Study Guide - Composers Flashcards
Giovanni Maria Artusi
Bolonese music theorist who criticized Monteverdi’s music. Believed that in his music, dissonances were not being approached or resolved correctly according to 16th century practices.
Ottavio Rinuccini
was an Italian poet and the first opera librettist, with his Libretto to Peri’s “Daphne” and Peri and Caccini’s Euridice.
Jacopo Peri
Part of the Florentine Camerata.
Composed the first opera, “Daphne”. Composed one of the first settings of “Euridice”(Rinuccini, Librettest). His was also performed first in a private setting (Palazzo Pitti in Florentine at the house of a royalty member.) His significance is that he was one of the first.
Giulio Caccini
Part of the Florentine Camerata.
Also composed one of the first settings of “Euridice.” While Peri performed his first, this composer was the first to have his published. The significance of this composer was that he was one of the first.
Emilio de’ Cavalieri
wrote “Rappresentatione di anima e di corpo”
(Drama of the soul and the body) at Rome in 1600. This work is sometimes considered to be the first oratorio.
Claudio Monteverdi
Important because he was a master. Was a transitional composer between the Renaissance and Baroque periods. wrote madrigals and operas. Was attacked by Artusi for not writting in the prima prattica, and was able to convincinly refute the attack by stating that he did so to better express the text. His Opera “Orfeo” was a pivotal work because he was a leading composer and he turned to a form that was a new innovation.
Allesandro Scarlatti
Italian composer who wrote over 600 cantatas. Also was a significant opera composer. Father of Domenico Scarlatti.
Giovanni Gabrieli
second organist at St. Mark’s, and famous composer of polychoral works in the Baroque period.
Heinrich Schϋtz
the most significant German composer of the seventeenth century. His surviving music mostly consists of sacred vocal compositions. Greatest accomplishment was to adapt the primarily Italian style of the early Baroque to the rhythms and accents of the German language and to the texts of German writers, notably Luther’s translation of the Bible.
Giacomo Carissimi
wrote 11 oratorios, the most famous of which is Jephte. Jephte was a judge from the bible who made a promise to god when leading a battle against the Ammonites and and had to sacrifice his daughter. Classic early Baroque Oratorio
Apostolo Zeno
Significant Baroque Librettist. Venetian poet, eventually worked as a court poet for the Austrian emperors at Vienna.
Metastasio
A significant Baroque Librettist. His real name was Pietro Trapassi. Succeeded Zeno in Vienna.
Apostolo Zeno and Metastasio
Why were they significant
Their librettos were regarded as serious literary works in themselves. They typically concerned figures from ancient history who were viewed as models for present day rulers. Their librettos were repeatedly set by composers over the course of the century.
Jean-Philippe Rameau
Most important French Composer since Lully. Widely known as a theorist
Wrote Traité de l’harmonie, 1722
First opera not produced until he was fifty years old. (Hippolyte et Aricie, 1733-34)
Kept French (Lullian) style predominant, but introduced elements of Italian style.
Recognition of chords as building blocks of harmony rather than by-products of independent contrapuntal lines.
Advocated equal temperament! :)
Dietrich Buxtehude
Part of the North German Organ School.
According to text, “The greatest of the North German Baroque Composers.” served as organist at the church of St. Mary at Lϋbeck. Married his predecessor’s daughter. Works include chorale preludes, chorale fantasias, and free organ works.
Chorale preludes and fantasias generally set only 1 stanza of the hymn.
Chorale variations (partitas) - multiple settings of the same chorale melody.
Free organ works - Preludia (Preludium - “Prelude and Fugue”) is a multi-sectional work with an improvisatory opening and closing section. Fugal sections in the middle, sometimes separated by other improvisational passages.
Erdmann Neumeister
German theologian and poet who wrote a type of sacred text modeled after those of Italian Secular cantatas. His first publication, published in 1704, consists of librettos for works called cantatas that alternate between recitatives and arias. The importance of these was that he established a form and organization system that served as a model for composers such as Bach and Telemann.
Bartolomeo Cristofori
Invented the pianoforte in 1700. Did not find widespread use until after 1750.
Girolamo Frescobaldi
Italian. Most important composer of keyboard music in Italy and throughout Europe in the first half of the seventeenth century. Was so overwhelming a presence in Italian keyboard music that no other composer or player of equal stature emerged for over 100 years after. He straddled the transition between Renaissance and Baroque, like Monteverdi. wrote Fantasias, ricercars, and variations, which he called partitas.
Johann Jacob Froberger
German, but influential in French music through visits there. Was a student of Frescobaldi. None of his music was published during his lifetime, but by 1649 he had already produced two definitive manuscript collections of his keyboard works. Three more followed (two are lost). The keyboard suites in his 1649 manuscript are the earliest such works to survive. His works are almost exclusively for keyboard. His manuscripts include toccatas and other works in the Italian style and suites in the French style. A preoccupation with death was evident in much of his music, which was a natural response to the horrific events of the mid-17th century.
Francois Couperin
Most important French composer of 18th century. He united the styles of French and Italian, (Les gouts réunis). He utilized french dance forms and precisely notated ornamentation and rhythm, as well as the singing melodies of Italian music. He holds the same position in harpsichord music that Chopin does for piano.
Domenico Scarlatti
Born the same year as Bach and Handel. Wrote over 500 sonatas for keyboard. They are single-movement works in binary form.
Arcangelo Corelli
Italian composer who influenced the development of the sonata. His chief works are his 48 trio sonatas, 12 solo sonatas, and 12 concerti grossi. The sonatas exhibit less outright viruosity than similar works by earlier composers. They essentially became the model for later composers in their: 1. Distinct sectional forms; 2. reliance upon imitation (including the continuo); 3. variety of relative simplicity and virtuosity.
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Giuseppe Torelli
composer of Bolognese trumpet Sinfonia’s. His works include some of the earliest published concertos as well as sinfonias for one or two trumpets and strings. His music was highly valued by his contemporaries. “Sinfonia con tromba” is one of his works.
Antonio Vivaldi
Venetian composer who more than likely learned music from his father, a violinist, who held a position at St. Mark’s. Was a violin teacher at a school for illegitimate children and orphans, particularly for those going into the nunnery. Some of these women received advanced music training and gave public concerts that were famous throughout Europe. Much of his music was written for them. He also wrote operas (50) and theatrical works, forty cantatas, fifty sacred vocal works, s, including over 200 solo violin concertos.about 500 concerto
