Post #4, German and Italian Composers

Alright readers, I thought it would be nice to go over some composers.  Shake things up a bit.  We'll get back to the instruments next week.  The vast majority of  key composers come from two different countries in Europe.  This post will mostly be about which geographical areas offered what to music- with composers used as examples. Johann Sebastian Back and George Frederick Handel were from Germany as were most of the composers from this era.  Antonio Vivaldi was an Italian.

Let's start with the Germans-Bach and Handel.  German Baroque music is generally strong in structure.  The structure of each phrase is carefully and meticulously planned-it always makes sense.  Germans were also the kings of counterpoint.  Counterpoint is music that has been divided up into different voices which adhere to strict guidelines.  In "Strict Counterpoint" notes are subject to severe guidelines in which directions they may go or how big their intervals can be.  Bach's Fugues are a great example of counterpoint.  In each of his fugues there is a little theme that is a few measure long that happens in one voice (there are four voices).  Throughout the piece the motif switches around appearing in all of the other voices, sometimes even overlapping with another voice repeating the motif!  Although German, Handel implemented some Italian influence in his pieces.  He follows  German structure as seen in "The Messiah," but also uses lovely, floating melodies that accentuate and flatter the voice as was the Italians' habit.

Our Italian for today is Antonio Vivaldi (blog post 2 has a recording of one of his pieces).  Vivaldi enjoyed using rhythmic variance and established well structured harmony that had not been seen during the Renaissance.  This eventually trickled into Germany, heavily influencing Bach's work in terms of harmony.  Italian music in general loved accentuating the richness of different instruments. They wrote music to make an instrument sound beautiful, one of their favorites being the voice.  They also loved writing catchy songs that a listener might remember for weeks.  Below is an example of one of Vivaldi's "catchy" concertos (this one has been stuck in my head for years). Slower paced songs harped on beauty leading the heart through an entrancing emotional experience.  This phenomena was generally but not exclusively found in opera.



Below is one of Bach's Fugues.  It is harmonically sound due to the influences of Vivaldi but has savagely structured counterpoint throughout!  The right hand starts as one of the voices and presents the motif (theme the other voices will sing.)  At ( :19) the left hand begins playing the same motif the right hand was playing.



Germany and Italy were distinctly different but eventually combined to create music that is strong in harmonies, passion, and structure.  This period of time was the beginning of everything that we know about music.  Bach, Handel, and Vivaldi carved the way with their daring musical innovations.
Here is a map demonstrating the close proximity of Germany and Italy. A situation that created great music!