Unit 4 People

Front 1

Tomaso Albinoni

Back 1

first to introduce the three-movement structure, borrowed from the Italian opera overture, to the concerto, establishing it as the standard for the concerto – a format later adopted by Torelli and Vivaldi.

Front 2

Arcangelo Corelli

Back 2

around the turn of the 18th century made his reputation entirely on trio sonatas, solo violin sonatas, and concerti grossi, he revolutionized thematic and tonal organization, and string playing technique.

Front 3

Dietrich Buxtehude

Back 3

one of the greatest Lutheran composers and organists of the late 17th C, the master of the North German school of organ playing who profoundly influenced J.S. Bach

Front 4

Farinelli

Back 4

The most famous castrato of the 18th century, and one of the greatest opera singers in history.

Front 5

Girolammo Frescobaldi

Back 5

One of the first composers to focus mostly on instrumental music, was the most important composer of organ toccatas, many of which composed for St. Peter’s in Rome.

Front 6

Denis Gaultier

Back 6

The greatest composer of French lute suites of the mid-17th Century

Front 7

Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre

Back 7

brilliant child prodigy from a musical family, rose to become a favorite harpsichordist and composer in Louis XIV’s court in the generation before Couperin

Front 8

Johann Froberger

Back 8

Pupil of Frescobaldi and organist at the the Viennese imperial court, his toccatas alternated improvisatory and imitative sections, establishing this format in the works of Buxtehude and later, J.S. Bach.

Front 9

Louis XIV

Back 9

Was a gifted dancer throughout his life, and between 1648 and 1671 established royal academies of sculpture, painting, dance, literature, the sciences, opera, and architecture.

Front 10

Jean-Baptiste Lully

Back 10

invented the tragédie lyrique

Front 11

Henry Purcell

Back 11

The single greatest English composer of the late 17th C, a master of setting the English language with perfect declamation and expressiveness – perhaps the greatest to do so between Dunstable and Britten.
In his mere 36 years became the most important English composer of the 17th C, producing an enormous amount of music in nearly every genre - and was one of the small handful in history to set the English language with perfect declamation and deep expression.

Front 12

Jean-Philippe Rameau

Back 12

Wrote Traité de l’harmonie (Treatise on Harmony) (1722), the first to lay out harmonic principles based on rational principles.
The successor to Lully, his operas and ballets were filled with dissonant harmony, dense orchestration, and difficult orchestral parts. Hated by the conservative followers of Lully, supporters admired him as the great master of the Late French Baroque (soon to be overturned by the emergent Classical style).
Believing that the perfect music would be a union of French and Italian styles, he strove to synthesize them through the titles, prefaces, and contents of his chamber music and pieces de

Front 13

Alessandro Scarlatti

Back 13

The most important composer of cantatas (over 600 of them) around the turn of the 18th century.

Front 14

Giuseppe Torelli

Back 14

Bologna school composer who was the first to structure the fast movements of a concerto like the A sections of a da capo aria, with ritornellos at beginning, middle, and end, and two long episodes for the soloist in between. His concerti were the first to be published.
reduced the concertino section to one or two soloists who present new material from that of the ritornello. Was also the most important trumpet composer of the Baroque era

Front 15

Antonio Vivaldi

Back 15

Developed the concerto evolution further, imbuing the solo instrument with its own personality with highly contrasting, virtuosic material. Such material included repeated notes, downward scales, and octave drops.
The best known Italian composer of the early 18th C, who was born and spent most of his career in Venice His concise themes, clear form, rhythmic drive, and logical flow of ideas were models for future concerto composers, like J.S. Bach.
the first concerto composer to make the slow movement as important as the fast ones. They are of a highly expressive, embellished cantabile, like an operatic aria or arioso.

Front 16

Couperin

Back 16

Wrote l’art de toucher de clavecin (1716), one of the most important sources for performance practice of the French Baroque.