-
1550
Emilio de'Cavalieri
Roman nobleman; one of the founders of opera; the first to publish a figured bass; also an organist; singing teacher, dancer, and choreographer -
1551
Guilio Caccini
One of the founders 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 -
1557
Giovanni Gabrieli
Italian composer and organist; noted for his use of instruments in his sacred music; nephew of Andrea -
1560
Lodovico Grossi Viadana
Wrote the earliest known example of liturgical monody (1607); was the first to compose and publish a continuo part for a collection of sacred vocal concerti (1602); wrote in the stile moderno -
1560
Hieronymus Praetorius
German organist and composer; (not related to Michael); used the Venetian polychoral style; wrote Latin and German sacred songs -
1561
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 -
1561
Jacopo Corsi
Patron and composer; member of the Florentine Camerata; contributed to Peri's first opera Dafne of 1597; in 1600 he sponsored the premiere of Peri's Euridice and played harpsichord in the performance -
1562
Ottavio Rinuccini
Italian librettist and poet; important librettist that worked with Monteverdi, among others; first librettist for opera -
1562
John Bull
English composer and organist; virtuoso virginalist; organ builder -
1563
John Dowland
English, possibly Irish; lutenist and the leading composer of 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 Dowland's music creating a revival of his songs -
1564
Hans Leo Hassler
North German Lutheran composer and organist; studied with A. Gabrieli; poly-choral style -
1564
William Shakespeare
English playwright and poet; he has been an important force in the field of music from his day to ours -
1567
Claudio Monteverdi
The most important composer of the early Baroque; one of the inventors of the new seconda pratica (second practice-or modern style) -
1567
Thomas Campion
English poet and composer; he experimented by imitating the Florentine monodists -
1568
Adriano Banchieri
Italian composer, theorist, organist; wrote under various pseudonyms -
1570
Florentine Camerata
Beginning in the 1570's a group of intellectuals that met to discuss the arts - members included Caccini, Peri, Girolamo Mei, Vincenzo Galilei -
1570
Salamon Rossi
Italian composer of Jewish decent; violinist; worked in Mantua; among the earliest composers to use trio sonata texture -
1571
Michael Praetorius
North-German composer and organist; helped to lay the foundations of German organ music; as a theorist noted for Syntagma musicum -
1580
Agostino Agazzari
Italian composer and organist; wrote an important treatise on thoroughbass in 1607-08 which served as the foundation for Michael Praetorius' treatise 7 years later -
1582
Marco de Gagliano
Italian composer; he was one of the important Italian musicians in the early Baroque; his music was acclaimed in his day -
1582
Sigismondo d'India
Italian composer and singer; besides Monteverdi, d'India was the most distinguished Italian composer of secular vocal works in the early Baroque -
Orlando Gibbons
English; composer of Anglican Church anthems; keyboardist; a leading composer in the 17th century England -
Girolamo Frescobaldi
First modern keyboard virtuoso and composer; he was the most influential keyboard composer of the early Baroque; he was the first European composer to focus on instrumental music -
Giulio Strozzi
Italian dramatist, librettist, and poet; father of Barbara Strozzi; his opera librettos were set to music from the 1620s on -
Heinrich Schutz
Most important German composer of the Middle Baroque; studied in Venice; reportedly composed the first German opera, which we lost -
Alessandro Grandi
North Italian composer; very important in his time; wrote church music in the new concertato style -
Johann Hermann Schein
German composer and poet; worked at the Leipzig Thomaskirche before Bach; was influenced by the Italian madrigal and monody when writing his Lutheran church music -
Samuel Scheidt
German composer and organist; he combined counterpoint with the newer Italian concerto style -
Francesca Caccini
Daughter of Guilio; the first composer to have an Italian opera staged outside of Italy; virtuoso singer and teacher -
Tarquinio Merula
Italian composer, violinist, and organist; among the first to compose motets with instrumental string accompaniment (1624); worked in Warsaw and Italy -
Francesco Manelli
Italian composer, singer, impresario, and poet; he helped establish the public operatic tradition in Venice with librettist Benedetto Ferarri -
Heinrich Scheidremann
German composer, teacher, and organist; a leading composer of organ music; noted for his chorale-based compositions -
Luigi Rossi
A leading composer of Roman Cantatas; singing teacher, lutenist, and keyboardist -
New developments
development of functional tonality (major/minor); Opera; Secular art music more important; modality to tonality -
Basso Continuo
provided baseline and chord progression for harmonic structure -
Period: to
Early Baroque
-
Jacques Champion de Chambonnieres
French composer, harpsichordist, and dancer; one of the greatest composers of early Baroque French harpsichord music -
Marco Marazzoli
Italian composer, singer, and harpist; he was a leading composer in his day' he was one of the first to compose comic operas -
Francesco Cavalli
Italian composer, singer, teacher, and organist; he was the leading composer in Venice after Monteverdi; extraordinarily famous during his day -
Benedetto Ferarri
Italian composer, poet, librettist, and impresario; he established the tradition of public operatic performances in Venice with the help of Francesco Manelli -
Giacomo Carissimi
A leading composer of Roman cantatas and oratorios; teacher of Charpentier -
Henri Du Mont
French composer and keyboardist; experimented with a new genre, the dialog motet -
Andreas Hammerschmidt
German composer and organist; composed independent instrumental ensemble music (unusual for the time); extremely prolific and popular in his time -
Johann Jakob Froberger
German composer and keyboard virtuoso; developed the keyboard suite genre; assimilated French, Italian, and German styles in his works; although he was widely known into the 18th century, only 2 of his compositions were published during his lifetime -
Johann Jakob Froberger
German composer and keyboardist; pupil of Frescobaldi; used French, Italian and German styles in his keyboard music; court organist in Vienna; widely traveled and of great influence to Couperin and German keyboard composers into the late Baroque -
Barbara Strozzi
Virtuoso singer and most prolific composer of cantatas in the 17th century; adopted daughter of poet, Guilio Strozzi -
Isabella Leonarda
A nun who, at age 73, published several new Baroque instrumental genres (solo and trio sonatas) -
Johann Heinrich Schmelzer
The leading Austrian violinist and composer of instrumental music before Biber -
Matthew Locke
English composer of chamber and dramatic music; organist; he was prolific and influential in his day -
Antonio Cesti
Outstanding composer of operas and secular cantatas; famous as a singer; wrote with bel canto style in his arias -
Giovanni Andrea Bontempi
Italian composer, singer, author, historian, and architect; he wrote the first history of music in Italian (Historia musica, 1695) -
Giovanni Legrenzi
Italian composer and organist; influential in the middle Baroque; used many (up to 90) short arias in his operas -
Johann Caspar Kerll
German composer and organist; widely known and admired as a keyboardist; one of the first composers to create a thematic catalogue devoted to a single composer's work -
Jean Henry D'Anglebert
Important French composer of keyboard music; associated with Chambonnieres and Lully; his Pieces de clavecin represent French keyboard music in the mid-baroque; he includes a table of ornaments which Bach copied around 1710 -
Thomas Baltzar
German violinist and composer; extremely popular violinist in England; one of the first to require scordatura -
Jean-Baptiste Lully
Establisher of French opera and ballet; dancer and violinist; Italian by birth, but claimed by France -
First public opera house
Venice opened the first public opera house in the world -
Dieterich Buxtehude
German organist and composer; most important organ composer before J.S. Bach; respected by Bach -
Alessandro Stradella
Italian composer; prolific and important in his day -
Johann Christoph Bach
German composer and organist; most important Bach family member before J.S. Bach -
Marc-Antoine Charpentier
Composer of French opera; pupil of Carissimi; equal to Lully and extremely prolific -
Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber
Austrian composer and violinist; although often credited with using scordatura first (in his Rosary Sonatas (ca.1674) it was more likely an innovation of Thomas Baltzar a decade earlier -
John Blow
English composer of odes; teacher of Purcell; organist -
New Developments
Counter point resulted in fugues, chaconnes, and passacaglias; instrumental music genres such as concerto, sonata, and trio; Secular music tastes lead over sacred music; "the melodies sounded more like melodies"; tonal system further developed; string instrument dominated -
Period: to
Middle Baroque
-
Arcangelo Corelli
Most important Italian composer of sonatas and concertos; also the most influential violinist of the Baroque -
Georg Muffat
German composer important for his instrumental works; helped introduce French and Italian styles to Germany -
Johann Pachelbel
German composer and organist; a leading composer of his time -
Agostino Steffani
Italian composer and diplomat; his chamber ducts are an important stage of Italian vocal music before Handel -
Marin Marais
French composer and viol player; studied with Lully; court musician to Louis XIV in Versailles -
Michel-Richard de Lalande
French composer and keyboardist; Louis XIV's favorite composer; the leading composer of the French grand motet at the French court -
Giuseppe Torelli
Contributed the most to the development of the concerto around 1700; wrote for trumpet and strings; virtuoso violinist -
Jean de Sainte-Colombe
French viol player and composer -
Henry Purcell
Most important English composer in the 17th century -
Alessandro Scarlatti
Important Italian composer; teacher in Naples; his death ends Baroque opera; teacher of many galant composers to come -
Johann Kuhnau
German composer, keyboardist, theorist, scholar, writer, and lawyer; he left us some early examples of interesting program music -
Johann Joseph Fux
Austrian composer and theorist; used Palestrina's style as a teaching tool; his counterpoint treatise, Gradus ad Parnassum from 1725, was used by most musicians in the 18th century; court composer in Vienna, and served 3 emperors; his music does not regularly reflect the older contrapuntal style -
Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre
She was called "the marvel of our century;" educated in Louis XIV's court; lived in Paris; renowned harpsichordist -
Attilio Ariosti
Composer in Vienna and diplomat in Italy; teacher and monk; traveled widely -
Francios Couperin
French composer, keyboardist; one of the most important French composers -
Antonio Caldara
Italian composer; he was one of the most prolific composers in his day; he paid particular attention to his orchestration -
Tomaso Giovanni Albinoni
Italian composer who wrote operas and instrumental music; he was very popular in his day; Bach knew his works -
Antoine Forqueray
French composer and viola da gamba virtuoso; court musician for Louis XIV -
Reinhard Keiser
German composer; he was the central figure in German opera in the Late Baroque -
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 -
Georg Philipp Telemann
The most prolific German composer of his day; more poplar than J.S. Bach during the Baroque; contributed significantly to concert life in Germany -
Jean-Philippe Rameau
French composer and theorist; known first as a theorist -
Francesco Durante
Galant Italian composer and teacher; a leading composer of church music; Neapolitan -
John Gay
An English playwright and poet who innovated a new genre; the Ballad opera, when he wrote The Beggar's Opera in 1728 as a satire on politics and partly on Handel's opera seria. -
Johann Sebastian Bach
Considered the Baroque master; wrote no operas; master of counterpoint; he became an icon for future generations and is still one of the most revered composers toda -
Georg Freidrich Handel
German musician; lived in England, inventor of the English oratorio; Beethoven respected him above all others -
Roland (-Pierre) Marais
French composer and viol player; son of Marin Marais; played for Louis XIV -
Domenico Scarlatti
Son of Alessandro; keyboard composer and virtuoso; served Portuguese and Spanish royal families; progressive style and personally aware of it -
Nicola Porpora
Italian composer and singing teacher; taught famous castrati in the 18th century -
Francesco Geminiani
Italian composer, violinist, teacher, and theorist; he was one of the greatest violin virtuosos of his day -
Giuseppe Tartini
Galant Italian composer, violinist, teacher, and theorist, extremely important as a violin teacher and as an assimilator of the galanst and empfindsam styles -
Leonardo Vinci
Galant Italian composer; leader (for a time) of the new style of Italian opera -
Johann Joachim Quantz
German composer; flutist and flute teacher for Fredrick the Great in Berlin -
Francesco Antonio Vallotti
Italian composer and theorist; he was important in the field of church music -
New Developments
Serious opera, "heroic opera" opera seria, was the primary form of public (music) entertainment; Public concerts; seventh chords accepted; fortspinning melodies (long continuous); modern diatonic system was firmly established; new demand for dynamics; virtuosos became to emerge and make successful careers -
Period: to
Late Baroque
-
Johann Gottlieb Graun
German composer and a creator of instrumental music of the classic era; brother of Carl Heinrich -
Giovanni Battista Martini (Padre)
Italian teacher, composer, and writer; he was the leading teacher in the 18th century; his surviving letters are important to music history -
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi
Galant Neapolitan composer; he died young and his achievements were romanticized after this death; his intermezzo, La serva padrona sparked the war of the bouffons in Paris in 1752 -
Symphony
Giovanni Battista invented the symphony in Milan; A new orchestral virtuosity emerged in Mannheim in the 1740's with Johann Stamitz's orchestra of phenomenal musicians; Changed history of orchestral timbre to one of strength