Motet

In today’s day and age, many great and successful composers have been forgotten. However, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is not one of them. His name and his reputation have lived on through the centuries. In his 35 years of life Mozart composed over 600 with many still listened to today. He is famous for big symphonies, operas, music sung by quires, music on the piano, and much more. Mozart’s talents are endless and he has been a huge influence in classical music and still inspires people today.…

INTRODUCTION Johann Sebastian was a German composer who became a great violinist, violist, pianist and harpsichordist of the Baroque period. Bach wrote over eleven hundred music compositions in all different genres. His music became the essential part of the education today for every musician. Bach was an influenced composer and was an inspiration to many leaving a great legacy behind after his death. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND Childhood & Place of Birth Johann Sebastian Bach was born on March 21,…

Italian composer and music teacher. He is one of the most celebrated masters of the early Baroque or, more accurately, the Roman School of music. Carissimi established the characteristic features of the Latin oratorio and was a prolific composer of motets and cantatas. He was highly influential in musical developments in north European countries through his pupils and the wide dissemination of his music. “Vittoria, mio core” is a Baroque Italian song written by Giacomo Carissimi, taking its text…

aristocracy. Court composers wrote music for secular court functions and chapel. In stretto fashion, melodies overlapped rhythmically and was based on perfect time. Sacred music still played a major role in the church. There were two main forms: motet and vernacular. Motet was a short composition with polyphonic choral work. Vernacular, a latin text overlaid with another language, usually borrowed a basis and frequency directly from a part of chant in mass. Mass allowed composers in the church…

The invention of the Gutenberg press at this time resulted in a wide scale distribution of music which meant training musicians of the Renaissance were exposed to the works of composers from many other regions which in turn had a profound effect on the music that they composed which also had features from their own local music culture. These new musical ideas were also contributed to greatly by aspiring musicians who travelled to the South from across the Alps, as they also brought home new…

Vienna, serving in the last of these from 1716 as vice-Kapellmeister at the imperial court. As a composer he was versatile and prolific, with some 90 stage works to his credit. Caldara wrote a steady series of over 40 oratorios, liturgical music, motets, and cantatas sacred and secular. His 1712 Christmas cantata Vaticini di pace (‘Prophecies of Peace’), with its personification of abstract qualities, had political relevance as the War of the Spanish Succession came to an end. “Alma del Core”…

Claudio Monteverdi Claudio Monteverdi was an Italian composer who was vital in making the transition from the Renaissance period to the Baroque period. Monteverdi was also one of the most important developers in the new style, opera. He is also recognized for bringing a “modern” style into church music. This resulted in considerable fame during his lifetime. During his long life he composed many works including 8 books of madrigals and forty operas. Claudio Monteverdi was born in Cremona…

England’s premiere Renaissance composer, William Byrd, “lead the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries” (Burkholder, Grout, Palisca 224) well before Purcell and was best known for secular vocal and instrumental music. William Byrd was famous as a religious composer, writing for many church services including both Anglican and Catholic. England’s most prolific composer, William Byrd, was “the first English composer to absorb Continental imitative techniques.” (Burkholder, Grout, Palisca…