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Mantua; his third book of madrigals, published in 1592, shows the strong influence of About the Baroque Period
Giaches de Wert, the maestro di cappella in Mantua. Although the several journeys
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Monteverdi made with the duke in the 1590s seem to suggest that his importance at
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court was growing, Benedetto Pallavicino was offered de Wert’s post upon its vacancy
in 1596. Increasingly dissatisfied with the his situation in Mantua, Monteverdi left the
court after the Duke’s death, accepting the position of maestro di cappella of St.
Mark’s in Venice in 1613. Monteverdi wrote some of the most influential compositions
of the early baroque, including the famous 1610 Vespro della Beate Vergine (Vespers
of the Blessed Virgin) and nine books of secular madrigals published between 1587
and 1651. Monteverdi also composed the earliest operas still performed today,
including Orfeo (1607) and L'incoronazione di Poppea.
In addition to writing some of the most important music of his day, Monteverdi
unwittingly elucidated perhaps the most critical tenet of the baroque era during the so-
called “Monteverdi-Artusi controversy.” In 1600, Giovanni Maria Artusi published his
L'Artusi, ovvero, Delle imperfezioni della moderna musica, which attacked the
“crudities” and “license” of some of Monteverdi’s then-unpublished madrigals
(including the well known “Cruda Amarilli”). Monteverdi responded to Artusi in the
preface to his Fifth Book of Madrigals (1605), dividing musical practice into prima
prattica (first practice), in which rules of harmony and counterpoint took precedence
over the text, and seconda prattica (second practice), in which the meaning of the
words drove the harmony.
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this time he also held several other influential positions, including that of organist at
the Medici court in Florence from 1628 to 1634. Frescobaldi composed a small
amount of vocal music, but it was his compositions for the keyboard—which included a
number of toccatas, canzonas, ricercars and capriccios—that influenced composers
well into the 18th century—particularly J. S. Bach, who owned his collection of organ
works for performance during Mass entitled Fiori musicali (1635).
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Along with his stature as a composer, Corelli was considered to be one of the
preeminent violin virtuosos of his day. As one of his contemporaries rhapsodized after
hearing him play, “I never met with any man that suffered his passions to hurry him
away so much whilst he was playing on the violin as the famous Arcangelo Corelli,
whose eyes will sometimes turn as red as fire; his countenance will be distorted, his
eyeballs roll as in an agony, and he gives in so much to what he is doing that he doth
not look like the same man.” Corelli’s style of playing influenced violin technique for
centuries, and he instructed many of the leading violinist-composers of the 18th
century, including the Italian Francesco Geminiani.
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Around 1704, Vivaldi began his association with the Ospedale della Pietà, an
institution with which he was connected for most of his life. Although the Ospedale
was usually called an orphanage, it was in reality a home for the illegitimate daughters
of Venetian noblemen, and was well financed by its “anonymous” benefactors. In
addition to room, board, and an excellent education in music, the Pietà offered a
creative outlet for women at a time when professional opportunities for female
musicians were uncertain. The students of the Pietà played many different instruments
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(as one eighteenth-century writer observed, “[They] play the violin, the recorder, the
organ, the oboe, the cello, the bassoon; in fact, there is no instrument large enough to
frighten them”) and were considered to be among the most accomplished performers
of their time. Because they were constantly in need of new music, the bulk of Vivaldi’s
output—including almost 500 concertos, 46 sinfonias, 73 sonatas, chamber music and
a small number of sacred compositions – was likely intended for these talented
performers.
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other composition in the 18th century, the Stabat Mater was an inspiration to many,
including J. S. Bach. Pergolesi’s instrumental compositions include a concerto and
sonata for the violin. Many pieces believed to have been composed by Pergolesi were
later shown to be falsely attributed, including the music on which Igor Stravinsky
based the 1920 ballet Pulcinella.
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France
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The apotheosis of Lully’s style was the tragédie-lyrique, a French opera in five acts
incorporating ballet, chorus and lavish sets. The magnificence of these productions
reflected the way of life in Louis XIV’s court perfectly. Machines that made angels fly
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and ships tackle the stormy seas transformed the performances unparalleled
spectacles, and Philippe Quinault’s librettos disseminated the latest currents in royal
thought and praise for the French nation.
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In addition to his employment in the secular realm, Charpentier held several posts in
the church during the final decades of his life. After serving as the maître of the
Jesuits' St. Louis church, Charpentier became the maître de musique des enfants at
the Sainte Chapelle in 1698. As a result of these positions, Charpentier’s repertoire
includes 11 Mass settings; a large number of Psalms, antiphons, sequences and
lessons; more than 200 motets; and many instrumental works intended for
performance in church. His best known works for the stage are La couronne de fleurs
(1685), David et Jonathas (1688), and Médée (1693), and he also wrote three
unpublished treatises.
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Germany
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in 1608. In 1609, the landgrave gave Schütz a grant to travel to Venice, where he
studied composition with Giovanni Gabrieli until 1613. After a short stint as the
landgrave’s organist, Schütz became the court composer for the Elector of Saxony in
Dresden in 1615, where Praetorius was also occasionally employed. Schütz held this
position for the rest of his career. During the Thirty Years’ War, however, he studied
briefly with Claudio Monteverdi in Venice and served as Kapellmeister to King
Christian IV of Denmark for several years.
Perhaps as a result of his studies in Italy, Schütz is sometimes credited with bringing
the Italianate style to Germany. Like Monteverdi, Schütz often made use of pungent
dissonances to express the meaning of the text, and even employed special technical
figures in analogy to or taken from classical rhetoric. His two trips to Italy yielded
collections of music that show his assimilation of the Italian style, especially his Il
primo libro de madrigali (1611), dedicated to the landgrave and displaying the results
of his studies with Gabrieli, and the Symphoniae sacrae (1629), which were published
at the end of his time in Venice. In 1627 Schütz also produced the first German opera,
Dafne, the music of which no longer exists. He is best known for his sacred vocal
music, however, particularly his three books of Symphoniae sacrae, the Psalms of
David, the Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz (the Seven Last Words on the Cross)
and his three Passion settings, which were composed shortly before the end of his life.
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In 1702, Telemann took his first official job in music as the director of Leipzig’s opera
house and one of its churches. His growing reputation in Leipzig angered Kuhnau, the
city’s music director and Bach’s predecessor, who was particularly unhappy that
student musicians seemed more interested in working with Telemann on opera
productions than in participating in church music. In 1705, Telemann left Leipzig to
become Kapellmeister to the cosmopolitan court of Count Erdmann II of Promnitz at
Sorau), where the vogue for the French and Italian style broadened Telemann’s
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musical horizons. He became well acquainted with the music of Lully and Campra,
composing close to 200 ouvertures and suites during his sixteen years in the position.
After briefly overlapping with Bach in Eisenach and working in several other cities,
Telemann was offered the Hamburg Johanneum in 1721, a post that entailed the
directorship of the city’s five principal churches as well as teaching responsibilities. He
remained at Hamburg for the rest of his life, and was succeeded in the post by his
godson, Carl Phillipp Emmanuel Bach.
During his lifetime, Telemann enjoyed a fame that far surpassed that of his
contemporary, J. S. Bach. Not only was he considered to be the better musician—and
was compensated accordingly with a salary in Hamburg at least three times larger
than Bach’s in Leipzig – but by all accounts he was well liked, admired for his driving
ambition, impressive talent and excellent sense of humor. Often called the most
prolific composer in history, Telemann’s surviving repertoire is massive, including 1043
church cantatas, 46 Passions and many operas. He also composed a large amount of
instrumental music; in an autobiographical article from 1740, Telemann estimated that
he had written 600 suites, about a quarter of which are extant today. One of his most
ambitious was the three-installment Tafelmusik (Table Music), on whose list of
subscribers was “Mr. Hendel, Docteur en Musique, Londres.”
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Handel arrived in London as a famous opera composer, but English audiences proved
resistant to the genre’s charms. By the early 1730s, the assaults of critics and the
notoriously lascivious lifestyles of the singers had worn down London audiences, and
Handel needed to find a new medium for his art. The oratorio was the perfect solution.
English oratorios were similar to opera in their use of recitative and aria, but were
rarely staged, and were based on stories from the Bible in the vernacular. Handel’s
addition of the chorus also resonated with London audiences, who were steeped in the
English tradition of anthem-singing. Ultimately, the English oratorio cemented Handel’s
reputation forever—and works such as Messiah, Judas Maccabeus and Israel in Egypt
are still tremendously popular today.
In addition to his operas, oratorios and well known Coronation Anthems, written for the
coronation of George II, Handel composed a great deal of instrumental music still
performed today. Some of the most famous were composed for royal occasions,
including Water Music, written for concerts on the Thames, and Music for Royal
Fireworks. Others were published for purchase by subscription, like the Op. 6 Concerti
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y
Grossi, based on the Op. 6 collection of Corelli. After becoming blind in 1751, Handel
died eight years later in London. He is buried in Westminster Abbey.
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Bach embarked on the next phase of his career in 1717, when he became the Music
Director for the Prince Leopold of Cöthen (1717–1723). Since the court chapel was
Calvinist (a religion that did not use elaborate music in its services), Bach composed a
great deal of instrumental music during this time, including the Brandenburg
Concertos, the Suites for solo cello, the Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin, the first
volume of Das wohltemperirte Clavier (The Well-Tempered Clavier) and the Orchestral
Suites. While there was no need for sacred vocal music, Bach also composed a few
cantatas to commemorate special events at court.
In 1723, Bach was appointed music director and cantor at the Thomaskirche in
Leipzig, a position he was to hold for the rest of his career. (Bach was actually the
second choice for the position, as the more famous Telemann had already refused the
job). His official duties were immense, requiring him to oversee the music in the city’s
four main churches, teach and provide music for municipal occasions. During his first
six years in Leipzig, Bach composed four cycles of cantatas and the St. John and St.
Matthew Passions. By 1729, Bach had amassed a large repertoire of music for
services in Leipzig, and was able to turn his attentions elsewhere. From 1729 to 1737
(and again from 1739 to 1741), Bach served as the director of the Leipzig Collegium
Musicum, a group of professional musicians and university students founded by
Telemann in 1704. In addition to reviving many compositions from Cöthen for the
Collegium’s weekly concerts, many of Bach’s secular cantatas from this time were
probably composed for the group. Bach also published a number of more abstract,
erudite works for publication, particuarly the four volumes entitled Clavier-Übung
(Keyboard Practice), which hold the Six Partitas for Keyboard (Vol. I), the Italian
Concerto, the French Overture (Vol. II) and the Goldberg Variations (Vol. IV); another
late work along similar lines is the unfinished Die Kunst der Fuge ( The Art of Fugue).
Although he was famous during his lifetime, Bach’s contemporaries had all but
dismissed him as old-fashioned by the time of his death in 1750. According to
anecdotal evidence, his music was still respected; Mozart and Beethoven both
reportedly studied his compositions. The true revival of Bach’s works began in 1829,
however, when Felix Mendelssohn conducted a famous performance of the St.
Matthew Passion in Berlin. After hearing the performance, Hegel called Bach a “grand,
truly Protestant, robust and, so to speak, erudite genius which we have only recently
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y g y y
learned again to appreciate at its full value.” Mendelssohn’s efforts to promote Bach’s
music continued, and eventually led to the founding of the Bach Gesellschaft (Bach
Society), an organization devoted exclusively to promoting his works.
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England
As part of his royal duties, Purcell was expected to write music to celebrate special
occasions, such as the birthday ode for Queen Mary entitled “Come Ye Sons of Art,
Away.” Although Italian opera had not yet caught on in England, Purcell composed a
number of “semi-operas,” such as King Arthur (1691) and The Fairy Queen (1692),
and the only through-sung English opera of the seventeenth century, Dido and Aeneas
(1689). Purcell also wrote a large amount of incidental music for the theater, which his
widow published posthumously as A Collection of Ayres, Compos'd for the Theatre,
and upon Other Occasions (1697).
In addition to his activities at court and in the theater, Purcell was also involved with
the advent of public concerts in London, and composed harpsichord suites and trio
sonatas for performance at these events. In 1683, a group of amateur and
professional musicians started a “Musical Society” to celebrate the Festival of St.
Cecilia, “a great patroness of music,” on November 22. Purcell composed three odes
for the Society. Upon his premature passing in 1695, “the English Orpheus” was
buried adjacent to the organ in Westminster Abbey.
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