italy

venice:

• venice was still the most glamorous center in europe

• public festivals, st. mark's

• orphanages became musical centers

  • gave musical opportunities to women

  • boys' conservatories created great composers and singers

concerto:

• most important type of baroque instrumental music

• established the orchestra as the leading instrumental ensemble

• florid melody over firm bass

• based on tonality

• multiple contrasting movements

• concerto grosso - set a small ensemble (concertino) of solo instruments against a large ensemble (concerto grosso)

  • two violins, cello, continuo

  • large ensemble - string orchestra

• orchestral concerto - work in several movements that emphasized first violin and bass

• opening fast movement, slow movement in closely related key, final tonic fast movement

vivaldi:

• composed opera, cantatas, sacred music

• composer and teacher at pio ospedale della pietà - required to produce music at a prodigious rate

• concertos have fresh melody, clarity of form, skillful treatment of solo and orchestral color

• wrote about 500 concertos

  • orchestra and solo instruments

  • two violins

• ritornello

  • signposts to the tonal structure

• each movement has a small aberration that makes its form unique but keeps the overall formal strategy the same

• slow movements are as important as fast ones

france

couperin:

• first and most important french composer of trio sonatas

• synthesized french and italian styles

• worked as a court musician and teacher

rameau:

• operas established him as lully's most important successor

• started working for a wealthy tax collector who supported an orchestra and sponsored concerts

• controversial because his operas sounded pretty baroque

• came up with the basis of tonal harmony

germany

• leading composers in europe came from german-speaking lands

• telemann, handel, bachs, haydn, mozart synthesized elements from other traditions in new ways

• german speaking europe was divided among many political entities

• lutheran germany was pretty average - leipzig didn’t have opera houses or princes/bishops in residence

bach:

• at the time bach was considered dated, dusty, not innovative, but people looked back later

  • became a legend kind of like josquin

  • bach wrote in the sweet spot between polyphony and homophony during the transition between them

  • the germans were trying to create a national identity and they decided to pick bach as the first great german composer

• never left germany

• started as a church organist - string of mediocre jobs writing dusty music and playing the organ in backwater towns

• didn't like working in leipzig and leipzig didn't like bach - they both settled for mediocrity

• unglamorous, confining and traditional

• bach's family were lutheran church musicians since the 16th century so it was basically the family business - 85 other famous bachs

• his only music published during his lifetime was a small self-published book of organ music

• organ works, harpsichord music, solo and ensemble music, vocal music,

• cantata

  • multimovement work that alternated between aria and recitative, assembly of smaller pieces

  • bach cantata was for church, not highbrow art music, just for church

• prelude and fugue

  • improvised practice (meant to sound like it's made up on the spot) paired with imitation/subjects and countersubjects

  • subject presented first in tonic key, countersubject in dominant key

england

handel:

• was a good businessman and traveled a lot for opportunities

• educated, got a job in the basso continuo for an opera house and decided to write some operas

• handel decided to follow the money and go to italy to work for wealthy patrons and make new connections

• huge break was when his employer was made king of england and wrote operas nonstop for 27 years, basically the most prestigious job and the first story of a composer getting rich by composing

• handel and his company went bankrupt

• decided to pivot to oratorios by writing them in english, adding exciting parts for the chorus, played up the connection of the time between israel and england as God's chosen people

• handel wrote things he thought was gonna be big but bach was kind of a nobody even though he's regarded as a musical hero now

• opera seria - serious music for the upper classes, most prestigious

• handel's opera serias were supposed to be big but nobody really likes them anymore