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Baroque music - Ritornello form in concerto
Aside from the vast number of forms of vocal Baroque music, there are naturally as many instrumental forms of music. The instrumental forms can include chamber music - when one player plays one kind of instrument, or orchestral music - where several players get their hands on same kinds of instruments. For example, in a piano trio - one player plays the piano, another plays the violin, and another plays the cello. In orchestral music however, many players play violins, and many players play flutes, etc. So chamber music is sort of a mini orchestra, and chamber orchestra is when you have many instruments on stage, but in the chamber-like setting, that is, one player per one kind of instrument.
Ritornello in the Baroque music, is an orchestral music that Bach, Handel, and Vivaldi used frequently. Listen for example to Bach's Brandenburg Concerto no.3. Ritornello was used most often in concertos, or arias, and was a display of full orchestral quality and prowess. In a simple form, ritornello meant that all instruments played a theme and then let e.g. solo instruments become prominent and play their own music, just to return to the all instruments (tutti) playing the theme again. The theme could be repeated in its original form, although it was more common to let just a part of it be played again, perhaps with variations, to breathe some new air into the music. Thus, this relationship between tutti and solo develops throughout music, and ritornello theme is recurring in-between the solo instrument's themes. In other words, orchestra is not only backing up but also consolidates its own big appearance on the stage.
From this ritornello form, a very known form of music came to be - the concerto. There are different kinds of concerti. Orchestral concerto, also known as sinfonia is one, where violins (first violins actually) play a tremendous melodic role in the music. Bach's Brandenburg concerti 3 and 6 are orchestral concerti. Next is solo concerto, where one soloist plays an instrument more prominently, and the orchestra serves more as an accompaniment. Lastly, the concerto grosso (Grand Concerto) means several number of soloists play against the orchestra. Concerto Grosso is very unique to the Baroque era, mainly because it is by nature very polyphonic as the soloists play simultaneously. These are then the three big concerto forms - orchestral concerto, solo concerto, and concerto grosso. What's so special about all these? For one, they offer contrasting parts in the music, as instruments come in and out, and therefore there is more variety to the music.
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