NAQT Arts and Humanities

A German theologist that spent most of her life as a Benedictine nun, her most studied compositions are Symphonia Armonie Celestium Revelationum and her Ordo Virtutum that is the earliest known Western musical drama not based on liturgy.

Hildegard von Bengin

He was a leading Franco-Flemish composer who created both sacred and secular music in the mid-renaissance. He wrote many masses and chansons and his motets were very influential with is most famous being Ave maria… virgo serena. He also used text painting frequently and his Missa Pange Lingua inspired Mozart’s Jupiter.

Josquin des Prez

Tallis and Byrd for the foremost English composers of the Elizabethan era and popularized the polyphonic trend in England. They made Cantoines sacrae and Spem in allium and Gradulalia.

Thomas Tallis and William Byrd

He was a Catholic officiant in the Counter-Reformation and was made the Vatican’s music director in 1578, his well known work was Pope Marcellus Mass and his music was the basis for Johann Joseph Fux’s book Gradus ad Parnassum.

Palestrina

He is often cited as the most influential composer during the transition between the Renaissance and Baroque periods, he was criticized for deviating from the style of Palestrina and composed the first opera commonly used today that is called L’Orfeo in 1607 though many of his other music has been lost.

Monteverdi

He was an Italian and court violinist to Louis the XlV. He made things for the plays of Moliere including Le bourgeious gentilhomme. His best known operas are Atys and Armide.

Jean-Baptiste Lully

He highly influenced making the violin the most prominent instrument and also influenced concerto grosso. His collection of 12 concerti grosso included Christmas Concerto.

Arcangelo Corelli

He was a popular composer in Germany during the Baroque era and he specialized in fugues in cannons which are contrapuntal works. He made chorale preludes for organ and bis Canon in D which was eventually revived by Jean-Fran ois Paillard.

Johann Pachelbel

His Funeral Sentences and Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary are held in regard like his Dido and Aenas and his semi-opera The Fairie Queen.

Henry Purcell