*~!Baroque!~*

Attend an event on campus or in town—summarize the event you attended and explain its relevance to HUMN2002 content. In what ways does this event represent interdisciplinarity? What fields might also be connected with this event that were not represented?

           The music of the Baroque Era was a concert set specifically to the Baroque period and embodied the instruments of that time as well as the style and form. There were eight total performances highlighting a range of composers including Bach, Handel, and Monteverdi. This concert was relevant to humanities 2002 because we actually highlighted Handel and Bach in class. Bach liked dressing up his composition, using certain chords to produce powerful sounds or using sharps and flats. He also introduced the continuum where two parts of a composition are played together in sonatas. For example, in the Purcell selection, “Music for a While (From Oedipus)”, the cello played the same tune continuously throughout the performance. The ornamentation of the music overall encompasses the characteristics of the Baroque era.

          The first selection, “Ohimè dov’è il mio ben” by Monterverdi, seems to represent Milton’s Paradise Lost. Part three of the song says “Thus my ambitious and too trifling aspirations had more power than my love”. This reminds me of how Eve wanted to eat the forbidden fruit selfishly because he wanted the power over Adam, and even though she loved him, she still wanted that superiority at first. The fourth part of this selection says “Ah, stupid world, and blind; ah, cruel fate! You make me the executioner of my own death” and it symbolizes the consequence of eating the fruit. She knows it was wrong and that death was an end result, yet, she still ate it.

          There was also a selection entitled “Triosonate” by Telemann which was a trio sonata. It was full embellishments and improvisations which relates back to the ornateness of this Era. The contrasts and dynamics of the composition reminded me of the Palace of Versailles, specifically the Hall of Mirrors. The Hall of Mirrors is this huge space full of mirrors and chandeliers. Although each piece of the hall is ornate and has its own style, the whole space together screams grandiosity.

          So, the Baroque Era concert wasvry represntative of the Baroque characteristics and the period as  whole. It also called forth connections to other forms of work in this period such as Paradise Lost and the Palace of Versailles.