Baroque Music

From the dramatic emergence of opera to the dramatic explosion of instrumental virtuosity, the Baroque era (1600–1750) represents one of the most dynamic chapters in Western art music. In this course, we analyze how early seventeenth-century expressive dissonance and harmonic experimentation gradually transitioned into the formal clarity, counterpoint, and rational structure of the High Baroque. Through close listening, score analysis, and examination of historical performance practices, the course surveys pivotal works by Claudio Monteverdi, Giovanni Gabrieli, Heinrich Schütz, Girolamo Frescobaldi, Arcangelo Corelli, Antonio Vivaldi, Georg Philipp Telemann, George Frideric Handel, and Johann Sebastian Bach. This course will be recorded. Students will have access to videos for the duration of the course.