#ClassicsaDay #AltBaroque Week 4

The Classics a Day team offers a unique challenge for September. Participants are to share music from the Baroque Era on their social media posts. What makes this a challenge is to avoid the big names. So no Bach, Handel, or Vivaldi. (And no Pachelbel's Canon). 

 The Baroque Era ushered a sea change in musical styles from the Renaissance. Church modes gave way to major and minor keys (still in use today). Linear polyphony was replaced by a melody with chordal harmony. Viols were traded in for violins. New forms of music were developed: operas, oratorios, cantatas, and sonatas. 

 Many composers contributed to that development -- many more than the Big Three. Here are my posts for this #AltClassical challenge. For the fourth and final week, I picked some unusual composers.

09/23/24 Maria Teresa Agnesi Pinottini (1720-1795): Concerto per il cembalo

Little is known of Agnesi's life. While her music is well documented in historical records, much is now lost. Only fragments of her 6 operas and 5 concertos survive.

 

09/24/24 Ivan Lukačić (1587=1648): Quam pulchra es

Croatian composer and monk Ivan Lukacic studied in Rome before returning to Croatia. He was music master at the cathedral in Split and published several collections of motets in the 1620s.

 

09/25/24 Caterina Assandra (ca.1590 - after 1618) O Dulcis Amor Jesu (Op. 2, No. 11)

Assanda was a Benedictine nun. She was also an organist and published two collections of music in the early 1600s. Her Opus 1 is lost, but Opus 2 survives.

 

09/26/24 John Baston (fl. 1708–1739): Recorder Concerto No. 2

Baston was an English recorder virtuoso. His concertos, performed during play intermissions, were so popular he published them in 1729.

 

09/27/24 Julie Pinel (fl. 1710–1737): Printems

Pinel was a French harpsichordist. Few details of her life are known, save for her collection of songs, published in 1737, Nouveau receuil d'airs sérioux et à boire.

 

Next month:

#ClassicsaDay #AltBaroque Week 3

The Classics a Day team offers a unique challenge for September. Participants are to share music from the Baroque Era on their social media posts. What makes this a challenge is to avoid the big names. So no Bach, Handel, or Vivaldi. (And no Pachelbel's Canon). 

 The Baroque Era ushered a sea change in musical styles from the Renaissance. Church modes gave way to major and minor keys (still in use today). Linear polyphony was replaced by a melody with chordal harmony. Viols were traded in for violins. New forms of music were developed: operas, oratorios, cantatas, and sonatas. 

 Many composers contributed to that development -- many more than the Big Three. Here are my posts for this #AltClassical challenge. For the third week, I focused on composers of the Middle Baroque, running from about 1680 to 1705.

 

09/16/24 Giovanni Zamboni (later 17th century–after 1718): Sonata VII

Zamboni was a virtuoso of several instruments, including the guitar, lute, mandolin, and theorbo. He's credited with being one of the last composers to write for the lute in 1718.

 

09/17/24 Mrs. Philarmonica (fl. 1715): Sonata for 2 violins

"Mrs. Philharmonica" was an alias of an unknown 18th-century Englishwoman. She published a set of six divertimenti, or sonatas, for two violins and continuo.

 

09/18/25 Maria Margherita Grimani (b. before 1700; fl. 1713–1718): Sinfonia to "Pallade e Marte"

Grimani was the first female composer to have an opera performed in Vienna. She was also known for her oratorios.

 

09/19/24 Henry Madin (1698–1748): Te Deum

Madin entered King Louis VXV's service in 1736. At Versailles he became "Sous-maître de la Musique de la Chapelle du Roi."

 

09/20/24 Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel (1690–1749): Concerto grosso a quattro Chori

Stölzel served the Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. He wrote a vast amount of music, including an estimated 1,300 cantatas. Less than half survive intact.

 

#ClassicsaDay #AltBaroque Week 2

 The Classics a Day team offers a unique challenge for September. Participants are to share music from the Baroque Era on their social media posts. What makes this a challenge is to avoid the big names. So no Bach, Handel, or Vivaldi. (And no Pachelbel's Canon). 

The Baroque Era ushered a sea change in musical styles from the Renaissance. Church modes gave way to major and minor keys (still in use today). Linear polyphony was replaced by a melody with chordal harmony. Viols were traded in for violins. New forms of music were developed: operas, oratorios, cantatas, and sonatas. 

 Many composers contributed to that development -- many more than the Big Three. Here are my posts for this #AltClassical challenge. For the second week, I focused on composers of the Middle Baroque, running from about 1650 to 1700.

09/09/24 Mlle Bocquet (early 17th century–after 1660): Allemande in D minor

We're not sure of her first name. But this 1660s lutenist wrote ground-breaking music for her instrument. And was a celebrity in Paris.

 

09/10/24 Simon Ives (1600–1662): The Triumph of Peace

Ives was an organist and composer serving in the court of Charles I. He wrote several part-songs (or glees) that were printed in various collections of the day.

 

09/11/24 Elisabeth Sophie, Duchess of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1613–1676): Dieses ist das Furstenhaous

Elisabeth Sophie was a talented musician who ensured her husband's court attracted talented musicians, like Heinrich Schutz. The 30 Years War forced her to relocate and rebuild her orchestra.

 

09/12/24 Giovanni Antonio Rigatti (c. 1613–1648): Dixit Dominus a 8

Rigatti was a choirmaster at Udine Cathedral. He published 11 volumes of vocal music, mostly sacred.

 

09/13/24 John IV of Portugal (1603–1656): Crux Fidelis

John IV was a great patron of the arts, and a composer himself. None of his music seems to have survived. Crux Fidelis is credited to him, but most scholars now agree it's a 19th-century forgery.

 

#ClassicsaDay #AltBaroque

The Classics a Day team offers a unique challenge for September. Participants are to share music from the Baroque Era on their social media posts. What makes this a challenge is to avoid the big names. So no Bach, Handel, or Vivaldi. (And no Pachelbel's Canon). 

The Baroque Era ushered a sea change in musical styles from the Renaissance. Church modes gave way to major and minor keys (still in use today). Linear polyphony was replaced by a melody with chordal harmony. Viols were traded in for violins. New forms of music were developed: operas, oratorios, cantatas, and sonatas. 

 Many composers contributed to that development -- many more than the Big Three. Here are my posts for this #AltClassical challenge. For the first week, I focused on composers of the Early Baroque, running from about 1590 to 1650.

09/02/24 Pavel Spongopaeus Jistebnický (1550–1619): Králi nad králi, Pane

Jistebnický was one of the most prolific composers of the early Baroque. Over 60 works by this Czech composer have survived, but only one is complete enough to perform. 

 

09/03/24 Jean de Bournonville (1585–1632): Laudate pueri Dominum

De Bournonville was an organist and composer active in early 1600s France. He was director of music at the Sainte-Chapelle du Palais. He wrote sacred choral works, including at least 19 masses. 

 

09/04/24 Heinrich Schütz (1585–1672): Musikalische Exequien, Op. 7

In 1612 Schütz went to Venice and studied with Giovanni Gabrieli. He returned to Germany, bringing Italian Baroque ideas with him. Schütz was the most important composer of Protestant sacred music before J.S. Bach. 

 

09/05/24 Peeter Cornet (c. 1570/1580–1633): Tantum Ergo

Very few of Cornet's music survives. However, in the early Baroque era, this Flemish organist was regarded as one of the best keyboard composers of his day.

 

09/06/24 Nicolò Corradini (c. 1585–1646): Spargite flores

Corradini was kappellmeister for the Cremona Cathedral. He served as organist to Tarquinio Merula, one of the original proponents of the Venetian school that launched the Baroque style.