Baroque Basics

By Heidi Castleman
From Sejong International Music Festival presentation, August 6, 2014

Emotional Expression - extravagant, exuberant (1 affection/movement)

Tonality Explored - music becomes more highly structured;
dissonance/consonance
Tension/release
Cadences
Voices - bass particularly important

Sound Material - ringing, curved, decay with implications:
Articulations lead to distinctive rhythmic patterns
Slurs reflect phrasing

Other influential artforms - Rhetoric and Dance

Inequality = the rule
Weight / non-Weight
Dissonance/Consonance
Strong/Weak Beats or Beat Hierarchy
(expressed in both stress and time as in poetic meters)
Down/Up feel in bow arm

Bowing Practices and Conventions

A. Rule of the Down Bow
B. Slurs - principles of when and where use
C. Role of articulation silence
D. Bowing Patterns unique to individual dances (Lully)

Dance Characteristics

Aristocratic/Popular
Upbeat or Downbeat Dances
National Styles: French (rhythmic gestalt)/ Italian(virtuoso vehicle)/ mixed
Quality of steps: Elan/Repos - key to phrasing

Ornamentation - including appoggiaturas, trills, vibrato and extempore variations are all important although will not be addressed in this presentation.

Challenge of manuscript sources provide limited information about dynamics, bowings, articulations and tempi. Our job = gleaning the composer’s intent

What is the composer’s intent?