The Baroque Era

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Introduction The word Baroque was first used to to describe the art and architecture of the 1600’s and 1700’s, but later came to describe the music of the same period as well. The baroque style of music was prominent from around 1600-1750 and produced many great composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel, and Antonio Vivaldi. The Baroque era is one of many different innovations in the way that music was composed and performed.
In this research paper I will research the origins of the Baroque period and style of music. The transition from Renaissance to Baroque music was facilitated by Claudio Monteverdi, who developed the style of the basso continuo, one of the most important features of the Baroque era.
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Monteverdi was born in Cremona, which is in the Northern part of Italy, in 1567. In the early parts of his life he was a composer and singer in his hometown of Cremona. During this time, he composed and performed madrigals in the Renaissance style. In 1602 he became the court conductor of Mantua, another northern Italian city. In 1607, he finished his first opera Orfeo, which is significant because it is the oldest opera that is still performed today. This opera was considered to be the first opera where the composer specified the exact instrumentation that should be used in the accompaniment. Monteverdi followed this opera with his second opera, Arianna which was performed the next year in 1608. Monteverdi then relocated to Venice where he became the director of music at St. Marks Basilica. While in Venice, Monteverdi continued to create both sacred and secular music, including operas that were sent back to Mantua to be performed where they were more popular at the …show more content…
This period is also brought along with it the advances in Opera, along with the new styles of oratorio, and cantata. The oratorio was quite similar to the opera, with its main differences being that it focused on biblical or other Christian topics, and that it eschewed the scenery, costumes and action of the opera. The other related style, the cantata, was also very close to the style of the opera. The main difference with the cantata was that it was generally shorter and on a smaller scale. Larger cantatas were virtually identical to a scene from an
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