Lit Terms

music literature

Stile conciato (concerto)

Style devised by Claudio Monteverdi to portray anger and warlike actions, characterized by rapid reiteration of a single note, whether on qu

Concerted madrigal

early seventeenth century type of madrigal for one or more voices accompanied by basso continuo and in some cases by other instruments

Sacred concerto

In the seventeenth century, a composition on a sacred text for one or more singers and instrumental accompaniment

Pastoral drama

Play in verse with incidental music and songs, normally set in idealized rural surroundings, often in ancient times; a source for the earlie

Intermedio

Musical interlude on a pastoral, allegorical, or mythological subject performed before, between, or after the acts of a spoken comedy or tra

Camerata

Circle of intellectuals and amateurs of the arts that met in Florence, Italy, in the 1570’s and 1580’s

Monody

An unaccompanied solo song. Also, the musical texture of solo singing accompanied by one or more instruments.

Arias (early 17th century)

a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without orchestral accompaniment, normally part of a larger work

Solo madrigal

In the late 15th and early 17th centuries, a through-composed setting of a non-strophic poem for solo voice with accompaniment, distinguishe

Jacopo Peri

an Italian composer and singer of the transitional period between the Renaissance and Baroque styles, and is often called the inventor of op

Sinfonia

Generic term used throughout the 17th century for an abstract ensemble piece, especially one that serves as an introduction to a vocal work.

Ritornello

In a 14th century madrigal, the closing section, in a different meter from the preceding verses. In 16th century and 17th century vocal musi

Strophic Variation

Early 17th century vocal genre, a setting of a strophic poem in which the melody of the fist stanza is varied but the harmonic plan remains

Antonia Cesti’s Orontea

Chaconna (or caiccona)

A vivacious dance-song imported from Latin America into Spain and then into Italy, popular during the seventeenth century

Cantata

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, a vocal chamber work with continuo, usually for solo voice, consisting of several sections or m

Sacred concerto

Seventeenth-century genre of sacred vocal music featuring one or more soloists accompaniedby organ continuo

Stile modern

Seventeenth-century style that used basso continuo and applied the rules of counterpoint freely

Oratorio

genre of dramatic music that originated in the seventeenth century, combining narrative, dialogue, and commentary through arias, recitative

Giacomo Carissimi

an Italian composer and music teacher. He is one of the most celebrated masters of the early Baroque and the Roman School of music

Heinrich Schutz

a German composer and organist, generally regarded as the most important German composer before Johann Sebastian Bach and often considered t

Musical figures

In baroque music, a melodic pattern or contrapuntal effect conventionally employed to convey the meaning of a text

Historia

In Lutheran music of the 16th to 18th centuries, a musical setting based on a biblical narrative

Girolamo Frescobaldi

musician from Ferrara, one of the most important composers of keyboard music in the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods

Fugue

composition or section of a composition in imitative texture that is based on a single subject and begins with successive statements of the

Subject

themes, used especially for the main melody used in a ricercare, fugues, or other imitative works

Chaconne and passacaglia

is a baroque genre variations over a basso continuo. a baroque genre of variations over a repeated bass line or harmonic progression in tri

Louis XIV

Sun King, was a monarch of the House of Bourbon who ruled as King of France from 1643 until his death

Court ballet

17th century French genre, an extensive musical dramatic work with costumes, scenery, poetry, and dance that featured members of the court a

Jean-Baptiste Lully

an Italian-born French composer, instrumentalist, and dancer who spent most of his life working in the court of Louis XIV of France. He is c

Tragédie en musique

a genre of French opera introduced by Jean-Baptiste Lully

French overture

opens with a slow, homophonic and majestic section, followed by a faster second section that begins with imitation

Grand motet

French version of the large-scale sacred concerto, for soloists, double chorus and orchestra.

Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre

a French musician, harpsichordist and composer

Unmeasured prelude

A French baroque keyboard genre

Courante

A dance in binary form, in a compound meter at a moderate tempo and with an upbeat, featured as a standard movement of the baroque dance sui

Sarabande

a slow dance in binary form and in triple meter, often emphasizing the second beat a standard movement of a suite

Couplets

In a rondo or 17th-18th century Rondeau, one of several periods or passages that alternate with the refrain

Tomás de Torrejón y Velasco

a Spanish composer, musician and organist based in Peru, associated with the American Baroque

Tiento

Spanish improve style instrumental piece that features imitation, similar to the 16thcentury fantasia

Serenata

A semidramatic piece for several singers and small orchestra, usually written for a special occasion.

Sonata da camera

baroque sonata, usually a suite of stylized dances, scored for one or more treble instruments and continuo

Trio sonata

Common instrumental genre during the baroque period, a sonata for two treble instruments (usually violins) above a basso continuo. A perform

Arcangelo Corelli

an Italian violinist and composer of the Baroque era. His music was key in the development of the modern genres of sonata and concerto, in e

Orchestral concerto

Orchestral genre in several movements, originating in the late seventeenth century, that emphasized the first violin part and the bass, avoi

Concerto grosso

Instrumental work that exploits the contrast in sonority between a small ensemble of solo instruments (concertino), usually the same forces

Dietrich Buxtehude

a Danish-German organist and composer of the Baroque period. His organ works represent a central part of the standard organ repertoire and a

Episode

In a fugue, a passage of counterpoint between statements of the subject. (2) In rondo form, a section between two statements of the main the

Orchestral suite

Late-seventeenth-century German suite for orchestra patterned after the groups of dances in French ballets and opera

Conservatories

homes for orphaned and poor boys that taught music

Farinelli

Carlo Broschi, a well known castrati, raised an trained in Naples

Vivaldi

an Italian Baroque composer, virtuoso violinist, teacher and cleric.

Pio Ospedale della Pietà

a convent, orphanage, and music school in Venice, in what is now northern Italy. Like other Venetian ospedali, the Pietà was established as

Ritornello form

Standard form for fast movements in concertos of the first half of the eighteenth century, featuring a ritornello (4) for full orchestra tha

François Couperin

a French Baroque composer, organist and harpsichordist. He was known as Couperin le Grand to distinguish him from other members of the music

Jean-Philippe Rameau

one of the most important French composers and music theorists of the Baroque era

Georg Philipp Telemann

composer and multi-instrumentalist. Almost completely self-taught in music, he became a composer against his family's wishes

Johann Sebastian Bach

a German composer and musician of the Baroque period. He enriched established German styles through his skill in counterpoint, harmonic and

Well-Tempered Clavier

a collection of two series of Preludes and Fugues in all major and minor keys, composed for solo keyboard by Johann Sebastian Bach

The Art of the Fugue

an incomplete work of unspecified instrumentation by Johann Sebastian Bach

Musical Offering

contains a 3 and 6 voice ricercare for keyboard and ten canons, all based on a theme composed by Frederick the Great of Prussia

Cantata cycles

a series of cantatas written by Georg Philipp Telemann while he was Frankfurt's Director of Municipal Music

Chorale cantatas

is a sacred composition for voices and instruments, principally from the German Baroque era, in which the organizing principle is the words

St. Matthew Passion

a Passion, a sacred oratorio written by Johann Sebastian Bach in 1727 for solo voices, double choir and double orchestra, with libretto by P

George Frideric Handel

a German, later British Baroque composer who spent the bulk of his career in London, becoming well known for his operas, oratorios, anthems,

Simple recitative

Style of recitative scored for solo voice and basso continuo, used for setting dialogue or monologue in as speechlike a fashion as possible,

Ensemble suites

Handel’s Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks