#ClassicsaDay #AltBaroque Week 2
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 second week, I focused on composers of the Middle Baroque, running from about 1650 to 1700.
09/09/24 Mlle Bocquet (early 17th century–after 1660): Allemande in D minor
We’re not sure of her first name. But this 1660s lutenist wrote ground-breaking music for her instrument. And was a celebrity in Paris.
09/10/24 Simon Ives (1600–1662): The Triumph of Peace
Ives was an organist and composer serving in the court of Charles I. He wrote several part-songs (or glees) that were printed in various collections of the day.
09/11/24 Elisabeth Sophie, Duchess of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1613–1676): Dieses ist das Furstenhaous
Elisabeth Sophie was a talented musician who ensured her husband’s court attracted talented musicians, like Heinrich Schutz. The 30 Years War forced her to relocate and rebuild her orchestra.
09/12/24 Giovanni Antonio Rigatti (c. 1613–1648): Dixit Dominus a 8
Rigatti was a choirmaster at Udine Cathedral. He published 11 volumes of vocal music, mostly sacred.
09/13/24 John IV of Portugal (1603–1656): Crux Fidelis
John IV was a great patron of the arts, and a composer himself. None of his music seems to have survived. Crux Fidelis is credited to him, but most scholars now agree it’s a 19th-century forgery.
