'And the Glory of the Lord' - Handel
- Created by: Cadence Dawn
- Created on: 17-01-17 18:16
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- 'And the Glory of the Lord' - Handel
- Context
- Baroque music
- lasted from around 1600 to 1750
- key features
- simple, manly diatonic harmonies
- Movements that usually keep to the same mood throughout
- ornamentation - melodies are often highly decorated
- complex contrapuntal writing in some places
- orchestra mostly made of strings
- uses a continuo - a group of instruments that provides a bass line and harmonic accompany
- usually consists of a keyboard instrument (harpsicord or organ) with one or more bass instruments (cello or double bass)
- other important composers around this time
- Bach
- Purcell
- Vivaldi
- Handel
- born the same year as Bach, 1685
- grew up in Germany, spent time in Itally and later settled in Londn
- Messiah was his first and most famous set work
- 'And the Glory of the Lord'
- comes from the oratorio Messiah
- an oratorio is a large-scale composition for solo singers, choir and orchestra
- usually biased on a biblical story - the words are selected from the bible and refer to the importance of the life of Jesus
- an oratorio is a large-scale composition for solo singers, choir and orchestra
- composed in 17411 while Handel was in London
- origionally performed in concert halls and theatres
- the first chorus of the Messiah
- comes from the oratorio Messiah
- Baroque music
- Performance forces
- the choir are made up of sopranos, Altos, Tenors, and Basses
- they are accompanied by strings and continuo (for cello and harpsicord or orgen
- The orchestra often doubles the vocal line
- Structure
- starts with the orchestral introduction, called a ritornelllo
- shortened versions of this music return later in the two different places
- there is no set form to the movement. it is biased on different combinations of the four motifs
- starts with the orchestral introduction, called a ritornelllo
- Melody
- biased on 4 different motifs:
- 3. first sung by the altos (bar43) a short descending figure from A to E is repeated twice
- 'and all flesh shall see it together'
- 2. Fist sung by the Tenors(bar17), uses a descending sequence and a melisma on 'revealed'
- 'Shall be revealed'
- 4. first sung by the tenors and bases (bar51) mostly the same pitch A, uses longer notes, sounds solemn
- 'for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it'
- 1. first sung by the Altos (bar11) in the key of A major
- 'And the glory the glory of the Lord'
- there is no set form to the movement. it is biased on different combinations of the four motifs
- these four motifs are heard in different parts and combined in different ways throughout the movement
- 3. first sung by the altos (bar43) a short descending figure from A to E is repeated twice
- biased on 4 different motifs:
- Rhythm
- there is a number of hemiolas in the piece, such as bars 9-10 the music feels 2/4 rather then 3/4
- Texture
- alternates between homophonic and contrapuntal passages
- first passage sung by whole choir is homophonic (bars14-15)
- on 'shall be revealed' it is a contrapuntal section (bars17-33)
- very short monophonic passage (bars108-109)
- Imitation is used
- e.g. on bar 17 the tors sing 'shall be revealed' which is then imitated (overlapping by a copy of the same melody, here at a different pitch)
- variations of vocal parts
- alternates between homophonic and contrapuntal passages
- Word setting
- mixture of syllabic and melismatic
- different phrases repeated many times to make words as clear as possible
- Metre
- dance like 3/4 - three crotchet beats per bar
- Tempo
- maintains a fast tempo of allegro almost until the end, when there is a of total silence -general pause. then there is 3 bars in a slower tempo marked as Adagio creating a drawn out ending
- Context
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