Pastorale

Pastorale refers to something of a pastoral nature in music, whether in form or in mood. In Baroque music, a pastorale is a movement of a melody in thirds over a drone bass, recalling the Christmas music of pifferari, players of the traditional Italian bagpipe and reed pipe. Pastorales are generally in 68 or 98 or 128 metre, at a moderate tempo. Common examples include the last movement of Corelli's Christmas Concerto (Op.6, No.8), the third movement of Vivaldi's Spring concerto from The Four Seasons, the Pifa movement of Handel's Messiah, the first movements of Bach's Pastorale (BWV 590) for organ, and the Sinfonia that opens part II of his Christmas Oratorio as an introduction to the angelic announcement to the shepherds.