Speech About Baroque Music

Miranda McKellen: Good morning! My name is Miranda McKellen, and for you new listeners, this is the finest radio station where we talk about the greatest music! Today we have many special guests, starting with our first one: Tom Jenson. Tom has been on our station before, and he discusses musical links from two distinct musical cultures. Today Tom will be sharing the musical links that he has found between the cultures of Baroque Music and Cool Jazz. Good morning Tom!

Tom Jensen: Good morning Miranda, it feels great to be back!

Miranda McKellen: Would you mind telling us a little bit about the two cultures you will be analyzing today?

Tom Jensen: It would be my pleasure! Even though Baroque music and Cool Jazz were created many years apart,

The form seen in both of these songs is ritornello form, which is a form commonly seen in Baroque music. In jazz music, the beginning melody is referred to as the ‘head’ while the opening idea in ritornello form resembles this stage in the music. In ritornello form, this opening melody is returned to throughout the song in different keys with new ideas in between them, and ritornello form normally ends with the opening statement.(2) Similarly, in jazz the 'head ' is heard at both the beginning and end of the piece as well as in between the improvised sections of the piece. 'So What ' is built around a 32 bar structure with the first 16 bars in D minor with Dmin7 chords, 8 bars with Eb7 chords and a final 8 bars in Dmin7. This form repeats throughout the song and provides a great foundation for the melod to know what the changes in the chords are. The changes in chords are played with the same chord progression just in a different keys during the solo sections.

Bach 's Brandenburg Concerto also uses the the Concerto Grosso format where there is a contrast between the ripieno full orchestra parts, and the concertino soloist parts. In the concertino parts of Bach’s piece, it is marked obligato which means that the piece must be played exactly as written, which contrasts with the ideas of jazz music. During the ripieno parts however, the figured bass is provided in the continuo which allows for improvisation.

One last secondary link that I have found is that is a vital part of the form and and aids the style of each culture as well. In Baroque music, figured bass symbols provide direction for which chords should be played, while jazz music provides chord symbols in the rhythm section. For example, in a bass line written with chord symbols any note can be played as long as it is within the chord, and the rhythm can be left up to the soloist as well. Miranda McKellen: Wow Tom! You never cease to amaze both our listeners and myself! One last thing before we move on: what did you learn as a result from analyzing