Claude Goudimel - 500 Years
Goudimel is generally honored as the most important exponent of a French sacred style that contemporaneously emerged with him and died with the success of the counter re-formation.(1)Claude Goudimel...
View ArticleKryštof Harant - 450 Years
A polymath and Renaissance humanist, and, at the same time, an indefatigable traveler, a seasoned man of letters, and engineer and an army commander, a singer and a choral director, Krystof Harant was...
View ArticleVideo Pick - "The Mercy of Peace" - Alexander Gretchaninov
Alexander Tikhonovich Gretchaninov (1864 - 1956) was a Russian romantic composer, born 150 years ago, who eventually emigrated first to France and then to the United States. He is buried not too far...
View ArticleHans Leo Hassler - 450 Years, 1. Secular Music
Musicians such as Hassler, and later Schütz, carried the concertato style, the polychoral idea, and the freely emotional expression of the Venetians into the German culture, creating the first and most...
View ArticleHans Leo Hassler - 450 Years, 2. Early Motets and Late Sacred Songs
Hans Leo Hassler's religious music was influenced by Lassus(1) and used polychoral and less often chromatic techniques he learned in Venice from Andrea Gabrieli. Later on, however, he would revert to a...
View ArticleHans Leo Hassler - 450 Years, 3. Motets: Sacri Consentus, Ecce Sacerdos...
Hans Leo Hassler published his Sacri Consentus, a set of 52 motets in 1602. A few instrumental pieces were added, and it was expanded to 63 in a second edition of 1612. The motets, set for 4 to 12...
View ArticleHans Leo Hassler - 450 Year, 4. Masses and Organ Works
Even though he was Protestant Hans Leo Hassler worked in Augsburg for the Catholic Octavian II Fugger from 1585 until the latter's death in 1601. In 1599 he published a set of nine masses: five...
View ArticlePhilipp Friedrich Buchner - 400 Years
Philipp Friedrich Buchner (1614 - 1669) was a German Baroque composer and Kapellmeister at the court of archbishop Johann Philipp von Schönborn in Mainz. The Internet doesn't yield much on this...
View ArticleJuan Hidalgo - 400 Years
Juan Hidalgo de Polanco (Idalgo, Ydalgo, 1614 - 1685) is considered one of the foremost composers of the Spanish Golden Age. He greatly influenced the next generations of Hispanic composers in the old...
View ArticleFranz Tunder - 400 Years, 1. Life and organ works
Franz Tunder (1614 - 1667) was a North German composer active at the court in Gottorf and then at the Marienkirche (St. Mary's Church) in Lubeck as organist, and later also as its administrator and...
View ArticleFranz Tunder - 400 Years, 2. Chorale Cantatas
Having learned early baroque techniques (continuo, monody, antiphonal effects of concertino and ripieno) and the chorale motet form, and adopting his own organ style, Franz Tunder prepared, in his...
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Nicolas Bernier - 350 Years, 1. Life and locales
Nicolas Bernier (sometimes Bernice, 1664/65 - 1734) was a composer and harpsichordist of the French Baroque. Cathedral in MantesEvreux CathedralHe received his musical training first in his hometown of...
View ArticleNicolas Bernier - 350 Years, 2. Compositions
The works of Nicolas Bernier (1664/65 - 1734) have come down to us in a number of publications and in manuscript form. They have been painstakingly catalogued by Nathalie Berton and are ordered by type...
View ArticleLouis Lully - 350 Years
Louis Lully (Louis de Lully, 1664 - 1734) was the oldest son of Jean-Baptiste Lully. His godparents were King Louis XIV and Queen Maria Theresa of Spain. At age four, destined to succeed his father,...
View ArticleJohann Christoph Pez - 350 Years
It still seems that — occasionally — musical pearls that have remained hidden by the veil of history resurface.(1)When the fourth of the 54 works in the Möller manuscript(2) is an Intrada by Johann...
View ArticleDaniel Purcell - 350 Years
Daniel Purcell (ca. 1664 - 1717) was Henry Purcell's younger brother or cousin (1) and a valuable composer in his own right.Born in London he became a chorister of the Chapel Royal, was later appointed...
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Johann Speth - 350 Years
Very little is known about the life of Johann (Johannes) Speth (1664 - after 1719), organist and composer and a worthy representative of the South German School.Speinshart AbbeyHe was raised in...
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Composers born in 1764
It is said that the only composer worth celebrating this year is Richard Strauss (1864 - 1949), and deservedly so he is receiving plenty of attention. Maybe we'll have a chance later in the year to...
View ArticlePedro Antonio Avondano - 300 Years
It was the era of commercial splendour - Sara Seydak (1)Pedro Antonio Avondano (1714 - 1782) was a violinist and composer at the Portuguese court during the reigns of John V, Joseph I and Maria I. (2)...
View ArticleEmanuel Bach - 300 Years, 1. Life and Keyboard Sonatas.
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (C. P. E.Bach, Berlin Bach, Hamburg Bach, 1714 - 1788) was a North German composer, harpsichordist, and representative of the Empfindsamer Stil (Sensitive Style). He was the...
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