An After Thought: Baroque Music And Baroque Period In My Time

When I was a music student in college, I would save some money from my weekly allowance to be able to buy those long-playing (LP) records that I liked. FYI, these LPs have been replaced by CDs since the emergence of this technology in the music industry in the early 90s. Anyhow, one of my favorites is Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Harpsichord Concerto in D Minor.” This evening I found the CD version of this at www.amazon.com

Well, I look forward to finding out where to buy the music score of this piece so I could play this on the piano. I love baroque music and my hands are feeling itchy and wanting to play some prelude and fugue, lol. Ah, well~ to listen to this concerto click this link:

Johann Sebastian Bach's HARPSICHORD CONCERTO IN D MINOR

LOOKING BACK

When I was teaching middle school art (up until March 2004) in international schools under the British and American system, my favorite subject was art history where the lives of artists of different centuries are studied in reference to their influence in the development of art globally. Likewise, in my music classes (yes, I taught the fine arts: art, music and drama) music history is integrated in the study of music theory and in the interpretation of musical compositions of each century. What I did then was to compare and contrast what transpired in art and music . This holistic learning experience is very informative and usually, students find every bit of information quite helpful. Of course, I had to modify the lecture and made sure it was quite colorful and easy to comprehend. Otherwise, it would have been a bore studying history had I have been a lousy teacher. I didn't want my students to dislike history (the way I did). Later, I realized it was only boring because history learning was associated with memorization of data, figures and the stuff. When I started my teaching career it dawned on me that history is indeed a wonderful subject to learn. However, what made it less interesting for me then as a student was the way classes were conducted during my time. Teachers were not creative enough to do something bold in class and it was all one-sided which was based under the category that the huge contributor in class was the teacher and there was so much authority addressed to it. Students were the silent majority and this is where my love for history died. There was also the infinite writing time and copying of information from history book to one's notebook. Grrrrrrrrrr! I won't recommend this approach at all~ as it was a nightmare (sigh) just thinking about it. Yikes! I hated writing and my handwriting for that matter. Then, there was the lecture part of the history class that was dull; there's the pack of history teachers in my time who were autocratic zombie creatures in my class.

BUT---when I became a professional, I decided that my students would love my subject so I did my best in teaching. As an educator, my favorite subject has always been baroque period because of its musical form which is polyphony (counterpoint). I like listening to it and to the sound of harpsichord and the whole orchestral works. Now that I am speaking about teaching- apparently, I miss it at times but not always. Sometimes I still wonder in awe about what I am doing inside the house I share with moi husband; and with me being a stay-at-home wife~ twenty four hours a day~seven days a week. But I am liking it!


Years ago when I was single, I'd roll my eyes about giving up my successful career and a lifestyle that evolved around so much on travelling, meeting people from cross-cultural groups, partying with honchos from the diplomatic circle, shopping non-stop; living/vacationing in different cities of the world. I did all these while teaching in the international community where ENGLISH as a language was like music to my ears as it came in different tones and harmony because people come from different continents of the world. In international schools, the studentry is mostly comprised of "third-culture kids." Why third culture kids? Because these kids deal with three cultures in their lifetime living and studying overseas: the host country's culture, the school's culture plus their own as foreign students from different countries. Most of their parents work as expats for multi-national firms and/ or for the diplomatic circle. This was my world~ international education and living overseas.

But LOVE changes priorities. I fell in love. Finally, I decided to give it all up for love. These days, I am happy and I am not complaining. It's beautiful. Being "domestic" is now my generic title and relative to it, "homemaking" is my career. The transition was tough during my first two years as a married woman. Life style changes gave me streaks of gray hair (laughs) initially but I am getting by with it. I just color my hair when needed- haha! I am better off now on my third year, in fact. I love it. Sometimes, I just get sentimental like right now. Otherwise, there's nothing more inspiring than being in control of my own time and space. Mostly, I can't even say what day it is today or what'sthe date itself since I am all so pre-occupied with my own little wide world of domesticity. But, hey, has it been that long? Not really. Old folks say that when you love what you have or love what you're doing, the hours pass by so quickly... like years. Well, I think they are right! These days, I still travel but with moi husband mostly and it has been amazing so far. It is absolutely wonderful being married than being single (wink*wink*) so it's worth every bit of what I have given up in life. Whoah!

BELOW ARE SOME USEFUL INFORMATION YOU MAY WISH TO READ ON...

Baroque 1600-1750


Extravagant, ornamented, fancy, irregular... These are all adjectives that describe the music of the Baroque period- a period in which the art and architecture in the world was also very ornate and fancy. During the Baroque period, royalty and church leaders were focused on being the best and brightest and showing off their finest things- including music written for them. They hired composers to write pieces that they insisted be flashier than pieces of the past. With every composition, music grew more and more showy and complicated. Composers were treated like servants- they were only allowed to compose what their religious bosses or noble employers asked them to compose, and oftentimes, it was on VERY short notice!

The Baroque period saw the beginnings of instrumental concertos (pieces featuring one instrument). Keyboard music for the harpsichord was also a focus of compositions-there were many composers of the time that were amazing keyboardists. Dance music also saw a rise in popularity. However, music written for the human voice was the most common composition style of the time. Operas and oratorios (musical settings of a sacred text) were unbelievably popular with Baroque audiences.

Bach was an example of a master composer of the Baroque who wrote very fancy-sounding keyboard music. Listen for the "showy" sounds of this piece for organ

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH

Johann Sebastian Bach (21 March 1685 O.S. – 28 July 1750 N.S.) was a prolific German composer and organist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity. Although he introduced no new forms, he enriched the prevailing German style with a robust contrapuntal technique, a control of harmonic and motivic organisation from the smallest to the largest scales, and the adaptation of rhythms and textures from abroad, particularly Italy and France. He is regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time.

Revered for their intellectual depth and technical and artistic beauty, JS Bach's works include the Brandenburg concerti, the Goldberg Variations, the keyboard Suites(1)(2) and Partitas, the Mass in B Minor, the St Matthew Passion, The Musical Offering, The Art of Fugue, and more than 200 cantatas.