What is Voluntary (music)?
In [[music]] a '''voluntary''' is a piece of music, usually for [[pipe organ|organ]], which is played as part of a [[church]] [[service (worship)|service]]. The word “voluntary” can be used for the title of a piece of music. The title was often used by [[England|English]] [[composer]]s in the late [[Renaissance music|Renaissance]] or [[Baroque music|Baroque]] periods for a piece of organ music that was free in style, i.e. it did not have to be composed in a strict form such as [[sonata form]] or a [[fugue]]. It was meant to sound as if it was being [[improvisation|improvised]] (the word [[wikt:voluntary|voluntary]] in general means “free”, i.e. not “forced to do something”). Composers such as [[Orlando Gibbons]], [[John Blow]] and [[Henry Purcell]] wrote voluntaries, although sometimes they preferred to use other titles such as ''fancy'' (an [[English language|English]] form of the [[Italian language|Italian]] word ''fantasia''), or even ''fugue''. However, these ''fugues'' were not composed in the proper [[fugue]] style: they just started off with imitation as in a fugue, but continued in a freer style. Some voluntaries were called ''double voluntaries''. These were pieces written for organs with two manuals ([[Keyboard instrument|keyboards]]). The pieces contrasted a loud manual with a soft one. Some voluntaries were known as ''trumpet voluntaries''. These were voluntaries which had a tune which was played (with the right hand) on a stop called a “trumpet” or a “cornet”. Two very famous trumpet voluntaries, often played at weddings, are the trumpet voluntary by [[Henry Purcell]] and [[Prince of Denmark's March|the one]] by [[Jeremiah Clarke]] (which people used to think was composed by Purcell). In the [[18th century]] the composer [[John Stanley]] wrote many trumpet voluntaries. ==References== *[http://www.grovesmusic.com/ groves music online] {{music-stub}} [[Category:Musical forms]]