Top Baroque Artists on Rhapsody Online

Johann Sebastian Bach

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 11:50:05 -0800

J.S. Bach may be the most important figure in Western music, with an influence that can be felt in popular and classical music to this day. Largely unnoticed in his time, Bach was in many ways the climax of Baroque polyphonic music, tying together the major styles of his day in a uniquely personal fashion. From his chamber works to his instrumental pieces, Bach ingeniously wove together melodic, aria-based Italian music, refined French dance music, complex contrapuntal German music, and mathematical intricacies into pieces that were greater than the summation of their parts. Inside of the elaborate inter-connected voices of the Well-Tempered Clavier's Fugues and the rich polyphonic textures of the Brandenburg Concertos are proof that the reason that we hear and enjoy music the way we do is based on the sounds, theories and procedures that were solidified in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. - Jessy Terry

Antonio Vivaldi

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:51:41 -0800

Antonio Vivaldi not only revolutionized the concerto form; by sidelining as a concert master, opera impresario, and ordained priest, he's the quintessential 18th century Renaissance man.

Born in Venice on March 4, 1678, Vivaldi was ordained at 25 and nicknamed "The Red Priest" for his shock of red hair. He disliked giving Mass -- blaming a medical condition now thought to be asthma -- and took an appointment teaching violin at a Venetian girls' orphanage. Including the ubiquitous "The Four Seasons," Vivaldi's concertos -- marked by vigorous energy and thematic uniformity -- earned him wide renown and remain his greatest legacy. Starting with a 1717 position on the court of the prince Phillip of Hesse-Darmstadt, Vivaldi had unrivaled popularity among European royals, yielding numerous commissions (including Louis XV's wedding cantata "Gloria e Imeneo") and a knighting from Emperor Charles VI. By the 1730s, Vivaldi's popularity faded, leaving him in financial ruin at his death in July of 1741.

Researchers unearthed over a dozen folios of his work between 1926 and 1930, which saw a revival of interest and secured his reputation as one of his era's greatest minds. - Nate Cavalieri

George Frideric Handel

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 11:50:12 -0800

Even if you think of a cinematic pooch when the word Beethoven is mentioned you have probably heard Handel's Messiah -- "Hallelujah!! Hallelujah!!" -- blasting away at the local mall at Christmas time. This stunning piece illustrates Handel's mastery of the big choral numbers that were gaining in popularity with the rising eighteenth century bourgeois class. Handel was a master at composing operas, but these oratorios were easier to stage and perform and cheaper to attend for the new British middle class, who embraced Handel's music with great enthusiasm. - Nick Dedina

Georg Philipp Telemann

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 11:48:50 -0800

During the first half of the Eighteenth Century, Georg Philipp Telemann was considered Germany's greatest living composer. Meanwhile, peer Johann Sebastian Bach's genius was largely ignored by the public. Today, Bach's influence cannot be overemphasized, while Telemann's music is considered but a pale shadow of his contemporary. Though Telemann's reputation for superficial overproduction is largely deserved, the composer's output should not be ignored outright. For the mind-boggling number of pieces he produced (forty operas, five complete cycles of cantatas, and much more -- his catalog is utterly exhausting), the quality of his work is consistently impressive, illustrating a masterful command of bright, sparkling melodies and rich harmonies. - Doug Russell

Arcangelo Corelli

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 11:48:49 -0800

Though the output of Archangelo Corelli might not be vast -- just six published sets and a few assorted pieces -- he was of fundamental consequence to the Baroque style for his treatment of formalism and violin pedagogy. Born in the modern-day province of Ravenna in 1666, Corelli was admitted to Rome's still-extant Accademia Filarmonica and studied composition under Matteo Simonelli, the singer of the pope's chapel, later serving as the principle violinist and chamber musician in the court of Queen Christina of Sweden. He dedicated his first major work, Opus 1: 12 sonatas da chiesa, to her, and quickly became celebrated throughout Roman musical society. His use of an orchestral echo effect in his so-called "Christmas Concerto" (Op. 6) was widely imitated and especially popular in England, where Corelli's popularity rivaled Handel's. Technically, he took liberties with the formal constraints of counterpoint with great success and blurred the lines between sacred and secular forms. His legacy and influence remained long-standing after his death in 1713, as his works continued to circulate in wide publication. - Nate Cavalieri

Johann Pachelbel

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:37:31 -0800

Some composers of the Baroque era still captivate our ears and minds, J.S. Bach and Handel being the most representative. Others, who may have been extremely important figures in their time, are either quite remote from modern audiences or are remembered by only one or two pieces. Pachelbel, like Albinoni, falls into the latter category. Who does not know his Canon and Gigue in D Major, perhaps one of the most popular classical pieces of all time (or at least of modern time; it gained it's current standing during the early 1970s)? With this piece, the composer created something so clear and succinct that one has to struggle to extricate it from one's mind. There is a strict bass part which descends with the utmost musical logic, over which a series of variations is played based on a simple and instantly memorable melody. Although Pachelbel of course composed other music -- music which can occasionally be found on recordings and Baroque samplers -- it is the Canon which has immortalized him. - Will Lerner

Tomaso Giovanni Albinoni

Sun, 4 Oct 2009 09:42:40 -0700

Albinoni was an extremely important composer in his day; unfortunately, his music has not withstood the test of time like his more famous Italian contemporary Vivaldi. Ironically his main claim to fame is the Adagio in G Minor, an achingly beautiful piece often found on Baroque compilations and used in the Orson Welles film The Trial -- and one that the composer didn't really write. A sketch was found just after World War II by a musicologist who went on to make it into a full-fledged work of art. For music in the true Albinoni style, one can turn to his oboe and wind concertos, spry and lively pieces of music that reveal a deeply intense lyricism in their slow movements. This is the kind of emotional writing that was expanded upon to complete the aforementioned Adagio. - Will Lerner

Henry Purcell

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:14:09 -0800

Henry Purcell (1659-1695) was one of the most important early English Opera composers and a master organist at the Chapel Royal. His style was distinctly English, though it also contained other influences such as the sweeping, grand overtures of France and the beautiful aria melodies of Italy. Much of Purcell's music was meant to accompany theater, diverting the audience's attention between scenes and punctuating important happenings in the drama. In his early Opera Dido and Aeneas, the slightest dissonant turn in the melody often reflected crucial happenings in the verse. In addition to his important vocal work, Purcell also wrote instrumental music, lively dances and pieces for the church.

The Academy Of Ancient Music

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:05:46 -0800

Pierre Fournier

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 11:00:29 -0700

The English Concert [Orchestra]

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 11:00:30 -0700

Domenico Scarlatti

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:38:09 -0800

During the Baroque era, Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757) was one of the most important and influential keyboard composers of the day. His works for harpsichord and organ feature typically complex interweaving melodies which continue to present technical challenges -- including crossing hands -- to performers who attempt his pieces. Scarlatti's most lasting contribution may be the influential forms he pioneered, including an Italian style of Sonata that features two repeating sections, each complete with a change of key and distinct, recapitulating melodies. Through his travels to Portugal and Spain, Scarlatti added distinct influences to his compositions, including that of Spanish guitar music. It's possible that some of Scarlatti's innovations were inspired by his father Alessandro, an important composer in his own right. - Jessy Terry

Claudio Monteverdi

Thu, 5 Nov 2009 16:49:12 -0800

Though many of his pieces were composed in the early seventeenth century, Claudio Monteverdi wrote music to which modern audiences can still relate. His progressive mind led to breakthroughs in compositional techniques, even while the musical materials he worked with gave his compositions an ancient feel, including melodies based in the austere sounding scales of the Medieval and Renaissance eras. He unified music and drama in Orfeo (perhaps the first fully successful Opera): slight chromatic dips or inflections perfectly accentuated the meaning of the text. From sacred music written for the church to sublime madrigals composed for virtuoso singers, all Monteverdi's work has an affecting purity. - Jessy Terry

Francesco Geminiani

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 11:48:40 -0800

Alessandro Scarlatti

Thu, 5 Nov 2009 16:49:12 -0800

Though Alessandro Scarlatti is often credited with creating the Neapolitan school of opera, he was not as influential as the title might suggest; he just wrote with greater skill and originality than his contemporaries. Born in 1660, he went to Rome as a boy and was appointed maestro di cappella of San Giacomo degli Incurabili in 1679. That same year, his Gli Equivoci nell'amore took the city by storm. In 1684, he took a post for the viceroy of Naples, through the influence of his sister, an opera singer, who was the mistress of an influential Neapolitan noble. Over the next 20 years he was extremely active there, writing over half the operas given at Naples, including Il Pirro e Demetrio and La caduta dei Decemviri. He eventually moved back to Rome where he suffered through a papal ban on public opera by writing cantatas for Roman patrons, which rank among his best, if less popular, works. After his 1707 masterpiece, Mitridate Eupatore, achieved little success in Venice he returned Naples where he wrote his final opera, La Griselda in 1721. He died in October of 1725, leaving behind two notable composers in his sons Domenico and Pietro Filippo. - Nate Cavalieri

Pietro Antonio Locatelli

Sat, 7 Nov 2009 11:26:26 -0800

Francesco Onofrio Manfredini

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 09:10:45 -0700

Barbara Tillmann

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 08:47:31 -0700

Dietrich Buxtehude

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:38:09 -0800

Danish composer Dietrich Buxtehude was born in 1637, studied music with his father and held the influential post as the organist at the Marienkirche at Lubeck. Most of his surviving works are for masses and feasts, written for the organ, but Buxtehude also composed for the widely renowned concert series for which he wrote sacred oratorios and concertos and received interest from J.S. Bach. Aside from sacred texts, Buxtehude's instrumental work consists of freely composed music with virtuoso passage-work, and a small number of sonata collections. Especially for his sacred vocal works and his organ music, Buxtehude defined the 17th-century north German school which had a significant influence on Bach. - Nate Cavalieri

Jean-Philippe Rameau

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 11:48:41 -0800

Dad wanted Rameau to be a lawyer, though it soon became clear that he wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer: in fact, women laughed at Rameau's love letters for their poor grammar. So, at the age of eighteen Rameau left Dijon in order to pursue a musical career. After traveling a bit and working in France, he signed a twenty-nine year contract as an organ master for a cathedral in Clermont. There he composed his text Traite de l'harmonie (1722), which pretty much defined music theory for the next two and a half centuries. In it Rameau formally laid out all the ingredients of what is now traditional Western harmony: chords are built in thirds from a root tone, a style that is taken for granted today. In order to get out of the long contract, Rameau played really noisy, crumby organ until they let him go, and for twenty years afterwards he worked with the assistance of wealthy patrons in France. Later in his career, his highly dramatic operas and harmonically rich chamber music went out of fashion as the newer classical style began to take hold, with its simple harmonies and catchy tunes. - Henry B.

Sylvius Leopold Weiss

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:13:36 -0800

German lutenist and composer Sylvius Leopold Weiss (1686 or 1687-1750) worked with the Scarlattis in Rome early in his life and toured widely through Europe as a young man. During his life he was both the most virtuosic of all lutenists and the most prolific of the instrument's composers, outnumbering any other lute composer with his nearly 600 pieces. Of these, most are in late Baroque style, but later works show development with sonatas and concertos for lute with other instruments. Late in his life, Weiss became a friend of Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, and had an improvisation contest with his father, Baroque giant, J.S. Bach. - Nate Cavalieri

Christian Mendoze

Fri, 29 May 2009 09:34:55 -0700

Carl Stamitz

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 08:22:38 -0700

Alessandro Marcello

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 12:58:42 -0700

(b. Venice, 24 Aug 1669; d. Padua, 19 June 1747).
Italian composer. He was a dilettante musician and held concerts at his home in Venice. His compositions include solo cantatas, arias, canzonets, violin sonatas and concertos. His six concertos La cetra (c.1740) are unusual for their wind solo parts, concision and use of counterpoint within a broadly Vivaldian style, placing them as a last outpost of the classic Venetian Baroque concerto. Bach transcribed the Oboe Concerto in D minor (c. 1717) for harpsichord. - MUZE

Giuseppe Torelli

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 11:48:38 -0800

William Lawes

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:04:22 -0700

Johann Hermann Schein

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:43:39 -0700

Jean-Baptiste Lully

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:37:32 -0800

( born: Florence, 28 Nov 1632; died: Paris, 22 March 1687)
French composer of Italian birth. He was taken from Florence to Paris in 1646 by Roger de Lorraine, Chevalier de Guise, who placed him in the service of his niece, Mlle de Montpensier. At her court in the Tuileries Lully got to know the best in French music and, despite his patroness's dislike of Mazarin and her involvement in the Fronde, he was no stranger to Italian music either. After the defeat of the Frondists, Mlle de Montpensier was exiled to St Fargeau. Lully obtained release from her service and on the death of his friend Lazzarini, in 1653, was appointed Louis XIV's compositeur de la musique instrumentale. From 1655 his fame as dancer, comedian and composer grew rapidly, and his disciplined training of the king's 'petite bande' earned him further recognition. In 1661 he was made surintendant de la musique et compositeur de la musique de la chambre and in 1662 maÃÂ®tre de la musique de la famille royale. By then he was a naturalized Frenchman, and in July 1662 he married Madeleine, daughter of the composer Michel Lambert.
Lully then collaborated with MoliÃÂ¨re on a series of comÃÂ©dies-ballets which culminated in Le bourgeois gentilhomme (1670). After that he turned to opera, securing the privilege previously granted to Perrin and forestalling potential rivals with oppressive patents granted by the king. He chose as librettist Philippe Quinault, with whom he succeeded in establishing a new and essentially French type of opera known as tragÃÂ©die lyrique. Between 1673 and 1686 Lully composed 13 such works, 11 of them with Quinault.
During this time Lully continued to enjoy the king's support, despite Louis displeasure at his overt homosexual behaviour and the resentment his high-handedness provoked in other musicians. His greatest personal triumph came in 1681 when in an impressive ceremony he was received as secrÃÂ©taire du Roi. After the king's marriage to Mme de Maintenon in 1683 life at court took on a new sobriety; it was perhaps in response to this that Lully composed much of his religious music. During a performance of his Te Deum in January1687he injured his foot with the point of a cane he was using to beat time. Gangrene set in, and within three months he died, leaving a tragÃÂ©die lyrique, Achille et PolyxÃÂ¨ne, unfinished.
At his death Lully was widely regarded as the most representative of French composers. Practically all his music was designed to satisfy the tastes and interests of Louis XIV. The ballets de cour (1653-63) and the comÃÂ©dies-ballets (1663-72) were performed as royal entertainments, the king himself often taking part in the dancing. The tragÃÂ©dies lyriques (1673-86) were kingly operas par excellence, expressing a classical conflict between la gloire and lamour ; Louis himself supplied the subject matter for at least four of them and certainly approved the political sentiments of the prologues. Lully's music was correspondingly elevated, in the stately overtures, the carefully moulded 'rÃÂ©citatif simple' and the statuesque choruses; many of the airs, too, draw as much attention to the galant mores of the court as to the stage action. Finally, the Versailles grand motet, of which the Miserere is an outstanding example, was designed to glorify the King of France as much as the King of Heaven.
Lully's three sons, Louis (1664-1734), Jean-Baptiste (1665-1743) and Jean-Louis (1667-88), were all musicians in the king's service.

Oldřich Vlček

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 12:12:57 -0700

Louis- Nicolas Clerambault

Wed, 20 May 2009 11:55:38 -0700

Gregorio Allegri

Sat, 5 Sep 2009 11:20:04 -0700

Marin Marais

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:54:14 -0700

Marin Marais (1656 - 1726) was a French composer and master of the basse de viol, a large bowed string instrument with frets, and is an early leading composer for the instrument. He studied with Jean-Baptiste Lully, and with a renowned bass viol pedagogue Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe. He was hired as a musician in 1676 to the royal court of Versailles, and was appointed "ordinaire de la chambre du roy pour la viole" between 1679 and 1725.

His most important operatic work is Alcione, written in 1706, which contains a dramatic storm scene. His five collections of music for bass viol, composed between 1686 and 1725, were his most historically significant contribution along with his The Pieces en trio (1692) considered the first trio sonata in France. He died in 1728. - Nate Cavalieri

Francois Couperin

Mon, 5 Oct 2009 10:16:48 -0700

(b. Paris, 10 Nov 1668; d. there, 11 Sept 1733).
French composer. He was the central figure of the French harpsichord school. He came from a long line of musicians, mostly organists, of whom the most eminent was his uncle, Louis Couperin, though his father Charles (1638-79) was also a composer and organist of St Gervais. Francois succeeded to that post on his 18th birthday; his earliest known music is two organ masses. In 1693 he became one of the four royal organists which enabled him to develop his career as a teacher through his court connections. He was soon recognized as the leading French composer of his day through his sacred works and his chamber music and, from 1713, his harpsichord pieces. In 1716 he published an important treatise on harpsichord playing and the next year he was appointed royal harpsichordist.
Among the music Couperin composed for Louis XIV's delectation were his Concerts royaux, chamber works for various combinations. He had written works in his own elaboration of trio-sonata form in the 1690s following the Italianate style of Corelli but retaining French character in the decorative lines and rich harmony. Later, he published these alongside French-style groups of dances as Les nations; they include some of his emotionally most powerful music. He was much concerned with blending French and Italian styles; he composed programmatic tributes to Lully and Corelli and works under the title Les gouts-reunis. He also wrote intensely expressive pieces for bass viol.
But it is as a harpsichord composer that Couperin is best known. He published four books with some 220 pieces, grouped in 27 ordres or suites. Some movements are in the traditional French dance forms, but most are character pieces with titles that reflect their inspiration: some are portraits of individuals or types, some portray abstract qualities, some imitate the sounds of nature. The titles may also be ambiguous or metaphorical, or even intentionally obscure. Most of the pieces are in rondeau form. All are elegantly composed, concealing a complex, allusive and varied emotional world behind their highly wrought surface. Couperin took immense pains over the notation of the ornaments with which his harpsichord writing is sprinkled and animated. These, and his style generally, are expounded in his L'art de toucher le clavecin.
Couperin's children were also musicians: Nicholas (1680-1748) succeeded his father at St Gervais, and probably composed, while Marie-Madeleine (1690-1742) was probably an abbey organist and Marguerite-Antoinette (1705- c. 1778) was active as a court harpsichordist, c. 1729-1741.

Andrew Lawrence-King

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 15:14:26 -0700

Giuseppe Sammartini

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 12:58:37 -0700

Antonio Caldara

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 11:48:37 -0800

Jeremiah Clarke

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:04:37 -0700

Marc-Antoine Charpentier

Sat, 7 Nov 2009 11:26:23 -0800

Marc-Antoine Charpentier was an astoundingly prolific 17th century composer, producing music that ranged from sacred vocal music to comedic ballet music. His compositions also include oratorios, masses, operas, biblical tragedies, and numerous chamber works that defy categorization.

There is some dispute about the exact year of his birth, but it's generally agreed that he was born in 1643. One of his early appointments was with the Duchess of Guise, and by the early 1680s he entered the service of the grand dauphin, for which Louis XIV granted him a pension in 1683. He spent the 1680s teaching and performing mostly for French nobles and became attached to the Jesuit church of St Louis in Paris. From 1698 until his death he held the important post of musical director of the Saint-Chapelle, for which he wrote some of his most impressive works. The output of Charpentier during the middle of his life was impressive for both its quantity and quality and he was the only Frenchman of his time to write oratorios at all. Today, Charpentier's bombastic prelude to his Te Deum, is well-known as the signature tune for the European Broadcasting Union. - Nate Cavalieri

Johann Melchior Molter

Sat, 15 Aug 2009 11:05:38 -0700

Arion Ensemble

Fri, 2 Oct 2009 11:02:24 -0700

The Magnafranc Quartet

Wed, 5 Aug 2009 11:19:51 -0700

Heinrich Schutz

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 11:42:27 -0700

Schutz was an important German composer, writing in the middle of the seventeenth century in a robust, Italian influenced style. He primarily wrote vocal music, and reportedly composed the first German opera, though the work is no longer in existence. - Jessy Terry

Catherine Bott

Sat, 14 Feb 2009 13:00:17 -0800

Fabio Biondi

Fri, 3 Jul 2009 13:35:48 -0700

Giovanni Battista Pergolesi

Sat, 3 Oct 2009 10:45:25 -0700

Giovanni Gabrieli

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 12:06:46 -0700

Gabrieli, Giovanni (b. Venice, c. 1553-6; d. there, Aug 1612).
Italian composer, nephew of Andrea Gabrieli. Like his uncle, with whom he studied, he worked briefly at the Munich court (c. 1575-8) and in 1585 he became organist of St Mark's, Venice, and of the confraternity of S Rocco, posts he held for the rest of his life. After Andrea's death, he edited many of his works for publication. His own fame and influence were widespread and crucial, notably in northern Europe - Schetz was among his many pupils - and he represents the highest point of the High Renaissance Venetian school. He composed motets and mass movements (Symphoniae sacrae, 1597, 1615, MSS), instrumental ensemble music (1597, 1615, MSS) and organ works (1593, MSS), as well as a few madrigals (1587 and anthologies). Much of his sacred ceremonial music exploits the architecture of St Mark's, using contrasting groups of singers and players to create cori spezzati effects, but often in a more intense and dissonant style than his uncle's. His music for wind ensemble is lively and colourful and includes up-to-date concertato writing; the organ ricercares are in a well-developed and specific keyboard style. - MUZE

Heinrich Scheidemann

Fri, 2 Oct 2009 11:03:10 -0700

Maurice Steger

Fri, 29 May 2009 09:34:55 -0700

Georg Muffat

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 10:43:40 -0700

Georg Muffat was a German composer of French birth, who studied with Lully in Paris in 1663-69 and eventually became the organist and chamber musician to the Archbishop of Salzburg. In both his profession and his musical proclivity he was widely traveled: in the 1680s he studied with Pasquini in Rome and was a pioneer for introducing French and Italian styles to Germany. Though his early collections owe much to Corelli, he is also known for his distinctly French concerti grossi, organ music, orchestral suites, and two popular Florilegium volumes (1695, 1698). He is the father of composer Gottlieb Muffat. - Nate Cavalieri

John Eliot Gardiner

Thu, 5 Nov 2009 12:40:01 -0800

Although John Eliot Gardiner is considered one of the most dynamic and versatile conductors of his generation, his fame is due in large part to leading the modern revival of early music performance with two groups that he founded, the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloistsand. These ensembles use period instruments and are known for their exquisite performances of Bach. His range is evident in another ensemble he leads, the Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique, which has recorded Brahmas and Beethoven. In addition to the hefty performance schedule with these ensembles, Gardiner appears regularly as guest conductor with symphonic institutions around the world and has recorded over 250 albums for the Deutsche Grammophon and Philips Classics labels. - Nate Cavalieri