Canarie (canary): Fast dance from the Renaissance and Baroque eras. It was in 3/8 or 6/8 meter. The dance was named for the Canary Islands, the dance s place of origin. [See: ] Chaconne: Variation on a repeated short harmonic progression, often involving a fairly short repetitive bass-line (ground bass) which offered a compositional outline for variation, decoration…
​Although our church did not have an organ until 1850, we did incorporate music into the services way back when. Stearn’s valuable History of Rindge explains that, in the early years, attention was paid to the encouragement of church music. In those years, a few members of the congregation had learned how to read music and the church was open to innovations in…
Music and Society is a series of eight books, designed to present music in a broad context of socio-political, economic, intellectual and religions life. In place of the technical and stylistic discussions that make up most histories of music, the reader will find music considered rather as a series of responses to social forces; the idea is not to explain simply…
SECTION 2.2 PERFORMING MEDIUM: Vocal and instrumental music were both prominent during this era, and ensembles such as chamber orchestras became popular (the term chamber orchestra was used to describe a small number of instrumentalists who could fit in a room or small hall). Strings were the main section of the chamber orchestra, and woodwinds and brass were…
Beginning early in the 17th century there emerged a chamber music idiom that both exemplified some of the defining stylistic traits of the Baroque era and proved to be popular over the entire span of the era-the trio sonata. This multi-movement type of instrumental work involved two active and often contrapuntal treble lines played, most typically, by a pair…
Webster has defined Baroque Music as a style characterized by strict form and elaborate ornamentation. While this may be true, there is a deeper element in Baroque Music that has fostered its resurgence among music lovers the world over. One only has to listen to, for example, the Brandenburg Concerti of J. S. Bach or the wistful excitement in Vivaldi s Spring…
Phantasmagoria was an extremely popular “show” put on for both children and adults in France after the French Revolution, featuring the appearance of ghouls, ghosts, spectres and apparitions. It was shown in other countries of Europe, but it was by far most popular in France, where so many had lost loved ones during the Terror, and where, apparently, a hunger…
The world of Renaissance and Baroque music can be a bit baffling – so we asked an expert to name his five favourite pieces from the period, from Purcell to Bach. David Peter Bates is the founder and artistic director of La Nuova Musica, an ensemble that specialises in performing music from the Renaissance and Baroque eras. So it’s fair to say that he knows his…
It’s possible to reduce distractions while working by up to four times – all from listening to a specific combination of sounds. The science based focus music is used by employees at Google, Apple, Tesla, Microsoft and Space X. If it’s good enough for the oddities of Silicon Valley it’s probably good enough for your English Lit essay. A survey of 1, people revealed…
Engineering romantics fall in love with the work of Jorge Luis Borges early in their careers. Long after Douglas Hofstadter is forgotten for his own work in AI (which seems dated today), he will be remembered with gratitude for introducing Borges to generations of technologists. “I should define the baroque as that style which deliberately exhausts (or tries…
Claudio Monteverdi. Imagno/Hulton Archive/Getty Images In 1573, a group of musicians and intellectuals came together to discuss various subjects, especially the desire to revive Greek drama. This group of individuals is known as the Florentine Camerata. They wanted lines to be sung instead of simply being spoken. From this came the opera which existed in Italy…
In Seventeenth-Century Italy The Carracci Although Mannerism may have begun as an extension of elements of the High Renaissance style, it atrophied during the later sixteenth century into a repetition of formulae. Complex in composition, colour and meaning, strange in lighting and extreme in bodily contortion, in expression and psychological tenor, Mannerism…
The Baroque Period spans from 1600 to 1750. During this time there were increases in commercial activity, leading to an increase of power in the middle class, which ultimately lead to the Industrial Revolution. Opera was now emerging for the first time, with many opera houses being built. The two giants of the Baroque era were Bach and Handel. Bach s death…
