BARROQUE COMPOSERS

was a composer, guitarist and organist of the Spanish Baroque. He studied music, theology and philosophy at the University of Salamanca, where he was later appointed professor of music. He wrote three books of pedagogy and works for baroque guitar that form an important part of the current repertoire of classical guitar according to the best musicians on guitar techniques.

was a French composer. He lived in the period known as the Baroque period. His most famous music is his Te Deum. This work begins with a prelude which today is extremely popular. It was the signature tune for the European Broadcasting Union where it was used to introduce programmes such as the Vienna New Year's Concert and the Eurovision Song Contest. It is often used as a voluntary for weddings.

was an organist and Spanish composer of Baroque music.

was an Italian violinist and composer. He composed some of the most important Italian music of the Baroque period. He was also very famous as a player. Other violinists learned from his style of playing and developed the art of playing the violin. His works include sonatas and concerti grossi. Perhaps his most famous is the La Folia sonata for Violin.

was a French composer and viol player.[He is regarded as one of the great French musicians of the Baroque.

was an English composer. Most musicians think he is the greatest English composer of all times. Although he only lived until he was 36 he wrote a very large amount of music. His compositions include church music, instrumental music, music for the theatre, even popular drinking songs. He wrote the first English opera. He lived in the time called the Baroque period. He liked Italian and French music, and combined those styles to make something that was typically English.

was a French composer who lived in the Baroque period. Many of his relatives were composers. He is often called François Couperin le Grand (The Great) because he was the most famous of the Couperin family. He is best known today for his harpsichord music. He wrote several pieces which he called Ordres meaning the same as the word suite i.e. a collection of dance movements. Sometimes these movements have strange titles and we cannot always be sure what they mean. Some of them may have been nicknames of people he knew. He also wrote important organ music. He never had a family of his own before he died.

was an Italian composer.[1] He was the most important composer in Italy at the end of the Baroque period.

Vivaldi wrote more than 400 concertos for various instruments, especially for the violin. The scores of 21 of his operas, including his first and last, are still intact. His most popular work is the group of four violin concertos called “The Four Seasons”. Each concerto describes a season: Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. He is believed to be the inventor of the ritornello form. He was very famous for his piccolo compositions, such as Il gardellino.

was a German baroque composer. He wrote over 601 pieces of music, many of which were published. As publishing cost much money at that time, this was quite unusual. He mostly taught himself musically and knew how to play 10 instruments. During his life people thought he was one of the greatest composers. He also wrote lots of church music, most of which is not common today.

was a French composer. He is famous for his music for harpsichord and for his operas. His most well-known operas are: Hippolyte et Aricie, Castor et Pollux, and Dardanus. He is also known for his one act opera "Pigmalion" which he is said to have composed in 8 days. He is also known as an important music theorist by writing many books on the matter

was a German composer who went to live in England when he was a young man and later[1] became a naturalised Briton. Johann Sebastian Bach and Handel were born in the same year. They were the greatest composers of their time, but they never met. Handel changed his name to George Frideric Handel when he became British; he removed the dots above the "a" and changed the spelling of Georg and Friedrich. The German spelling of his name (Georg Friedrich Händel) is still used by German writers.

was a German composer and organist. He lived in the last part of the Baroque period. He never traveled very far, spending all his life in central Germany, but he studied all the music he could find by other composers of his time. His own music shows that he learned from the music of Italian, French and German composers. He spent several years working at courts of noblemen. Here he wrote most of his chamber music and orchestral music. Most of his life, however, he worked in a church where he was expected to write church music. Bach wrote almost every kind of music except opera. During the last part of his life most composers were writing in a new style called the Classical style, but Bach always wrote in the Baroque style. That made some people at the time think he was old-fashioned, but today we know that his work is the very best of Baroque music. Along with Mozart and Beethoven, Bach is regarded as one of the greatest composers who has ever lived.

was an Italian composer and harpsichordist. He was the son of the famous composer Alessandro Scarlatti. Part of his life he spent in Venice and Rome. His father Alessandro was a famous composer who wrote many operas. Domenico became famous for his sonatas for harpsichord. He wrote over 550 of them.