Baroque

The jeu de tierce is a combination of stops indicated in French organ music of the 17th and 18th centuries. It consists of the bourdon, flûte, nazard, quarte, tierce, and sometimes the larigot stops. This means that for any given note played on the keyboard, the organ sounds the following pitches: the note itself, the octave, the 12th, the 15th, the 17th, and sometimes the 19th. These notes reinforce the harmonic series, creating a solo combination usually played against an accompaniment of softer stops.

The plein jeu or "full registration" is a combination of stops indicated in French organ music of the 17th and 18th centuries. It consists of all principal stops at the 16-, 8-, 4-, and 2-foot pitch, as well as the mixture stops (upper harmonics), with the positif manual coupled to the grand orgue. This means that for any note pressed, the organ sounds the following pitches: one octave below the given note, the note itself, one octave above, two octaves above, and a combination of octaves and fifths above that. This combination was commonly used in the opening movements of hymn and mass settings.

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1712-1788) composed in a very expressive, sensitive style called "empfindsamer Stil." It is characterized by sudden dynamic changes, large intervals and the use of silence. A great example of that is found in the Poco Adagio movement of CPE Bach's solo flute Sonata in A minor. This excerpt of the opening phrase is demonstrated on an eighteenth century style traverso. 

Eighteenth century vibrato on the flute, known as the traverso, was achieved with one's finger rather than with pulses in the air column which wavers both above and below the pitch. Finger vibrato was a type of ornament called "flattement" in French or "Bubung" in German. The flutist would gently move his or her finger over the next open hole at varying speeds or heights, which would lower or raise the pitch slightly. As opposed to modern vibrato, flattements could only be used to decorate long notes and it either makes the note flat or sharp, but not both on the one note. This recording is of the melody line from the first movement of Handel's Sonata in G major, Op. 1 No. 5. Flattements are demonstrated on all of the long notes, at approximately the 2, 6, 10, 27 and 30 second marks.

The "traverso," also commonly known as "transverse flute" or "one-keyed flute," was the most popular model of the flute from the late seventeenth through the eighteenth century. It is made of wood and has one key, made of brass or silver. As was common in the eighteenth century, this particular instrument is tuned to A 415, which means that it sounds approximately a half-step lower than modern instruments. This excerpt demonstrates the traverso with the opening of the Allegro movement of Telemann's Fantasia No. 3 in A minor for solo flute.

In terms of texture, eighteenth century music often will often incorporate a single melodic line that is accompanied by a more rhythmically simple harmony. This could be described as melody-dominated homophony. With this effect, the listener is drawn solely to the melodic line, with accompaniment only serving to enhance and support the melody. In this example, taken from the beginning of the third movement, “Vivace,” of Johan Helmich Roman’s Symphony No. 3 in B-flat Major,  the violin I section carries the active melody, while the rest of the strings and the harpsichord play very simple lines that are often in rhythmic unison with each other and only outline the harmony of the music. This texture helps bring attention to the melody of the violin I section while while emphasizing the harmony of the piece.

Bowed vibrato is a performance technique used by stringed instruments often in eighteenth century or earlier Baroque music. Its sound is achieved when the musician uses their bow to create an undulating and pulsating movement all while moving the bow in a single direction. Often each “pulse” is in tempo and usually would last as long as a small subdivision of the beat, such as a sixteenth note. Bowed vibrato is a means of ornamenting a long note that would otherwise likely sound stagnant to the listener. In this recording, taken from the second movement, “Lento,” of Johan Helmich Roman’s Symphony No. 3 in B-flat Major, bowed vibrato is played over long notes and pulsates at the time value of sixteenth notes in the tempo of the music. This recording was taken from a clip from a YouTube recording of the Drottningholms Barockensemble performing this piece.

Recording of a pair of two baroque timpani. Primarily used in the Eighteenth century and Nineteenth century, these drums consists of copper bowls with calfskin heads stretched across them, tightened and tuned by lugs and played with wooden mallets. The sizes of these timpani are 23" and 26" in diameter. Hand tuned with the help of a tuning key, the pitches of these drums are C3 and G2.

This ritornello, a recurring passage between solo sections frequently occurring in the eighteenth-century concerti, exemplifies the influence of the Baroque style on the Galant composer Jan Zach.