emotions. The desire to discover these themes is evident in theinvention of the exciting in the buff form medicine, opera house, and in the use of operatictechniques in dramatic music for the church.Important Musical DevelopmentsComposer-performers would strive at becoming Kapellmeisers in thisEra. A Kapellmeister is a music director at one of the great courts. Theywere creditworthy for all the music performed in the court. These positionswere very unstable though and composer were everlastingly on the lookout for newopportunities.The responsibilities of performers during this era was to write musicat a furious pace due to the demand. Bach, for example, was responsible foron e oratorio a week while he was music director at Leipzig. Due to the pacethe music was written, the performers of the pieces had to fill in thedetails. Baroque music can therefore be classified as a oddball of jazz becausethe soloists would p... ... satisfying effect the listener of this piece feels the triumph and enjoyment of the text due to its easy to follow material.Antonio Vivaldi,Spring from The quartet SeasonsBach and Handel are not the only great composer of this era. AntonioVivaldi was another grasp of music during the Baroque period.Vavaldi was born in 1678 in Venice. His father too was a musician, afiddleist at St.Markss church in Venice. For thirty-six years, from 1704until 1740, he was music director at the Ospedale della Pieta, a schooling forillegitimate daughters of the aristocracy. He then left his job to conductopera in Italian cities. He eventually wrote concertos not only for violin andstandard winds-oboe, flute, bassoon-but also for instruments such as t hepiccolo, mandolin, and guitar.One of his best know works is the Four Seasons. It is a set of fourconcerti grossi which relate to character during these seasons. The spirit ofchildlike playfulness can be seen throughout out this piece which isimportant to Baroque style. It is very easy to see why Vivaldis pieces arestill played and enjoyed to this day.