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Scan 92
Harvard Dictionary Of Music, 1944
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1BAROQUE MUSIC
3original barring is given on the staff, the modern barring below the staff. [For a similar example cf. ApMZ ii, 21; cf. also ApNPM, 65ff.] In ensemble (vocal) mu-
51: Pisador; 2: Josquin
7sic the bar-line was not introduced until toward the end of the 16th century, when the notation in single parts gave way to notation in score arrangement. The arias of the 17th century frequently show the anomalous use of the bar-line referred to above, i.e., the disregard of upbeat or of triple time; in other words, the employment of the bar-line as a means of simple orientation rather than as an indication of accent [cf. the explanations and examples in RiHM ii.2, 12, etc.].
9Modern editors of polyphonic music of the 15th and 16th centuries have increasingly resented the "tyranny of the bar-line" and have tried to make this indispensable device of modern notation less conspicuous by replacing it by apostrophes: ', by punctuated lines: ⅄, or by the Mensurstrich, i.e., a line drawn between, not through, the staves [Ex. 2, from Josquin, Ave Christe, immolate]. Unfortunately, the Mensurstrich is impracticable if different meters (mensurations) are used in different parts, e.g., 2/4 against 3/4, a practice which is not infrequent in the period of Obrecht and Josquin, and still more frequent in the compositions of the late *Ars nova.
11Lit.: W. H. Cummings, "Bar-lines" (Musical Times, 1904, p. 574); Th. Wihemayer, in ZMW vii; H. Keller, in ZMW vii; WoHN i, 427; ApNPM, passim.
13Baroque music. The music of the period c. 1600-1750, following upon that of the *Renaissance. It is also frequently referred to as the "thorough-bass period."
15The term baroque (probably from Port. barrocco, a pearl of irregular form) was used formerly, and still is today, in a decidedly depreciatory sense, as meaning "grotesque," "in corrupt taste" [cf. Webster], "overladen with scroll-work," etc. Its application to the Fine Arts was based on the opinion (Jacob Burckhardt) that 17th-century style in architecture and paintings was a debased Renaissance style. This opinion, however, was thoroughly revised about 1900 by Heinrich Wölflin, who was the first to point out the positive contributions and the great artistic qualities of Baroque art, and to vindicate the term Baroque from any implication of inferiority. More recently, musical historians have followed suit and have adopted the term alongside others such as *Renaissance, *Gothic, *Rococo [see *History of Music]. In view of this situation, the resistance which the term "Baroque music" is still encountering in some circles is hardly justified. If understood properly, this term has the advantage of placing an important and well-defined period of music history within the general frame of cultural development, and of avoiding the emphasis on a special feature of somewhat secondary importance which is implied in the term "thorough-bass period"—a term which, by the way, does not properly include one of the most important branches of 17th-century music, namely, that for organ and harpsichord.
17Both the beginning and the end of the Baroque period in music are rather clearly defined, much more so than those of most other periods, particularly the Renaissance. Baroque music starts about 1600, with the rise of monody, opera, oratorio, cantata, recitative, and closes 150 years later, with the death of Bach and Handel. Preparatory phenomena are, on the one hand, the *ballettos and *villanellas with their reaction against the Flemish polyphony, and on the other hand, the style of the *Venetian School (G. Gabrieli), the pomp and splendor of which exceed the limitations of true Renaissance art and foreshadow the aesthetic basis of Baroque style. It may be noticed that throughout the 17th century the tradition
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