Vocal music — music for solo voices, choruses, or both — formed a major part of the output of most Baroque composers. We have seen that composers were supported by three main institutions: the church, the opera house, and the court. Each of these demanded vocal music. Indeed, of the three, only the court was a major venue for instrumental music — and every court had its chapel, for which the court composers were also required to provide vocal music. Courts often had their own opera theaters, too.

Theories of musical expression in the Baroque era were touched on in Chapter 9 (page 112). It was believed at the time that emotions could be isolated, categorized, and listed in a fairly simple way, and that music could enhance or even arouse each emotion by means of certain musical devices applied consistently throughout a piece. Theorists developed checklists of musical devices corresponding to each of the “affects,” as they called emotions conceived in this way.

It was particularly in vocal music — where the words that are sung define or suggest a specific emotion — that this musical vocabulary of the emotions was developed and exploited. If a text refers to “rejoicing,” for example, a Baroque composer would match this with fast, lively runs; a mention of “victory” would probably require trumpets and drums in the accompanying instruments to evoke battle music — or at least fanfare motives in the violins. “Sorrow” would call forth sighing melodic gestures and intense, dissonant harmonies, and so on.