Music of the Baroque Era
4/1/2008 - 5/20/2008
Tuesdays 10:00 AM - 12:30 PM
When the Baroque movement took a musical turn, the result was an astonishing expansion of forms and techniques for composers, and a new range of virtuoso possibilities for performers. We will study Baroque instrumental styles and genres (sonatas, concertos, and virtuoso keyboard works), the sacred choral repertoire (cantatas and oratorios), and the birth of opera. We will study composers such as Monteverdi, Gluck, Bach, Scarlatti, Handel, Vivaldi and Purcell. Modern performance practice topics such as the rebirth of the countertenor and the question of historical authenticity will also be discussed.
On this page:
Elsewhere on Holde Kunst:
Syllabus and Listening Samples
Printable syllabus copies: MS Word | PDF
About the Listening selections: These links will allow you to play up to 25 full tracks per month on your computer at Rhapsody.com Optional subscription services allow for unlimited listening. (Learn more.) Especially for more esoteric works, selections on this page may not match those discussed in class, but will give an idea of the composer’s style. In some cases we have provided links to the composer’s homepage where you may choose your own selections. Where that is the case, it means that either the particular work is not in their database, or that a final choice for class subject matter was not made by the time the page was updated.
Week 1:
- Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672)
- Girolamo Frescobaldi (baptized mid-September 1583 – March 1, 1643): Keyboard works
- Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643): Operas
Week 2
- Keyboard music of Johann Jakob Froberger (1616-1667) and Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707)
- Jean-Baptiste de Lully (1632-1687): His opera Atys
- Giacomo Carissimi (baptized April 18, 1605 – January 12, 1674): Jephtha
Week 3
- Keyboard music of François Couperin (1668-1733) and Rameau (1683-1764)
- Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767): The Last Judgment
- Henry Purcell (1659-1695): English Opera
Week 4: Concerti grossi
- Archangelo Corelli (1653-1736)
- Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)
Week 5: George Frederick Handel (1685-1759)
- An overview of his life and career
- Concerti grossi, op. 6
- Israel in Egypt
Week 6: Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Part 1
- An overview of his life
- Secular instrumental works
Week 7: Bach, Part 2: The Great Choral Works
Week 8: Transition
- Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757) – his keyboard sonatas
- Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714 – 1788)
- Johann Christian Bach (1735 – 1782)