Cantata: (Cantata)

"Cantata" comes from the Italian word "singing", which is a piece of singing. A work performed for vocalists, chorus and instrumentalists, based on a poetic story, religious or secular, lyrical or dramatic, usually containing several movements, such as arias, recitatives Key, duet and chorus. The cantata developed in Germany as an important form of Lutheran sacred music, enriched by all the instrumental and vocal forms of the Baroque and drawing on the splendor of French opera overtures and the vibrant instrumental style of Italy.

Ostinato: (Basso Ostinato)

The principle of unity in change is embodied in Baroque music, that is, the ostinato or basic bass. A short phrase of melody or accompaniment is repeated repeatedly in the lower part. Each time it is repeated, it is changed in the upper part and arranged in a new harmonic, melodic, and counterpoint texture. It is a unified, repeated pattern in which the composer takes great pride in making the structure coherent and the form expanding. Baroque musicians developed a perfect technique of variations and ornamentations in the form of ostinato. Of course, the upper and middle voices are often improvised. This technique is particularly popular in the UK.

Passacablia and Chaconne: (Passacablia and Chaconne)

One of the most magnificent forms of Baroque music is the passacaglia, which uses the principle of the ostinato. Usually, a melody is introduced separately in the bass part, usually in groups of four or eight, in solemn three beats. The theme is repeated again and again, serving as a base with a complex polyphonic structure based on continuous variations. The composer gives each reappearance of the theme a new brilliance, making the variations continue to stimulate people's senses and gradually move toward a climax. This method of increasing tension is to make the parts other than the fixed bass always play faster notes in a unit duration: from eighth notes to sixteenth and thirty-second notes. The theme can also be transferred to the upper voice. The most famous example is Bach's Passacaglia in C minor for organ.

Chaconne is a related genre in which a fixed chord system is repeated with a characteristic rhythm as the basis for each variation. Therefore, the fixed factor of chaconne is not so much melodic as harmonic. Both forms are not purely instrumental. Examples of this use of ostinato can also be found in a large number of opera arias and oratorios from this time. They are examples of the Urban Baroque trend of enriching variations and decorations with one musical idea. It embodies the desire to create more with less, which is the essence of the creative act.

Fugue: (Fugue)

Fugue comes from the Latin "fuga", which means "flight of fantasy". This is one of the most exciting genres of the art and science of counterpoint, where the main melody can fly from one voice to another. A fugue is a counterpoint piece, usually with three or four voices, in which a distinctive main melody or theme pervades the entire structure, sometimes in one voice and sometimes in another. Fugue is therefore based on the principle of imitation. The theme is usually short and provides a unified musical idea, which is the focus of interest in the counterpoint network. The imitation of the main melody in other parts is called an answer. Generally, the theme is on the main key, and the answer is on a related key, usually the dominant key, but also in distant related keys. It will increase the tension back to the original key. . The Baroque fugue embodies the contrast between the relationship between the original key and the relative key. This is one of the basic principles of the new major and minor system. Of course, it has not yet developed to the perfection of the later sonata form.

Toccata: (Toccata)

Toccata comes from the Italian "Toccate", which is about touching keys. This is a kind of instrument created for organ or clavichord. musical composition. It explores the keyboard instrument's brilliant expressive resources in terms of chords, arpeggios, and scale progressions. It is free and rhapsodic in form, marked by the alternation of harmonic-style passages and fugue passages. The most representative one in France, it is called a grand work and develops into an independent work or a companion piece to a fugue.