Ornamentation In The Baroque Era

The music in the baroque period was a new age experience for all and has even influenced modern music today. The style and influence given has progressed music in ways that many do not even know. A prime example of this is ornamentation. This simple concept is preceded by the new ways that people of the baroque period have changed the theory of music as well as how the instrumentation, rhythmic, and tonal structure. These small changes have changed everyday aspects of music, everything from the classic musical periods after to everyday pop and rock and roll. This baroque style theory is everywhere and this is how it changed the modern music humans can listen to. The baroque period is categorized as the period of art that follows the renaissance

The easiest example of this is whenever a listener hear a pitch bend or a whammy bar attack on an electric guitar or a quick piano roll with an up and down motion between notes, they are hearing a baroque ornamentation structure. The following statement explains the importance and history of the baroque ornamentation “the addition of the maximum number of notes is of no value at all, as well as, a cadence trill in a Bach suite or a Handel oratorio, are usually when players embellish, even quite elaborately” (Roseman). The typical pattern used in the baroque time was an attack on the given note, then following it up with a chromatic use of pitches ascending and then descending passed the note of origin and then finally releasing on the next beat of the measure. Ex: Starting on a “C” you would play the “C” and follow with quick speed the notes “D and E” and then begin to descend back down playing “D, C, B” and then playing the “C” again. This is the end of the ornamentation and is then followed by the playing of the next beat. These types of ornamentations are in a lot of modern pieces and you may not even realize it. A few examples of this are: House of the Rising Sun by The Animals, Cocaine by Eric Clapton, Concerto for Flute and Strings in F, OP. 10, No. 1 RV 43 “La tempesta di mare” by Antonio Vivaldi. This just goes to show that baroque

This theory is shown by rhythmic structure and shaping of pieces. Typically, the pieces before did not have complex rhythmic structure or tonality to the pieces played. This changed in the baroque period due to the addition of actual instrumentation structure to pieces. During this period, the violin and trumpet gain massive popularity as well as the harpsichord. The major theoretical advancement in the baroque era was the introduction of a strict “melody and harmony”. “A generous use of I, IV and V chords in a piece of music creates a strong feeling of a “key” or “tonal center”; an over-use of them creates monotony. The secondary triads (ii, iii, vi, [viiº]) are used to balance out the sound and create more interest” (Ted Greene). This was a completely new concept due to the previous eras using a single timbre and improvised parts. The new advancements in theory also changed the way music was written. This was apparent in James Tyler’s “A Guide to Baroque Guitar” when he stated “Italian guitar composers began using a mixture of simple Italian number tablature and one-line alfabeto. Inserting the alfabeto letter symbols and stroke signs within the normal five-line system not only enabled them to notate melodic lines efficiently, but also eliminated the need to write out common chords in full. In most mixed tablatures, chords are only written out if they are in some way unusual. The