General ideas about Baroque music

The Baroque Era stretched from 1600 until the death of Bach in 1750. The origin of the term: “baroque” comes from the Portuguese and refers to an “irregular shaped pearl”. This is indeed an apt description of the Baroque time period, which included the productions of some of the greatest music of all time, but also was a time of some of the bloodiest wars in history.

There is a spirit to every age, every composer, and every piece of music. In baroque times secular and sacred life were very much inter-related, and music was to be enjoyed, but also respected as a spiritual gift. More importantly, the spirit of the baroque is characterized above all by clarity, for the music is very contrapuntal (fugal/canonic) and every not, every line has its place. Love and respect for the music, enjoyment in performance, and above all, clarity in the articulation, ensemble and recording balance. These are the true essentials of baroque music. If performance practices billed as “authentic” on “period” instruments can reveal these qualities and this spirit then that is true authenticity. If modern instruments can do the same, then that too is authenticity. It’s the spirit that counts.

Finally the attempt to rediscover baroque music and its spirit has been with us for the whole of this century and much of the last.

Baroque music expresses order, the fundamental order of the universe. Yet it is always lively and tuneful. It and its performance has its fashions like everything else.

Olga Lang/Diana Savcic/ Sabine Rothmayer/Antun Opic