Category Archives: baroque

Music for Trumpet and Pipe Organ

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Here is some music for trumpet and pipe organ.  It was written during the baroque period (1600-1750).  Here is a recording of some English Masque dances.  A masque was a form of entertainment developed in England in the 16th and 17th centuries.  A masque involved poetry, music, and elaborate sets.  Here are some tunes from a masque composed in 1600.  The trumpet is played by the Swiss trumpet virtuoso Markus Wursch.  Peter Solomon is the organist.  The performance was recorded at the Catholic church in Stans, Switzerland.  Enjoy.

Here is another recording of the first movement of a Sinfonia by Allessandro Scarlatti for trumpet and organ.  The trumpet is played by Markus Wursch and the organ is played by Peter Solomon.  The performance was recorded in the Catholic church in Stans, Switzerland.  Enjoy.

 

 

 

G.F. Handel – Fiamma bella from Aminta e Fillide (HMV 83)

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G.F. Handel (1685-1759)

G.F. Handel was a German baroque composer, organist, harpsichordist, and violinist.  He is most well known today for works such as his Messiah, Water Music, and Royal Fireworks Music.

Here is a soprano aria from called Fiamma bella from a Cantata by Handel entitled Aminta e Fillide.  The aria is sung by Catalan soprano Nuria Rial.  Enjoy!

G.F. Handel – Nine German Arias

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G. F. Handel (1685-1759)

Georg Frideric Handel was a German baroque organist, violinist, conductor, and composer who spent most of his working life in London, England.  He composed more than 40 operas, oratorios, sacred music, orchestral music, chamber music, and keyboard music.  Today Handel is known for works such as the oratorio Messiah, Water Music, and the Royal Fireworks Music.

Handel’s nine German arias are not from any of his 40 operas.  They are Da capo arias (an A section followed by a B section which is followed by the A section one last time).  This form (ABA) was a popular form of opera aria in the baroque period.

Here are the German arias by G.F. Handel.  Dame Emma Kirkby is the soprano. She is accompanied by the London Baroque.

“Ad Coelum” by Bonporti

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Francesco Antonio Bonporti (1672-1749)

Bonporti was an Italian composer, violinist, and priest.  Bonporti may have studied with the Italian violin virtuoso and composer Arcangelo Corelli.  His music is full of imaginative harmonies, lively part writing, and an unusual concentration to melodic detail.  J.S. Bach copied out some of Bonporti’s Inventions.  For a long time, four of Bonporti’s Inventions were attributed to J.S. Bach.  Recent scholarship has shown that the inventions Bach copied out are actually by Bonporti.

Here is a recording of a motet by Bonporti.  It features a soprano, Ellen Hargis, and Ensemble Ouabache.

Vivaldi – Piccolo Concerto in C major, RV 443 – Il Giardino Armonico

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Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)

Vivaldi is known today among music lovers and the general public for his four violin concertos, the ‘Four Seasons.’  He also composed sacred and secular vocal music, about 50 operas, several sonatas for various instruments, and 550 concertos (more than half of them are written for the violin).

The Concerto in C Major, RV 443 is often referred to as a concerto for piccolo because the first edition of the concerto referred to the piece as a piccolo concerto. The concerto has been performed on the piccolo but it is most often performed on a recorder. Vivaldi originally wrote the concerto for the flautino (a small flute that is a baroque cousin of the recorder).

Giovanni Antonini (recorder soloist)

Giovanni Antonini is an Italian conductor, recorder and transverse flute soloist.  He is one of the leading period instrument performers.  In 1985 he founded the early music ensemble Il Giardino Armonico with Luca Pianca, a Swiss lutenist.

Here is a recording of Giovanni Antonini on a sopranino recorder (the highest pitched instrument of the recorder family) performing Vivaldi’s Concerto in C Major, RV443 with the early music ensemble, Il Giardino Armonico.  Enjoy!

 

 

Vivaldi Opera Andromeda liberata Aria ”Sovente il sole” by Philippe Jaroussky

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Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)

Antonio Vivaldi was an Italian composer and violin virtuoso.  He is known by music lovers today for his four violin concertos, ‘The Four Seasons.’ Vivaldi composed 550 concertos.  230 of Vivaldi’s concertos are for the violin.  Vivaldi also composed other works for instruments including 40 violin sonatas, 9 cello sonatas, 10 flute sonatas, 27 trio sonatas, and 22 chamber concertos.  He also composed sacred vocal music and secular vocal music including around 50 operas (20 operas survive).

This recording is of an aria “Sovente il sole” from an opera by Vivaldi entitled Andromeda liberata.  It is sung by Philippe Jaroussky (a French countertenor) and Ensemble Matheus under the direction of Jean-Christophe Spinosi.

 

 

Rebel -〈Les Elemens〉1737 / 1. Le Cahos (Reinhard Goebel / Musica Antiqua Köln)

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Jean – Fèry Rebel (1666-1747)

Jean – Fèry Rebel was a French Baroque composer and violinist in the court of Louis XIV.  Les Élémens (a ten movement tone poem) was his final composition and his most striking.  The movement entitled Le Cahos  is a piece that is quite daring harmonically.  The piece has been compared to Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring because it is so shocking for its time. It begins with an incredible cacophony of sound (in the beginning of the piece, all seven notes of the d minor scale are sounded at once as a harsh dissonant chord).  Les Élémens was first premiered at the Académie Royale de Musique in Paris on September 27, 1737.  Here is a recording of the first movement Le Cahos.  It is performed by Musica Antiqua Köln (a well known early music ensemble) conducted by Reinhard Goebel.

Francesco Antonio Bonporti Cinque Concerti a Quatro Op.XI, I Virtuosi Italiani

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Francesco Antonio Bonporti (1672-1749)

Bonporti was an Italian baroque composer.  Many of his works have been lost.  Bonporti himself published 12 sets of his works (most of these works were solo and trio sonatas).  His musical style was inspired by that of Arcangelo Corelli (a virtuoso violinist and composer whom Bonporti may have studied with).  Bonporti’s music is notable for its imaginative harmonies, unusual focus to melodic detail, and it is full of lively interplay between the instruments in fast movements.  Bonporti’s inventions for solo violin and continuo were a favourite of J.S. Bach.  Bach copied out at least four or them.  For a long time the pieces that Bach copied were thought to have been composed by him.  The latest musicological research shows that the four inventions found in Bach’s hand are actually by Francesco Antonio Bonporti.

The link on this post is a recording by an early music ensemble called I Virtuosi Italiani.  They are playing some concertos by Bonporti written for a quartet of string instruments with keyboard continuo.

 

Michel Chapuis Improvisation of Prelude and Fugue

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Michel Chapuis (1930 – )

Michel Chapuis is a well known French organist and pedagogue.  He studied organ with Marcel Dupre (who was one of the most famous organists of the 20th century, a fine teacher, and one of the greatest extemporizers of all time).  Michel Chapuis is renowned for his interpretations of French baroque and German baroque music.

Here is a recording of Michel Chapuis improvising a prelude and fugue in stylus phantasticus (a style of music that North German organists invented.  The music is full of sudden virtuosic flourishes and it is almost like a written out improvisation).  The prelude and fugue that Michel Chapuis is playing here is in a style similar to that of the North German organists during the baroque period.

The recording begins at 0:40.  Enjoy!