Explanation of the terminology of Baroque music
Baroque originally meant irregularly shaped pearls and was an art form. Due to the popularity of this art style, later generations called it the Baroque period. The music produced during this period is called Baroque music. The Baroque period is an era in Western art history, roughly the 17th century. Its earliest manifestation was in Italy in the late 16th century, and in some areas, mainly Germany and South American colonies, it did not reach its peak in some aspects until the 18th century.
Characteristics of Baroque music
The biggest characteristic of Baroque music is that tonality replaces mode. Since the Middle Ages, church tunes have mainly used the arrangement of notes to determine the character of the tune, which is also an expression of lateral thinking. In the early Baroque period, tonal writing based on triads began to appear, using harmonic characteristics in various major and minor keys to express the personality of the music. The vigorous development of the tonal system has brought infinite possibilities for musical expression and laid the foundation for music in the next three hundred years. The other aspect is the balanced perfection of the orchestration, which was not yet complete in the development of many musical instruments during the Renaissance. Therefore, the timbre of the orchestra is not very coordinated (unless they are instruments of the same family), and the contrast of music is expressed in timbre and volume. By the Baroque period, the development of musical instruments had become quite mature, especially the instruments of the violin family, which could produce powerful sounds that could compete with wind instruments. Therefore, music creation during this period emphasized contrast in quantity and melody.
Modern application of Baroque music
The melody of Baroque music is expressive, pursuing grand scale, majestic, solemn and brilliant effects, mainly The form of expression is "continuo bass". Baroque music is about 60 beats per minute, which is roughly the same as our human pulse and breathing frequency, making our pulse and breathing tend to be neutral and stable on this beat. The low amplitude and low frequency of Baroque music can induce and enhance the waves in our brain, promote the secretion of morphine in the brain, bring the brain into the most active state, and put people into a super brain power state, which can enable learning and memory. and creative thinking can be fully exerted, thus greatly improving the efficiency of the brain.
Baroque music is used in the world-popular suggestion learning method created by the famous Bulgarian psychologist and educator George Lozanov. It can help absorb, digest, remember and apply knowledge, and achieve amazing efficiency and results. Studying in the context of Baroque music, students can easily memorize up to about 3,000 words per day and retain about 80% after 3 months. Rozanov divided music into active music (mainly used for learning) and passive music (mainly used for memory) based on different needs for learning. It is appropriate to play this music at about 40 decibels.
Many psychologists and scholars who study learning believe that Baroque music can enhance learning effects.
Evaluation of Baroque music
In short, the music of the Baroque period has developed and innovated like its art. Although music and art are two different fields of art, they are so closely related. We can see the figures of musicians at that time in the works of many painters, and they had a good relationship with each other, such as Rubens' Gluck, Renan's Lully, Hogarth and Handel, etc. We can also feel their local music from the paintings of painters from different countries.
Since the late 19th century, Baroque art has received positive evaluations. Many scholars have pointed out that Baroque is the main school after the Renaissance, and have analyzed and historically investigated its formal characteristics. Italian scholar E. Nangio-Ni further summarized the characteristics of 17th-century civilization as Baroque in 1895. The academic community gradually formed the concept that the 17th century was the Baroque era. In addition to Baroque art and Baroque music, there were even Baroque literature, Baroque Philosophy and other formulations have gradually deepened the research on related issues in art history and cultural history.