# Best baroque composers?



## John Galt (Feb 3, 2015)

Which composers from the baroque era are worth checking out, along with the obvious (Vivaldi)?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_classical_music_composers_by_era


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## Cosmos (Jun 28, 2013)

I'm not familiar with a lot of the Baroque era, but some bigger names that I have encountered and worth checking out are:

- Sweelinck
- Monteverdi
- Lully
- Buxtehude
- Corelli
- Purcell
- Couperin
- Scarlatti
- Teleman
- Rameau
- Handel

Sorry, long list, but that's probably a good mix of the Baroque era


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## isorhythm (Jan 2, 2015)

I think you'll have better luck if you use the search function to find past threads about the things you've been asking about the last few days. There have been years of discussion here.


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## ahammel (Oct 10, 2012)

isorhythm said:


> I think you'll have better luck if you use the search function to find past threads about the things you've been asking about the last few days. There have been years of discussion here.


There's also the top recommended lists:

http://www.talkclassical.com/17996-compilation-tc-top-recommended.html


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

There's nothing wrong with asking here: that's why we're all here :tiphat:

Rather than give you a list, I'll show you a little 'tool' that has helped me a lot:

List of Baroque composers

Wikipedia has such a page for every musical period (see the links at the top right of the page). The names written in a larger font are the ones you are likely asking for here 

Blush: I see that you already beat me to it


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## Animato (Dec 5, 2013)

To be honest, I think the term „Baroque“ is used for two periods: Baroque and Roccoco, which are quite different in style. I would say Baroque roughly applies to the time from 1600 to nearly 1700, whereas Roccoco is the period just before Mozarts Life: around 1700 to 1740. Accordingly, typical Baroque composers are Monteverdi and Heinrich Schuetz. (Typical Renaissance composers are Giovanni Palestrina and Orlando di Lasso – back in the 16th century.)

Works like the Brandenburg Concertos by Bach are typical Roccoco oevres, less baroque. The expressive style of the solo cembalo in 5th Brandenburg Concerto is very modern for those times.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Animato said:


> To be honest, I think the term „Baroque" is used for two periods: Baroque and Roccoco, which are quite different in style. I would say Baroque roughly applies to the time from 1600 to nearly 1700, whereas Roccoco is the period just before Mozarts Life: around 1700 to 1740. Accordingly, typical Baroque composers are Monteverdi and Heinrich Schuetz. (Typical Renaissance composers are Giovanni Palestrina and Orlando di Lasso - back in the 16th century.)
> 
> Works like the Brandenburg Concertos by Bach are typical Roccoco oevres, less baroque. The expressive style of the solo cembalo in 5th Brandenburg Concerto is very modern for those times.


Isn't the expressive style of the "cadenza" in that concerto just an example of stylus phantasticus? The sort of style you hear in Northern and Southern toccatas, in Buxtehude and Frescobaldi.


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## fjf (Nov 4, 2014)

There are two: Bach and Handel. And after them, many others very enjoyable!.


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## Guest (Feb 11, 2015)

Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, Monteverdi, Rameau, Biber, Corelli, Telemann, Purcell, D. Scarlatti


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## neoshredder (Nov 7, 2011)

Bach, Handel, Corelli, Telemann, CPE Bach, and Rameau are big ones.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Maybe you might like the French Baroque style? In that case, try Lully, Rameau and Couperin.
I post one of my favourite Lully links below.






There is so much baroque music that unless you decide that you dislike the style altogether, there's bound to be something for you. Lully appeals to me because he wrote for dancers, and I love dance. Rameau's operas are highly thought of - here's a famous song 



 - and Couperin's Concerts Royaux - 



 - are beautiful pieces of music.

I hope you find something you like, but if you don't, don't tell me - tell my master of music. He deals with all my correspondence.
Cordially,
Madame la Marquise


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

Our Baroque experts above have already listed the great names, and these masters will forever dominate the classical music standard repertoire.


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## Fagotterdammerung (Jan 15, 2015)

It's hard to go wrong with Bach.

As noted above, French baroque has a rather different style. I'm not familiar enough with differences to give an in-depth analysis, but my impression comparing Rameau and Couperin to, say, Scarlatti and Vivaldi is of a more reserved, graceful style.

The Baroque is a large period. Handel is from a very different era than Monteverdi, and it's worth exploring composers on an individual basis rather than as a block.


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## atsizat (Sep 14, 2015)

Johann Sebastian Bach and Antonio Vivaldi.


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## Tasto solo (Sep 7, 2015)

Jan Dismas Zelenka. Despite being born 6 years before JS Bach and Handel he practically composed his way out of the Baroque style. For those who are misled by older reports into thinking he is a grauchy old moaner only capable of death music then listen to that:






and that:






and that:






and that:






and that:






and that:






and that:






This is a composer who, because of his location and standing, probably influenced in a subtle but powerful way the development of western classical music far more than he has been given credit for.

Oh, and his death music is sublime too:


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## atsizat (Sep 14, 2015)

Antonia Vivaldi and Johann Sebastian Bach

Edit: I just noticed I wrote this before. I am sorry  There is no button to delete the post


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## atsizat (Sep 14, 2015)

fjf said:


> There are two: Bach and Handel. And after them, many others very enjoyable!.


I don't see how Handel is better than Vivaldi. I find Vivaldi better than Handel. Everybody might have a different music taste, yes but I just don't see how people can think like this.


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

atsizat said:


> I don't see how Handel is better than Vivaldi. I find Vivaldi better than Handel. Everybody might have a different music taste, yes but I just don't see how people can think like this.


(a) that's how taste works, and
(b) I'd like to see you define "Vivaldi is better than Handel" in a way that everyone will have to agree with you, and 
(c) if you can't see how people can think like this, just try imagining how you feel about the sentence "Vivaldi is better than Handel", then swap the two names around, and now pretend that those feelings you had are valid in this new context. Easy!


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## Delicious Manager (Jul 16, 2008)

Some excellent ones not yet mentioned:

Biber
Boismortier
Caldara
Carissimi
Charpentier
Frescobaldi
Geminiani
Locatelli
Schütz
Stradella

And here's a second vote for Zelenka!


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## Kjetil Heggelund (Jan 4, 2016)

Since nobody mentioned him yet, I will: Giuseppe Tartini! I used to prefer him over Vivaldi since everybody played the 4 seasons. Now I enjoy both, and many more.


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## atsizat (Sep 14, 2015)

Kjetil Heggelund said:


> Since nobody mentioned him yet, I will: Giuseppe Tartini! I used to prefer him over Vivaldi since everybody played the 4 seasons. Now I enjoy both, and many more.


Vivaldi is not only 4 seasons.


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## dzc4627 (Apr 23, 2015)

My favorite is Vivaldi. Original, I know.


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## Animal the Drummer (Nov 14, 2015)

I'd like to add Albinoni to the list, not Giazotto's saccharine-soaked confection the Adagio in G minor but the real stuff, the oboe concertos especially. For me this music has a particular tunefulness and subtlety which I find especially attractive. I certainly wouldn't want to be without Vivaldi's and other Italian Baroque composers' output, but I hear an extra touch of class in Albinoni.


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## Mal (Jan 1, 2016)

Telemann: Tafelmusik, Wassermusik, etc.


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