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Essay on Baroque Period
The period we now call the Baroque stretched across a stormy century and a half of European history. It began shortly before the year 1600, a convenient signpost that need not be taken too literally, and may be regarded as having come to a close with the death of Bach in 1750. The transition from Renaissance to Baroque brought with it a great change: the shift of interest from a texture of several independent parts to one in which a single melody stood out--that is, form polyphonic music to homophonic. The new style, which originated in vocal music, was named monody--literally, "one song,", music for one singer with instrumental accompaniment.
Baroque musicians served patrons, whether nobles, state or church. It was not until well into the eighteenth century that some musicians, like their twentieth century counterparts, began to work without patronage as independent professionals, earning a living from teaching, composing and performing.
As does all great art, Baroque music speaks to something that transcends time and place, but it also derives much from the social and cultural context of the world for which it was written. The emerging financial, commercial and professional classes created their own musical experience in the home and at church, and artistic schools flourished portraying.......
