<\/p>
From about 1600 to 1750.<\/p>\n
The word is probably derived from the Portuguese word \u2018barroco\u2019, meaning \u2018oddly-shaped pearl\u2019. It was originally used to describe the elaborate German architecture of the 17th and 18th centuries \u2013 and it was not intended as praise.<\/p>\n
In the minds of critics, who preferred restraint, the works of artists such as Bernini and Pietro da Cortona appeared bizarre\u00a0 \u2014\u00a0 like the misshapen pearl. Eventually the term came to be used to describe the style of music from the same period.<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> The Baroque period was a time of great religious, political and philosophical development. Protestantism was sweeping through northern Europe, taking deep root in England and Germany, where Johann Sebastian Bach<\/a><\/strong> spent all of his life (he wrote much of his music for the Lutheran church).<\/p>\n As monarchs amassed ever greater wealth and power, the state was increasingly challenging the authority of the church. Enlightenment ideology was gathering momentum, placing new emphasis on progressivism and human reason.<\/p>\n Sir Isaac Newton, the German astronomer Johannes Kepler and the English physician William Harvey were making huge strides in science,\u00a0 round about the same time that literary giants such as Shakespeare<\/a><\/strong>, Racine and John Milton were drilling down into the details of human psychology: it was between 1599 and 1601 that Shakespeare wrote Hamlet<\/em>. So it\u2019s not surprising that the music of the period went through some fairly significant changes of its own.<\/p>\n Such as?<\/strong><\/p>\n It became more emotive, elaborate and dramatic, as composers became more aware of music\u2019s potential as a means of communication. With the introduction of the pianoforte, an early version of the piano which could play both loudly and quietly, composers began to harness dynamics as an expressive tool.<\/p>\n They also increasingly embraced the possibilities of instrumental music: some of the most popular Baroque works, such as Vivaldi\u2019s\u00a0Four Seasons<\/em><\/a><\/strong>, are instrumental. As with Baroque architecture, ornamentation became ubiquitous; even the simplest melodies were decorated with trills<\/a><\/strong>, acciaccaturas, appoggiaturas<\/a><\/strong> and mordents. But perhaps the biggest development was the emergence of equal temperament (a tuning system in which the octave is divided into twelve equal semitones) and the establishment of the 12 major and minor keys that we still use in Western music today.<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> Among the most popular forms were the Prelude<\/a><\/strong> and Fugue<\/a><\/strong>, the cantata, the concerto, the oratorio, the sonata and opera, the latter of which became firmly established during the Baroque era, building on the foundations laid by Monteverdi<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> And the most famous works?<\/strong><\/p>\n Among the many, many popular works of the period, there are the blockbusters: Handel\u2019s Messiah<\/em><\/a><\/strong> and Zadok the Priest<\/a><\/strong>; <\/em>Vivaldi\u2019s Four Seasons <\/em>and Gloria<\/a><\/strong>;<\/em>\u00a0and any number of works by Bach: the St Matthew Passion<\/a><\/strong>;<\/em> Mass in B minor<\/a><\/strong>; the Toccata and Fugue in D minor; Goldberg<\/em> Variations<\/a><\/strong>; Brandenburg Concertos<\/a><\/strong>; and the Well-Tempered Clavier<\/a><\/strong>.<\/em> But this really is the tip of a colossal iceberg. Have fun chipping away at it yourself.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p><\/body><\/html>\n By Hannah Nepilova Published: Tuesday, 01 November 2022 at 12:00 am When was the Baroque period? From about 1600 to 1750. Where does the term \u2018Baroque\u2019 come from? The word is probably derived from the Portuguese word \u2018barroco\u2019, meaning \u2018oddly-shaped pearl\u2019. It was originally used to describe the elaborate German architecture of the 17th and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":21287,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"3"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/11\/a-guide-to-baroque-music.png",630,538,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/11\/a-guide-to-baroque-music-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/11\/a-guide-to-baroque-music-300x256.png",300,256,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/11\/a-guide-to-baroque-music.png",630,538,false],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/11\/a-guide-to-baroque-music.png",630,538,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/11\/a-guide-to-baroque-music.png",630,538,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/11\/a-guide-to-baroque-music.png",630,538,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Hannah Nepilova Published: Tuesday, 01 November 2022 at 12:00 am When was the Baroque period? From about 1600 to 1750. Where does the term \u2018Baroque\u2019 come from? The word is probably derived from the Portuguese word \u2018barroco\u2019, meaning \u2018oddly-shaped pearl\u2019. It was originally used to describe the elaborate German architecture of the 17th and…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/21286"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What\u2019s the historical backstory to the era (in a nutshell)?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
What were the musical forms of the Baroque period?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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