Baroque Era
1656
War breaks out between England and Spain; English seize Spanish treasure ships off Cadiz • Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell (Eng) calls second parliament; he again excludes hostile members • Joao IV of Portugal dies; is succeeded by his son, the mentally unstable Afonso VI, aged 13 • Armies of Sweden and Brandenburg invade Poland • Muhammad Kiuprili becomes chief minister of Turkey and bolsters the sagging Ottoman Empire • Jewish authorities denounce Jewish philosopher Baruch Spinoza (Neth) for heresy • Giovanni Bernini (It) designs colonnade flanking the square of St Peter's, Rome • Velazquez (Sp) paints Las Meninas
1657
France’s chief minister Cardinal Mazarin agrees with Cromwell on Anglo-French treaty against Spain • War begins between Dutch and Portuguese • Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III dies • Thomas Middleton (Eng): Women Beware Women published posthumously • Accademia del Cimento in Florence (It) becomes the first organised scientific academy
1658
The Spanish are defeated in Battle of the Dunes and England takes Dunkirk • Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell (Eng) dies; he is succeeded by his son, Richard • Swedes invade Denmark • Leopold I, son of Ferdinand III, is elected Holy Roman Emperor • Edward Phillips (Eng): philological dictionary A New World of Words
1659
Richard Cromwell (Eng) forced to resign as Protector; the ‘Rump Parliament’ is briefly reconvened • General John Lambert stages a military coup; General George Monk prepares to march on London • Treaty of the Pyrenees ends the Franco-Spanish War
1660
Convention Parliament proclaims Charles II king, and the English monarchy is restored • Treaties of Oliva and Copenhagen hand Polish and Danish lands to Sweden, and confirm German state of Brandenburg’s claim to East Prussia
Baruch Spinoza
1656
The Teatro della Pergola opens in Florence. It remains one of the oldest surviving theatres in Italy.
Francesco Cavalli publishes Musiche sacre, a collection of sacred works that includes his Messa concertata, a lavish Venetian-style festive mass for double choir and instrumental ensemble.
Francesco Cavalli - Messa Concertata - 1656
1. Kyrie
2. Gloria
3. Credo
4. Sanctus et Benedictus
5. Agnus Dei
Johann Jakob Froberger completes his fourth book of keyboard pieces (third book lost). Included in the anthology are four-movement suites in the order of allemande, gigue, courante and sarabande. Froberger is a leading exponent of the early keyboard suite.
Johann Jacob Froberger - Works for harpsichord
00:00 Lamentation faste sur la mort tres douloureuse de Sa Majeste Imperiale, Ferdinand Ill, et se loue lentement avec discretion (1657)
Suite No. 1 in E minor (1656)
05:53 AlIemande 4'15 11:11 Gigue 1'38
12:51 Courante 1'05 13:56 Sarabande 3'44 Total 10'51
Suite No. 2 in A major (1656)
16:33 AlIemande 3'04 19:35 Gigue 1'12
20:48 Courante1'04 21:53 Sarabande 1'18 total 7'07
Suite No. 3 in G minor (1656)
23:33 AlIemande 3'48 27:17 Gigue 1'40
28:56 Courante 1'42
30:39 Sarabande 2'30 total 9'50 Gesamtzeit mit Pausen: 34'00
Suite No. 4 in A minor (1656)
33:05 Allemande 3'10 36:16 Gigue 1'56
38:12 Courante 1'11 39:25 Sarabande 2'21 total 8'48
Suite No. 5 in D major (1656)
41:49 Allemande 3'47 45:33 Gigue 1'10
46:43 Courante 1'18 48:03 Sarabande 1'39 Total 8'04
Suite No. 6 in C major (1656)
49:47 Lamento sopra la dolorosa perdita della Real Maesta di erdinando IV, Re dei Romani 5'40
55:21 Gigue 1'20 56:44 Courante 1'40
58:21 Sarabande 2'21 Total 11'10 Gesamtzeit mit Pausen: 28'17
Giovanni Legrenzi becomes maestro di cappella of the Aceademia dello Spirito Santo, Ferrara. This year also sees the publication of his Sonate da chiesa e da camera (Op. 4) in Venice.
Sonata da chiesa "La Benaglia" - G.Legrenzi
31 January
The opera La vita humana, with music by Marco Marazzoli and text by Rospigliosi, premieres at the Barberini theatre in Rome. It celebrates both Carnival and the new Roman citizenship of Queen Christina of Sweeden.
Celebrations for Christina of Sweden at Palazzo Barberini in 1656 for which Marazzoli composed music.
3 February
Jean-Baptiste Lully's first full work, the ballet La galanterie du temps, is introduced at the Louvre. Taking part is the newly-created ‘Petits Violons’, an ensemble that under Lully’s direction soon eclipses the Kings prestigious ‘24 Violons’ in musical excellence.
Jean-Baptiste Lully: Le Ballet du Temps (LWV 1) - Air pour l'Esté
19 February
Antonio Cesti’s romantic comedy Orontea, based on Cicognini’s libretto of 1649, delights the archducal court at Innsbruck. Concerning mortal characters, the narrative develops more quickly than that of much opera of the period, following in the manner of Francesco Cavalli’s celebrated Giasone (1649, libretto also by Cicognini). Featuring such delights as the love song 'Intorno all’idol milo’ (Around my idol), Orontea becomes one of the most popular operas of the 17th century.
Antonio Cesti: Orontea
Antonio Cesti - L'Orontea - Intorno all'idol mio
31 May
French composer and viol player Marin Marais is born in Paris.
18 July
Queen Christina of Sweden employs Giacomo Carissimi as maestro di cappella del concerto di camera at her new residence, the Palazzo Farnese, in Rome.
Palazzo Farnese
September
Composers Henry Lawes, Matthew Locke, Henry Cooke, George Hudson and Charles Coleman collaborate with librettist William Davenant on The Siege o f Rhodes, staged in a small theatre at Davenant’s London home, Rutland House. Often referred to as the first English
opera, the music is now lost. Diarist John Evelyn is certainly none too impressed with the work, writing that it is ‘in recitative music and scenes much inferior to the Italian composure and magnificence’.
Backdrop design for The Siege of Rhodes
8 October
Heinrich Schutz’s Dresden employer of over 40 years, Elector Johann Georg, dies after several months of illness.
Johann Georg I Saxony in 1652, portrait by Franz Luycx
John George I (5 March 1585 – 8 October 1656) was Elector of Saxony from 1611 to 1656.
Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer, German composer, born.
Marin Marais
Marin Marais (French: [maʁɛ̃ maʁɛ]; 31 May 1656, Paris – 15 August 1728, Paris) was a French composer and viol player. He studied composition with Jean-Baptiste Lully, often conducting his operas, and with master of the bass viol Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe for six months. In 1676 he was hired as a musician to the royal court of Versailles and was moderately successful there, being appointed in 1679 as ordinaire de la chambre du roy pour la viole, a title he kept until 1725.
Marin Marais was a master of the viol, and the leading French composer of music for the instrument. He wrote five books of Pièces de viole (1686–1725) for the instrument, generally suites with basso continuo. These were quite popular in the court, and for these he was remembered in later years as he who "founded and firmly established the empire of the viol" (Hubert Le Blanc, 1740). His other works include a book of Pièces en trio (1692) and four operas (1693–1709), Alcyone (1706) being noted for its tempest scene.
Marin Marais by André Bouys, 1704
Titon du Tillet included Marais in Le Parnasse françois, making the following comments on two of his pieces, Le Labyrinthe, perhaps inspired by the labyrinth of Versailles, and La Gamme:
A piece from his fourth book entitled The Labyrinth, which passes through various keys, strikes various dissonances and notes the uncertainty of a man caught in a labyrinth through serious and then quick passages; he comes out of it happily and finishes with a gracious and natural chaconne. But he surprised musical connoisseurs even more successfully with his pieces called La Gamme [The Scale], which is a piece de symphonie that imperceptibly ascends the steps of the octave; one then descends, thereby going through harmonious songs and melodious tones, the various sounds of music.
As with Sainte-Colombe, little of Marin Marais' personal life is known after he reached adulthood. Marin Marais married a Parisian, Catherine d'Amicourt, on 21 September 1676. They had 19 children together.
Facsimiles of all five books of Marais' Pièces de viole are published by Éditions J.M. Fuzeau. A complete critical edition of his instrumental works in seven volumes, edited by John Hsu, is published by Broude Brothers.
Marais is credited with being one of the earliest composers of program music. His work The Bladder-Stone Operation, for viola da gamba and harpsichord, includes composer's annotations such as "The patient is bound with silken cords" and "He screameth." The title has often been interpreted as "The Gall-Bladder Operation," but that surgery was not performed until the late 19th century.Urinary bladder surgery to remove stones was already a medical specialty in Paris in the 17th century.
Marin Marais Works for Viola da Gamba
Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer
Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer (some authorities use the spelling Johann Kaspar Ferdinand Fischer) (c. 1656 – 27 August 1746) was a German Baroque composer. Johann Nikolaus Forkel ranked Fischer as one of the best composers for keyboard of his day, however, partly due to the rarity of surviving copies of his music, his music is rarely heard today.
Fischer seems to have been of Bohemian origin, possibly born at Schönfeld, but details about his life are sketchy. The first record of his existence is found in the mid-1690s: by 1695 he was Kapellmeister to Ludwig Wilhelm of Baden, and he may have remained with the court until his death in Rastatt.
Much of Fischer's music shows the influence of the French Baroque style, exemplified by Jean Baptiste Lully, and he was responsible for bringing the French influence to German music. Fischer's harpsichord suites updated the standard Froberger model (Allemande - Courante - Sarabande - Gigue); he was also one of the first composers to apply the principles of the orchestral suite to the harpsichord, replacing the standard French ouverture with an unmeasured prelude. Both Bach and Handel knew Fischer's work and sometimes borrowed from it.
Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer - Ariadne Musica
J. C. Fischer: Le Journal du Printemps, Op. 1
Suite in C major n. 1
Suite in A minor n. 2 - 9:57
Suite in B flat major n. 3 - 19:38
Suite in D minor n. 4 - 28:03
Suite in F major n. 6 - 39:48
Suite in G minor n. 7 - 51:03
Suite in C major n. 8 - 59:04
1657
Maurizio Cazzati becomes maestro di cappella at San Petronio, Bologna.
Antonio Cesti’s semi-comical opera La Dori, with libretto by Giovanni Apolloni, premieres at Innsbruck. Spinning an intricate web of betrothal and tangled love, mixed with pirates, slavery, gender swapping and the supernatural, La Dori repeats the success of Orontea (1656) and becomes one of the most popular operas of the 17th century.
Aria of Dori from Antonio Cesti's La Dori
Antonio Cesti. La Dori. Sinfonia
Johann Jakob Froberger writes the keyboard piece "Lamentation on the Death of Emperor Ferdinand III".
Froberger - Lamentation sur la mort de Ferdinand III
Under the new elector Johann Georg II in Dresden, Heinrich Schutz is now able to fully retire with a proper pension.
February
Kapellmeister Johann Kaspar Kerll presents the opera L ’Oronte to inaugurate Munich’s Residenz Theater.
Adam Krieger, organist of the Nicolaikirche in Leipzig, publishes his secular Arien, a collection of 50 songs scored for one to three voices, strings and continuo.
Adam Krieger - 3 Deutsche Barocklieder
00:00 - Die Liebesgluth verkehrt den Muth
02:40 - Ihr bleibet nicht Bestand verpflicht
06:42 - Der Liebe Macht herrscht Tag und Nacht
5 February
Jacopo Melani’s opera Il potesta di Colognole (or La Lancia) inaugurates the Teatro della Pergola of the Florentine Immobili academy. This year the composer is promoted to maestro di cappella of Pistoia Cathedral.
25 July
German composer Philipp Heinrich Erlebach is baptised in Esens, East Friesland.
15 December
Composer Michel Richard Delalande is born in Paris.
Philipp Heinrich Erlebach
Philipp Heinrich Erlebach (25 July 1657 - 17 April 1714) was a German Baroque composer.
Erlebach was born in Esens, the son of Johann Philipp Erlebach, a musician at the court of Count Ulrich II of Ostfriesland (6 July 1605 - 1 November 1648) in East Frisia, the principality where the younger Erlebach received his early musical training.
Based on his musical abilities, Erlebach was loaned out to the court of Prince Albrecht Anton of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt (born 2 Feb 1641; died 24 June 1710), count of the larger principality of Thuringia, in 1678. In 1681, he was appointed to the post of Choirmaster (Kapellmeister) to the Thuringian Court, a position he held for 33 years, until his death, aged 56, in Rudolstadt (Thuringia).
His compositions include orchestral and chamber music, operas, cantatas, Masses and oratorios. Erlebach also composed secular vocal music and song, included in a 1697 published collection titled "Harmonische Freude musicalischer Freunde", which contains over 75 such pieces. From the more than 120 instrumental works Erlebach is known to have produced, only 13 pieces survive.
Philipp Heinrich Erlebach • Unruhige Gedanken, stellt alles Sorgen ein
Philipp Heinrich Erlebach Cantata ''Wer sich dem Himmel übergeben''
Michel Richard Delalande
Michel Richard Delalande [de Lalande] (15 December 1657 – 18 June 1726) was a French Baroque composer and organist who was in the service of King Louis XIV. He was one of the most important composers of grands motets. He also wrote orchestral suites known as Simphonies pour les Soupers du Roy and ballets. His works foreshadowed the cantatas of JS Bach and the Water Music and oratorios of Handel.
Born in Paris, he was a contemporary of Jean-Baptiste Lully and François Couperin. Delalande taught music to the daughters of Louis XIV of France, and was director of the French chapel royal from 1714 until his death at Versailles in 1726.
Delalande was arguably the greatest composer of French grands motets, a type of sacred work that was more pleasing to Louis XIV because of its pomp and grandeur, written for soloists, choir and comparatively large orchestra. According to tradition, Louis XIV organized a contest between composers, giving them the same sacred text and time to compose the musical setting. He alone was the judge. Delalande was one of four winners assigned to compose sacred music for each quarter of the year (the other composers being Coupillet, Collasse and Minoret). Delalande's was the most important quarter of the year because of the Christmas holiday. Later he had full responsibility for the church music for the complete year. At his death, since he left no mass of his own, the 1656 requiem of the Dukes of Lorraine by Charles d'Helfer was sung.
Michel-Richard Delalande - Miserere S.27
Miserere mei Deus, 00:00
Amplius lava me, 03:33
Tibi soli peccavi, 05:49
Ut justificeris in sermonibus, 07:16
Ecce enim in iniquitatibus, 07:51
Ecce enim veritatem dilexisti, 09:00
Asperges me, 10:27
Auditui meo, 11:56
Averte faciem tuam, 14:15
Cor mundum crea in me, 15:19
Redde mihi laetitiam, 17:51
Docebo iniquos vias tuas, 20:03
Libera me de sanguinibus, 21:28
Domine labia mea aperies, 23:13
Quoniam, si voluisses sacrificium, 25:32
Sacrificium Deo spiritus contribulatus, 26:14
Benigne fac Domine, 29:19
Ut aedificentur muri Jerusalem, 29:45
Tunc acceptabis sacrificium, 30:08
Michel-Richard Delalande - Confitebor tibi Domine
Michel-Richard Delalande - Super flumina Babylonis
1658
Dietrich Buxtehude, aged 20, is appointed organist of St Maria Kyrka, Helsingborg. His father had previously held the post.
Helsingborg, Sankta Maria kyrka
French composer Robert Cambert experiments with operatic forms in La muette ingrate (The Ungrateful Mute), an Italianesque comedy scored for three voices in recitative style with instrumental interludes.
17 January
Ballet d’Alcidiane, a musical collaboration between Jean-Baptiste Lully, Louis de Mollier and Antoine de Boesset, is presented for Carnival entertainment at the Louvre in Paris. The ballet contains an early example of the French overture, a form characterised by a stately opening section in dotted rhythm, followed by a fast, lighter second section, imitative or fugal in texture. Lully will do much to popularise and disseminate the form.
Jean-Baptiste Lully - Ballet d'Alcidiane 1658 (LWV 9)
7ème Entrée: Un combat et un siège grotesque
Jean-Baptiste Lully - Ballet Royal d'Alcidiane (LWV 9), 1658:
I. Ouverture
II. La petite chaconne
The affluent Giacomo Carissimi, composer to the exiled Queen Christina of Sweden, begins a sideline financial enterprise by offering to buy up debts of individuals and institutions in return for repayments at competitive rates of interest.
22 April
Italian composer and violinist Giuseppe Torelli is born in Verona.
London publisher Playford issues Henry Lawes's Ayres and Dialoguesfor One, Two and Three Voyces (Book III).
A Dialogue on a Kiss, Henry Lawes
Have you e'er seen the morning sun (Henry Lawes)
12 June
Francesco Cavalli’s opera Hipermestra is first performed at the theatre of the Immobili Academy, Florence.
Hipermestra - Francesco Cavalli (1658) - 1, 2, 3
Giuseppe Torelli
Giuseppe Torelli (22 April 1658, Verona – 8 February 1709, Bologna) was an Italian violist, violinist, teacher, and composer.
Torelli is most remembered for contributing to the development of the instrumental concerto (Newman 1972, p. 142), especially concerti grossi and the solo concerto, for strings and continuo, as well as being the most prolific Baroque composer for trumpets.
Torelli was born in Verona. It is not known with whom he studied violin though it has been speculated that he was a pupil of Leonardo Brugnoli or Bartolomeo Laurenti, but it is certain that he studied composition with Giacomo Antonio Perti (Schnoebelen and Vanscheeuwijk 2001). On 27 June 1684, at the age of 26, he became a member of the Accademia Filarmonica as suonatore di violino (Schnoebelen and Vanscheeuwijk 2001). On 1687 Giuseppe Corsi da Celano, played Torelli's music, from Op. 3, in Parma at the Sanctuary of Santa Maria della Steccata.(Ciliberti and Tribuzio 2014) By 1698 he was maestro di concerto at the court of Georg Friedrich II, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, where he conducted the orchestra for Le pazzie d'amore e dell'interesse, an idea drammatica composed by the maestro di cappella, and the castrato Francesco Antonio Pistocchi, before leaving for Vienna in December 1699. He returned to Bologna sometime before February 1701, when he is listed as a violinist in the newly re-formed cappella musicale at San Petronio, directed by his former composition teacher Perti (Schnoebelen and Vanscheeuwijk 2001).
He died in Bologna in 1709, where his manuscripts are conserved in the San Petronio archives.
Giuseppe Torelli - Concertos, Op. 8
Concerto for two violins, Op. 8 No. 2 in A minor
Concerto for violin, Op. 8 No. 8 in C minor 6:56
Sinfonia for trumpet in D major (G 8) 13:44
Concerto for two violins, Op. 8 No. 5 in G major 18:59
Concerto for two violins, Op. 8 No. 6 in G minor 26:37
Concerto for two trumpets in D major in D-Dur 32:49
Concerto for two violins, Op. 8 No. 4 in B flat major 39:01
Concerto grosso for violin, Op. 8 No. 11 in F major 48:21
Sinfonia for two trumpets in D major in D-Dur 58:40
Concerto for violin, Op. 8 No. in E minor 1:05:07
Giuseppe Torelli: Trumpet Concertos
CONCERTO Estienne Roger
SONATA G. 1
SONFONIA G. 2
SINFONIA G. 3
SINFONIA G. 4
SONATA G. 5
SONATA G. 6
SONATA G. 7
SINFONIA G. 8
SINFONIA in D major G. 9
SINFONIA in D G. 10
SINFONIA con Tromba G. 11
SONATA in D G. 13
SINFONIA avanti l' Opera G. 14
SONATA a cinque G. 15
SINFONIA con Trombe e Violini G. 16
CONCERTO con Trombe G. 18
SINFONIA con Trombe G. 20
SINFONIA con due Trombe G. 21
SINFONIA con due Trombe e Instrumenti G. 22
SINFONIA in D major G. 23
CONCERTO in D major for 2 Trumpets G. 24
1659
Robert Cambert collaborates with librettist Pierre Perrin on La pastorale d’Issy. An early example of the French pastorale (a precursor of French opera), the modest five-act work proves popular, managing around eight repeat performances. No music survives from this or the subsequent Cambert-Perrin collaboration, Ariane, on Le manage de Bacchus.
In Bologna composer Maurizio Cazzati publishes early examples of the spiritual cantata with his Cantate morali e spirituali.
Maurizio Cazzati - Ciaccona
Matthew Locke undertakes a revival of James Shirley’s masque Cupid and Death (1653), adding to, and in places revising or replacing, the music of Christopher Gibbons. Locke resets much of the original dialogue as recitative, steering the work towards opera.
Ouverture from Masque "Cupid and Death"
Henry Purcell, the greatest native English composer of the Baroque era, is born in London.
Composer, theorist and viol payer Christopher Simpson publishes The Division-Violist in London. Extremely popular in its day, the instruction manual becomes a valuable historical source of 17th- century musical practice.
Christopher Simpson Ground in e from The Division Violist
19 February
Jean-Baptiste Lully’s Ballet de la raillerie, with text by Benserade, is presented at the Louvre in Paris. The work features comical exchanges between French and Italian
singers, who mock each other’s vocal style. In this and other ballets around this time Lully popularises the graceful, triple-metre ‘minuet’.
Lully - Ballet de la Raillerie
1660
At the invitation of Cardinal Mazarin, Francesco Cavalli adapts his opera Xerse (1654) to French taste for the wedding celebrations of Louis XIV and Princess Maria Teresa of Spain. Performed at the Louvre, Paris, the new production includes an inserted ballet (of six entrees) by Jean-Baptiste Lully.
Jean-Baptiste Lully - Ballet de Xerxès (1660)
Maurizio Cazzati issues his charming Trattenimento per camera d'arie, correnti, e balletti (Op. 22) for two violins and continuo.
Cazzati - Trattenimenti per camera, Op.22
Johann Joseph Fux, Austrian composer and theorist, is born in Hirtenfeld, Styria.
Johann Sigismund Kusser, composer of Hungarian parentage, born.
Giulio Taglietti, Italian composer, born.
1 January
Samuel Pepys begins his diaries, containing many observations on musical life in London.
Samuel Pepys (1633 - 1703) was an administrator of the navy of England and Member of Parliament who is most famous for the diary that he kept for a decade while still a relatively young man. The detailed private diary that Pepys kept from 1660 until 1669 was first published in the 19th century and is one of the most important primary sources for the English Restoration period.
6 April
German composer Johann Kuhnau is born in Geising, Erzgebirge.
4 December
French composer Andre Campra is baptised in Aix-en-Provence.
Heinrich Schutz, aged around 75 and in retirement, composes his oratorio Historia der Geburt Jesu Christi (Christmas Story) for Elector Johann Geoge II of Saxony.
Schutz - Historia Geburt Jesu Christi
5 December
Juan Hidalgo and dramatist Calderon de la Barca produce the earliest surviving Spanish opera, Celos aun del aire matan (Even Groundless Jealousy Can Kill), in Madrid. The work has been commissioned to celebrate the marriage between Princess Maria Teresa of Spain and Louis XIV.
"Celos aun del aire matan" by Juan Hidalgo / Pedro Calderón de la Barca (1660).
Johann Joseph Fux
Johann Joseph Fux, (born c. 1660, Hirtenfeld, Styria, Austria—died Feb. 13, 1741, Vienna), Austrian composer, one of the most successful of his time, whose theoretical work on counterpoint, Gradus ad Parnassum, influenced generations of composers and teachers.
Fux was organist at the Schottenkirche in Vienna in 1696, and he became court composer to the Holy Roman emperor Leopold I in 1698. In addition, he held the posts of deputy kapellmeister (1705–12), kapellmeister (1712–15), and court kapellmeister (1715–41) at St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna.
Fux was a prolific composer of vocal and instrumental music. His works include 19 operas, of which Costanza e fortezza (1723) is notable; 29 partitas, including the Concentus musico-instrumentalis (1701); 10 oratorios; and about 80 masses, of which the Missa canonica, (1708), written in canon throughout, is particularly admired. His book Gradus ad Parnassum (1725; Steps to Parnassus) attempted to systematize contrapuntal practices. It was long the standard textbook on counterpoint and was studied by Wolfgang A. Mozart, Joseph Haydn, and other 18th-century composers.
Johann Joseph Fux - Cembalo Works
Johann Joseph Fux - Sonate e Sinfonie
Johann Joseph Fux: Miserere
Johann Joseph Fux - Missa Purificationis
Johann Joseph Fux - Stabat Mater
J J Fux - La Grandezza della Musica Imperiale
Johann Kuhnau
Johann Kuhnau, (born April 6, 1660, Geising, Saxony [Germany]—died June 5, 1722, Leipzig), German composer of church cantatas and early keyboard sonatas.
Kuhnau studied music from boyhood and became cantor at Zittau. From 1684 he was organist at the Church of St. Thomas in Leipzig and was cantor from 1701 until his death. He was succeeded at St. Thomas by J.S. Bach. While also studying law, Kuhnau became musical director of the University of Leipzig and is believed to have written music for other churches in the area as well. He wrote 14 annual cycles of church cantatas, of which only a few remain, but he is best known for his clavier compositions. He introduced into many of his dance suites a prelude in free style. His sonatas are characterized by a feeling for the keyboard as an instrument of romantic expression. The biblical sonatas are program music illustrating such stories as that of David and Goliath. Kuhnau also wrote a satiric novel, Der musickalische Quacksalber (1700; “The Musical Charlatan”), deriding Italian musical affectation.
Johann Kuhnau Fresh Keyboard Fruits
Johann Kuhnau: Magnificat in C major
Johann Kuhnau - The Biblical Sonatas
André Campra
André Campra, (baptized Dec. 4, 1660, Aix-en-Provence, France—died June 29, 1744, Versailles), one of the most important French composers of operas and sacred music of the early 18th century.
Educated at Aix, Campra apparently became, at age 19, music master at Toulon Cathedral. He held similar posts at Arles in 1681 and Toulouse in 1683. In 1694 he became director of music at Notre-Dame in Paris, where he was the first to use strings in addition to the organ accompaniment to the services. Already well known for his motets, he turned to secular works, and his first opéra-ballet, L’Europe galante, was performed in 1697 under the name of his brother, Joseph Campra. In 1700 he gave up his church appointment and for 40 years enjoyed a wide reputation for his stage works.
The opéra-ballet, a genre that he initiated, became in his hands a charming vehicle for chain upon chain of danced and sung divertissements uncomplicated by any great dramatic unity. His religious music, which includes psalm settings, motets, and a mass, is admired for its power and beauty.
André Campra - Requiem (Messe des Morts)
1. Introit
2. Kyrie
3. Graduel
4. Offertoire
5. Sanctus
6. Agnus Dei
7. Post Communion
Andre Campra - Motets
1.O DULCIS AMOR 0:00
2.SALVA REGINA 10:27
3.QUEMADMAODUM DESIDERAT CERVUS 15:53
4.U BI ES,DEUS MEUS 24:38
5.O SACRUM CONVIVIUM 29:52
6.JUBILATE DEO 34:18
Johann Sigismund Kusser
Johann Sigismund Kusser or Cousser (baptised 13 February 1660 – before 17 November 1727) was composer of Hungarian parentage active in Germany, France, and Ireland. The son of Johann Kusser, a Protestant cantor in Pressburg, Johann Sigismund and his parents moved to Stuttgart in 1674 because of religious persecution. In 1690 he became the first Kapellmeister of the new opera house in Braunschweig. During his time there, Kusser wrote eight operas. Disagreements in 1694 with the librettist Friedrich Christian Bressand led Kusser to move to the Oper am Gänsemarkt in Hamburg. He then left Hamburg at the end of 1695 and, after spells working in Nuremberg and Augsburg, took a post at the court of Eberhard Louis, Duke of Württemberg in 1699, being made Hofkapellmeister there the following year.
At the end of 1704 he moved to London as a composer and private music teacher. In 1707 he went to Dublin and in 1711 was made Chapel-Master of Trinity College, Dublin. He was then appointed "Chief Composer" and "Master of the Musick, attending His Majesty's State in Ireland" in 1716, dying in Dublin in 1727.
Johann Sigismund Kusser - «FESTIN DES MUSES» - Orchestral Suites, Stuttgart
ORCHESTRAL SUITE No. 1 in G minor:
ORCHESTRAL SUITE No. 2 in F major:
ORCHESTRAL SUITE No. 3 in D minor:
ORCHESTRAL SUITE No 4 in C major:
ORCHESTRAL SUITE No. 5 in B flat major:
ORCHESTRAL SUITE No. 6 in A minor:
Giulio Taglietti
Giulio Taglietti (Brescia, perhaps 1660 - Brescia, 1718) was an Italian composer and violinist.
A talented violinist, composer and teacher, Taglietti was one of the few Italian instrumental composers of the early eighteenth century. He taught for the Jesuits in Brescia from 1702, if not before, and can be included in the company of Corelli and his brother Luigi.
These composers were all important in the development of the concerto but Giulio limited the number of movements to three or four also demonstrating a preference for solos scored in a single treble voice when he scored solo parts. Giulio also had a preference for concerto grossi as contrasted with concertos scored for solo instruments. Taglietti composed in various instrumental genres including sonatas, concertos and divertimenti.
Diego Velázquez – Las Meninas