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Period: 1551 to
Giulio Caccini
One of the founder of Opera; gave a description of the new singing style in his book of "songs" of 1602, Le nuove musiche; Italian composer, singer, teacher, and instrumentalist. -
Period: 1557 to
Giovanni Gabrieli
Italian composer and organist; noted for his use of instruments in his sacred music; nephew of Andrea. -
Period: 1561 to
Jacopo Peri
One of the founders of Opera; claimed to be the first in 1597 with his Dafne; significant contribution to monody and the recitative style. -
Period: 1563 to
John Dowland
English, possibly Irish; lutenist and the leading composer of the lute music; Catholic; served in the court of Denmark; late in life appointed in London as one of the King's lutenists; in 2006 Sting (pop star) recorded Downland's music creating a revival of his songs. -
Period: 1564 to
William Shakespeare
English playwright and poet; he has been an important force in the field of music from his day to ours. -
Period: 1567 to
Claidio Monteverdi
The most important composer of the early Baroque; one of the inventers of the new seconda pratica (second practice or modern style) -
Period: 1570 to
Florentine Camerata
Beginning in the 1570s, a group of intellectuals that met to discuss the arts--- members included Caccini, Peri, Girolamo Mei, Vincenzo Galilei. -
Period: to
Orlando Gibbons
English; composer of Anglican Church anthems; keyboardist; a leading composer in the 17th century England -
Period: to
Girolamo Frescobaldi
First Modern Keyboard virtuoso and composer; he was the most influential keyboard composer of the early Baroque was the first European composer to focus instrumental music. -
Period: to
Heinrich Schutz
Most important German composer of the Middle Baroque; studied in Venice; reportedly composed the first German opera, which we lost. -
Period: to
Giacomo Carissimi
A leading composer of Roman cantatas and oratorios; teacher of Charpentier. -
"Primo libro delle Musiche a una e due voci"
By F. Caccini... Like many songbooks of that period, her one publication of madrigals, Il primo libro delle musiche (1618; “The First Book of Music”), may have served both artistic and pedagogical purposes, and it offers a glimpse of her methodologies as a teacher. The book contains a wide variety of musical genres set to both secular and sacred texts, and it includes extensive explicit notation for vocal ornamentation. -
Period: to
Thirty Years War Begins
The Thirty Years’ War was a 17th-century religious conflict fought primarily in central Europe. It remains one of the longest and most brutal wars in human history, with more than 8 million casualties resulting from military battles as well as from the famine and disease caused by the conflict. The war lasted from 1618 to 1648, starting as a battle among the Catholic and Protestant states that formed the Holy Roman Empire. -
Period: to
Barbara Strozzi
Virtuoso singer and most prolific composer of cantatas in the 17th century; adopted daughter of the poet, Guilio Strozzi -
Period: to
Giovanni Legrenzi
Italian composer and organist; influential in the middle Baroque; used many short arias in his operas -
Period: to
Jean-Baptiste Lully
Establisher of French opera and ballet; dancer and violinist; Italian by birth, but claimed by France. -
First Opera Theater Opens in Venice
The Teatro San Cassiano or Teatro di San Cassiano in Venice was the first public opera house when it opened in 1637. -
Period: to
Dieterich Buxtehude
German organist and composer; most important organ composer before J. S. Bach; respected by Bach -
Arias Grow Popular
(Dates are Approximate) An aria is a long song accompanying a solo voice. An aria is usually in an opera. It is an Italian word of the 18th century meaning “air” (i.e. a tune). A small amount of text is used in an aria. Characteristics include the use of melismas, repetition and sequences.Typically there would be full accompaniment to the solo voice in the aria although this is not the case in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas where the majority of its arias are only accompanied by the continuo part. -
Period: to
Marc-Antoine Charpentier
Composers of French operas; pupil of Carissimi; equal to Lully and extremely prolific. -
Period: to
John Blow
English composer of odes; teacher of Purcell; organist. -
Period: to
Sonata da Camera
(Dates are approximate) Court sonata written for one or more melody instruments and basso continuo. -
Period: to
Arcangelo Corelli
Most important Italian composer of sonatas and concertos; also the most influential violinist of the Baroque -
Period: to
Johann Pachelbel
German composer and organist; a leading composer of his time. -
Period: to
Giuseppe Torelli
Contributed the most to the development of the concerto around 1700; wrote for trumpet and strings; virtuoso violinist. -
Period: to
Henry Purcell
Most important English composer in the 17th century -
Period: to
Alessandro Scarlatti
Important Italian composer; teacher in Naples; his death ends Baroque opera; teacher of many galant composers to come -
Period: to
François Couperin
French composer, keyboardist; one of the most important French composers -
Opera Reaches England
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Period: to
Antonio Vivaldi
Italian composer; he laid the foundations for late Baroque instrumental music; teacher; pioneer of orchestral music; but, virtually forgotten by his contemporaries at his death -
Period: to
Georg Philipp Telemann
The most prolific German composer of his day; more popular than J.S. Bach during the Baroque; contributed significantly to concert life in Germany -
Period: to
Jean-Philippe Rameau
French composer and theorist; known first as a theorist -
Period: to
Georg Friedrich Handel
German musician; lived in England, inventor of the English oratorio; Beethoven respected him above all others. -
Period: to
Domenico Scarlatti
Son of Alessandro; keyboard composer and virtuoso; served Portuguese and Spanish royal families; progressive style and personally aware of it -
Period: to
Johann Joachim Quantz
German composer; flutist and flute teacher for Frederick the Great in Berlin -
Period: to
Giovanni Battista Sammartini
Galant Italian composer and innovator of the symphony in Milan, 1730's+