10 Baroque Composers

Handel

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4gZOYRKTw0 (Incorporar)
• Handel is a good example of a baroque composer. He was born in Germany in 1685. He is famous for he orchestral 'Music for the Royal Fireworks'. His only other orchestral composition is the 'Water Music', a minuet from which is to the right. Note the ornamentation and polyphonic textures as well as the limited range of the keyboard. Handel died in 1759 in London, where he spent most of his life. Despite being born in Germany, he is considered English because of how linked he was to London. He is also famous for his hallelujah. He was the most popular English composer at the time, so another opera organization was formed to rival both Handel and the king. This foundation was called 'the opera of the nobility' and was formed by the prince of Wales at the time. It was able to pay more than the king and royal academy of music and so employed a lot of the singers or musicians that used to work for Handel, however Handel withstood a lot more and is still remembered today.

Purcell

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peHnTkSvKG8 (Incorporar)
• Purcell was a very early composed born in 1659 who died in 1695. He strongly relies on ornamentation and laid the groundwork for a lot of the baroque composers and style which came after him. There are some quite interesting parallels between him and Mozart. Both died at roughly the age of 35 (Purcell died at 36) and both started writing very early on in their life. Purcell's first recorded work comes from when he was 11, but some accounts claim he was writing even earlier, at 9. Purcell gained the prestigious role of organist of Westminster Abbey at only 20 and is buried there even now. He was also a huge inspiration for Benjamin Britten, and the famous Britten piece 'A Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra' was based on a Purcell piece. It is not known how Purcell died but it was very untimely and is usually attributed to some kind of disease.

Vivaldi

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• Vivaldi was a relatively early Italian Baroque composer who was born in 1678 in Venice. At the time of his birth, the area was hit with an earthquake. It is unknown, but believed that in the chaos of the earthquake, Vivaldi's mother pledged the baby boy to the midwife who was delivering him, and therefore to the church. His early life was made up by slowly working with the early church and training to become part of the clergy. He became a priest at the young age of 25, however his chronic asthma and poor health condition kept him from keeping this job. He became the 'master of the violin' in a nearby orphanage and was immediately considered a technical genius as well as a priest. He kept a house in Vienna at one point in his life. He died at a surprisingly old age of 63. His house in Vienna has been turned into the hotel sacher. Only 3 portraits of Vivaldi are known to exist.

Bach

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGQLXRTl3Z0 (Incorporar)
• Bach was an early German composer. Throughout his life he had strong connections to the church and royal family of his time. He played the violin and harpsichord and his work is still played today. To the right is a performance of his Cello Suite in G. He is potentially the most well known Baroque composer and he was born in the same year as Handel, 1685. He died 9 years earlier in 1750 at the age of 65. He was relatively successful and was very close with the royal family at the time and very popular with the people. It is believed he died when an operation on his eyes went wrong and he had a stroke. His remains were almost destroyed in WW2 when the church he was buried in was bombed by the British. His tomb is currently in another church called St. Thomas' in Leipzig, Germany.

Corelli

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHRdFILo_Yw (Incorporar)
• Archangelo Corelli was born in 1653 in Italy. He was a virtuoso violinist with a very defined Baroque style. He had a very traditional musical education, which was directly attached to the church. He was learning music under a priest from around the age of 7. He spent a lot of time in Rome where he is most remembered, however he also worked with the Swedish royal family being favoured by them. He was 32 years older than Handel, but had a famous rivalry with his fellow composer. This was because Corelli was more traditional than Handel and limited his violin work to only 21 notes not including flats and sharps. When playing one of Handel's pieces with him, Handel played an incredibly high note outside of the range Corelli considered acceptable, he was very offended and held a grudge against Handel for the rest of his life.

Fux

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWrS1RKASEg (Incorporar)
• Fux was a composer born in 1660 in Austria. He came from a poor peasant family. Very little is known about his early life, but his musical talent first became seriously apparent while he was in university. At some point it is believed he took a trip to Italy, because his work is heavily inspired by Corelli. In the 1690s, he was in Vienna, where the emperor Leopold the first employed him as the court composer for the Habsburg empire. He wrote a hugely influential book, demonstrating his genius knowledge of the musical theory called the Gradus Ad Parnassum. This book was hugely revered by Hadyn in later music history, who was then gave Beethoven his copy, inspiring him. Mozart also kept a copy, however he was less impressed and annotated the book making it more relevant for his work, which has had the kind of impact on music only Mozart can give.

Monteverdi

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RajAq0Yd-s4 (Incorporar)
• Claudio Monteverdi is the oldest composer on this list, being born in 1567. You can tell by his music that he is an earlier composer than (for example) Handel. This is shown by the strong vocals in his music, and choral style. Some consider him the last renaissance composer, however he is being described as the first Baroque composer for the purpose of this list. His work was considered revolutionary at the time, and so it is the changing point ushering in the baroque, classical and romantic periods. He was one of the first writers of opera and he invented the style of composition used by almost all later composers. Little is known bout Monteverdi because of how early on in history he was born. It is believed he was recognised in his life time and received some fame and fortune.

Telemann

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CTHbGMHFII (Incorporar)
• Telemann was born in 1681 in Germany. He was entirely self taught which is particularly impressive because of the shear amount of instruments he played. He was personal friends with both Bach and Handel, so much so that Bach made him the godfather of his son. It is believed that at the time he was considered the most talented composer of the three, however he clearly got the least recognition out of any of them. He was the most prolific composer ever when he lived, and is still one of the most prolific now. Similarly to how Monteverdi bridged the Renascence and Baroque styles, Telemann is considered to have been one of the last baroque composers, almost classical at some points. These days, he is not as well known as Bach or Handel, and a lot of music theory and critics consider his work far inferior.

Rameau

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvuWhPUSSn8 (Incorporar)
• Jean-Philippe Rameau was born in 1683 and died in 1724. He is known for his work on the harpsichord in particular. He was a French composer. He was shockingly secretive, so not only do we know nothing about his early life, but neither did his wife. What is known is that he eventually moved to Paris and became the most important and popular French opera composer, overtaking Lully. He was a recluse and had very little friends, he was generally disliked because of how reclusive his life was and how he spent almost all of his time on his music. He spent most of his life very poor, with only one pair of shoes and one harpsichord to compose all his work. Even after his success and wealth was achieved, he refused to change his lifestyle and died within four years of becoming popular.

Lully

• Jean-Baptiste Lully is a very early composer born in 1632, dying in 1687, almost ten years before the birth of Purcell as well as a composer, he was also an instrumentalist and dancer serving under Louis the fourteenth of France. He re-invented the French national style, totally departing it from the Italian style. His strongest influence was on dance and rhythmic music which totally changed after his life. He wrote a lot of fast, upbeat waltzes which were new to the court of Baroque royalty. He was also a famous writer of opera and really put France on the map for classical music where it still has impact today.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAOpFAGU3aA (Incorporar)