Baroque music

Baroque music is European classical music written during the Baroque era, approximately 1600 to 1750. This era occurred after the Renaissance and before the Classical music era. Baroque music forms a major portion of the classical music canon and is widely performed and enjoyed.

Baroque Composition after 1750

Especially in the Catholic countries of central Europe, the Baroque style continued to be represented in sacred music through the end of the eighteenth century, in much the way that the stile antico of the Renaissance continued to live in the sacred music of the early 17th century. The masses and oratorios of Haydn and Mozart, while Classical in their orchestration and ornamentation, have many Baroque features in their underlying contrapuntal and harmonic structure. In England, the enduring popularity of Handel ensured the success of Avison, Boyce, and Arne—among other accomplished imitators—well into the 1780s.

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Because baroque music was the basis for pedagougy, it retained a stylistic influence even after it has ceased to be the dominant style of composing or of music making. Even as baroque practice, for example the through bass, fell out of use, it continued to be part of musical notation. In the early 19th century, scores of baroque masters were printed in complete edition, and this lead to a renewed interest in the "strict style" of counterpoint, as it was then called. With Felix Mendelssohn's revival of Bach's choral music, the baroque style became an influence through the 19th century as a paragon of academic and formal purity.

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The 20th century would name the baroque as a period, and begin to study its music. Baroque form and practice would influence composers as diverse as Arnold Schoenberg, Max Reger, Igor Stravinsky and Bela Bartok. The early 20th century would also see a revival of the middle baroque composers such as Purcell and Vivaldi.

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There are several instances of contemporary pieces being published as "rediscovered" Baroque masterworks. Some examples of this include a viola concerto written by Henri Casadesus but attributed to Handel, as well as several pieces attributed to Fritz Kreisler to little-known figures of the Baroque. Composers such as Schnittke would use baroque sections in polystylistic works, and would even compose whole works in the style. Hendrik Bouman has composed works in the baroque style, as well as improvised in the baroque manner. Other contemporary composers with strong baroque inflection in their work include Roberto Sierra and Georgio Pacchioni

Related Topics:
Hendrik Bouman - Roberto Sierra - Georgio Pacchioni

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Various works have been labelled "neo-baroque" for a focus on imitative polyphony, including the works of Giacinto Scelsi, Paul Hindemith, Paul Creston and Martinu, even though they are not in the baroque style proper. Musicologists attempted to complete various works from the baroque, most notably Bach's Art of the Fugue.

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Because the Baroque style is a recognized point of reference, implying not only music, but a particular period and social manner, baroque styled pieces are sometimes created for media, such as film and television. Composer Peter Schickele parodies classical and baroque styles under the pen name PDQ Bach.

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Because it has been thoroughly studied, there are a sizeable number of individuals who compose in it, having their pieces played by early music ensembles, or even by distributing files over the internet.

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