entertainment caught on elsewhere
and influenced the development of
the musical drama known as a
“masque” in England.
Since the Reformation, opera
had been frowned upon by
Protestants, and in the Germanic
countries, musical activity was
largely restricted to the Church.
Gradually, though, a distinctly
German Baroque style, very
different from the Italian and
French, evolved from the chorale,
the hymn tunes of the Lutheran
Church, uniting the harmonic
treatment of the new style of vocal
music with some elements of the
old Italian polyphony.
This hybrid style was more
suited to the northern European
temperament and soon became
accepted into Protestant church
music. It inspired the developmentof the instrumental chorale prelude,
a sometimes florid setting of a
chorale melody, usually for organ.High and Late Baroque
As time passed, many elements
of the Early Baroque period
disappeared. By about 1700, the
period referred to as the “High
Baroque” had begun. What had
been a small accompanying group
for opera singers had taken on a
life of its own as an orchestra of
stringed, woodwind, and brass
instruments, playing a new form of
music, the “concerto grosso,” made
popular by Arcangelo Corelli and
Antonio Vivaldi. The continuo,
while still acting as the harmonic
backbone of the orchestra, had also
become an independent chamber
ensemble, playing a form of music
known as the “trio sonata.” Operaitself had been hijacked, appearing
instead as unstaged choral works
such as the secular cantata and
the sacred oratorio.
The Late Baroque period was
dominated by three composers
born in Germany in 1685. The
first, Georg Philipp Telemann
is often overshadowed by his
contemporaries but was by far
the most prolific. The second was
George Frideric Handel, a populist
who made his name in England
with his oratorios and orchestral
music. The third, regarded by
musicians as the greatest of the
three, was Johann Sebastian Bach:
a conservative composer but a
consummate craftsman. During a
lifetime of employment by courts
and the Church, Bach’s sacred and
secular music represented the high
point of the Baroque period. ■1717–1723
1725
1727
1733 C.1742–1750
1733
Antonio Vivaldi’s
Le quattro stagioni (The
Four Seasons) is published
with accompanying
program notes to
critical acclaim.J.S. Bach’s sacred
oratorio St. Matthew
Passion sets
chapters 26 and 27
of the Gospel of
Matthew to music.Georg Philipp
Telemann handles
a diverse range of
musical genres in
his celebrated
Musique de table.In the last decade
of his life, J.S. Bach
writes The Art of
Fugue, comprising
14 fugues and
four canons.François Couperin, of
the renowned Couperin
family of musicians,
publishes four volumes of
harpsichord orders in the
Pièces de Clavecin.The success of
Jean-Philippe
Rameau’s Hippolyte
et Aricie challenges
the dominance of
Italian opera.BAROQUE 1600 –1750 61
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