Additional Resources

This page contains some additional study resources including the “Mystery Music” selections. Those selections will help prepare for the listening exam.

Online Resources

There are a number of websites worth checking out when studying the Baroque period. Many of these sites contain extensive information that would take quite a bit of time to review completely. I will direct you to specific portions of these websites that you should examine, but I encourage you to poke around these sites and dig up as much information as you can. Don’t feel that you have to limit yourselves to the specific sections I link you to.

Chronology
This isn’t something you need to spend hours and hours on, but I’d like you to scroll through this chronological listing of important events in the 1600’s and early 1700s. While this is a music class not a Western Civilization course, I still want you to get an idea of what was going on when composers like Monteverdi, Purcell, and Bach were doing their thing. If you see an event that you’d like to learn more about, go to the Santa Ana College Library Encyclopedias website, click on Encarta Concise Encyclopedia, and do a search on the event you’re interested in.
Cultural Background
This page contains a lot of information on the characteristics of Baroque music and instruments. Though I encourage you to read it all, I’d like you to focus on the general historical and cultural background presented in the first several paragraphs (top of the page down to where it says “The Elements of Baroque Music”). If you continue a little further down the page you can listen to excerpts of pieces of Baroque music. There is also (even further down the page) a great section called “The Baroque Musical Aesthetic” which I highly recommend.

A Few More Links

Baroque Music: This site has lots of good general information plus lots more links.
JS Bach Website: This is an extensive website on one of the greatest composers of all time, J.S. Bach.
Vivaldi Website: This is also a very extensive site dealing with Antonio Vivaldi.
Classical,net: A good resource for information on “classical” music of all periods.

Mystery Music

Here are some Baroque works you haven’t heard in class. Listen to each piece then try to answer the following questions: what genre or genres could this possibly represent, and what characteristics can I hear in the music?

Mystery Music 3 is about 8 minutes long and you’ll need to hear the whole thing to make a correct decision.