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Lully (Baroque opera): *
In his operas the focus was on drama, expressed by a variety of vocal forms: monologs, airs for 2 or 3 voices, rondeaux and French-style da capo airs (the chorus alternates with singers), sung dances, and vaudeville songs for a few secondary characters. The chorus might perform as a dramatic chorus or singing chorus, in its entirety or as duos, trios or quartets. The intrigue of the plot culminated in a vast tableau, where soloists, chorus and dancers participated, producing astonishing effects thanks to machinery. In contrast to Italian opera, the various instrumental genres were present to enrich the overall effect: French overture, dance airs, rondeaux, marches, "simphonies" that painted pictures, preludes, ritournelles. Collected into instrumental suites or transformed into trios, this music influenced all Europe. His first operas were performed at the indoor Bel Air tennis court (Luxembourg Palace) converted into a theater. Later operas either took place at court, or in the theatre at the Palais-Royal, & at the Palais-Royal. His first opera was Cadmus et Hermione (1763); his final opera was Achille et Polyxène (1687).
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Bach fugue (differentiation & integration): *
Bach composed music to explore the full range of artistic & technical possibilities. The 2 books of the Well-Tempered Clavier provide a prelude and fugue in every major & minor key, displaying an amazing variety of structural, contrapuntal & fugal techniques. Bach brought the fugue to the peak of its development in the hundreds that he composed. His Art of the Fugue represents the apotheosis of the form. His primary purpose was to demonstrate all the myriad possibilities of fugal composition. The entire work is based on a theme which consists of the 2 building blocks of tonal music: the 3 notes of a D minor chord & scale. This simple theme undergoes many permutations throughout the 14 fugues and 4 canons (actually fugues) which constitute this work. In the 3rd fugue he turns it upside down, where the original melody descends it now ascends & vice versa. In the 5th fugue, we hear some intervals filled in with rather jazzy, dotted rhythms. Later we hear it syncopated and in triple time. Starting with the 8th fugue, new themes are introduced, but are all derived from the original theme.
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Bach's experimentaiton is ilustrated below with The Art of The Fugue Contrapunctus I, II and III.
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Corelli (sonatas): *
Corelli was one of most influential composers of the trio sonata. His trios would serve as models for other composers well into the 18th century.
His published trio sonatas are:
12 Trio-Sonatas, Op. 1 (dedicated to Queen Christina of Sweden) published in Rome 1683
12 Chamber Sonatas, Op. 2 (dedicated to Cardinal Panfili), published in Rome 1685
12 Trio-Sonata, Op. 3 (dedicated to Francesco II d'Este, Duke of Modena), published in Rome 1689
Twelve Trio-Sonatas, Op. 4 (dedicated to Cardinal Ottoboni), published in Rome in 1694
Also a collection of Trio Sonatas, for 2 violins, cello, and organ, published as "Op. post." in Amsterdam, 1714.
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Watteau (as painter-Couperin):
After the death of Louis XIV (1715), French aristocrats abandoned the grand style of Versailles in favour of the intimate townhouses of Paris. Here, they could play & flirt, and put on scenes from the Italian commedia dell'arte, a 16th century Italian theatre. It was characterized by masked "types”, saw the introduction of actresses, employed improvised & scripted performances based on sketches or scenarios; used wit & jokes, often a scripted routine, and pantomime. Watteau’s work reflects this new climate, a less severe, less formally classical, more naturalistic Rococo. Some of his best known subjects were drawn from the world of Italian comedy and ballet. He invented the genre of fête galantes, scenes of bucolic & idyllic charm, suffused with a theatrical air. In 1717 Watteau applied to join the Académie des Beaux-Arts but his work fit none of their categories. Rather than reject him, they simply created one (fête galantes). It is a compromise between the academy & Watteau’s patrons (middle class private individuals). The academy ranked scenes of everyday life & portraits (works desired by private patrons) as inferior to history & mythological paintings, morally educational art. By placing his patrons in scenes reminiscent of the mythologized land of Arcadia (where humans lived in leisurely harmony with nature), Watteau was able to get his paintings the highest ranking at the academy & still flatter his patrons.
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The Fête galante paintings are fundamental to rococo art. In the 18th century art moved away from the hierarchical, standardized grandeur of the church & royal court, towards an appreciation for intimacy & personal pleasures. Likewise the works of Couperin. He is most famous for his harpsichord (keyboard) music, many of these use highly ornamented melodies & complex accompaniments, with frequent dialogues between treble & bass. Many of his keyboard pieces have evocative, picturesque titles (such as "The little windmills" and "The mysterious barricades") & express a mood through key choices, adventurous harmonies and (resolved) discords. They have been likened to miniature tone poems. Some of his 200 harpsichord pieces are programmatic. Programmatic instrumental music carries some extra musical meaning, a “program” of literary ideas, legends, scenic descriptions or personal drama. It is in contrast to absolute or abstract, music, in which artistic interest is confined to abstract constructions in sound. Bach’s fugues are an example of this abstract type of music as are many of Beethoven’s symphonies.
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Tiepolo (as painter-Handel):*
“Henceforth this music is the Faustian art, and Watteau may fairly be described as a painter-Couperin, Tiepolo as a painter-Handel.”
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