#ClassicsaDay #AltBaroque Week 1
By Ralph Graves
The Classics a Day team offers a unique challenge for September. Participants are to share music from the Baroque Era on their social media posts. What makes this a challenge is to avoid the big names. So no Bach, Handel, or Vivaldi. (And no Pachelbel’s Canon).
The Baroque Era ushered a sea change in musical styles from the Renaissance. Church modes gave way to major and minor keys (still in use today). Linear polyphony was replaced by a melody with chordal harmony. Viols were traded in for violins. New forms of music were developed: operas, oratorios, cantatas, and sonatas.
Many composers contributed to that development — many more than the Big Three. Here are my posts for this #AltClassical challenge. For the first week, I focused on composers of the Early Baroque, running from about 1590 to 1650.
09/02/24 Pavel Spongopaeus Jistebnický (1550–1619): Králi nad králi, Pane
Jistebnický was one of the most prolific composers of the early Baroque. Over 60 works by this Czech composer have survived, but only one is complete enough to perform.
09/03/24 Jean de Bournonville (1585–1632): Laudate pueri Dominum
De Bournonville was an organist and composer active in early 1600s France. He was director of music at the Sainte-Chapelle du Palais. He wrote sacred choral works, including at least 19 masses.
09/04/24 Heinrich Schütz (1585–1672): Musikalische Exequien, Op. 7
In 1612 Schütz went to Venice and studied with Giovanni Gabrieli. He returned to Germany, bringing Italian Baroque ideas with him. Schütz was the most important composer of Protestant sacred music before J.S. Bach.
09/05/24 Peeter Cornet (c. 1570/1580–1633): Tantum Ergo
Very few of Cornet’s music survives. However, in the early Baroque era, this Flemish organist was regarded as one of the best keyboard composers of his day.
09/06/24 Nicolò Corradini (c. 1585–1646): Spargite flores
Corradini was kappellmeister for the Cremona Cathedral. He served as organist to Tarquinio Merula, one of the original proponents of the Venetian school that launched the Baroque style.
