Baroque Music

Bach worked as a composer for royalty in Germany during the Weimar and Baroque period and contributed over 200 original cantatas. Bach was most well known for playing the organ, and his most important work contributed to music was The Well-tempered Keyboard that involved 48 preludes and fugues, a pair for each major and minor key. The significance of his work was the full range of keys used and the distinct difference from each key. Towards the end of Bach’s life he performed for the court of King Fredrick II and was beloved in Prussia. At the end of his life Bach had composed over 1,000 works and was a major influence on Haydn and Mozart.

The introduction part of the first movement started with a moderately slow tempo of Andante with accompaniment of violin sound. It then continued with a solemn music of brass chord which depicted the conflict between the two families. Then, there was one repetition of the sequence before it went to a heavy, angular march theme music accompanied by a dull trombone sound, which replaced the mood into a rapid tempo of Allegro with a shifting in the melody of around an octave higher, and a louder dynamic. The second part of “The Young Girl Juliet” began with the skittering play of flutes and cheerful sound of light percussion that portrayed Juliet as a young teenager, with a gentle clarinet sound perfectly represented the innocence of Juliet.

The first violin phrase is played again in piano with fluctuating rhythm in the background played by violas. The piece moves to Phrase 2 where woodwinds join and move the music from piano to forte for a few seconds, then phrase 1 is modulated with accompaniment of the woodwinds. Then in the transition, the piece goes back to the tonic key (first key) and switches between upper and lower strings, and ending in sustained chords with the addition of woodwinds instruments in subito forte. The piece jumps to the second theme presented initially in the

Special Topic #4: J. S. Bach Ricercar This piece of music, The Musical Offering, is a set of pieces composed by J. S. Bach in 1747. King Frederick II of Prussia challenged J. S. Bach to improvise a six-voice fugue on the theme of “Regis Iussu Cantio Et Reliqua Canonica Arte Resoluta", and so he did. The first letters of each word of the theme spell out the word “Ricercar”, which was a well-known genre of that time. Throughout this piece, J.S. Bach uses many of the basic elements of music to all work together to create the shape, along with the dramatic flow of this piece.

G. F. Handel and J.S Bach were both composers who were born in Germany. Bach came from a family with a rich musical background, while Handel did not (Kamien, pg 143). The compositions of Handel and Bach, Messiah and Wachet Auf, both have a religious context and include the ritornello technique. As for the texture of these compositions, both are characterized by a polyphonic and imitative texture. Additionally, string instruments are used in Messiah and Wachet Auf.

Towards the end of this movement, we get a long series of magical-sounding ascending and descending piano trills which then fall into a very low, but ambitious bass line which carefully (but quickly) builds up into a climactic and cheerful finale that concludes the movement with an exciting boom at the

The chords throughout this piece are all heard in first inversion in order to make shifts between keys easy, however, each cadence is played in F major. Chords move through the circle of fifths starting on G and ending with Bb, with chords changing at the end of each statement on the last syllable. The use of the circle of fifths reflects the conflict happening on stage, giving the effect of a darkened mood, underlined with a sudden modulation to D minor. Figaro begins to lack comprehension which is portrayed through a modulation to A major, the corresponding false relation. A modulation to D major is heard as Susanna teases Figaro by saying ‘you are my servant, no?’ and brightens the mood.

This fourth instance of the A melody is otherwise played the same as in “The Raiders March” until the last two bars, where it immediately jumps into what was the coda of the original piece (1:53). Here, the coda acts as a musical break between the A melody and a new C melody, which is really just the A melody of “Marion’s Theme”. As the strings transition between the two parts at (2:05), one can notice that this version of “Marion’s Theme” differs significantly than the original, most notably in its instrumentation. Here, the horn plays the melody while string ensemble plays harmony for the first six bars (2:09).

The harmonic movement of the opening thirty-one bars is primarily the tonicization of A major through a [V to I] progression. A half cadence is then used at bar thirty-two to make a modulation to the five chord: E Major. At bar thirty-three the

It features two main themes, plus many melodic episodes. The structure - in A-B-A form - is clearly identifiable through the themes that mark each of the sections: the lyrical melody that opens the work, the exciting piu animato that ends with a demanding cadenza, and the final recapitulation that is followed by a cheeky and vivacious codetta that brings the work to a dramatic close. Possessing a memorable melodic theme, the piece tests the performer through the unending phrases, virtuosic c and the resultant nimble fingerwork required. It has remained one of the great standards amongst the

First of all, the piece is quite interesting as a prelude – an introductory piece of music as it start off with dynamic and vibrant sounds that include the whole ensemble. This piece is structured as a three-part or ternary form which consists of ABA’ form. The idea of this piece is mainly act as an introductory of a story because this piece is only an excerpt from a bigger orchestral performance. From what I have heard, the solo performance is mainly comprise of the woodwind instruments in part B that indicated the slight sign of relief and calmness. The piece has a lot of variation where the composer include different timbres and dynamics such as the high dynamic structure during the first and the last part with the associating crashes of cymbals.

The concert had three sections which were separated by short break. The second piece was . It opened with a baroque music - the Partita IV in D major, BWV 828 which was composed

The same technique used in bars 1-4 is used again until bar 17, where the texture goes back to that found in bars 5-8. In Variation II, the melody line is once again reminiscent of the theme, as are the semiquavers in the bass line which are played as triplets. The right hand is decorating the original theme with trills and descending perfect fourths in scalic demi-semiquavers.

The opening movement of the classical concerto No.23 is the most musically substantial. It is the longest movement and a fast-paced variation of sonata principle; sonata-allegro. Begins in home key; A major, presents and develops several themes before ending in the home key.

There are several theories that regard where and when the music originated. The historiographers pointed out that there are different periods of music with each period having its own characteristics, its composers, its instruments, its rhythm and significance to the existing music today. The first three periods; Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque are expounded in this essay. The periods span through different times albeit some overlapped one another. The essay also focuses on the common factor that triggered the existence of the music periods and its impacts on each period.