4. New Music for Instruments

4.1 Late Renaissance and Early Baroque Instrumental Music

The Baroque period saw an explosion in music written for instruments. Had you lived in the Middle Ages or Renaissance, you would have likely heard instrumental music but much of it would have been either dance music or vocal music played by instruments. Around 1600, composers started writing more music specifically for musical instruments that might be played at a variety of occasions. One of the first composers to write for brass instruments was Giovanni Gabrieli (c. 1554-1612). His compositions were played by ensembles that had trumpets, sackbuts (the trombones of their day), cornett (or cornetto, which was something like a recorder with a brass mouth piece), as well as violins. The early brass instruments, such as the trumpet and sackbut, as well as the early French horn, did not have any valves and were extremely difficult to play. Extreme mastery of the air column and embouchure (musculature around the mouth used to buzz the lips) were required to control the pitch of the instruments. Good Baroque trumpeters were highly sought after and in short supply. Often they were considered the aristocrats in the orchestra. Even in the wartime skirmishes of the Baroque era, trumpeters were treated as officers and given officer status when they became prisoners of war. Composers such as Bach, Vivaldi, Handel, and others selectively and carefully chose their desired instrumentation in order to achieve the exact tone colors, blend, and effects for each piece. Visit here to learn more about Baroque instruments and their sounds.

Giovanni Gabrieli was an innovative composer of the late Renaissance Venetian School. His masterful compositional technique carried over and established technique utilized during the Baroque era. Giovanni Gabrieli succeeded Andrea Gabrieli, his uncle, at Venice’s St. Mark’s Basilica as the organist following his uncle’s death in 1586 and held the position until his death in 1612. Giovanni Gabrieli’s works represent the peak of musical achievement for Venetian music.

Gabrieli continued and perfected the masterful traditional compositional technique known as cori spezzati (literally, “split choirs”). This technique was developed in the 16th century at St. Mark’s where composers would contrast different instrumentalists and groups of singers utilizing the effects of space in the performance venue, that is, the church. Different sub-ensembles would be placed in different areas of the sanctuary. One sub-ensemble would play the “call” and another would give the “response.” This musical back-and-forth is called antiphonal performance and creates a stereophonic sound between the two ensembles. Indeed, this placement of performers and the specific writing of the parts created the first type of stereo sound and three-dimensional listening experiences for parishioners in the congregation. Many of Gabrieli’s works were written for double choirs and double brass ensembles to perform simultaneously. See the interior image of St. Mark’s Basilica with its chamber on the left and right that are used for opposing brass ensembles.

An example of one such piece with an eight-part setting is Gabrieli’s Jubilate. The interior of the Basilica had multiple coves and lofts where musicians could be placed for performing Gabrieli’s stereophonic works. In later years, Giovanni Gabrieli became known as a famous music teacher. His most recognized student was Heinrich Schütz of Germany.

Focus Composition: Sonata Pian’ e Forte from Sacrae Symphoniae by Giovanni Gabrieli

Another famous composition by Gabrieli in eight parts, consisting of two four-part groups, is the Sonata Pian’ e Forte, which is included in the Sacrea Symphoniae composed in 1597. This collection includes several instrumental canzoni for six- to eight-part ensembles. These, in addition to several toccatas and ricercars, have provided a great deal of interesting repertoire for brass players. Many of the original works by Gabrieli were written for the Baroque sackbuts and cornetti, but have since been transcribed for various brass ensembles. The Sonata Pian’ e Forte was pioneering in musical scoring in that Gabrieli wrote specific softs and louds (pian as soft and forte as loud) into the individual parts for the performers to observe. The introduction of writing dynamics (volumes) into music by composers was a major step toward notating expression into the music score. Gabrieli also incorporated imitative polyphony and the use of polychoral techniques.

4.2 Rise of the Orchestra and the Concerto

The Baroque period also saw the birth of the orchestra, which was initially used to accompany court spectacles and operas. In addition to providing accompaniment to the singers, the orchestra provided instrumental-only selections during such events. These selections came to include music from operas, such as the overture at the beginning, interludes between scenes and during scenery changes, and accompaniments for dance sequences. Other predecessors of the orchestra included the string bands employed by absolute monarchs in France and England and the town collegium musicum of some German municipalities. By the end of the Baroque period, composers were writing compositions that might be played by orchestras in concerts, such as concertos and orchestral suites.

The makeup of the Baroque orchestra varied in number and quality much more than the orchestra has varied since the 19th century. In general, it was a smaller ensemble than the later orchestras. At its core was the violin family, with woodwind instruments such as the flute, recorder, and oboe; brass instruments, such as the trumpet or horn; and the timpani, filling out the texture. The Baroque orchestra almost always played with the harpsichord, which, together with the cellos or bassoons, formed the basso continuo section.

The instruments of the violin family provided the backbone for the Baroque orchestra. The violin, viola, cello (or violoncello), and bass violin were not the first bowed string instruments in Western classical music. The Middle Ages had its fiddle (Figure 4.6) and the Renaissance the viola da gamba (Figure 4.7).

Bowed strings attained a new prominence in the 17th century with the widespread and increased manufacturing of violins, violas, cellos, and basses. Some of these instruments, such as those made by Antonio Stradivari (1644-1737), are still sought after today as some of the finest specimens of instruments ever made. With the popularity of the violin family, instruments of the viola da gamba family fell to the sidelines. Composers started writing compositions specifically for the members of the violin family, often arranged with two groups of violins, one group of violas, and a group of cellos and double basses, who sometimes played the same bass line as played by the harpsichord.

One of the first important forms of instrumental music was the concerto. The word concerto comes from the Latin and Italian root concertare, which has connotations of both competition and cooperation. The musical concerto might be thought to reflect both meanings. A concerto is a composition for an instrumental soloist or soloists and orchestra. In a sense, it brings together these two forces in concert; in another sense, these two forces compete for the attention of the audience. Concertos are most often in three movements that follow a tempo pattern of fast–slow–fast. Most first movements of concertos are in what has come to be called ritornello form. As its name suggests, a ritornello is a returning or refrain, played by the full orchestral ensemble. In a concerto, the ritornello alternates with the solo sections that are played by the soloist or soloists.

One of the most important composers of the Baroque concertos is the Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741). His father taught him to play the violin at a young age and he probably started lessons in music composition as a young teen.
Vivaldi began studying for the priesthood at age fifteen and, once ordained at age twenty-five, received the nickname of “The Red Priest” because of his hair color. He worked in a variety of locations around Europe, including at a prominent Venetian orphanage called the Opsedale della Pietà. There he taught music to girls, some of whom were illegitimate daughters of prominent noblemen and church officials from Venice. This orphanage became famous for the quality of music performed by its inhabitants. Northern Europeans, who would travel to Italy during the winter months on what they called “The Italian Tour”—to avoid the cold and rainy weather of cities such as Paris, Berlin, and London—wrote home about the fine performances put on by these orphans in Sunday afternoon concerts.

Focus Composition: First Movement of Spring from The Four Seasons Concertos for Violin and String Orchestra by Antonio Vivaldi

These girls performed concertos such as Vivaldi’s well known Le Quattro Stagioni (The Four Seasons). The Four Seasons refers to a set of four violin concertos, each of which is named after one of the seasons. As such, it is an example of program music, a type of music that would become more prominent in the Romantic period (the 19th century). Program music is instrumental music that represents something extra-musical, such as the words of a poem or narrative or the sense of a painting or an idea. A composer might ask orchestral instruments to imitate the sounds of natural phenomenon, such as a babbling brook or the cries of birds. Most program music carries a descriptive title that suggests what an audience member might listen for. In the case of The Four Seasons, Vivaldi connected each concerto to an Italian sonnet, that is, to a poem that was descriptive of the season to which the concerto referred. Thus in the case of La Primavera (Spring), the first concerto of the series, you can listen for the “festive song” of birds, “murmuring streams,” “breezes,” and “lightning and thunder.”

Each of the concertos in The Four Seasons has three movements, organized in a fast–slow–fast succession. The first movement of Spring has a tempo marking “allegro” in Italian that indicates the music is fast. It opens with the ritornello, in which the orchestra presents the opening theme. This theme consists of motives, small groupings of notes, and rhythms that are often repeated in sequence. This ritornello might be thought to reflect the opening line from the sonnet. After the ritornello, the soloist plays with the accompaniment of only a few instruments. The soloist’s music uses some of the same motives found in the ritornello but plays them in a more virtuosic (somewhat showing-off) way.

As you listen, try to hear the alternation of the ritornello and solo sections. Listen also for the motor rhythm, the constant subdivision of the steady beat, and the melodic themes that unfold through melodic sequences. Do you hear birds, a brook, and a thunderstorm? Do you think you would have associated these musical moments with springtime, if, instead of being called the Spring Concerto, the piece was simply called Concerto No. 1?