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- Music appreciation: its language
- Music appreciation: its language
- Chapter 4: european art music:
Milestones in music
- Guilio Caccini, Nuove musiche, 1601; collection of songs for solo voice and instrumental accompaniment, establishing a texture used throughout the baroque period.
- Performance of Monteverdi’s Orfeo, 1607, considered first important opera.
- Encyclopedia of music by German composer Michael Praetorius, 1620.
- First public opera house, Teatro San Cassiano, opens in Venice, 1637.
- Founding of Academic Royale des Operas, Paris, 1669.
- Opening of Paris Opera, 1671.
- First German opera house opens in Hamburg, 1678.
- Vivaldi appointed maestro di violono at orphanage for girls in Venice, 1703.
- Invention of the pianoforte by Bartolomeo Cristofori, Italian harpsichord maker, 1709.
- Handel settles permanently in London, 1711.
- Bach accepts position as cantor of St. Thomas Church, Leipzig, 1723.
- First public concerts in Paris, Concerts Spirituels, 1725.
- First performance of Handel’s Messiah, Dublin, 1742.
Musical genres
- Opera: drama set to music for singers and instruments and acted on the stage with sets and costumes. Monteverdi is generally considered to be the most important composer of the early Baroque, Handel of the late Baroque.
- Oratorio: a story, usually religious, set to music but performed without staging. Oratorio, like opera, originated in Italy. Handel is the most important oratorio composer of the late Baroque.
- Cantata: multiple movement vocal work on a pastoral or religious text. Bach composed over 300 cantatas for performance on Sundays throughout the church year.
- Concerto: instrumental composition that pits one or more soloists against the orchestra. Vivaldi was a major figure in the standardization of the design and character of the solo concerto.
- Fugue: a polyphonic composition, usually for four voice parts, based on one theme or subject that is developed in an imitative texture. Bach’s many fugues sum up the art of fugal writing.
- Sonata: in the Baroque period, an instrumental chamber work for one or two melody instruments and continuo accompaniment. Arcangelo Corelli’s sonatas for two violins and continuo are considered classic examples of the genre.
- Suite: collection of instrumental dance movements of different character and often national origin. Thus, the allemande from Germany, courante from France, gigue (jig) from the British Isles. Suites were composed for the harpsichord and for chamber and orchestral ensembles. Couperin and Bach made major contributions to this repertory.
- Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643): Italian composer of Orfeo of 1607, which is generally regarded as the first great opera; maestro di cappella at St. Mark’s Venice 1613-1643.
- Nicola Amati (1596-1684): Italian violin maker.
- Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1675): Italian-born composer who dominated music at court of Louis XIV.
- Antonio Stradivari (1644-1737): Italian violin maker.
- Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1677): Italian composer of instrumental sonatas and concertos for violin.
- Henry Purcell (1659-1695): English composer of songs, religious choral music, instrumental and theatrical works, including the opera Dido and Aeneas, 1689.
- Francois Couperin (1668-1733): French composer and keyboard player at the court of Louis XIV and XV.
- Antonio Vivaldi (1675-1741): Italian composer and seminal figure in the development of the solo concerto; see Musician Biographies.
- Jean Philippe Rameau (1683-1764): French theorist and composer of operas and keyboard suites.
- Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750): North German composer and cantor of Leipzig, Germany; see Musician Biographies.
- George Frederick Handel (1685-1759): North German composer of The Messiah, among other oratorios; see Musician Biographies.
Source:
OpenStax, Music appreciation: its language, history and culture. OpenStax CNX. Jun 03, 2015 Download for free at https://legacy.cnx.org/content/col11803/1.1
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