Questions tagged [baroque-period]
A time period in Western art music spanning between 1600-1760 CE, approximately.
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What are the base notes that different tuning system used?
I’m trying to understand how the different tuning systems and temperaments were used from the past.
Would people tune their instruments based on the key of the piece they were going to play? Is there ...
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5answers
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Function of augmented-fifth in figured bass
What is the harmonic function of the 5+ in the figured bass in the following snippet?
If I have interpreted the figuring correctly, a F♯ figured 5+ should realise the triad F♯ A C𝄪. I am confused ...
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1answer
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ornamentation in keyboard music of William Byrd
I'm working through some tunes by Byrd, and am wondering about the ornamentation, the two diagonal slashes through the note stem.
As far as I can tell, we don't actually know what the composers of ...
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1answer
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Name of style of piece inside the G Minor BWV915 toccata of Bach?
In Bach's Toccatas for keyboard works (BWV 911-916), I would like to know if there is a name for the style of music that is sometimes put in the middle of the toccata.
For example: in the G minor ...
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2answers
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Different versions of mordents in Bach Invention No. 1 In C Major, BWV 772
I was playing Bach Invention 1 when my sister told me that I was playing it wrong.
When I learnt this piece like 10 years ago, my sheet looked like this.
But my sister showed me her music sheet from ...
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Does Bach's lute partita BWV 997 Sarabande also appear as an orchestral piece?
I am practicing the Bach lute suites and I am aware that a few of them also appear as works for other instruments (BWV 1000 is also the fugue from the first violin sonata, for example).
My question is ...
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1answer
80 views
How do you play a lower or upper mordent with two notes like in Bach D minor prelude 926? [duplicate]
How do you play these two mordents shown
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What is the name of this notation in this example by Couperin?
Consider following excerpt from the beginning of the 2nd leçon of Couperin's Leçon des ténèbres pour le mercredi saint:
As you see, it uses a rather strange notation where, for instance, a bar of 3/2 ...
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1answer
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Why do notes not add up to the bar in this example by Couperin?
Consider following excerpt from the beginning of Couperin's Leçon des ténèbres pour le mercredi saint:
I noticed that the note values don't always add up in a bar.
Cases (indicated in the figure):
...
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3answers
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Why did baroque music use percussion abundantly, but classical stopped?
Classical music evolved from baroque music, which in turn evolved from Renaissance music. Both baroque and even more so Renaissance make extensive use of percussion. It is certainly not new to ...
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What clef is this? (Baroque, Vivaldi)
What is this clef in Vivaldi RV281? This is the only source of the concerto is available ( at least without buying it, which is the manuscript). The piece did have a few weird clefs like an octave ...
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2answers
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Is there a functional interpretation for VIIb in La Follia?
La Follia chord peogression is usually written as:
i - V7 - i - VII - III - VII - i - V7 (first eight bars)
i -V7 - VII - III - VII - i,V7 - i (second eight bars)
I can understand how this progression ...
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1answer
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Playing symphonies by e.g. Rachmaninoff or Mahler using string instruments with gut strings (like more Baroque styled instruments)?
I was listening to some performances from Netherland's "All of Bach" group that performs Bach works on Baroque instruments. I quite liked the sound of the strings, and I thought that it ...
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1answer
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How did baroque composers write sequences that are both imitative and modulatory?
Still working on my Bach-style fugue. And I wonder, how did composers of that time-period come up with all those sequential episodes in their fugues?
I know that there is a certain standard ...
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2answers
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What differs between the rondo and its Baroque counterpart, the ritornello?
So, ever since I heard the term ritornello, I have wondered what makes it different from the rondo. So I’ve listened to several pieces in ritornello form to try to find the difference, but I couldn’t. ...
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1answer
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How do/did composers deal with very many contrapuntal voices?
A work that I've admired as long as I've known about it is Antonio Caldara's Crucifixus for 16 voices. YouTube video here.
It does make me wonder how a composer like Caldara (or Thomas Tallis for ...
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2answers
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Why is the numbering scheme of the Telemann-Werke-Verzeichnis (TWV) not adopted more universally?
Telemann's works are numbered first according to genre, then, where applicable, by key (with minor keys in lowercase and major keys in uppercase), and finally (if possible) chronologically or else at ...
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In general, do chamber musicians prefer to play from a score or from an individual part book?
Specifically in the context of Baroque trio sonatas. If part books are preferred, then what is the point of printing such works in score in the first place?
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When editing/transcribing music of the Baroque period is it considered good practice to modernize key signatures and clefs?
As a hobby (and for my personal edification), it seems like a fun challenge to transcribe a few Baroque music manuscripts into a more readable form, and maybe post the results to imslp.org or ...
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How did counterpoint, harmonic rhythm, and thoroughbass interact in the late-Baroque instrumental fugal style?
It may be considered common knowledge that frequent root changes, i.e., a fast harmonic rhythm, usually cause a piece to be perceived as being more purely "harmonic" and less polyphonic in nature. (...
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Why is Baroque composition called “more complex” than Classical composition?
I've been researching the difference between Baroque and Classical and every time it mentions that the former is far more complex than the latter.
Looking at the two most prominent composers in both ...
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1answer
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What is this natural trumpet?
On this picture of the London Gabrieli Brass Ensemble found here, one sees what I suppose are natural brass instruments.
Does the trumpet right below have a specific name? It has a different form ...
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2answers
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What is Echo (a type of dance)?
This question is about a type of Baroque dance called Echo. For example, Bach: Overture in the French Style in B Minor, BWV 831 - VIII. Echo.
Why it is called Echo? I searched in wikipdiea, but out ...
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How did Baroque music come to be associated with Christmas?
I was introducing Baroque music to a friend, and trying to make it less intimidating, I jokingly said, "You've heard this before, Christmas shopping at Macy's." My friend laughed, but I started to ...
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2answers
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Where can I read more about Monteverdi's role in the evolution of the orchestra?
I have seen it mentioned here and there that Claudio Monteverdi was the first composer to score for a specific set of instruments, for his opera Orfeo in 1607, and that this had a significant impact ...
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4answers
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What do these notation marks mean?
So recently I have got this piece for a classical guitar (probably originally for some kind of lute) - Chaconne by Anonymous from Schwerin
It's full of mysterious parentheses, and I have failed to ...
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1answer
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Where to get a feedback on composed baroque music? [closed]
I am trying to write music in baroque style. Are there places (on Internet) where I could get feedback on my compositions?
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2answers
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What is the difference between a ciaccona (chaconne) and a passacaglia?
Wikipedia says that a ciaccona (chaconne) is a musical composition involving variations on a harmonic progression or melody (motif), similar to the passacaglia. Both originated from Spain in the ...
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2answers
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What is this symbol?
This symbol from Les Baricades Mistérieuses, Couperin, 1717.
From recordings I can only guess a mordent. I've checked various music dictionaries and done several reverse image searches, all without a ...
6
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1answer
179 views
In the partimento tradition, what strategies were used to harmonize non-bass melodies?
In my readings on partimento theory (mainly the books by Sanguinetti and IJzerman) I have so far only encountered rules for harmonizing a bass melody. This is to be expected of course, because ...
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Should you play baroque pieces a semitone lower?
I haven't really been able to find an answer to this question. I've only noticed that most instruments during the baroque period were tuned a semitone lower (A=415 Hz I believe). So shouldn't it make ...
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1answer
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What makes two dances that share the same meter and a similar tempo different?
Common practice music employs only a small handful of time signatures, but there is a multitude of different dances. The steps are different. But is there something other than meter and tempo that ...
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1answer
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What does an isolated horizontal dash mean in figured bass notation
Here you see a fragment from Francesco Geminiani's Guida Armonica (ca. 1752), a sort of 'dictionary' or catalogue of figured bass snippets. My question is, what do the isolated horizontal dashes mean ...
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3answers
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Placing the downbeats in this five-bar passage in Bach's Italian Concerto
I am asking about bars 13-19 in the first movement of J.S. Bach's Italian Concerto (BWV 971; sheet music). My ear always hears bar 13 plus the first crotchet of 14 as one extended bar of 3/4 and then ...
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2answers
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Which type of trumpet is typically used to perform Bach Brandenburg 2
Could anyone explain how to choose what design of trumpet to perform Brandenburg 2 on? I'd expect it to be performed on a Bb piccolo trumpet - but there are three-valve and four-valve piccolos, and ...
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1answer
277 views
What was the shortest note length commonly used during baroque period?
Eighth and sixteenth notes were obviously common enough. I've also seen some examples of 1/32 and 1/64 (link). Were 1/32 and 1/64 used frequently? And what was the shortest note length commonly used ...
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1answer
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What is this particular type of chord progression, common in classical music, called?
I don't know anything about music theory but I am a fanatic when it comes to listening to classical music. For a while I have been curious about a type of chord progression which is very common in ...
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4answers
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5/7b in figured bass
What does 5/7b mean in figured bass?
If it is just a 7th chord in root position, then why is it not just 7b?
In other places in the same score, 7 or 7b are used to denote a 7th chord.
Here is the ...
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2answers
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Figured bass and ties
How does one play figured bass when the bass line contains ties?
For example, here are the first three measures of Vivaldi's "Filiae maestae Jerusalem" (sheet music source).
Do I understand ...
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1answer
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Baroque notation question
Here's a snippet from a 1624 facsimile of Juan Arañés' "Libro Segundo de Tonos y Villancicos".
This is a rather syncopated, lively song, with a time signature of C3.
Note values seem to be ...
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1answer
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Renaissance or Baroque pieces with no instrumentation
I found out today that Michael Praetorius's Terpsichore is written with no indication about what instruments to use. I knew that the Art of the Fugue doesn't have instrumentation either, but I'd ...
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A♭ major 9th chord in Bach is unexpectedly dissonant/jazzy
Measures 21-24 in Prelude VII from Bach's Well Tempered Clavier I
I was looking at the Prelude VII by Bach and noticed that on the measure 23 Bach ended that phrase with a A♭ maj9 chord. I was ...
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3answers
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What are some nice/clever ways to introduce the tonic's dominant seventh chord?
I'm in C minor and want to modulate to its subdominant key of F minor. One way to do this is to introduce the tonic flat seventh chord C-E-G-B♭, which is the dominant seventh chord of F minor. ...
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3answers
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Combining forms to make a new musical form
Has there ever been a composer between Baroque and early Romantic periods (within piano literature) who created a new form based on a combination of previously separate forms into a new iteration or ...
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1answer
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Baroque mordent with leading “slur”?
I'm currently studying Bach's Harpsichord Concerto BWV 1052 on the piano and arrived at the second movement. In there, I noticed a mordent that I'm not all too sure how to play. Here's a picture, it's ...
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1answer
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Two different approaches to the mordent in one piece in baroque? [duplicate]
I've got a question regarding the mordent over the two different notes with different realization in Bach's Partita No.4 Aria (as in the image). The first one starts from a note above while the second ...
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Should I practice some J.S. Bach for piano technique and where should I start?
I want to know if playing J.S. Bach would improve my overall piano technique. I look for pieces that help me to become better. I usually play romantic composers. I have played pieces such as
Chopin'...
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2answers
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How to realize the figured bass of the second movement of BWV 1014?
I am planning a performance of the second movement of Bach's violin sonata BWV 1014 in B Minor. The beginning of second mvt, Allegro is shown below.
As you can see there are some figured bass below ...
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3answers
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What does the plus (+) ornament mean?
I am learning a baroque piece on the recorder. Some notes have an unusual ornamentation symbol. How is a note with a plus sign over it played? It was suggested to play it as a mordent. Is that correct?...
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2answers
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Are Baroque Bassoons more difficult to play?
In an article introducing The Breaking Winds Bassoon Quartet, it mentions that
The muffled, dark-sounding bassoon of the baroque era was so hard to
play in tune that composers didn't write solos ...
