January 13, 2011 in Composers by admin
Famous Baroque Composers
Many renowned musicians and composers have been associated with baroque music. The most prolific composers are Johann Sebastian Bach and George Friederich Handel. Bach is one of the most well known among all classical composers and has made invaluable contribution to baroque music. As baroque music spanned across entire western Europe, there are many notable composers from many different countries. The most notable among them are: Francois Couperin – France, Unico Willem van Wassenaer – Holland, Giovanni Battista Bononcini – Italy and John Stanley – England. These composers belong to the 17th and the 18th centuries, a period known as late baroque.
George Friederich Handel, born in 1685 – incidentally the same year Johann Sebastian Bach was born, was a renowned baroque composer who is best known for his English oratorios and Italian operas. Handel in addition to being a composer was also a opera impresario and a virtuoso organist. Some of the best known oratorios of Handle include Joshua, Messiah, and Israel in Egypt. Handel’s oratorios were based mostly on the Old Testament, with Messiah being set to Charles Jennings’ compiled texts from the Old Testament. Handel in his lifetime produced 42 operas, 29 oratorios, over 120 cantatas, large number of arias, chamber music, many odes and seranetas and 16 organ concerti.
Johann Sebastian Bach is a very familiar name even for the people who are not learned in classical music. The popularity of Bach can be attributed to the fact that he has created masterpieces in every form of baroque other than opera. Some of his best known compositions are: Brandenburg concertos, the Canonic Variations, the Goldberg Variations, the Well-Tempered Clavier, the Musical Offering, the Mass in B minor and the Art of Fugue. The Art of the Fugue is his last great work and completely summarizes his skill in fugue and counterpoint. In his last days, Bach composed his last chorale fantasia based on the chorale “Before Thy Throne O Lord I Stand”. Also, he started working on a fugue featuring subject B-A-C-H (B is B Flat and H is B natural in German notation), which remained unfinished.
There are quite a few similarities between the two great composers. Not only were the two born in the same year, but both were born in Germany. Handel though later became a British citizen. Both of them suffered from illnesses that influenced their musical styles. However, their style of music was quite distinct. These two composers along with other baroque composers helped popularize baroque music. Their music influenced later artists of renown such as Beethoven and Mozart.