Above All, It’s About Joy

Webster has defined Baroque Music as a style "characterized by strict form and elaborate ornamentation." While this may be true, there is a deeper element in Baroque Music that has fostered its resurgence among music lovers the world over. One only has to listen to, for example, the Brandenburg Concerti of J. S. Bach or the wistful excitement in Vivaldi's "Spring" from The Four Seasons to realize that pure JOY permeates music of the baroque era. Even in the somberness of a Bach Passion, there is true commitment to great delight.

The Baroque Period (c.1600-1750) produced some of the most profound expressions of joy found in the artistic history of humanity. One of the primary philosophical concepts behind the music of the period is the representation of the full range of human emotions in a direct and musically expressive way. Exuberance, joy, happiness, love, bliss, and also the contrasting experiences of sorrow, despair, and mourning are all abundantly present in the music. Within this, there exists a paradox. How true it is that much joy is found in the deepest and darkest ranges of human emotion. In music, the human spirit finds a vast connection to these "affections". Today, for this reason, more and more people are drawn to Baroque Music.

Händel's "Hallelujah Chorus" from Messiah may well be the most frequently performed piece of music ever written. It speaks to people across some 250 years of human experience. The celebration of that music is paralleled in the "Sanctus" of Bach's B Minor Mass where we find music of breath-taking proportions. The majesty of Mouret's Symphony #1 (known as the theme to Masterpiece Theatre) and the poignancy of "Dido's Lament" in Purcell's opera Dido and Aeneas are also prime examples within this great era of music called "baroque."

If the chief purpose of the arts is the ennobling of the human spirit, music of the Baroque Period is the ideal manifestation of that goal. The Miami Bach Society encourages your participation in this spirit through your Membership and attendance of 2007-2008 MBS concerts in South Florida and/or throughout the world (live and/or air and stream broadcast).