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Indrid Cold · 06-05-2021, 04:59 PM

Counterpoint has its roots in the music of the Renaissance. Bach's heavy reliance on the counterpoint was already under attack before he was even born. In the city where the Renaissance was said to have been born, Florence, arose a group of literati called the Camerata (Italian for "dormitory" betraying its university roots) around 1590. The Camerata claimed that poetry was mangled by counterpoint. Poetry was "laceramento della poesia" or "torn to pieces" by counterpoint. This gave birth to something integral to opera called recitative. Opera was just a few years away with the production of the first known opera which was Dafne in 1597-8. The fully intact libretto was written by Ottavio Rinuccini and the mostly lost music by Jacopo Peri and Jacopo Corsi. Corsi was a count in Florence and one of the founders of the Camerata along with another count name Bardi.

When one listens to a singer in opera (or in oratorio) singing a line with every word in a single note and some words almost spoken along with gasps, cries, laughs, shouts, grimaces and so on, that is recitative. The purpose was to imitate natural speech. This was in direct opposition to counterpoint although Bach learned to use recitative in his oratorios to great effect (he wrote no operas unless one counts the so-called "Coffee Cantata" as a mini-opera). This became a staple in opera and the effect was to put the music under the control of the words.

The defenders of the Renaissance stated that extreme emotions projected through music was improper. They felt, as Ficino and Zarlino, that the orator and the poet should model themselves on musicians. But the Camerata felt the opposite--the musician should model himself upon the orator and the poet. This attitude led to the founding the Baroque Period. To put it another way--the Renaissance composers believed in speech-song while the Baroque composers believed in song-speech.

The Renaissance composers believed only in the laws and rules of music. Music could not be subjected to any external influence. The baroque composer saw music as a means to express words. The words and the emotions transcended music. This is odd considering that Renaissance and Baroque music have their roots in the same genesis--the ancient Greek learning and music.

The biggest difference between Baroque and Renaissance music, however, the way each treated dissonance and this is why Bach, for all his love of using outdated counterpoint, was nevertheless a Baroque composer. Renaissance composers dealt with dissonance strictly as occurring on weak beats or as suspensions on strong beats. In other words, dissonances were treated as intervallic harmony--a group of intervals rather than a chord. Baroque, on the other hand, treated the harmonies as chords unfolding by building said harmonies from the bass allowing the dissonances to occur in the higher registers allowing the dissonances to resolve to the next chord by either upward or downward motion unlike Renaissance music in which resolution was achieved only in downward motion.

Because the bass was pronounced in Baroque, it led to the basso continuo--something entirely lacking in Renaissance music but which was integral to Baroque. Bach made terrific use of the basso continuo--which built the chords that the rest of the orchestra played over--although his harpsichord and organ works have no continuo.

But how does this tie in to Bach's occultism?

06-05-2021, 04:59 PM	#15 (permalink)
Indrid Cold Groupie Join Date: Mar 2021 Posts: 27	Counterpoint has its roots in the music of the Renaissance. Bach's heavy reliance on the counterpoint was already under attack before he was even born. In the city where the Renaissance was said to have been born, Florence, arose a group of literati called the Camerata (Italian for "dormitory" betraying its university roots) around 1590. The Camerata claimed that poetry was mangled by counterpoint. Poetry was "laceramento della poesia" or "torn to pieces" by counterpoint. This gave birth to something integral to opera called recitative. Opera was just a few years away with the production of the first known opera which was Dafne in 1597-8. The fully intact libretto was written by Ottavio Rinuccini and the mostly lost music by Jacopo Peri and Jacopo Corsi. Corsi was a count in Florence and one of the founders of the Camerata along with another count name Bardi. When one listens to a singer in opera (or in oratorio) singing a line with every word in a single note and some words almost spoken along with gasps, cries, laughs, shouts, grimaces and so on, that is recitative. The purpose was to imitate natural speech. This was in direct opposition to counterpoint although Bach learned to use recitative in his oratorios to great effect (he wrote no operas unless one counts the so-called "Coffee Cantata" as a mini-opera). This became a staple in opera and the effect was to put the music under the control of the words. The defenders of the Renaissance stated that extreme emotions projected through music was improper. They felt, as Ficino and Zarlino, that the orator and the poet should model themselves on musicians. But the Camerata felt the opposite--the musician should model himself upon the orator and the poet. This attitude led to the founding the Baroque Period. To put it another way--the Renaissance composers believed in speech-song while the Baroque composers believed in song-speech. The Renaissance composers believed only in the laws and rules of music. Music could not be subjected to any external influence. The baroque composer saw music as a means to express words. The words and the emotions transcended music. This is odd considering that Renaissance and Baroque music have their roots in the same genesis--the ancient Greek learning and music. The biggest difference between Baroque and Renaissance music, however, the way each treated dissonance and this is why Bach, for all his love of using outdated counterpoint, was nevertheless a Baroque composer. Renaissance composers dealt with dissonance strictly as occurring on weak beats or as suspensions on strong beats. In other words, dissonances were treated as intervallic harmony--a group of intervals rather than a chord. Baroque, on the other hand, treated the harmonies as chords unfolding by building said harmonies from the bass allowing the dissonances to occur in the higher registers allowing the dissonances to resolve to the next chord by either upward or downward motion unlike Renaissance music in which resolution was achieved only in downward motion. Because the bass was pronounced in Baroque, it led to the basso continuo--something entirely lacking in Renaissance music but which was integral to Baroque. Bach made terrific use of the basso continuo--which built the chords that the rest of the orchestra played over--although his harpsichord and organ works have no continuo. But how does this tie in to Bach's occultism? Last edited by Indrid Cold; 06-05-2021 at 05:04 PM.