Baroque Era (1600-1750)

Our first stop on our travel through music history is in the Baroque Era. During this time, all of Europe was changing the way artists painted and sculpted, architects designed buildings, and composers wrote music. If we looked around, we would find that Shakespeare is alive and writing plays. People have learned that the earth revolves around the sun, and now that we have a telescope, we realize that the universe is much bigger than we thought. These ideas cause musicians to create the style of music that they do with many loud instruments and all kinds of fast notes. People had been creating music of all different styles long before 1600, but this is the beginning of what we call Classical music. Some of the famous composers during this time were Johann Sebastian Bach (ever heard of him??), Antonio Vivaldi, George Frideric Handel, Alessandro Scarlatti, and Johann Pachelbel. The word Baroque actually means a misshapen pearl, from the Portugues term barroco. It is easy to see why this period could be referred to as a misshapen pearl. The music was very dramatic with many embellishments. The pieces were long works written for orchestras, made up of many musicians, and were over the top. However, much like a pearl, the music from the Baroque Period is very beautiful and awe-inspiring.
The composers of this era were influenced by the Greeks and Romans. They tried to create music that communicated a great message or idea. This meant that many pieces of music were commissioned by churches to tell stories from the Bible. In fact, the famous composers were often paid by churches or princes to compose music that fit a certain purpose, not necessarily just what they wanted to create.

New forms of music:
Oratorio
Sonata
Cantata
Concerto

Listen to a Baroque Banquet:
For Bach, listen to the Brandenberg Concerto 2 and the Concerto for 4 Harpsichords
For Vivaldi, listen to the Four Seasons-Spring
For Scarlatti, listent to the Sinfonia 12


Sources:
Stuart Smith, Jane, and Betty Carlson. The Gift of Music. 3rd ed. Wheaton: Crossway
Books, 1995.
Music of the Baroque. http://www.baroque.org/baroque/whatis.htm#whatis (13 January 2011).
Sony Music Entertainment. http://www.essentialsofmusic.com/ (17 January 2011).

Music History

One of my goals for this blog is to briefly cover a very important part of learning to play the piano, and one of my favorite parts, which is music history. This is a large subject which covers hundreds of years, but we'll keep it short and sweet to get a brief overview. Understanding music history really helps students understand the background of the pieces they are learning, especially as they begin to play what are known as "Classical" pieces. There are 4 major periods that cover the span of what we know as Western Music.

These are:

-Baroque
-Classical
-Romantic
-Contemporary

Each period has its own unique sound and style, which changes over time. However, there are even more differences among musicians within each period, but overall, music historians identify these 4 eras. Over the next few months, I will (hopefully!) create posts on each era, and my goal is to incorporate each periods style of music into my students' lessons. So first up...Baroque!!!