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Period: 1580 to
Early Baroque
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Baroque Era
The beginning of an Era. -
English Settlement in America
Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in America, is established by the London Company in southeast Virginia. -
First assembly in America
The House of Burgesses, the first representative assembly in America, meets for the first time in Virginia. The first African slaves are brought to Jamestown. -
Mayflower
The Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts is established by Pilgrims from England.
Before disembarking from their ship, the Mayflower, 41 male passengers sign the Mayflower Compact, an agreement that forms the basis of the colony's government. -
Claudio Monteverdi furthered the transition from the Renaissance style of music to that of the Baroque period.
He developed two individual styles of composition – the heritage of Renaissance polyphony (prima pratica) and the new basso continuo technique of the Baroque (seconda pratica). -
Period: to
Middle Baroque
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Middle Baroque Era, the beginning
The middle Baroque period in Italy is defined by the emergence in the cantata, oratorio, and opera during the 1630s of the bel-canto style. This style, one of the most important contributions to the development of Baroque as well as the later Classical style, was generated by a new concept of melody and harmony that elevated the status of the music to one of equality with the words, which formerly had been regarded as pre-eminent. -
Period: to
Late Baroque
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Johann Fux
The middle Baroque had absolutely no bearing at all on the theoretical work of Johann Fux, who systematized the strict counterpoint characteristic of earlier ages in his Gradus ad Paranassum. -
satirical review of the première in October 1733 of Rameau's Hippolyte et Aricie, printed in the Mercure de France in May 1734.
A critic implied that the novelty in this opera was "du baroque," complaining that the music lacked coherent melody, was filled with unremitting dissonances, constantly changed key and meter, and speedily ran through every compositional device. -
End of the Baroque Era
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British gain control of Canada
With the Treaty of Paris, the British formally gain control of Canada and all the French possessions east of the Mississippi. -
Diverse Music?
As late as 1960 there was still considerable dispute in academic circles, particularly in France and Britain, whether it was meaningful to lump together music as diverse as that of Jacopo Peri, Domenico Scarlatti, and J.S. Bach under a single rubric.