Baroque

  • 1567

    Claudio Montiverdi

    1567-1643
    Transitional figure between Renaissance and Baroque eras.
    Italian composer, string player, choirmaster, and priest.
  • Heinrich Schutz

    1585-1672
    German composer and organist
  • Start of the Baroque Period

  • Basso Continuo

    A notation where the composer would write out only the melody and the bass line, and the rest of the performers would have to fill in appropriate chords and accompaniment based on the bass line.
    Popular in the seventeenth century
  • Figured Bass and Realization

    In basso continuo, the composer would illustrate to the accompanying players what needed to sound above the bass line. The composer could notate inversions and even accidentals. The process of interpreting this was called realization.
  • Concertato Medium

    Combining voices with instruments that were non-homogenous, in deep contrast to the previous era.
  • Monody

    Accompanied solo music
  • Binary form

    Most common form for dances in the seventeenth century. Featured two roughly equal sections, each repeated.
  • Sacred Concerto

    A sacred vocal work with instruments. Another example of a concertato medium.
  • Cantata

    "To be sung" A secular composition with continuo, usually for solo voice on a lyrical or quasi-dramatic text.
  • Concerted Madrigal

    An example of a concertato medium, for one or more voices plus continuo. One of the most popular written by Claudio Monteverdi
  • Jean Baptiste Lully

    1632-1687
    Italian-born French composer, and instrumentalist
  • Dietrich Buxtehude

    1637-1707
    Danish-German organist and composer. Taught JS Bach
  • Oratorio

    A genre of religious dramatic music combining narrative, dialogue and commentary. Differed from opera in that it was primarily religious, and it was seldom staged.
  • New Instrumental Genres

    toccata, fantasia, prelude, capriccio, fugue, canzona, sonata, variations, partita, chaccone, passacaglia, dances, suite
  • Fugue

    Typically for organ or harpsichord, a fugue was a pieced that repeated a theme in various imitations.
  • Arcangelo Corelli

    1653-1713
    Italian violinist and composer of the Baroque era. Helped develop ideas for tonality.
  • Henry Purcell

    1659-1695
    An English composer during the Baroque period.
  • Alessandro Scarlatti

    1660-1725
    Italian Baroque composer. Founder of the Neapolitan School of Opera. Father of Domenico Scarlatti.
  • Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre

    1665-1729
    An outstanding female French musician and composer. Was the original child prodigy in music.
  • Passion

    a musical setting of the story of Jesus' crucifixion. Schutz wrote three in 1666.
  • Antonio Vivaldi

    1678-1741
    Italian Baroque composer, and a virtuosic violinist. One of the most popular Baroque composers.
  • Jean-Phillipe Rameau

    1683-1764
    French organist, music theorist and composer
  • Johann Sebastian Bach

    1685-1750
    German composer and musician. Quite likely the most notable composer of the Baroque period, as when he died, the era died with him.
  • George Frederic Handel

    1685-1759
    German/British composer. Very popular for his operas and oratorios.
  • Domenico Scarlatti

    1685-1757
    Italian composer and son of Alessandro Scarlatti. Noted for his 555 keyboard sonatas. Baroque composer, but was influential to the Classical era.
  • Recitative

    Dialogue in an opera sung in a speech-like fashion. Recitative could be accompanied by the orchestra (accompanied recitative) or only by basso continuo (simple recitative)
  • Treatise on Harmony

    written by Jean Baptiste Lully. Explained tonal harmony as opposed to modal
  • End of the Baroque Period