Baroque Period
Baroque period designates the dominant style of European art between Mannerism and Rococco. This style originated in Rome and is associated with the Catholic Counter-Reformation, its salient characteristics, which includes overt rhetoric and dynamic movement, is being well suited to expressing the self-confidence and proselytizing spirit of the reinvigorated Catholic Church. It is by no means exclusively associated with religious art, however, and aspects of the Baroque can be seen even in works that have nothing to do with emotional display like for example in the dynamic lines of certain Dutch still-life paintings.
In addition, it is used as a general label for the period when this style flourished: broadly speaking, the 17th century and in certain areas much of the 18th century. Hence such phrases as ‘the age of Baroque’, ‘Baroque music’, ‘Baroque poetry’, ‘Baroque politics’, ‘Baroque science’, and so on. This type of usage can be more confusing than helpful, for what literary historians call ‘Baroque’, for example, more often shows characteristics that the art historian would label ‘Mannerist’.
Moreover, the term ‘Baroque’ is applied to art of any time or place that shows the qualities of vigorous movement and emotional intensity associated with Baroque art in its primary meaning. Much Hellenistic sculpture could therefore be described as ‘baroque’. The older meaning of the word, as a synonym for ‘capricious’, ‘overwrought’, or ‘florid’, still has some currency, but not in serious criticism.
Usually, Baroque style used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literatures, dance, and music. In music, the Baroque applies to the final period of dominance of imitative counterpoint, where different voices and instruments echo each other but at different pitches, sometimes inverting the echo, and even reversing thematic material.
Baroque style appeals at aiming at the senses. It employs iconography that is simple, direct, obvious and dramatic. Some general parallels in music make the expression "Baroque music" useful. Contrasting phrase lengths, harmony and counterpoint ousted polyphony, and orchestral color made a stronger appearance. Similar fascination with simple, strong, dramatic expression in poetry, where clear, broad syncopated rhythms replaced the enknotted elaborated metaphysical similes
Baroque paintings on the other hand have broader gestures than that of the gestures of the Mannerists. Baroque paintings are less mysterious and arcane. It is more likely gestures on stages of an opera which is a major artform in Baroque
Baroque sculpture shows new importance in group of figures. It shows a more dynamic movement and human energy especially around empty vortex or into the outward of space surroundings.
In architecture, Baroque emphasizes on bold massing, colonnades, light and shade, domes, painterly color effects and the bold play of volume and void.
In theater, Baroques elaborates conceits, multiplicity of plot turns, and variety of situations characteristic of Mannerism and are superseded by opera, which drew together all the arts in a unified whole.
The Baroque styles usually express new values which are oftentimes using metaphor and allegory.
Baroque Music
The period known as the Baroque was an incredible time of experimentation and discovery for composers.
After the strict confines of church music, instrumental music was beginning to emerge as a dominant form of artistic expression and, in the absence of text, composers were interested in finding means of expression of concrete values and experiences through musical sounds alone.
Making this musical search even more dramatic was the coincidental development of opera. Composers were inventing naturalistic effects for instrumentalists to perform that would parallel action onstage.
Baroque period is also designated for the style of music. With Baroque music, aesthetic principles are shared as well as the visual and literary arts during the period. Usually, the element that are shared with the Baroque period is love ornamentation.
Baroque music has gain a popularity as it is the most performed, widely studied and listened to. Baroque music appeared to have expanded in size, complexity of performance and range as the opera has been established during the period.
Baroque music expresses order, the fundamental order of the universe. Yet it is always lively and tuneful. Follow the development of music through this brief outline, from the earliest times to the present day, with baroque music set in historical context.
References
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