“Basically Bach and Totally Baroque!”  For its November ninth concert the JSO has prepared a feast of music from Baroque period, a time of richly ornate music and some of the greatest musical minds of all time.

The term ‘baroque” probably came from the Portugese barroco, an irregularly shaped pearl popular in jewelry at the time.  Music historians generally agree that the Baroque period extended from 1600 to 1750.  Like all such generalizations, it is a little too tidy to be completely accurate.  The death of J.S. Bach in 1750 makes a very convenient milestone, but strong winds of change had been blowing for a long time by then, and the stylistic traits that mark the Classical age of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven were already taking firm hold all over Europe.  On the other hand, the aging Handel still had nine years to live and was still producing music that was very Baroque in style.

The Baroque period was a tumultuous age.  In the words of Robert Machlis, it was a time of “appalling poverty and wasteful luxury, magnificent idealism and savage oppression – against contradictions such as these unfolded the pomp and splendor of Baroque art; an art bold of gesture and conception; vigorous, decorative, monumental.”

It was an era of absolute monarchs, and the opulent court of Louis XIV in Versailles set a standard that all others hoped to emulate.  Great minds like Galileo, Kepler, Newton, Spinoza and Descartes were changing our view of the world.  Famous painters such as El Greco, Rubens and Van Dyck created images that were ornate and full of drama.  It was a very devout period that witnessed some of the bloodiest wars in history, like the tragic Thirty Years War that raged between nominally Catholic and Protestant forces from 1618 to 1648.

A century and a half is a long time, and Baroque music is often divided into three phases, the “low, “middle” and “high Baroque.”  In the beginning composers and performers were seeking to move away from the learned counterpoint of the high Renaissance and developed a new approach, the nuove musiche, that focused on dramatic melody over relatively simple instrumental accompaniment.  The hope was to recapture the dramatic qualities in music that the ancient Greeks had described, and it is no coincidence that opera was born at the same time.

There were many more new developments as the Baroque period progressed.  Music was now in a major or minor key, rather than one of the ancient ecclesiastical modes.  Other new forms like the concerto, sonata and dance suite developed as music became much more suited to the unique qualities of individual instruments like the violin, flute, oboe, harpsichord, and eventually, a new invention called the pianoforte, which is now known simply as the piano.

At the end of the Baroque period music was often more complex and polyphonic than Renaissance music had ever been, and J.S. Bach was creating music that reflected astonishing feats of compositional craft, and more importantly, beautiful music that stands among the greatest achievements in the history of music.

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Suite #3 in D Major

A suite is a collection of smaller pieces unified by some common element.  In the Baroque period suites of pieces based on dance rhythms became a very important form.  A Gavotte, for example, is usually in four beats to the bar, while a Bouree is most often a quicker piece in two-beat patterns.  Most Gigues are fast, energetic pieces with six beats in a measure.  The Ouverture in this Bach suite is based on models from French music and has a fast, fugal section between two slower sections. 

Air is simply another word for song, and the famous, singing melody from this movement has become famous as the “Air on the G String.”  The nickname that has stuck with the piece came from a later transcription for solo violin where the tune was played entirelyly on the dark, expressive lowest string of the violin.

As is so often the case with Bach’s music, this suite shows the master taking forms that were in common use at the time and elevating them to an unrivaled level of perfection.

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Battalia

  The name of Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber (1644-1704) is not as familiar as some other Baroque musicians, but he developed a phenomenal reputation during his lifetime and was widely considered to be the finest violinist of the seventeenth century.  He is also highly respected for his highly unique violin sonatas, many of which require the strings of the violin to be scordatura, tuned to intervals other than the customary fifths.

 Biber’s Battalia is very unusual, especially for Baroque music.  The name means “Battle,” and Biber creates ingenious effects to imitate drum and fife sounds, cannons and other battle sounds.  Slower sections depict tender farewells and a lament for the wounded.

 In one section Biber foreshadows ideas that would be worthy of Charles Ives!  It is intended, he indicates, “For Dissolute Company with All Manner of Humors.”  Eight different melodies are piled on top of each other, apparently with complete disregard for the rules of counterpoint. “Here all parts are dissonant,” Biber warns, “since different songs are being bellowed out at once.”

Biber probably worked all this out with his tongue firmly in cheek.  He dedicated the work to Bacchus, the god of wine and merrymaking.

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Brandenburg Concerto #2

It is hard to imagine the modern orchestral repertoire without concertos, and this significant genre had its origins in the Baroque period.  Most concertos are pieces for a soloist and orchestra, but the concerto grosso is a uniquely Baroque genre that features a group of soloists instead of just one.  The orchestra is not merely an accompaniment.  Ideally, the soloists and the orchestra are having a conversation between equals.  Actually the chat can get rather boisterous!  It’s believed that the word came from the Latin concertare, “to fight.”

In 1721 Bach dedicated six now-famous concertos to Christian Ludwig, the Margrave of Brandenburg.  In a dedicatory letter Bach explains that the Margrave had asked him to write some pieces after hearing him play two years earlier.  The nobleman may have forgotten the passing comment, but Bach hadn’t, and for Ludwig’s birthday on May 14^th, Bach presented him with six pieces that have become some of his best-known and loved music.

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The Four Seasons

The flamboyant Aantonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) was known as “the Red Priest” because of his fiery hair.  He was another virtuoso violinist, and for years he directed a renowned orchestra at the girl’s orphanage Pio Ospedale di Pietà in Venice.  Vivaldi’s skillful compositions were an invaluable step in the development of the concerto.

In 1725 Vivaldi published a collection of twelve concertos under the title Il Cimento dell’Armonia e dell’Inventione, or “The Contest Between Harmony and Invention.”  The first four concertos depicted the cycle of the year.  The set, which came to be known as The Four Seasons, has been enormously popular ever since.

Each of the concertos was annotated with a sonnet describing the moods and images Vivaldi was depicting with the music.  Spring arrives joyfully with birds singing and a gentle brook babbling.  A benign thunderstorm interrupts briefly before the tranquility returns.  In the following movements a goatherd naps in a flowery meadow with his dog and a group of nymphs and shepherds dances to the music of a bagpipe.

The Winter concerto evokes images of shivering in icy darkness, stamping feet, chattering teeth, a peaceful interlude by a fire, playful antics on slippery ice and cold northerly winds.

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Cantata #4 "Christ lag in Todesbanden"

Some of Bach’s finest and most beautiful music may be found in his cantatas, most of which were designed for performance in the church.  Cantatas were very popular during Bach’s lifetime and were a very effective means of dramatizing a given scriptural passage or other kinds of text.  They generally consisted of a variety of movements including choruses, chorales, duets and solo arias.  Bach probably wrote over 400 cantatas during his lifetime.  All but about 250 have been lost.

Bach’s Cantata #4, Christ lag in Todesbanden, “Christ Lay in the Bonds of Death.” has long been considered one of the richest and most profound.  This cantata for Easter Sunday was based on the hymn of the same name written by Martin Luther in 1524.  Luther’s hymn was itself based on even more ancient musical sources celebrating the resurrection.  The music begins in somber, dark tones and gradually progresses to end with a resounding alleluia.

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