Musi 1107 - Baroque Period Composers Review | KSU Spring 2025 Dr. Creasy

Monteverdi

1567-1643 Late Ren-Early Bar Italy

Prolific composer of Italian madrigals during the

Renaissance; transitional figure between the two periods;

court composer for duke early in career then music director

at St. Mark’s Basilica for the remainder of career; “inventor”

of Baroque opera with “L’Orfeo” in 1607 and credited with

blurring the lines between austere sacred music and more

cheerful secular music during the Baroque Period.

Henry Purcell

1659-1695 Baroque England

English opera (“Dido and Aeneas” in 1685, written for a

girls’ school); 100+ songs and chamber music for the

church, stage, and court (retained his post through three

different monachs); lots of I-IV-V (early functional harmony)

but willing to use chromatics to add expressiveness of text

(for example, that repeated “ground bass” line in “Dido’s

Lament”)

Johann Pachelbel

1653-1706 Baroque Germany

Composer, teacher, and organist; much sacred and secular

music; most famous for the use of ground bass (repeated

bass line) in “Canon in D” which uses a chord progression

widely used in today’s pop music.

Antonio Vivaldi

1678-1741 Baroque Italy

Violinist/composer greatly influenced instrumental

(especially string) music; wrote over 500 pieces and most

famous for his violin concertos. In The Four Seasons (a set

of four concerti, each representing a season of the year), he

deliberately tried to present non-musical ideas using music

(like birds, rushing stream, etc.).

George Friderich Handel

1685-1759 Baroque Ger-Eng

Major composer of all genres but particularly famous for large vocal works, e.g., the oratorio The Messiah. Internationally known during his lifetime. Moved from Germany to England to accompany King George I and filled concert halls, worship services, and court events with masterful blend of rich homophony and complex imitative polyphony of the times, both vocal and instrumental.

Johann Sebastian Bach

1685-1750 Baroque Germany

The GOAT. Church musician and teacher. A gazillion

instrumental and choral works in every genre except opera.

Master of the homophonic chorale—which refined and

defined the rules of functional harmony. Master of the

fugue—which defined the rules of imitative counterpoint.

Master of music theory concepts and working them into

pieces. When he dies, so does the Baroque Period—

though he left a few sons to continue composing into the

next era.