Baroque Period (1600's to 1750's)

Baroque Period (1600's to 1750's)

Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity. He was born on March 21st l685 within the town of Eisenach in Thuringia. He was the son of Johann Ambrosius Bach, court trumpeter for the Duke of Eisenach and director of the musicians of the town of Eisenach in Thuringia; and Maria Elisabeth Lämmerhirt. For many years, members of the Bach family throughout Thuringia had held positions such as organists, town instrumentalists, or Cantors, and the family name enjoyed a wide reputation for musical talent. Bach enriched the prevailing German style with a robust contrapuntal technique, an unrivalled control of harmonic and motivic organisation, and the adaptation of rhythms, forms and textures from abroad, particularly from Italy and France.

Antonio Lucio Vivaldi

Antonio Lucio Vivaldi was an Italian Baroque composer, born in Venice the capital of the Republic of Venice on March 4th 1678. Vivaldi's parents were Giovanni Battista Vivaldi and Camilla Calicchio. His father was a barber before becoming a professional violinist. Then taught Antonio how to play the violin, and toured Venice playing the violin with his him. Vivaldi, nicknamed il Prete Rosso ("The Red Priest"), is known mainly for composing instrumental concertos, especially for the violin, as well as sacred choral works and over 40 operas. Many of his compositions were written for the female music ensemble of the Ospedale della Pietà, an orphanage for poor and illegitimate children. Antonio Lucio Vivaldi best known work is a series of violin concertos known as The Four Seasons.

Claudio Monteverdi

Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi was an Italian composer, gambist, and singer, born on May 15th 1567 in Cremona, a town in Northern Italy. His father was Baldassare Monteverdi, a doctor, apothecary and surgeon. Claudio was taught by Marc'Antonio Ingegneri,[5] the maestro di cappella at the Cathedral of Cremona. He learned about music by being part of the cathedral choir.[8] He also studied at the University of Cremona. His first music was written for publication, including some motets and sacred madrigals. He developed two individual styles of composition: the new basso continuo technique of the Baroque and the heritage of Renaissance polyphony. Monteverdi's work, often regarded as revolutionary, he wrote one of the earliest operas, L'Orfeo, which is still regularly performed.

Jean-Philippe Rameau

Jean-Philippe Rameau was one of the most important French composers and music theorists of the Baroque era, born on September 25, 1683 in Dijon and baptised the same day. His father, Jean, worked as an organist in several churches around Dijon, and his mother, Claudine Demartinécourt, was the daughter of a notary. Rameau was taught music before he could read or write. He was educated at the Jesuit college at Godrans. Rameau decided he wanted to be a musician, and his father sent him to Italy, where he stayed for a short while in Milan. In 1706, he published his earliest known compositions: the harpsichord works that make up his first book of Pièces de clavecin. Little is known about Rameau's early years, and it was not until the 1720s that he won fame as a major theorist of music with his Treatise on Harmony in1722.

Alessandro Scarlatti

Alessandro Scarlatti was an Italian Baroque composer especially famous for his operas and chamber cantatas. Alessandro was born in Palermo, then part of the Kingdom of Sicily, on 2nd May 1660. He is famous for his operas and chamber cantatas; He also is considered the founder of the Neapolitan school of opera. Alessandro Scarlatti's music forms an important link between the early Baroque Italian vocal styles of the 17th century, with their centers in Florence, Venice and Rome, and the classical