The Colossal Baroque style is a name which has been coined to describe a number of compositions from the 17th and 18th centuries composed in an opulent, magnificent and large-scaled style. Such works frequently make use of

polychoral An antiphon (Greek ἀντίφωνον, ἀντί "opposite" and φωνή "voice") is a short chant in Christian ritual, sung as a refrain. The texts of antiphons are the Psalms. Their form was favored by St Ambrose and they feature prominently ...

techniques and often feature instrumental forces considerably larger than the norm for the Baroque period. The Colossal Baroque had its roots in Italy, in the resplendent multiple polychoral music of the Venetian School, in the sumptuous, extravagant productions of the Medici court, for example the 40- and 60-voice ''

Missa sopra Ecco sì beato giorno The ''Missa sopra Ecco sì beato giorno'' is a musical setting of the Ordinary of the Mass, for 40 and 60 voices, by Florentine Renaissance composer Alessandro Striggio. It probably dates from 1565–6, during the reign of his employer, Cosimo I d ...

'' by

Alessandro Striggio Alessandro Striggio (c. 1536/1537 – 29 February 1592) was an Italian composer, instrumentalist and diplomat of the Renaissance. He composed numerous madrigals as well as dramatic music, and by combining the two, became the inventor of madrigal co ...

, and in the large polychoral works of the

Roman School In music history, the Roman School was a group of composers of predominantly church music, in Rome, during the 16th and 17th centuries, therefore spanning the late Renaissance and early Baroque eras. The term also refers to the music they produ ...

, many of which were written long after the Venetian School had vanished. An impetus for this music was the

Council of Trent The Council of Trent ( la, Concilium Tridentinum), held between 1545 and 1563 in Trento, Trent (or Trento), now in northern Italian Peninsula, Italy, was the 19th ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. Prompted by the Protestant Reformation ...

, which marked the beginning of the

Counter-Reformation The Counter-Reformation (), also called the Catholic Reformation () or the Catholic Revival, was the period of Catholic resurgence that was initiated in response to the Protestant Reformation. It began with the Council of Trent (1545–1563) a ...

. Some attendees of the Council held the unofficial point of view that music should be subservient to text, as idealized and exemplified in the choral music of Palestrina. Some critics held that this was not as achievable in larger choral textures.

Background

Some of the roots of the Colossal Baroque style were in the opulent Florentine

Intermedii The intermedio (also intromessa, introdutto, tramessa, tramezzo, intermezzo, intermedii), in the Italian Renaissance, was a theatrical performance or spectacle with music and often dance, which was performed between the acts of a play to celeb ...

of the 16th century, commissioned and attended by the powerful

Medici The House of Medici ( , ) was an Italian banking family and political dynasty that first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici, in the Republic of Florence during the first half of the 15th century. The family originated in the Muge ...

family. ''

La Pellegrina ''The Pilgrim Woman'' (''La pellegrina'') is a 1579 play written by Girolamo Bargagli of Siena that had been performed for the first time on 2 May 1589 in Florence, after the author's death in 1586, on the occasion of the marriage of Ferdinand I ...

'', performed for the wedding of Ferdinand de' Medici to the French princess,

Christine of Lorraine Christina of Lorraine or Christine de Lorraine (16 August 1565 – 19 December 1637) was a member of the House of Lorraine and was the Grand Duchess of Tuscany by marriage. She served as Regent of Tuscany jointly with her daughter-in-law during t ...

, in 1589, featured music for up to seven choirs, by

Cristofano Malvezzi Cristofano Malvezzi (baptised June 28, 1547 – January 22, 1599) was an Italian organist and composer of the late Renaissance. He was one of the most famous composers in the city of Florence during a time of transition to the Baroque Th ...

in Intermedio VI. Yet another city that cultivated large sonorities was Rome. Composers there were not as adventurous with harmony and rhythm as the Venetians, but they had spacious churches with elaborate interiors which demanded music to match. Composers such as

Orazio Benevoli Orazio Benevoli or Benevolo (19 April 1605 – 17 June 1672), was a Franco-Italian composer of large scaled polychoral sacred choral works (e.g., one work featured forty-eight vocal and instrumental lines) of the mid-Baroque era. He was born ...

, who began his career in Rome, helped spread the style elsewhere, especially across the Brenner Pass into the Austrian lands.Dyer, Grove online In the Austrian area, multi-part pieces were written for special occasions but not always published. There is a long list of missing and incomplete works by

Giovanni Valentini Giovanni Valentini (ca. 1582 – 29/30 April 1649) was an Italian Baroque composer, poet and keyboard virtuoso. Overshadowed by his contemporaries, Claudio Monteverdi and Heinrich Schütz, Valentini is practically forgotten today, although he occ ...

, (some in 17 choirs), Priuli, Bernadi, (the mass for consecration of Salzburg Cathedral used 16 choirs), and others. Some of Valentini's trumpet parts survive; they have few changes of note, and many rests. It is possible that the brass may have made dovetailed mass volume answering phrases in a multichoir texture similar to the effects exploited by

Giovanni Gabrieli Giovanni Gabrieli (c. 1554/1557 – 12 August 1612) was an Italian composer and organist. He was one of the most influential musicians of his time, and represents the culmination of the style of the Venetian School, at the time of the shift f ...

and the other composers of the Venetian School. Pieces were typically in 12 or more parts but there is evidence that the polychoral aspects did not always involve wide spacing. For example, in Ugolini's ''Exultate Omnes'' there are trio passages for all the sopranos, tenors and altos from each choir together. This would have been impractical if the singers were widely separated, due to the physical limitation imposed by the

speed of sound The speed of sound is the distance travelled per unit of time by a sound wave as it propagates through an elastic medium. At , the speed of sound in air is about , or one kilometre in or one mile in . It depends strongly on temperature as w ...

. On the other hand, some pieces were very likely to have been performed with singers and players distributed widely, in venues such as Salzburg Cathedral; for maximum effect and practicality, much of this music was antiphonal or exploited echo effects.

became confused with

Heinrich Biber Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber ( bapt. 12 August 1644, Stráž pod Ralskem – 3 May 1704, Salzburg) was a Bohemian-Austrian composer and violinist. Biber worked in Graz and Kroměříž before he illegally left his employer, Prince-Bishop Karl Li ...

and

Stefano Bernardi Stefano (or Steffano) Bernardi (18 March 1580 – 15 February 1637), also known as "il Moretto", was an Italian priest, composer and music theorist. Born in Verona and ''maestro di cappella'' at the Verona Cathedral from 1611 to 1622, he later mo ...

in the celebrated mixup over the authorship of the Missa Salisburgensis, now assigned to Biber and provisionally dated to 1682. Works we may consider to be examples of the Colossal Baroque style were frequently ceremonial works, composed for special occasions (coronations, weddings, religious festivals, municipal functions, victory celebrations, et cetera). These works were frequently performed with unusually large musical forces. From time to time the scores of such works may have been presented to the aristocrat hosting or the subject of the event. As a result, many scores of large-scale 16th- and 17th-century works have been lost.

Heinrich Schütz Heinrich Schütz (; 6 November 1672) was a German early Baroque composer and organist, generally regarded as the most important German composer before Johann Sebastian Bach, as well as one of the most important composers of the 17th century. He ...

composed a musical setting of

Psalm 136 Psalm 136 is the 136th psalm of the Book of Psalms, beginning in English in the King James Version: "O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. ". The Book of Psalms is part of the third section of the Hebrew Bi ...

, ''Danket dem Herren, denn er ist freundlich'' which included three vocal choirs, 12 cornetti and 18 trumpets. This score is also now lost.

Some composers

Composers of the 17th century who composed works in the colossal style include: *

(1605–1672). *

Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber (baptism, bapt. 12 August 1644, Stráž pod Ralskem – 3 May 1704, Salzburg) was a Bohemian-Austrian composer and violinist. Biber worked in Graz and Kroměříž before he illegally left his employer, Prince-Bishop ...

(1644–1704). *

Dietrich Buxtehude Dieterich Buxtehude (; ; born Diderik Hansen Buxtehude; c. 1637 – 9 May 1707) was a Danish organist and composer of the Baroque period, whose works are typical of the North German organ school. As a composer who worked in various vocal a ...

Marc-Antoine Charpentier Marc-Antoine Charpentier (; 1643 – 24 February 1704) was a French Baroque composer during the reign of Louis XIV. One of his most famous works is the main theme from the prelude of his ''Te Deum'', ''Marche en rondeau''. This theme is still us ...

Stefano Landi Stefano Landi (baptized 26 February 1587 – 28 October 1639) was an Italian composer and teacher of the early Baroque Roman School. He was an influential early composer of opera, and wrote the earliest opera on a historical subject: ''Il Sa ...

Joannes Baptista Dolar Joannes Baptista Dolar ( sl, Janez Krstnik Dolar or ''Janez Kersnik Dolar'', cz, Jan Křtitel Tolar, also ''Tollar'' or ''Thollary''; 1620, Kamnik – 1673, Vienna) was a composer and contemporary of Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, Johann Heinri ...

Johann Joseph Fux Johann Joseph Fux (; – 13 February 1741) was an Austrian composer, music theory, music theorist and pedagogy, pedagogue of the late Baroque music, Baroque era. His most enduring work is not a musical composition but his treatise on counterpoin ...

Andreas Hofer Andreas Hofer (22 November 1767 – 20 February 1810) was a Tyrolean innkeeper and drover, who in 1809 became the leader of the Tyrolean Rebellion against the Napoleonic and Bavarian invasion during the War of the Fifth Coalition. He was subse ...

Jean-Baptiste Lully Jean-Baptiste Lully ( , , ; born Giovanni Battista Lulli, ; – 22 March 1687) was an Italian-born French composer, guitarist, violinist, and dancer who is considered a master of the French Baroque music style. Best known for his operas, he ...

Vincenzo Ugolini Vincenzo Ugolini (1 November 1578; 6 May 1638) was an Italian composer of the early Baroque era and of the Roman School. Life Born in Perugia, he was first a ''puer chori'' (boy soprano) at San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome under Giovanni Bernardi ...

(c. 1580 – 1638)

Works which may be considered to be in the "Colossal Baroque" style

: ''Sonata XX à 22'' * Giovanni Gabrieli: ''Magnificat à 33 voci'' *

Michael Praetorius Michael Praetorius (probably 28 September 1571 – 15 February 1621) was a German composer, organist, and music theorist. He was one of the most versatile composers of his age, being particularly significant in the development of musical forms ba ...

: ''In Dulci Jubilo à 12, 16, & 20 cum Tubis'' *

: ''Missa à 12 chori'' (music lost) *

: ''SWV 476 - Domini est terra'' (this work features two vocal choirs, 2 cornettini, 5 dulcians, 2

violins The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

, 4

trombones The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate ...

) *

Missa Salisburgensis à 53 voci The Missa Salisburgensis à 53 voci is perhaps the largest-scale piece of extant sacred Baroque music, an archetypal work of the Colossal Baroque that is now universally accepted to be by Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber. The manuscript score of this Mas ...

: ''Te Deum'' (Lully conducted a performance with a choir of 300 singers and an orchestra of a similar size) *

: ''Messe à quatre chœurs'' *

: ''BuxWV 113 - Benedicam Dominum in omni tempore à 24'' (this motet features six "choirs" of voices and instruments) *

: ''Costanza e Fortezza'' (the score for this opera features 8 trumpets, 2 timpanists and two complete orchestras) * Johann Sebastian Bach: Passion after Matthew for solo voices, double choir and double orchestra

Music editions

* Orazio Benevoli ''Opera Omnia, ed.'' * L. Feininger, ''Monumenta liturgiae Polychoralis Sanctae Ecclesiae Romane'' (Rome, 1966-). * Orazio Benevoli, ''Christe'', a 12 in 3 choirs, ''ed.'' * Marcel Couraud (Paris, Editions Salabert, 1973) * Vincenzo Ugolini, ''Exultate omnes, Beata es Virgo Maria'' and ''Quae est ista'', three motets in 12 part triple choirs. Transcribed and edited by Graham Dixon (Mapa Mundi, 1982).

Books with Music

* Steven Saunders, CROSS, SWORD AND LYRE, ''Sacred Music at the Imperial Court of Ferdinand II of Habsburg (1619–1637)'' (Clarendon, 1995).

Notes

References

* Joseph Dyer, "Roman Catholic church music, §II: The 16th century in Europe". Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (accessed May 15, 2007)
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{{refend Baroque music Polychoral compositions European court festivities