The Relationship between Music and Architecture in Baroque Period

Baroque is a general term for the style of music and visual arts (architecture, sculpture and painting) directly developed from the humanistic tradition of the Renaissance, which prevailed in some European countries (first Italy) from about 1600 to 1750. It also refers to the specific historical period of 150 years in art, which includes the Thirty Years' War, the spread of Protestantism, the efforts of the Roman Catholic Church to maintain its supreme authority, and the exploration and immigration to the New World. The basic changes in politics and society are reflected in the gradual disintegration of feudalism, the gradual seizure of power and wealth by the middle class in the struggle with the nobility, and the establishment of some nation-states such as Britain, France, the Netherlands and Spain. This is a turbulent, violent and bold era of change-Europeans discovered and assimilated the new continent, Italians discovered the mountains of the moon and the moons of Jupiter, Germans discovered bacteria and cells, and the British formulated the law of gravity and discovered the essence of light and color-and art reflected various changes in this period.

The word baroque comes from the Portuguese baroque. The original intention is not a big round pearl. The word baroque is attractive for two reasons. First, the word itself shows that irregular large works of art are also beautiful. In this way, baroque artists can transcend the seriousness, implication and balance that were particularly emphasized in the Renaissance, and indulge in exaggerated passion and excessive luxury and exaggeration. Secondly, the last meaning of the word baroque is equivalent to formulating a new principle for evaluating art, that is, the value of art itself should be taken as the standard, not the aesthetic principle set by the ancestors. As for evaluating the value of works of art, every art connoisseur, especially the customers of works of art, can have their own pure personal standards. Baroque artists served both Protestant reform and Catholic counter-reform. For example, they use the huge colonnade connecting the two sides of St. Peter's Cathedral to encourage believers to approach God gladly, or use colored stone statues (or painted fake stones), gold-plated altars, painted zenith, finely carved pulpit, touching organ and church choir to decorate the church magnificently, which makes believers feel awe. But they also built the magnificent Palace of Versailles for Louis XIV, which made people who walked into the mirror hall, for example, feel awe of the wealth and power of the king who built the palace, just as believers who walked into St. Peter's Cathedral felt awe of the authority of the pope who built the church; They also built extremely luxurious suburban villas and gardens for Roman dignitaries. These villas and gardens are fantastic and reflect the whimsy of the indulgent and happy upper class. Baroque art praises autocracy and serves the interests of the Catholic church, but it goes deeper into people's inner world and enters life more practically than the Renaissance. It is magnificent, richly decorated, noble, mysterious and fanatical, and has a moving artistic conception. It also emphasizes the extravagance, indulgence and vitality of this shore-the art of Baroque period, like the art of other periods, is marked with contradictions.

The baroque period in music began in 1600, when the opera was born, and ended in 1750, when Bach died. The "capital" of baroque art is in Rome, and baroque music originated from Florence opera. Because almost all the art at that time was used to praise the royal family, it is not surprising that the king, the biggest customer, paid special attention to opera, a new art form that combined painting, sculpture, architecture, dance, vocal music and instrumental music. Opera first gained the soil for development. But the essence of baroque music is finally concentrated in Germany, represented by Bach and Handel.

One of the main symbols of the early baroque music style is monosyllabic music, which changed from polyphony in Renaissance to monotonous harmony. In the16th century, composers only cared about the progress of several independent and equally important melody lines existing in a song at the same time, and the relationship between the parts they formed. As for whether the different lyrics sung in different parts at the same time can be heard clearly, they can be ignored. In the17th century, some Italian composers emphasized the attraction of lyrics. They put the emphasis of music expression on a melody line in the high notes, supported the whole work with a bass line, and left the gap between these two contours to improvise and fill in the corresponding harmony when playing. In this way; In recent years, due to the composer's consideration of the relationship between sounds, it has shifted from the horizontal aspect to the vertical aspect, that is, the harmonious organization of sounds, and some intermediate parts that once played the same role have all taken a back seat-this is the so-called "ba5so cotinMo" technique. The new design of monosyllabic music has also led to a very important change in the history of music, that is, from the eight to ten modes of the medieval church to the two modes of major and minor, which dominated western music for about 300 years.

This great change of baroque music undoubtedly began in the field of vocal music. At first,

Monosyllabic music aims to emphasize the stress and meaning of lyrics with music, and tries to connect music with poetry and life itself through poetry, thus forming a kind of recitation tone (6ve) which is freely carried out on the basis of simple harmony and a more lyrical recitation tone (Arioso), which is the main factor that constitutes opera, chorus and oratorio. Subsequently, the technology of' basso continuo' was actually applied to all music creation, including instrumental music. Therefore, the Baroque period was later called the "continuous bass period".

Although a new creative method of monosyllabic melody music appeared in Baroque period, melody music did not gain a dominant position. Baroque music is still in the stage of mixing or alternating polyphony and tonic harmony-but at this time polyphony music has undergone fundamental changes and its connection with harmony has been strengthened. In order to emphasize clear and strong emotional expression, Baroque music often relies on dominating the whole song (or the fixed beat of the whole orchestra and the dynamic rhythm that clearly emphasizes repetition (/kloc-the rhythm of instrumental phrases in the 6th century often floats freely and is often divided to cover up the regular beat), continuously moving and expanding melodies (the melodies in the classical period often have balanced and symmetrical phrases and well-organized endings) and unified instrumental colors. Baroque art especially emphasizes the use of strong contrast between light and dark and internal contradictions to form tension and dynamics, which is often achieved through the conversion of tonality, the change of strength and speed between movements and the opposition between solo group and ensemble group in the same movement of concerto. This variety of contrast and unity skillfully organizes many details into a perfect whole, which looks like an unadorned baroque building.

Before 1600, instrumental music was not valued as vocal music. Musical instruments are mainly used as accompaniment for singing or dancing. During the Renaissance, only the Lute family was widely used, and woodwind instruments were only in the initial stage of development. However, during the Baroque period, instrumental music also made great progress. With the gradual improvement of musical instrument production technology, some musical instruments have the conditions to play serious music, especially after the development of the twelve-average-law tuning method, keyboard instruments can use all tonality at will. Among these keyboard instruments, harpsichord and organ are the most important. As the times require, keyboard music, including suites and fugues, reached its acme in Bach's works. Violin instruments have achieved an important position in baroque music, which is another important symbol of the development of instrumental music. In line with this, the sonata has been greatly improved, and various forms of voice combinations have appeared. The most important thing is the so-called "triple sonata" (three voices, basso continuo's voice is played by at least two people). In addition, there is a concerto based on the comparison of two groups of musical instruments. The earliest important examples of concerto are Italian composer Corrie (A. Corell 6, 1G53- 17 13) and another Italian composer Vivaldi (A. V5 Valdi,1669-174/Kloc). Baroque's contribution to the establishment and development of some clearly defined schools and forms is much greater than that of any period in the history of music.

Baroque is a period full of vigor and vitality, and the performance of baroque music should not be dull and emotionless. Of course, passion in baroque music is very different from romanticism. Musically, the Baroque period was represented by composers Handel and Bach in the late Baroque period. In Britain, oratorios reached their peak in Handel's magnificent and immortal works. Handel conquered England with a work called Messiah.

Bach is usually regarded as the founder of music art, but in fact he represents the end of a long-term evolution. His works constitute the dome of a building, a dome added to a big temple. Bach has left a rich legacy in all fields of vocal music and instrumental music.

In the baroque era, because people became the standard to measure everything, we thought a lot about people's feelings and inner state, that is, to explore those forces that played a decisive role in our emotional life and were hidden deeply. People realize that all kinds of feelings are particularly easy to be reflected in music. The initial appearance of this "theory of emotion" is related to the appearance of homophonic music and poetry. In this combination, people's inner state is clearly expressed through poetry. During the Baroque period, an impressive composition technique called "sound painting" was developed, which enabled music to vividly reflect the contents of words and phrases. The movement and direction of musical thinking-progressive, chasing, jumping, rising and falling-are clearly displayed through the movement of melody and rhythm. Bach warned his students to "express hymns according to the meaning of the lyrics". Bach expressed resurrection in a rising tone, and symbolized the pain of Jesus' crucifixion with a bass line that might fall along the chromatic scale. The theme of twists and turns is reminiscent of the temptation of Satan. Once the musical image is established, its picturesque features are abandoned and developed into abstract musical materials according to pure musical steps. In short, it is the imagination of pure music at work.

The main representatives of Baroque period: Monteverdi, Corelli, scarlatti, Vivaldi, Bach and Handel.