#ClassicsaDay #AltBaroque Week 3
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 third week, I focused on composers of the Middle Baroque, running from about 1680 to 1705.
09/23/24 Giovanni Zamboni (later 17th century–after 1718): Sonata VII
Zamboni was a virtuoso of several instruments, including the guitar, lute, mandolin, and theorbo. He’s credited with being one of the last composers to write for the lute in 1718.
09/24/24 Mrs. Philarmonica (fl. 1715): Sonata for 2 violins
“Mrs. Philharmonica” was an alias of an unknown 18th-century Englishwoman. She published a set of six divertimenti, or sonatas, for two violins and continuo.
09/25/25 Maria Margherita Grimani (b. before 1700; fl. 1713–1718): Sinfonia to “Pallade e Marte”
Grimani was the first female composer to have an opera performed in Vienna. She was also known for her oratorios.
09/26/24 Henry Madin (1698–1748): Te Deum
Madin entered King Louis VXV’s service in 1736. At Versailles he became “Sous-maître de la Musique de la Chapelle du Roi.”
09/27/24 Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel (1690–1749): Concerto grosso a quattro Chori
Stölzel served the Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. He wrote a vast amount of music, including an estimated 1,300 cantatas. Less than half survive intact.
