A lot of them called for instrumental music and the composer were able to express themselves better with that.…
Oratorios are large-scale compositions that tended to be serious and dramatic. Oratorios differed from operas because they did not use scenery in the performance. They also were mostly sacred topics instead of history and mythology.…
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi was born March 1st, 1678 in the city of Venice, Italy, to mother Camilla Callicchio, and father Giovanni Battista Vivaldi, a violinist in the employ of Saint Mark’s Church. In addition to musical training from the elder Vivaldi, it was also rumored (but not proven) that the young Vivaldi received instruction from Giovanni Legrenzi, a composer. Antonio was destined for the priesthood at an early age, after preparation he was ordained in March, 1703. (Antonio Vivaldi was red headed, earning him the nickname later in life as the “red priest”) That autumn, he received and appointment to Ospitale della Pieta, an orphanage in Venice where he taught violin, and later conducted the orchestra. With Vivaldi directing the orchestra, the concerts brought international recognition. Other than numerous trips to other cities on the peninsula, and in Europe, Vivaldi spent most his career at the Pieta. Before his death on the 26th of July, 1741 in Vienna, Antonio Lucio Vivaldi collaborated on and/or solely composed 48 operas;…
Handel was a British Baroque composer, who spent much of his career in London. He was well known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, and organ concertos. Within fifteen years of Handel’s career he started three commercial opera companies. One of Handel’s most famous works still to this day is, “Messiah.” Handel is one of the greatest Baroque composers and he is also remembered for “Water Music” and “Music for the Royal Fireworks.” One of his greatest accomplishments during his career is, composing over forty operas in thirty…
This journal is all about one of the most famous and successful German composer of the Baroque period. Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach Germany in 1685 he had seven siblings which made him the youngest out of all his brothers and sisters. His father Johann Ambrosius Bach was the director of the town musicians and his uncles were professional musicians. Bach was surrounded by music and musicians his whole child hood, this influenced him to have a love for music. When both of his parents died in 1694 he went to live with his older brother Johann Christopher Bach who was the organist at St. Michael`s church. This is when the young Bach studied copied, and performed music. His brother taught him how to play the clavichord and introduced him to the works of many great composers of the time. By early 1700 Bach was enrolled in St. Michael`s school in Luneburg where he sang in the choir as well as played the organ and harpsicord. In 1706 Bach started his work as the organist at the Blasius church in Muhlhausen, but by t 1708 he left to go to Weimar this is where he started his period of sustained composing.…
Antonio Vivaldi was one of the most influential composers of the Baroque period. He, along with many other composers, created some of the earliest European music familiar to us today (What is Baroque Music?). The Baroque period can best be described as using the power of music to communicate (What is Baroque Music?). The composers used a single voice that was accompanied by instruments, as well as specifying the instruments used, to capture the importance of the relationship between tonic and dominant chords. Vivaldi used these techniques to compose many operas, concertos, and church music that helped shape a new era of music.…
One puissant composer who Alex Ross failed to mention was Gioachino Rossini who was an Italian composer in the 1800’s time period. He wrote music in the Romantic time period which revolved around opera. This style of music was very banal during Rossini’s time. During his lifetime, he wrote a total of 39 operas as well as sacred music, chamber music, and piano solos. Perhaps his famous works were “The Barber of Seville” and “William Tell Overture” (Encyclopaedia Britannica). These two pieces of music were efficacious in drawing large audiences because they were so well written. Rossini was and still is considered to be an innovator to the opera style of music. He made several changes that revolutionized this genre. For one, he often gave the bass section of the choir the melody to some of his operas. This is still practiced today in modern opera (BBC). Also, he insisted the choir sang the written notes and not an improvisational cadenza. This contradicted the current practice in Italy at that time. If it weren’t for Rossini’s “spark of genius”, the opera theatre would not have been enhanced and renewed. Despite his contributions to romantic and opera music, Gioachino Rossini served and continues to serve as a paragon and was one composer who should have been in Alex Ross’s book The Rest is Noise.…
Bach was born in Eisenach in 1685. He was taught to play the violin and harpsichord by his father, Johann Ambrosius, a court trumpeter in the service of the Duke of Eisenach. Young Johann was not yet ten when his father died, leaving him orphaned. He was taken in by his recently…
Rather intriguingly, his music style almost immediately alters for his future works, and all of his compositions between the two operas are in a very similar style to the opera King Priam. Firstly, the overall styles of both operas are completely contrasting. The Midsummer Marriage is a comedy with an invented story, whereas King Priam is a tragedy, which has its roots from a traditional story. It is possible to argue that this is almost a step backwards in terms of progression. Many 19th century (And indeed earlier) operas have their origins from poems, stories or myths, however, since The Midsummer Marriage was a completely original story, it gains a sense of uniqueness, despite the fact one review from the time described it as having ‘a close of obviously intentional resemblance to ‘The Magic Flute’.’ Whether or not this is truly the case, in contrast, King Priam is based off a traditional Greek myth, which is not a unique or original way of choosing a libretto. (Although composers today still use Mythology for operas, such as Birtwistle’s The…
Opera was very popular during the Baroque Era from the 1600’s to the early 1700’s. First gaining popularity in Italy, early opera was widely used for royal weddings or other important ceremonies. However, later in the sixteenth century in England, “stage plays were forbidden because…
George Gershwin was born Jacob Gershwin in Brooklyn in 1898, from a Jewish-Russian immigrant family and was the second of four children. When George was young he did not show signs that he would be interested in music as he was more into sports and rough housing but that all changed when at the tender age of 10 George’s parents Morris Gershowitz and Rosa Bruskin bought his older brother Ira a second-hand piano. This purchase would not only change the course of George’s life but also forever change the course of music history as George would take a strong interest in the piano and began playing popular songs by ear. A neighbor of his by the name of Charles Hambitzer took an interest to him and gave him free lessons and began to introduce him to the world of classical music. These lessons would soon pay of as by the age of 15 he gave up on high school and become the youngest song plugger in Tin Pan Alley where he would earn 15 dollars a week with the Jerome Remick music publishing company and soon after he began writing his own pieces. In his spare time to make extra money, he recorded piano…
Henry Purcell is seen as one of the greatest composers of the Baroque period and one of the greatest of all English composers. His earliest surviving works date from 1680 and show a complete command of musical composition. They include some fantasias for viols, masterpieces of contrapuntal writing, and more contemporary sonatas for violins, which reveal some acquaintance with Italian models. Purcell, in his time, became increasingly in demand as a composer, and his theatre music in particular made his name familiar to many who knew nothing of his church music or the odes and welcome songs he wrote for the court of three different kings over twenty-five years.…
Within sixty years of the opera’s appearance, new concepts developed such as the aria, which similarly to a theatrical soliloquy, real time stops. “In an aria, the librettist provides words that pause and reflect and the composer creates music that interprets and deepens the emotions behind those words” (L12, 8:12). About “the year 1660, the aria had joined recitative as one of the two essential aspects of operatic dramaturgy” (L12, 30:21). “Unlike recitative in which the words carry the expressive message, in an operatic aria it is the music that carries the expressive message” (L12, 31:59). “The same Baroque advances in harmony; rhythm, motivic manipulation and melodic construction that led to the development of purely instrumental music…
Johann Sebastian Bach was born on March 21, 1685 in Eisenhach, Germany. Bach came from a musical family, which comprised composers, performers, and teachers. Bach possessed a soprano singing voice; however, when his voice changed he played violin and harpsichord instead. Bach was a prominent figure in Baroque music and was considered a musical genius. Bach did not receive any formal musical training; however, he did learn from his family and studied works from his predecessors and contemporaries. Bach's childhood was by no means restricted to instrumental playing. He participated in elaborate polyphonic and concerted music at church services.…
Wagner first became interested in theater from his father. He wrote his first opera at 21, Die Fein:The Fairies (1834). He was famous for his complex operas and anti-sematic writing. His operas were known for the insanity, murder, and tragedy. He first coined the term music drama which lead the way for theater today. He used the term total artwork-gesamtunktwerk. Meaning that everything played from one another…