ABSTRACT
An essential component of interpreting Baroque music is an understanding of contemporary notions of meaning in music. Of course, music served various utilitarian functions: as entertainment, for religious services, and for marking important ceremonies and events. Nonetheless, underlying much of Baroque music, independent of its function and genre, was an attempt to align the goals of music composition and performance with those of rhetoric. Like orators, performers and composers attempted to elicit an emotional response from listeners, often with specific objectives in mind: spiritual union in the case of religious music, desire and ecstasy in some theatrical scenes and solo songs, or even rage in the case of the stile concitato or agitated style—a device consisting of rapid repeating sixteenth notes used by Claudio Monteverdi (1567−1643) and his contemporaries.
