Baroque Learning Tasks

I. The student will read all pages of the reading assignments from The Enjoyment of Music.

II. The student will be able to define the terms and the people who helped to shape the Baroque period as found on the Terms page. Please e-mail this as a homework assignment. (Look here for more information on how to e-mail assignments.)
Send all of Learning Task II as a unit.

III. The student will read about the composers represented in the listening assignments, listen to examples of their work, and be able to identify them as composers of the Baroque Period (1600-1750).

IV. The student will listen to a recitative from Wachet Auf, a cantata by Bach and compare it with an aria from Messiah by Handel. Notice the difference in the declamatory style used to "set the stage and plot" with the recitative and compare it with the beautiful, tuneful melody of the Aria.

V. The student will listen to the opening theme of the first movement of Bach's Brandenburg Concerto #2. Notice as you listen to the rest of the movement how this theme, the "Ritornello" theme, keeps coming back to unify the composition.

VI. The student will be able to compare and contrast opera, cantata, and oratorio.
E-mail a one page comparison with learning task IX..

VII. The student will describe the orchestra Bach used to perform the second Brandenburg Concerto. There are three sections. Tell what instruments make up each of the three: tutti, basso continuo, and concertino. Be sure to look at this picture of Bach's Orchestra. Format your e-mail as follows:   Tutti: glockenspiel, kazoo; Basso continuo: foghorn 
E-mail this description with task VIII. 

VIII. The student will fill in the following grid with the differences between the 1st and 3rd "outer" movements and the 2nd movement of the Brandenburg Concerto.
Send this via e-mail with task VII. When sending this e-mail please reproduce the grid as I have it and fill in the spaces. 

IX. The student will listen to Handel's Water Music and imagine being on a barge on the Thames River, a guest of King George I of England. The orchestra plays all the way to Chelsea as it sails on its hired barge. You are on a guest barge and King George and his entourage are on the royal barge. The music you hear is a suite of dances. As you listen, read pp. 205-208 in the textbook. Note the picture of the barges on p. 205. Try to feel royal. Listen to the following music clips of Water Music. I.Overture   II.Adagio E Staccato     III.Allegro  IV.Andante 
Write a page describing music used by royals today (think of music in funerals, coronations, and weddings you have heard), comparing it with the kind of music that the royals used for their functions back in the day of King George I. E-mail this with learning task VI. 

X. The student will take the test on the Baroque period.

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