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Personal Styles of Baroque

Composers
Palestrina: He is the greatest composer of the church music of Renaissance.
The Palestrinian style is the standard for polyphonic church music (stile
antico). His style is diatonic. He avoids chromaticism. The individual voice
parts have an almost plainsong-like quality. The motion is mostly stepwise with
infrequent and short leaps. Purity of line is matched by purity of harmony. The
gentle diatonic lines and the discreet handling of dissonance give Palestrina's
music a consistent serenity and transparency. Another beauty of his
counterpoint lies in the management of sonority, the grouping, spacing, and
doubling of voices in vertical combination. By varying the voice grouping, a
large number of subtly different shadings and sonorities can be obtained from
the same chord. The gently marked regularity of rhythm is characteristic of the
Palestrina style. The rhythm is supported by alternation of strong 'prepared'
dissonance on the downbeat (tension) and sweet consonance on the upbeat
(relaxation).

Corelli: His style represents the late Baroque Italian national style. Stabilised
tonal language, achieved by the extensive use of sequences following the
circle-of-fifths, melodic simplicity and emphasis on the upper part, conjunct
(usually descending) series of first inversion chords are characteristics. He
stereotyped the walking or running bass. His Op. 6 concerti grosso represent a
high point at classical balance and dignity (smooth and patterned melodic line
over a steadily moving bass). This was a style which was very original to his
contemporaries but appears predictable and simple to us. Behind this
simplicity, one can easily see the gracious expression of a Baroque composer.
The first eight of the concerti grosso are concerti da chiesa (multimovement,
with fugal first movement) and the last four are concerti da camera (with
movements in dance rhythms). His concerti have five (or more) movements.
He did not write in three movements nor in ritornello form. There is no solo part
for the violin. The peak of Corellian concerto grosso is represented by Handel's
Op. 6 concerti grosso. He established four movements as a norm in both
church and chamber 'sonatas'. Corelli's violin writing was characterized by
avoidance of extremes of the register and broken-chord figurations. A feature
of Corelli's counterpoint is the leap-frogging of the two violins. Each part rises
in turn by a fourth, having just fallen by step to resolve a suspension (a rising
sequence in which the suspensions still resolve downwards).

Vivaldi: Most of his concertos are in the usual pattern of three movements
(first used by Torelli): an Allegro, a slow movement in the same or closely
related key (relative minor, dominant, subdominant), and a final Allegro.
Though a few movements are found in the older fugal style, the texture is
typically more homophonic than contrapuntal. Continuo homophony describes
the texture of most of his concertos, i.e., melody is the gloss on the underlying
chord progressions of the continuo (his priority is the chord progressions in the
underlying bass line). The formal scheme of the individual movements of
Vivaldi's concertos are the same as Torelli's works: ritornellos for the full
orchestra, alternating with episodes for the soloist. Unlike Torelli's concertos,
the ritornellos are transposed to other keys in a movement, modulations
confined to the soloist's episodes. To avoid monotony, he rearranges or
shortens ritornellos in later uses in the movement. He established between
solo and tutti a certain dramatic tension, the soloist became a dominating
musical personality against the ensemble. His dramatic conception of the role
of the soloist was accepted and developed in the Classical concerto. Qualities
so characteristic of Vivaldi are: Concise themes, clarity of form, rhythmic
vitality, impelling logical continuity in the flow of musical ideas. He thinks
instrumentally and likes repeated patterns (usually of broken chords) with slow
harmonic change. Thus, his instrumental thinking differs from Corelli's lyrical
melodies and Torelli's angular lines. He was the first composer to give the slow
movement of a concerto equal importance with the two allegros. As in
Corellian bel canto style, simple triple metre frequently occurs. Siciliano rhythm
(12/8) is also used. The noble simplicity of Vivaldi's slow movements inspired
following composers like JS Bach. Bach's Brandenburg concertos are the peak
of Vivaldian type Baroque concerto grosso.

Scarlatti, Domenico: Sonata form can be seen in its embryonic form in his
music. All of the 555 sonatas of Scarlatti are organised by means of tonal
relationships into the standard late Baroque and early Classical binary pattern
used for dance pieces and other compositions: two sections, each repeated,
the first closing in the dominant or relative major (rarely another key), the
second modulating further and returning to the tonic. The closing part of the
first section invariably return, but in the tonic key, at the end of the second
section.

Rameau: According to his theory of harmony, all melody is rooted in harmony.

His melodic phrases are usually triadic. Orderly relationships within the major-
minor tonal system of dominants, subdominants and all secondary chords and
modulations govern the harmony. His overtures frequently become a
symphonic poem and he usually introduces a theme to re-appear later in the
opera. The French valued music especially for its depicting powers, and
Rameau was their leading tone painter. In the heroic, grand style of his early
operas and opera-ballets (Rococo style), he is a representative figure of the
late Baroque period, comparable to Bach and Handel.

Telemann: He was an admirer of French music. In his concertos he followed

the French suit model rather than the Venetian model. His music represents
the North German counterpart of French Rococo style (elegant, pleasing and
ornamented).

M.Tevfik Dorak, B.A. (Hons)

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