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Music of the Baroque Period

Code: 100642
Credits: 6
2026/2027
Degree programme Type Course
Musicology OB 2

Contact lecturer

Name :
Xavier Daufi Rodergas
Email :
xavier.daufi@uab.cat

Group languages

You can consult this information at the end of the document.

Prerequisites

1. Students must have general a knowledge of History of Music, Art and Philosophy.

2. Students must have a consolidated knowledge of Music Harmony, Counterpoint and Musical Form.

Objectives

The course will describe and explain the development of music and the musical phenomenon from the Mannerist era and the period in which took place the Reformation and Counterreformation, to the late Baroque in thed early 18th Cantury. Thus, there will be a contextualized tour through the most significant composers, forms, genres, instruments and theories that shape the musical fact of Baroque music from the late sixteenth century to around 1730.

Learning outcomes

  1. Produce correct, precise and clear argumental and terminological writing of knowledge acquired, both in the area of musical specialisation and dissemination.
  2. Integrate knowledge acquired in the production of clear and concise appropriate to the academic and specialist communication.
  3. Analysing ideas about an artistic phenomenon in a given cultural context.
  4. Analysing the creators of an artistic phenomenon in a specific cultural context.
  5. Analysing the recipients of an artistic phenomenon in a specific cultural context.
  6. Identify the complexity of music reception processes.
  7. Solve problems of a methodological nature in the area of musicology.
  8. Apply the conceptualisation of philosophy, history, literature and anthropology to musical research.
  9. Interrelate technological and scientific changes in each period with the creation and reception of music.
  10. Identifying the specific methods of history and their relationship with the analysis of particular facts.
  11. Identifying the context of the historical processes.
  12. Use specific vocabulary of history correctly.
  13. Use the vocabulary of musicology related to each period of history.
  14. Identify the stylistic properties of each historical period.
  15. Interpret the most important theoretical texts of each period.
  16. Correctly identify the essential repertoire and the main composers of each historical period.
  17. Present knowledge about the history, art or other cultural movements.
  18. Define the processes of periodisation and stylistic classification and usual typology in the historical conceptualisation of the musical fact.
  19. Contextualise new tendencies in musical creation in general historical evolution and observe its incorporation in the sociopolitical panorama in which they are framed.
  20. Consider the subject as a whole and identify the context in which the processes studied are inscribed and their interrelationship with the elements and factors that are involved in their sociohistorical development.
  21. Link the periods of the history of music to periods of the history of art, in their similarities and differences.
  22. Identify phenomena of the circulation of ideas in music proficiency.
  23. Contextualise musical works in their hsitorical and cultural setting from a critical perspective.
  24. Identify and critically place different musical typologies in their historical periods.
  25. Critically identify the different orientations of musical praxis that musicians apply to the music of each hsitorical period.
  26. Recognise in musical praxis element of different cultures and different historical periods.
  27. Identify situations in which a change or improvement is needed.
  28. Propose new experience-based methods or alternative solutions.
  29. Communicate using language that is not sexist or discriminatory.
  30. Assess the reliability of sources, select relevant data and contrast information.
  31. Identify and critically assemble the basic bibliography that has shaped the field of study.

Contents

  1. The Baroque Era.
  2. Early Baroque in Italy.
  3. Middle Baroque in Italy.
  4. Early and middle Baroque in the Netherlands and Germany.
  5. Early and Middle Baroque in France.
  6. Early and Middle Baroque in England.
  7. Late Baroque. J.S.Bach and G.F.Handel


Women's contributions to music in the Baroque Era will be considered through the course.

Learning activities and methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning outcomes
Contextualized identification of the styles and aesthetics of musical baroque 60 2.4
Analysis of musical works 37 1.48
Comment of hearing 50 2

The content of the course will be developed through master classes, along with practical sessions dealing with analytical commentary of musical works (fugues) and guided listening.

ON THE USE OF AI TECHNOLOGIES IN THIS SUBJECT

The use of AI technologies in this subject will be permitted exclusively for bibliographic research, text correction, and translation. Students must explicitly identify any sections generated using AI tools, specifying which tools were used and providing a critical reflection on their impact on both the process and the final outcome of the activity.

Failure to maintain transparency in AI use will be regarded as academic dishonesty and may result in significant grade reductions, as well as more severe sanctions in serious cases

Annotation: within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.

Assessment

Continuous assessment activities

Title Weight Hours ECTS Learning outcomes
Examination of comment of musical hearing 30% 0.75 0.03 1, 2, 3, 4, 12, 13, 14, 16, 18, 20, 21, 23, 24, 25, 26, 29
Thematic development review (40%) 40% 1.5 0.06 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 30, 31
Fugue analysis assignment 30% 0.75 0.03 1, 2, 6, 7, 10, 12, 13, 25

Assessemen

The assessment of this course will consist of three compulsory activities:

1. Thematic development review (40%)

2. Comentary on musical auditions (30%)

3. Fugue analysis assignment (30%)

To pass the course students must obtain a minimum grade of 5 in each of the three compusolry assessment activities.


Reassessment

At the re-evaluation exam, scheduled by the Faculty, students will have to be examined only on the failed part(s).


The examinations will only be reviewed in person.

Those students who only take part in one of the compulsory assessment activities wil be considered as \"non-evaluable\".


SINGLE ASSESSMENT

The exam will be based on three activities:

  • Thematic development (40%)
  • Analysis of fugues (30%)
  • Commentary on musical auditions (30%)

To pass the course, all three parts must be passed separately.

The date for the assessment will be published at the Virtual Campus.


Single Assessment (reassessment)

The reassessment procedure will be the same as that for ordinary assessment.


In the event of a student committing any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade awarded to an assessment activity, the student will be given a zero for this activity, regardless of any disciplinary process that may take place. In the event of several irregularities in assessment activities of the same subject, the student will be given a zero as the final grade for this subject.


Exchange students

Erasmus and exchange students who request to advance an exam must present a document from their home university justifying their request.


Review

On carrying out each evaluations activity, lecturers will inform students (on Moodle)of the procedures to be followed for reviewing all gradesawarded, and the date on which a review will take place.


Bibliography

AAVV, Història Crítica de la Música Catalana, Servei de Publicacions de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 2009.

ABRAHAM, Gerald, Concert Music, 1630 – 1750, vol. VI, The New Oxford History of Music, Oxford Univ. Press, London, 1986.

ABRAHAM, Gerald, Opera and Church Music, 1630 – 1750, vol. V, The New Oxford History of Music, Oxford Univ. Press, London, 1968.

ANTHONY, James R., La Musique en France à l´époque baroque, Harmoniques /Flammarion, 1981.

ARNOLD, Denis, NEWCOMB, A. y TALBOT, M., Maestros del Barroco Italiano, 1. Monteverdi, Frescobaldi, Corelli, Muchnik Editores, Barcelona, 1987. (Forma parte de la colección «New Grove», nº 9).

BASSO, Alberto, Historia de la Música, 6, ed. Turner, Turner Música, Madrid, 1986.

BASSO, Alberto, Jean Sébastien Bach, vol. 1 i 2, Fayard, París, 1984

BEAUSSANT, Philippe, François Couperin, AM 71, Madrid, 1996.

BEAUSSANT, Philippe, Les plaisirs de Versailles (théâtre et musique), ed. Fayard, col. les chemins de la musique, Ligugé, Poitiers, 1996.

BEAUSSANT, Philippe, Louis XIV artiste, Payot, París, 1999.

BEAUSSANT, Philippe, Lully ou le musicien du soleil, Gallimard, París,1992.

BEAUSSANT, Philippe, Versailles, Opéra, Gallimard, París, 198

BIANCONI, Lorenzo, Historia de la Música V, ed. Turner, Turner Música, Madrid, 1986.

BLUME, Friedrich, Renaissance and Baroque Music, ed. Norton, London, 1967.

BONASTRE, Francesc “El Barroc Musical a Catalunya”, Barroc català, ed. Quaderns Crema, Barcelona, 1989.

BOYD, Malcolm., CARRERAS, Juan José, eds, La Música en España en el siglo XVIII, Cambridge Univ Press, Madrid 2000

BUELOW, George J.(ed.), The late Baroque Era. From the 1680s to 1740, Prentice Hall, New Jersey, 1993.

BUKOFZER, Manfred, La música en la época barroca. De Monteverdi a Bach, Alianza ed., Alianza Música 30, Madrid, 1986.

BURROWS, Donald, Haendel, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1996.

CLERCX, Susanne, Le Baroque et la Musique, ed. Librairie Encyclopédique, Bruxelles, 1948

CODINA, Daniel, DOLCET, Josep, RIFÉ, Jordi i VILAR, Josep Maria, Història de la Música Catalana, Valenciana i Balear. Barroc i Classicisme. Vol II, ed. 62, Barcelona, 1999.

DEAN, Winton y MERRILL KNAPP, John, Handel's Operas, 1704-1726, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1995.

DEAN, Winton, Handel's Dramatic Oratorios and Masques, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1990.

FABBRI, Paolo, Monteverdi, ed. Turner, Madrid, 1989.

GREGOR-DELLIN, Martin, Heinrich Schütz, Fayard, París, 1986.

HEARTZ, Daniel, Music in European Capitals. The Galant Style 1720-1780, WW. Norton & Company, New York-London, 2003.

HOGWOOD, Christopher, Haendel, AM 33, Alianza ed., Madrid, 1988.

HUTCHINGS, Arthur James Dramwell, The Baroque Concerto, London, 1973.

JEPPESEN, Knud, The Style of Palestrina And the Dissonance, Dover, New York, 1970.

KING, Robert, Henry Purcell, AM 72, Alianza ed., Madrid, 1996.

LÓPEZ-CALO, José, Historia de la Música Española: 3. Siglo XVII, Alianza ed., AM 3, Madrid, 1983.

MANNIATES, Maria Rika, Mannerism in Italian Music and Culture, 1530 – 1630, Manchester University Press, Manchester, 1979.

MARTÍN MORENO, Antonio, Historia de la música española, 4. Siglo xviii, Alianza, Madrid, 1985.

NEWMAN, William S., The Sonata in the Baroque Era, Norton, New York – London, 1983.

OTTERBACH, Friedemann, Johann Sebastian Bach, AM 52, Alianza ed., Madrid, 1990.

PALISCA, Claude V., La Música del Barroco, ed. Victor Leru, Buenos Aires, 1968.

PALISCA, Claude V., Studies inthe History of Italian Music and Music Theory, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1994.

PALISCA, Claude V., The Florentine Camerata, Yale University Press, Yale, 1989.

SCHWEITZER, Albert, J. S. Bach. El músico poeta, Ricordi, Madrid, 1955.

SELFRIDGE-FIELD, Eleanor, Venetian Instrumental Music, Dover, New York, 1994.

SMITHER, Howard Elbert, A History of the Oratorio, 3 vols., Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1987.

TALBOT, Michael, Vivaldi, AM, Alianza ed., Madrid. 1990.

WEBBER, Geoffrey, North German Church Music in the Age of Buxtehude, Oxford Monographs on Music, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1996.

WEBER, Edith, Le Concile de Trente et la Musique. De la Réforme à la Contre-Réforme, Librairie Honoré Champion, col. musique-musicologie nº 12, Paris, 1982.

WOLFF, Christoph, Johann Sebastian Bach, vol. I y II, ed. Robinbook, Barcelona, 2000.

WALTER HILL, John, La Música Barroca, Akal Música 3, Madrid, 2008.

WALTER HILL, John, Antología de la Música Barroca, Akal Música, 2013.

Software

Not used

Course groups and languages

The information provided is provisional until November 30. After this date, you will be able to consult the language of each group through this link. To access the information, you will need to enter the course CODE

Type of teaching Group Language Semester Shift
(TE) Theory 1 Catalan first semester morning-mixed
(PAUL) Classroom practices 1 Catalan first semester morning-mixed