Music of the Baroque

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Major Baroque Composers
Italy
Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643):
A student of Marc’Antonio Ingegneri in Cremona, Claudio Monteverdi quickly
established himself as one of the most significant composers of his time. In 1592
he was appointed suonatore di vivuola (viol and/or violin player) to Duke Vincenzo
I of Mantua; his third book of madrigals, published in 1592, shows the strong
influence of Giaches de Wert, the maestro di cappella in Mantua. Although the
several journeys Monteverdi made with the duke in the 1590s seem to suggest that
his importance at court was growing, Benedetto Pallavicino was offered de Wert’s
post upon its vacancy in 1596. Increasingly dissatisfied with the his situation in
Mantua, Monteverdi left the court after the Duke’s death, accepting the position of
maestro di cappella of St. Mark’s in Venice in 1613. Monteverdi wrote some of the
most influential compositions of the early baroque, including the famous 1610
Vespro della Beate Vergine (Vespers of the Blessed Virgin) and nine books of
secular madrigals published between 1587 and 1651. Monteverdi also composed the
earliest operas still performed today, including Orfeo (1607) and L'incoronazione
di Poppea.
In addition to writing some of the most important music of his day, Monteverdi
unwittingly elucidated perhaps the most critical tenet of the baroque era during
the so-called “Monteverdi-Artusi controversy.” In 1600, Giovanni Maria Artusi
published his L'Artusi, ovvero, Delle imperfezioni della moderna musica, which
attacked the “crudities” and “license” of some of Monteverdi’s then-unpublished
madrigals (including the well known “Cruda Amarilli”). Monteverdi responded to
Artusi in the preface to his Fifth Book of Madrigals (1605), dividing musical
practice into prima prattica (first practice), in which rules of harmony and
counterpoint took precedence over the text, and seconda prattica (second practice),
in which the meaning of the words drove the harmony.
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Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583–1643):
Born in Ferrara, Girolamo Frescobaldi was a student of the organist and madrigalist
Luzzasco Luzzaschi; he was also likely influenced by the maverick composer Carlo
Gesualdo, who was also in Ferrara at the time. Frescobaldi was a famous
keyboardist, and served as the organist at the church of Santa Maria in Trastevere
in Rome before assuming the same post at St Peter's in 1608, which he held until
his death. During this time he also held several other influential positions,
including that of organist at the Medici court in Florence from 1628 to 1634.
Frescobaldi composed a small amount of vocal music, but it was his compositions for
the keyboard—which included a number of toccatas, canzonas, ricercars and
capriccios—that influenced composers well into the 18th century—particularly J. S.
Bach, who owned his collection of organ works for performance during Mass entitled
Fiori musicali (1635).
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Arcangelo Corelli (1653–1713):
Born in Fusignano, Arcangelo Corelli studied composition and violin in nearby
Bologna. After 1675 Corelli worked for some of the most important musical patrons
in Rome, including Queen Christina of Sweden, for whom he directed concerts. He
also formed a close bond not typical between patron and composer with Cardinal
Pietro Ottoboni (later Pope Alexander VIII), at whose palace he lived for some
time. Corelli enjoyed a stellar reputation both in Rome, where he was accepted in
the highest aristocratic circles, and in much of Europe. His six published
collections of concertos, sonatas and other works for violin were extremely
popular, and made him the first composer to gain an international reputation solely
on the basis of his instrumental music. Because his music uses many of the harmonic
progressions that came to form the basis of modern tonality, his works are
sometimes used as early examples of this newly emergent tonal system.
Along with his stature as a composer, Corelli was considered to be one of the
preeminent violin virtuosos of his day. As one of his contemporaries rhapsodized
after hearing him play, “I never met with any man that suffered his passions to
hurry him away so much whilst he was playing on the violin as the famous Arcangelo
Corelli, whose eyes will sometimes turn as red as fire; his countenance will be
distorted, his eyeballs roll as in an agony, and he gives in so much to what he is
doing that he doth not look like the same man.” Corelli’s style of playing
influenced violin technique for centuries, and he instructed many of the leading
violinist-composers of the 18th century, including the Italian Francesco Geminiani.
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Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741):
Born in Venice, Antonio Vivaldi was trained in music as a child, but was ordained
as a priest in 1703. Although his vocation and striking red hair earned him the
moniker “Il Prete Rosso” (the Red Priest), his picturesque nickname soon became the
only vestige of his priestly duties. Within a year of his ordination, Vivaldi
stated that he no longer wished to celebrate the mass because of “tightness of the
chest,” a condition some have attributed to angina pectoris, asthmatic bronchitis—
or simply to the fact that music was the Red Priest’s true calling.
Around 1704, Vivaldi began his association with the Ospedale della Pietà, an
institution with which he was connected for most of his life. Although the Ospedale
was usually called an orphanage, it was in reality a home for the illegitimate
daughters of Venetian noblemen, and was well financed by its “anonymous”
benefactors. In addition to room, board, and an excellent education in music, the
Pietà offered a creative outlet for women at a time when professional opportunities
for female musicians were uncertain. The students of the Pietà played many
different instruments (as one eighteenth-century writer observed, “[They] play the
violin, the recorder, the organ, the oboe, the cello, the bassoon; in fact, there
is no instrument large enough to frighten them”) and were considered to be among
the most accomplished performers of their time. Because they were constantly in
need of new music, the bulk of Vivaldi’s output—including almost 500 concertos, 46
sinfonias, 73 sonatas, chamber music and a small number of sacred compositions –
was likely intended for these talented performers.
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Alessandro Scarlatti (1660–1725):
A student of Giacomo Carissimi in Rome, Alessandro Scarlatti became the maestro di
cappella of the viceroy of Naples in 1684 perhaps by way of his sister, an opera
singer and the mistress of an influential Neapolitan noble. Scarlatti wrote over
100 operas, and his works are thought to represent the change in approach to the
genre—including the standardization of forms, embellishment of arias and
minimization of recitatives—that took place at the end of the 17th century,
ultimately leading to the subgenre opera seria. In addition to opera, Scarlatti
composed more than 600 cantatas and a number of oratorios. His fame today rests
primarily on his vocal music, but Scarlatti received frequent commissions for
instrumental music during his career as well.
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Domenico Scarlatti (1685–1757):
The sixth son of Alessandro Scarlatti, Domenico Scarlatti likely received the best
musical education Naples had to offer. Around 1708, the elder Scarlatti took his
son to Venice to study with Francesco Gasparini (1668–1727), who had been a pupil
of Corelli. From Venice the younger Scarlatti journeyed to Rome—reportedly with
Handel—where the two men performed before Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni. About 1720
Scarlatti moved to Lisbon, and some ten years later to Madrid. He is known today
primarily for his keyboard sonatas, in which his frequent borrowings from Hispanic
folk tunes and rhythms create a unique sound that is sometimes called “Iberian
Baroque.”
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Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710–1736):
Born in Jesi in 1710, Pergolesi studied under Francesco Sartini. He moved to Naples
in 1725, where he spent his brief career working in the Neapolitan courts. While in
Naples, Pergolesi joined Alessandro Scarlatti in pioneering the changes underway in
the genre of opera, particularly in the new opera buffa (comic opera). In 1733, he
included within his opera Il prigioner superbo the two act buffa intermezzo La
serva padrona (The Landlady Servant), which immediately became popular in its own
right. Its premiere in Paris in 1752 sparked the so-called querelle des bouffons
(quarrel of the comedians), a debate between devotees of serious French opera in
the style of Lully and Rameau and fans of the new style of Italian comic opera.
During the course of the two-year dispute, Pergolesi’s work became the figurehead
of the Italian style.
In addition to numerous operas, Pergolesi composed a number of secular instrumental
works and sacred pieces. His best known sacred composition is the Stabat Mater
(1736), commissioned to replace a similar piece by Alessandro Scarlatti which had
been performed for years on Good Friday in Naples. Reprinted more often than any
other composition in the 18th century, the Stabat Mater was an inspiration to many,
including J. S. Bach. Pergolesi’s instrumental compositions include a concerto and
sonata for the violin. Many pieces believed to have been composed by Pergolesi were
later shown to be falsely attributed, including the music on which Igor Stravinsky
based the 1920 ballet Pulcinella.
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France
François Couperin (1668–1733):
Born in Paris in 1668, François Couperin was the son of Charles Couperin (1638–79),
the organist at St Gervais in Paris. After inheriting his father's position at the
age of 18, Couperin eventually became the harpsichordist at Versailles as well.
From the start of his career, Couperin was something of a nonconformist. In his
publications of harpsichord music Couperin grouped his works into ordres rather
than the more typical suites, and often eschewed the usual dance movements in favor
of evocative pièces de caractère. In order to ensure that his music was properly
performed, Couperin published L'art de toucher le clavecin (1716), which included
fingerings, instructions for ornamentation and playing dotted rhythms and eight
preludes that could serve as introductions to the eight ordres of his first and
second books.
In addition to his keyboard music, Couperin composed a number of sacred vocal works
that were heavily influenced by Italian cantatas and sonatas, and his interest in
the juxtaposition of French and Italian styles continued throughout his lifetime.
His publications in his final decade offer striking illustrations of this
preoccupation, including the Concert instrumental à la mémoire de Monsieur de Lully
(1725) in which Lully and Corelli are received by Apollo on Mount Parnassus and
together compose “La paix du Parnasse” in the form of a trio sonata. An even more
direct fusing of the two styles occurs in Les nations (1726) and in his suites for
bass viols (1728), of which the first is a French ordre and the second an Italian
sonata da chiesa. Couperin remained somewhat controversial for much of his career.
While some critics dismissed him as a “dedicated servant of Italy,” others viewed
the quality of his playing and compositions as the epitome of the French classical
tradition.
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Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632–1687):
One of the most dominant figures of the French baroque, Giovanni Battista Lulli
(later Jean-Baptiste Lully) was actually an Italian of noble birth who arrived in
Paris in 1646. In 1653, he began work at the Court of Louis XIV as an instrumental
composer and dancer. Upon securing the position of superintendent of music in 1661,
Lully started writing comédies-ballets with the playwright Molière, fusing the
tradition of Italian pastoral opera with the French ballet du cour. In 1672 he
acquired the license for the Académie de musique, and a series of highly
restrictive patents gave him a total monopoly on the use of music on the French
stage. Lully even persuaded the king to limit the number of singers and
instrumentalists that could perform with other Parisian theater troupes.
The apotheosis of Lully’s style was the tragédie-lyrique, a French opera in five
acts incorporating ballet, chorus and lavish sets. The magnificence of these
productions reflected the way of life in Louis XIV’s court perfectly. Machines that
made angels fly and ships tackle the stormy seas transformed the performances
unparalleled spectacles, and Philippe Quinault’s librettos disseminated the latest
currents in royal thought and praise for the French nation.
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Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1645–1704):
Believed to be from a family of royal painters, Charpentier studied with Carissimi
in Rome in the 1660s before returning to Paris around 1670. In addition to his
position as maître de musique at the residence of Marie de Lorraine, Mademoiselle
de Guise, which lasted until her death in 1688, he became Molière's musical
collaborator when the dramatist broke with Lully in 1672. Although Molière's death
in 1673 put a premature end to their partnership, Charpentier continued working
with the Comédie-française. Louis XIV liked his theater music so much that he
granted him a pension in 1683.
In addition to his employment in the secular realm, Charpentier held several posts
in the church during the final decades of his life. After serving as the maître of
the Jesuits' St. Louis church, Charpentier became the maître de musique des enfants
at the Sainte Chapelle in 1698. As a result of these positions, Charpentier’s
repertoire includes 11 Mass settings; a large number of Psalms, antiphons,
sequences and lessons; more than 200 motets; and many instrumental works intended
for performance in church. His best known works for the stage are La couronne de
fleurs (1685), David et Jonathas (1688), and Médée (1693), and he also wrote three
unpublished treatises.
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Jean-Phillippe Rameau (1683–1764):
Born in Dijon in 1683, Rameau spent the first 40 years of his life working in the
relative obscurity of the provinces. His move to Paris and the publication of his
famous Traité de l'harmonie in 1722 brought him into the limelight, although he was
still unable to secure employment. In 1726, he published his second and more
contentious treatise, Nouveau système de musique théorique, which led him into
rancorous public disputes in the pages of the Mercure de France (1729-30). Rameau’s
early operas, including Hippolyte and Aricie (1733), were also the subject of
controversy, sparking a lengthy debate between the old-fashioned Lullists and the
avant-garde Ramists over the identity of “French opera.”
In addition to serving as the maître de musique at the home of the financier La
Poupliniere from about 1735 until 1753, Rameau began work at court as the King’s
compositeur de la musique in 1745 and collaborated on several projects with
Voltaire. In the final decade of his life, Rameau focused more on theory than on
actual composition, corresponding with other important music theorists including
Johann Mattheson. His ideas about harmony, particularly the notion that every chord
has a basse fondamentale (root note) that preserves the identity of the chord even
when its notes are reordered, form the basis of modern theories of tonality. Upon
Rameau’s death in 1764, over 1500 people attended his memorial service, which
featured over 180 musicians performing excerpts from his operas.
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Germany
Michael Praetorius (1571–1621):
A student of Martin Luther, Praetorius was theorganist at the Marienkirche in
Frankfurt before he became the organist (1603) and Kapellmeister (1604) at the
court in Wolfenbüttel. His post necessitated a great deal of travel, which allowed
him to advertise his talents as a conductor, organist and knowledgeable expert on
practical music and on musical instruments. An extremely prolific composer of
Lutheran church music, Praetorius’s magnum opus is the 9-volume Musae Sioniae,
which contains over a thousand chorale and song settings. His only surviving
secular work is Terpsichore , a set of 312 dances. In addition to his music,
Praetorius provided an invaluable reference for researchers in the form of his
three volume Syntagma Musicum (1619), a detailed compendium of observations on
contemporary German music, musical instruments and performance.
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Johann Hermann Schein (1586–1630):
After studies in music and in law, Schein held positions as house music director at
Schloss Weissenfels and Kapellmeister to Duke Johann Ernst the Younger at Weimar
before succeeding Calvisius in 1616 as music director and cantor at the
Thomaskirche in Leipzig, a position J. S. Bach was to hold over a century later.
Schein was one of the major figures in the development of the sacred concerto, one
of the genres that fueled Bach’s Lutheran cantatas, and also composed many
spiritual madrigals, motets, songs, dance suites and chorale harmonizations.
Although his early compositions favor the complex polyphony of the sixteenth
century, he quickly abandoned this style in favor of the more modern trend toward
emotional declamation and dramatic contrast, using them to great advantage in many
of his sacred works. Schein is also known for his friendships with Scheidt and
Schütz.
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Samuel Scheidt (1587–1653):
Born in Halle, Scheidt studied music in Amsterdam with the famous composer
Sweelinck. Upon returning to Halle, he became court organist and them Kapellmeister
to the Margrave of Brandenburg. Unlike many other composers including Schütz,
Scheidt stayed in Halle during the Thirty Years’ War, taking a series of smaller
posts until the situation permitted him to return to his position as Kapellmeister.
Scheidt worked with a number of other famous composers throughout his career, such
as Praetorius and Schütz, and composed many volumes of sacred music that include
sacred concertos and madrigals. He was also well known among his contemporaries for
his instrumental music, particularly his chorale preludes and fantasias for
keyboard.
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Heinrich Schütz (1585–1672):
Born in Köstritz, Schütz first studied music with his father, who was an innkeeper.
In 1598, a guest at the inn—the Landgrave Moritz von Hessen-Kassel—heard the young
boy sing, and was so taken with his talent that he asked Schütz’s father if he
could be in charge of his music education. In addition to his studies with the
landgrave’s Kapellmeister, Schütz studied law at the University of Marburg,
graduating with honors in 1608. In 1609, the landgrave gave Schütz a grant to
travel to Venice, where he studied composition with Giovanni Gabrieli until 1613.
After a short stint as the landgrave’s organist, Schütz became the court composer
for the Elector of Saxony in Dresden in 1615, where Praetorius was also
occasionally employed. Schütz held this position for the rest of his career. During
the Thirty Years’ War, however, he studied briefly with Claudio Monteverdi in
Venice and served as Kapellmeister to King Christian IV of Denmark for several
years.
Perhaps as a result of his studies in Italy, Schütz is sometimes credited with
bringing the Italianate style to Germany. Like Monteverdi, Schütz often made use of
pungent dissonances to express the meaning of the text, and even employed special
technical figures in analogy to or taken from classical rhetoric. His two trips to
Italy yielded collections of music that show his assimilation of the Italian style,
especially his Il primo libro de madrigali (1611), dedicated to the landgrave and
displaying the results of his studies with Gabrieli, and the Symphoniae sacrae
(1629), which were published at the end of his time in Venice. In 1627 Schütz also
produced the first German opera, Dafne, the music of which no longer exists. He is
best known for his sacred vocal music, however, particularly his three books of
Symphoniae sacrae, the Psalms of David, the Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz (the
Seven Last Words on the Cross) and his three Passion settings, which were composed
shortly before the end of his life.
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Georg Philipp Telemann (1681–1767):
Born in Magdeburg in 1681, Telemann came from a family long connected with the
Lutheran church: his father was a clergyman, his mother the daughter of a clergyman
and his elder brother also followed in the family’s footsteps. Telemann’s destiny
lay elsewhere, however. By the age of 10, he was proficient on the violin, flute,
keyboard and zither, and even wrote an opera, Sigismundus, at twelve. Her son’s
ever-increasing interest in music worried his mother, who confiscated his
instruments and forced him to take up the study of jurisprudence. According to
Telemann, however, on the way to Leipzig University he met none other than “Herr
Georg Friedrich Handel, who was already of some importance even in those days.”
This encounter was the start of a long friendship between the two men, who
exchanged letters throughout their lifetimes. (On several occasions, Handel even
sent Telemann, an amateur botanist, “botanical curiosities” from London). Telemann
tried to keep his passion for music a secret, but he was sorely tempted “to drink
Music’s philtre,” as he put it—and drink he finally did. One day, his roommate
“accidentally” came across the score of Telemann's setting of the Sixth Psalm and
arranged for a performance in St. Thomas's Church the following Sunday. The work
was so successful that the Burgomaster of Leipzig commissioned him to write a new
piece for the choir of St. Thomas every fortnight. Telemann the composer was born.
In 1702, Telemann took his first official job in music as the director of Leipzig’s
opera house and one of its churches. His growing reputation in Leipzig angered
Kuhnau, the city’s music director and Bach’s predecessor, who was particularly
unhappy that student musicians seemed more interested in working with Telemann on
opera productions than in participating in church music. In 1705, Telemann left
Leipzig to become Kapellmeister to the cosmopolitan court of Count Erdmann II of
Promnitz at Sorau), where the vogue for the French and Italian style broadened
Telemann’s musical horizons. He became well acquainted with the music of Lully and
Campra, composing close to 200 ouvertures and suites during his sixteen years in
the position. After briefly overlapping with Bach in Eisenach and working in
several other cities, Telemann was offered the Hamburg Johanneum in 1721, a post
that entailed the directorship of the city’s five principal churches as well as
teaching responsibilities. He remained at Hamburg for the rest of his life, and was
succeeded in the post by his godson, Carl Phillipp Emmanuel Bach.
During his lifetime, Telemann enjoyed a fame that far surpassed that of his
contemporary, J. S. Bach. Not only was he considered to be the better musician—and
was compensated accordingly with a salary in Hamburg at least three times larger
than Bach’s in Leipzig – but by all accounts he was well liked, admired for his
driving ambition, impressive talent and excellent sense of humor. Often called the
most prolific composer in history, Telemann’s surviving repertoire is massive,
including 1043 church cantatas, 46 Passions and many operas. He also composed a
large amount of instrumental music; in an autobiographical article from 1740,
Telemann estimated that he had written 600 suites, about a quarter of which are
extant today. One of his most ambitious was the three-installment Tafelmusik (Table
Music), on whose list of subscribers was “Mr. Hendel, Docteur en Musique, Londres.”
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George Frideric Handel (1685–1759):
Like his friend Telemann, George Frideric Handel showed a great deal of musical
promise during his childhood in Halle, but was initially encouraged to study law
instead. Although he entered the University of Halle in 1702, he left a year later
to become a violinist in the opera house at Hamburg. It was in this city that his
first two operas, Almira and Nero, were produced in 1705, followed by Daphne and
Florindo in 1708. Handel then traveled to Italy, premiering Rodrigo (1707) in
Florence and Agrippina (1708) in Venice, where he may also have met Vivaldi. In
Rome he studied with Corelli, and performed La Resurrezione (1709) and Il Trionfo
del Tempo (1710). Early in 1710, Handel left Italy to become Kapellmeister to the
Elector of Hanover, George Louis, who became King George I of England in 1714.
Handel moved to London in 1712, where he remained for the rest of his life.
Handel arrived in London as a famous opera composer, but English audiences proved
resistant to the genre’s charms. By the early 1730s, the assaults of critics and
the notoriously lascivious lifestyles of the singers had worn down London
audiences, and Handel needed to find a new medium for his art. The oratorio was the
perfect solution. English oratorios were similar to opera in their use of
recitative and aria, but were rarely staged, and were based on stories from the
Bible in the vernacular. Handel’s addition of the chorus also resonated with London
audiences, who were steeped in the English tradition of anthem-singing. Ultimately,
the English oratorio cemented Handel’s reputation forever—and works such as
Messiah, Judas Maccabeus and Israel in Egypt are still tremendously popular today.
In addition to his operas, oratorios and well known Coronation Anthems, written for
the coronation of George II, Handel composed a great deal of instrumental music
still performed today. Some of the most famous were composed for royal occasions,
including Water Music, written for concerts on the Thames, and Music for Royal
Fireworks. Others were published for purchase by subscription, like the Op. 6
Concerti Grossi, based on the Op. 6 collection of Corelli. After becoming blind in
1751, Handel died eight years later in London. He is buried in Westminster Abbey.
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Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750):
Like many composers born into a musical family, Johann Sebastian Bach received his
earliest instruction from his father in Eisenach. After his father’s death in 1695,
Bach studied in Ohrdruf with his brother, Johann Christoph, and also attended
schools in Eisenach, Ohrdruf, and Lüneburg. In 1703, Bach attained his first post
as organist in Arnstadt, where he stayed until 1707, followed by a year as organist
in Mühlhausen. From 1708 to 1717 Bach worked for Duke Wilhelm Ernst of Weimar,
first as court organist, and after 1714, as Kapellmeister. Many of his organ
compositions were written during this period, including the Orgelbüchlein, as well
as some of his cantatas. While in Weimar, Bach also came into contact with a great
deal of Italian music, and was particularly influenced by Vivaldi’s concertos.
Bach embarked on the next phase of his career in 1717, when he became the Music
Director for the Prince Leopold of Cöthen (1717–1723). Since the court chapel was
Calvinist (a religion that did not use elaborate music in its services), Bach
composed a great deal of instrumental music during this time, including the
Brandenburg Concertos, the Suites for solo cello, the Sonatas and Partitas for solo
violin, the first volume of Das wohltemperirte Clavier (The Well-Tempered Clavier)
and the Orchestral Suites. While there was no need for sacred vocal music, Bach
also composed a few cantatas to commemorate special events at court.
In 1723, Bach was appointed music director and cantor at the Thomaskirche in
Leipzig, a position he was to hold for the rest of his career. (Bach was actually
the second choice for the position, as the more famous Telemann had already refused
the job). His official duties were immense, requiring him to oversee the music in
the city’s four main churches, teach and provide music for municipal occasions.
During his first six years in Leipzig, Bach composed four cycles of cantatas and
the St. John and St. Matthew Passions. By 1729, Bach had amassed a large repertoire
of music for services in Leipzig, and was able to turn his attentions elsewhere.
From 1729 to 1737 (and again from 1739 to 1741), Bach served as the director of the
Leipzig Collegium Musicum, a group of professional musicians and university
students founded by Telemann in 1704. In addition to reviving many compositions
from Cöthen for the Collegium’s weekly concerts, many of Bach’s secular cantatas
from this time were probably composed for the group. Bach also published a number
of more abstract, erudite works for publication, particuarly the four volumes
entitled Clavier-Übung (Keyboard Practice), which hold the Six Partitas for
Keyboard (Vol. I), the Italian Concerto, the French Overture (Vol. II) and the
Goldberg Variations (Vol. IV); another late work along similar lines is the
unfinished Die Kunst der Fuge ( The Art of Fugue).
Although he was famous during his lifetime, Bach’s contemporaries had all but
dismissed him as old-fashioned by the time of his death in 1750. According to
anecdotal evidence, his music was still respected; Mozart and Beethoven both
reportedly studied his compositions. The true revival of Bach’s works began in
1829, however, when Felix Mendelssohn conducted a famous performance of the St.
Matthew Passion in Berlin. After hearing the performance, Hegel called Bach a
“grand, truly Protestant, robust and, so to speak, erudite genius which we have
only recently learned again to appreciate at its full value.” Mendelssohn’s efforts
to promote Bach’s music continued, and eventually led to the founding of the Bach
Gesellschaft (Bach Society), an organization devoted exclusively to promoting his
works.
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England
Henry Purcell (1659–1695):
As the son of a musician at court, a chorister at the Chapel Royal and a composer
for three different kings, Henry Purcell spent his entire life in Westminster.
After showing a proclivity for music at a young age, Purcell may have studied with