# Who are the great keyboard composers before Bach and Handel?



## pianolearnerstride (Dec 17, 2014)

I don't know that much about western classical music before the late Baroque era... who are the great composers for keyboard before Bach and Handel? (as early as you wish...)

I know of William Byrd during the Renaissance... who else?


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## ahammel (Oct 10, 2012)

Buxtehude was a fine hand at the organ.


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## Chronochromie (May 17, 2014)

Girolamo Frescobaldi, Jan Sweelinck and François Couperin (who is a near contemporary of Bach and Handel).


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

I would add Giles Farnaby to the all of the above already mentioned.


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## MoonlightSonata (Mar 29, 2014)

And John Bull as well.


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## Chordalrock (Jan 21, 2014)

Renaissance composers typically focused on vocal music, and the central part of instrumental music of the time consisted of arrangements of vocal music (according to Howard M. Brown). 

Depending on the nature of your interest, you may be interested in playing such vocal music on the piano or getting someone else to do it for you. The intended tempos can be quite lively and suitable for keyboards.

If I were a good pianist, I'd love to play through masses and motets by the big names: Dunstable, Dufay, Ockeghem, Obrecht, Josquin, Isaac, Gombert, Palestrina, Lassus, Victoria (from oldest to most recent). 

Some other good ones include Busnoys, Johannes Regis, Firminus Caron, Faugues, Pierre de la Rue, Jean Mouton, Alexander Agricola, Antoine Brumel, John Taverner, Adrian Willaert, Cristobal Morales, Thomas Tallis, Jacques Clement, and Pierre de Manchicourt.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Recently there was some discussion about Sweelinck in his composer guestbook which you might want to check out.


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

D Scarlatti was an exact contemporary of Bach and Handel, but among the greatest composers for the keyboard so worth mentioning in case you haven't already looked into him.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Francois Couperin should be added to this list honestly. I have two of Naxos recordings to encode into my collection.


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

Good place to start is the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book for music of the late Elizabethean early Jacobean period - Anon gets a big mention as does Byrd, then there's the English madrigalists - Morley, Farnaby, Phillips. Much keyboard music was written for Organ so it's worth having a look at the German and French organ schools. That brings in Pachelbel, Buxtehude and Louis Couperin among many others.

Although Dowland was a lutenist, when you see lute music not in tablature, it's perfectly playable at the keyboard.

Not exactly great and not exactly keyboard, but the Playford books are full of great tunes.

Enjoy the voyage of discovery.


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## GioCar (Oct 30, 2013)

Jean Philippe Rameau (contemporary of Bach and Handel) should be added to those already mentioned above.
His main works are:
- three (awesome) books of pieces for harpsichord, and 
- the amazing _Pieces de Clavecin en Concert_, with violin (or flute) and viola (or second violin), very different from the Italian trio sonatas (à la Corelli) where the harpsichord provides the role of the continuo only. Here the _Clavecin_ is the main instrument of the ensemble.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

The French, in particular the Couperin family.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

GioCar said:


> Jean Philippe Rameau (contemporary of Bach and Handel) should be added to those already mentioned above.
> His main works are:
> - three (awesome) books of pieces for harpsichord, and
> - the amazing _*Pieces de Clavecin en Concert*_, with violin (or flute) and viola (or second violin), very different from the Italian trio sonatas (à la Corelli) where the harpsichord provides the role of the continuo only. Here the _Clavecin_ is the main instrument of the ensemble.


The _*Pieces de Clavecin en Concert*_... are wonderful


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