How were vocal and instrumental music emphasized in baroque?

Answer 1

This question is difficult to answer, because it asks about something that wasn't.

Baroque composers began to be very specific about which instruments they were writing for, because instruments were changing. In the Renaissance, instruments tended to come in families, and music playable on one family of instruments (recorders, for instance) could as easily be played on another group (krummhorns or viols) as long as the compass (range) of the parts could be managed.

In the later Renaissance, which is arguably early baroque, composers began to differentiate between the instrumental families, recognizing the great range of the strings (viols, lutes) and brasses (cornetti, sackbutts) as opposed to the recorders and other family instruments. Fantasias were written specifically for viol-family instruments, solos abounded for lutes, or lyra viols, which specifically would not work on other instruments, although in the same period, many published collections of music without any indication of instrumentation at all. During this whole time, vocal music clearly stood in the majority of focus, and it is assumed by modern scholars that if music was published with words (or a hint of there being words) that it means the piece was originally written for voices. The 'modern' period of musicology is starting to fade, now, though, and it is begining to be understood that many times music was written 'on' a vocal melody, but intended to be played on instruments.

When the Baroque period was in full swing, there was no sign that composers were abandoning the voice: choral and solo works abounded. In fact, the solo song rose from the leisure efforts of citizen lutenists to a professional employment in the courts of Europe, and much music exists still which makes it clear that the singers were expected to be professional musicians!

During the Baroque, however, small consorts of instruments began to grow. The kings started to replace their privvy chamber musicians with orchestras and bands of violins and oboes. These groups were larger and more specialized than the previous 'waite' type of musician groups, and called for music written especially for their sonorities. This may be the cause of the mistaken belief that instrumental music was becoming a focus: instead, it was becoming 'more focused'.

The advent of Opera raised solo singing over instrumental groups to a new height, but its predecessor, the masque (as it was called in England) was just as instrument-rich. The organ, which predominates Catholic music in the Cathedrals, was no less in the forefront four hundred years ago than it was a hundred years ago. And individual soloist musicians were no less frequent in the Renaissance than they were in the Baroque: Galileo Galilei's father Vincenzo, was a noted lutenist who left books of compositions for the lute, and also appeared at court as a competition winning player of the vielle (a precursor to the violin.) His counterparts in the Baroque, such as Tartini, might have acquired more notoriety (being accused of being talented because of being in league with the Devil can do that!) but they were no more commonplace!

Answer 2

Whether it was the MOST significant is up for debate but there is no doubt that instrumental music grew into a genre that undoubtedly rivaled and perhaps even surpassed vocal pieces. Instrumental music played a huge role in the Baroque period.

Answer 3

They were developed and honed. Different styles emerged. Concertos, movements, and fugues were greater developed for instrumental music and operas, oratorios, and cantatas became prominent in vocal music.

Answer 4

There was much instrumental music in the Renaissance, such as Gabrieli's antiphonal brass music. The baroque period saw development both of instrumental and choral music. Instrumental music began to be dominant during the classical period and thereafter.

Answer 5

It became a more prominent form of music. More sophisticated styles and techniques were developed for instrumental music.