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Transition to the Classical era (1740–1780)

The phase between the late Baroque and the early Classical era, with its broad mixture of competing ideas and attempts to unify the different demands of taste, economics and "worldview", goes by many names. It is sometimes called "Galant", "Rococo", or "pre-Classical", or at other times, "early Classical". It is a period where composers still working in the Baroque style are still successful, if sometimes thought of as being more of the past than the present—Bach, Handel and Telemann all compose well beyond the point at which the homophonic style is clearly in the ascendant. Musical culture was caught at a crossroads: the masters of the older style had the technique, but the public hungered for the new. This is one of the reasons C.P.E. Bach was held in such high regard: he understood the older forms quite well, and knew how to present them in new garb, with an enhanced variety of form; he went far in overhauling the older forms from the Baroque.

The practice of the Baroque era was the norm against which new composition was measured, and there came to be a division between sacred works, which held more closely to the Baroque style from, secular, or "profane" works, which were in the new style.

Especially in the Catholic countries of central Europe, the Baroque style continued to be represented in sacred music through the end of the eighteenth century, in much the way that the stile antico of the Renaissance continued to live in the sacred music of the early 17th century. 

The masses and oratorios of Haydn and Mozart, while Classical in their orchestration and ornamentation, have many Baroque features in their underlying contrapuntal and harmonic structure. The decline of the baroque saw various attempts to mix old and new techniques, and many composers who continued to hew to the older forms well into the 1780's. Many cities in Germany continued to maintain performance practices from the Baroque into the 1790's, including Leipzig.

In England, the enduring popularity of Handel ensured the success of Avison, Boyce, and Arne—among other accomplished imitators—well into the 1780s. By this time it was thought of as an older style, and was required for graduation from the burgeoning number of conservatories of music, and for compositions written for the sacred context.

Influence of Baroque composition and practice after 1760

Because Baroque music was the basis for pedagogy, it retained a stylistic influence even after it has ceased to be the dominant style of composing or of music making. Even as baroque practice, for example the thoroughbass, fell out of use, it continued to be part of musical notation. In the early 19th century, scores by Baroque masters were printed in complete edition, and this led to a renewed interest in the "strict style" of counterpoint, as it was then called. With Felix Mendelssohn's revival of Bach's choral music, the Baroque style became an influence through the 19th century as a paragon of academic and formal purity. Throughout the 19th century, the fugue in the style of Bach held enormous influence for composers as a standard to aspire to, and a form to include in serious instrumental works.

The 20th century would name the Baroque as a period, and begin to study its music. Baroque form and practice would influence composers as diverse as Arnold Schoenberg, Max Reger, Igor Stravinsky and Béla Bartók. The early 20th century would also see a revival of the middle Baroque composers such as Purcell and Vivaldi.

There are several instances of contemporary pieces being published as "rediscovered" Baroque masterworks. Some examples of this include a viola concerto written by Henri Casadesus but attributed to Handel, as well as several pieces attributed by Fritz Kreisler to lesser-known figures of the Baroque such as Pugnani and Padre Martini. Today, there is a very active core of composers writing works exclusively in the Baroque style, an example being Giorgio Pacchioni.

Various works have been labeled "neo-Baroque" for a focus on imitative polyphony, including the works of Giacinto Scelsi, Paul Hindemith, Paul Creston and Martinů, even though they are not in the Baroque style proper. Musicologists attempted to complete various works from the Baroque, most notably Bach's The Art of Fugue. Because the Baroque style is a recognized point of reference, implying not only music, but a particular period and social manner, Baroque styled pieces are sometimes created for media, such as film and television. Composer Peter Schickele parodies classical and Baroque styles under the pen name PDQ Bach.

Baroque performance practice had a renewed influence with the rise of "Authentic" or Historically informed performance in the late 20th century. Texts by Quantz and Leopold Mozart among others, formed the basis for performances which attempted to recover some of the aspects of baroque sound world, including one on a part performance of works by Bach, use of gut strings rather than metal, reconstructed harpsichords, use of older playing techniques and styles. Several popular ensembles would adopt some or all of these techniques, including the Anonymous 4, the Academy of Ancient Music, Boston's Handel and Haydn Society, the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, William Christie's Les Arts Florissants and others. This movement would then attempt to apply some of the same methods to classical and even early romantic era performance.

Jazz

The Baroque style of music shares many commonalities with jazz. In addition to the small ensembles that most Baroque pieces were intended for (during that time there was no feasible way of generating a 100 piece orchestra), similar to a jazz quartet, most Baroque pieces used a variety of improvisation on the performers part. A prolific theory background was required to understand Figured bass, a method for pianists to improvise a bass line underneath pre-written chords. Most Baroque music employed figured bass, and consequently no two Baroque-era performances of the same piece were exactly alike. In contrast to the music written during the Classical and Romantic period, which was usually quite complex and epic (given the birth of the symphony during the Classical period), Baroque music was usually very simple and somewhat predictable.

The most similar aspect of Baroque music and Jazz music is improvisation of the lead instrument. For example, in most Baroque vocal solo pieces, there are two verses. The piece is played/sung through once, straight through, and then played a second time, where the vocalist will improvise ornaments, grace notes and non-harmonic tones. However, in contrast to jazz, neither the original rhythm nor the original notes/melody are altered. Instead, they are appended with improvisation rather than changed with improvisation. Unfortunately the art of improvisation was lost during the classical, romantic and 20th century eras of art music, however they were "re-discovered" (as with the church modes) in jazz music, especially by Louis Armstrong, who some call the "grandfather of jazz".

List of Baroque genres

• Opera
  • Zarzuela
  • Opera seria
  • Opera comique
  • Opera-ballet
• Masque
• Oratorio
• Passion 
• Cantata
• Mass (music)
• Anthem
• Monody
• Chorale

Instrumental

• Concerto grosso
• Fugue
• Suite
  • Allemande
  • Courante
  • Sarabande
  • Gigue
  • Gavotte
  • Menuet
• Sonata
  • Sonata da camera
  • Sonata da chiesa
  • Trio sonata
• Partita
• Canzona
• Sinfonia
• Fantasia
• Ricercar
• Toccata
• Prelude
• Chaconne
• Passacaglia
• Chorale prelude

See also

• List of Baroque composers
• Neo-Baroque
• Post-Baroque
• Hendrik Bouman, a contemporary composer writing in Baroque style.

External links

• Renaissance & Baroque Chronology
• Orpheon Foundation, Vienna, Austria
• Library and Recordings of Baroque Composers
• baroquemusic.org
• Guide to Baroque period musical instruments
• Vox Saeculorum, an international society of contemporary composers writing in the Baroque style
• An easy-to-understand guide to Baroque music

Sources and further reading

• Schulenberg, David. Music of the Baroque. New York: Oxford UP, 2001. ISBN 0-19-512232-1