It was a unique experience for me to focus on listening to Baroque instrumental music. I chose to concentrate on the works by Francois Couperin, the French composer of the Baroque era (Tunley, 2016). During two days, I was listening to Vingt-Unieme Ordre and La Reine Des Coeurs to identify the key elements of Baroque music. The experience was interesting because I was able to concentrate on listening to concrete compositions and evaluate them in the context of the received knowledge regarding Baroque music. Therefore, I paid much attention to understanding dynamism and harmony in the discussed works (Martin & Jacobus, 2015).
I have found that, in his works, Couperin combined the features of the Italian and French music that were typical of the era. He also used rhythmic motives and dynamic intervals that were characteristic features of Italian music to accentuate specific melodic patterns. Couperin also followed the principles of the homophonic style typical of the French music (Martin & Jacobus, 2015). The knowledge regarding the elements of the Baroque music in different countries allowed me to focus on finding these patterns in the compositions by Couperin. As a result, listening to music became a thoughtful process for me.
References
Martin, D., & Jacobus, L. A. (2015). The Humanities through the arts. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
Tunley, D. (2016). Francois Couperin and ‘the Perfection of Music’. New York, NY: Routledge.