Baroque

LG

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Baroque was the predecessor to the Classical era. Bach and Telemann and Vivaldi were the most prolific composers of this period. They set the template of organization, instrumentation and composition which the next generation of composers built their foundation on. That's not to say that Baroque didn't produce some complex music, even now some Bach pieces are used to test the capabilities of prodigies. Telemann I'm not as familiar with but his catalog is really big. Vivaldi's masterwork "The Four Seasons" still wins polls for most popular classical music of all time.(Not on my list though.)

Harpsichord and pipe organs were the main keyboards, it wasn't until Bach's later years the piano was invented and he wrote some of the most important music for it. A lot of "chamber music" is from the Baroque period, small orchestras you could fit in a drawing room.

I could have given you the wiki definition but those are my thoughts HGH.:mn:
 

TheSound

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The baroque is probably where instrumental music first began, one way or another everything you hear today has it's roots in the concept of groups of very skilled multi instrumentalists with a variety of instruments playing together, even if you can't on the surface hear any relationship between say Yes in 1995, and J S Bach in 1695. There wasn't really anything like that before the Baroque, pre-17th century most publicly performed music was basically vocal/choral devotional music, because the church was all powerful in people's lives, and anything other than that was 'sinful'.

I like to listen to baroque when I am in the mood for it, and my wife plays it quite often as many major baroque composers are amongst the most popular in classical concert programmes even in the 21st century (Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, Purcell) To my ears it's often very exciting music... probably very complex to play technically, but not at all difficult to enjoy as a listener, none better (IMO) than these....especially got to love Nigel Kennedy, he's a kind of punk rock violin God who never ceases to amaze me...





 

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