[00:00.00] W: The term “Baroque” refers to a style and a culture rather than a precise period in history.[00:07.26]Architecture, painting, and music each have a style called Baroque.[00:12.26]One of the most striking features of the Baroque style is its expressiveness.[00:18.26]Baroque music is a vigorous style combining imagination with great feeling.[00:24.26]There’s great use of dissonance to express extremes of emotion, especially in vocal music.[00:31.26]And compared to Renaissance music, Baroque music has more ornament.[00:36.26]Trills and grace notes—little twists on notes—all find their way into musical notation.[00:42.26]Baroque music is known for its virtuoso instrumental music.[00:47.26]Instrumental music had been gaining in importance and came into its own around 1600. [00:53.26]Music was freed from the necessity of words, and it now moved to dance rhythms rather than speech rhythms.[01:01.26]The new style demanded new musical forms.[01:04.49]It was in the Baroque era that some of the forms we know today began to take shape: the opera, the sonata, and the concerto.
[01:13.26]The person generally given credit for inaugurating the Baroque style was Claudio Monteverdi.[01:20.26]Monteverdi’s career took place at the same time as other developments, like the rise of solo singing and, um, experiments to re-create Greek music and drama.[01:31.26]These experiments led to a new form called opera.[01:35.26]Monteverdi was the first of the great Italian opera composers, and he was also the first to explore the tone colors of the orchestra.[01:44.26]Monteverdi was a revolutionary.[01:47.26]He took musical risks, like doing exciting things with rhythms, and using dissonance to make the music more expressive.[01:55.26]The golden age of Baroque instrumental music began with orchestral combinations like the one Monteverdi used in his opera Orfeo. [02:05.26] The orchestra for Orfeo consisted of two harpsichords, two contrabasses, twelve members of the violin family, a double harp, two pipe organs, four trombones, two cornets, a small flute, three muted trumpets, and an assortment of other instruments.[02:23.26] With these instruments, Monteverdi told the Greek legend of Orpheus.[02:28.26] The instruments dramatized the story’s characters and plot. [02:33.26] For example, the high flute and a small violin accompanied the shepherd, brasses and organ music suggested the underworld, and so forth.[02:43.76] Orfeo was full of expressive devices, and demanded masterful playing from strings and brass, as well as virtuoso singing.
[02:53.26] M: Excuse me, Professor Stevens. Could you explain exactly what “virtuoso” means?
[02:59.26] W: Sure. “Virtuoso” is an Italian word. It means highly skilled or ... worthy.[03:06.58] A virtuoso piece of music requires a highly skilled vocalist or a masterful player.
[03:12.58]M: But a person can be a virtuoso, right? I mean, we can say, for example, “He’s a real virtuoso.”
[03:19.58]W: Yes, that’s right. A virtuoso is a musician who plays with great skill and technique,or who has an extraordinary individual style.[03:28.58]It was the, um, violin virtuosos who perfected new forms of instrumental music in the Baroque period.[03:35.96]All of the great violinmakers of the time were concentrated in Italy.[03:40.58] The terms “concerto” and “sonata” also come from Italian.[03:45.58]The concerto and the sonata developed as vehicles for virtuoso musicians to show off their skills.[03:53.58] The concerto became the dominant instrumental form of the Baroque period.[03:58.58] Concertos feature solo instruments—usually violins—and orchestra, or they can feature groups of instruments and orchestra. [04:07.58]The music is characterized by its dazzling virtuosity and ornamentation.[04:13.58]Baroque concertos required a lot of technical skill—in both the composing and the performing.
[04:19.58]The most famous of all Baroque concertos were for solo violin and orchestra. [04:25.58]Vivaldi’s Four Seasons are probably the best known examples.[04:30.58] The Four Seasons are four related concertos—one for each season.[04:35.58] They are pure, quintessential Baroque music— descriptive, expressive, elaborate—and with virtuoso violin playing. Before I go on, let’s pause here so we can listen to the first of The Four Seasons. Here is “Concerto Number 1, Spring.”
托福14天冲刺微信战团