Music History paper 
Dana Butler
12/08/14
Music of the 18th Century
Derived from the Portuguese barroco, or “oddly shaped pearl,” the term “baroque” has been widely used since the nineteenth century to describe the period in Western European art music from about 1600 to 1750. Comparing some of music history’s greatest masterpieces to a misshapen pearl might seem strange to us today, but to the nineteenth century critics who applied the term, the music of Bach and Handel’s era sounded overly ornamented and exaggerated (Hosler, 27). A magnificent classical composer, Johann Sebastian Bach is revered through the ages for his work 's musical complexities and stylistic innovations. Born on March 21, 1685, in Eisenach, Thuringia, Germany, Johann Sebastian Bach had a prestigious musical lineage and took on various organist positions during the early 18th century, creating famous compositions like "Toccata and Fugue in D minor." Some of his best-known compositions are the "Mass in B Minor," and the "Brandenburg Concertos". The Brandenburg Concertos are a collection of six instrumental works presented by Bach to Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt. They are widely regarded as some of the best orchestral compositions of the Baroque era. Most likely, Bach composed the concertos over several years while Kapellmeister at Köthen, and possibly extending back to his employment at Weimar (Boyd, 14-47).
Each Brandenburg follows the convention of a concerto grosso, in which two or more solo instruments are contrasted with a full ensemble, and where a slow movement in the relative minor is bracketed by two fast movements, mostly structured as a ritornello. The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment plays the Brandenburg Concertos in which the opening tutti (played by the full ensemble) reappears as a formal marker between episodes of display by the concertino (solo instruments) and again as a conclusion, thus producing a psychologically satisfying structure. Vivaldi and others who
12/08/14
Music of the 18th Century
Derived from the Portuguese barroco, or “oddly shaped pearl,” the term “baroque” has been widely used since the nineteenth century to describe the period in Western European art music from about 1600 to 1750. Comparing some of music history’s greatest masterpieces to a misshapen pearl might seem strange to us today, but to the nineteenth century critics who applied the term, the music of Bach and Handel’s era sounded overly ornamented and exaggerated (Hosler, 27). A magnificent classical composer, Johann Sebastian Bach is revered through the ages for his work 's musical complexities and stylistic innovations. Born on March 21, 1685, in Eisenach, Thuringia, Germany, Johann Sebastian Bach had a prestigious musical lineage and took on various organist positions during the early 18th century, creating famous compositions like "Toccata and Fugue in D minor." Some of his best-known compositions are the "Mass in B Minor," and the "Brandenburg Concertos". The Brandenburg Concertos are a collection of six instrumental works presented by Bach to Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt. They are widely regarded as some of the best orchestral compositions of the Baroque era. Most likely, Bach composed the concertos over several years while Kapellmeister at Köthen, and possibly extending back to his employment at Weimar (Boyd, 14-47).
Each Brandenburg follows the convention of a concerto grosso, in which two or more solo instruments are contrasted with a full ensemble, and where a slow movement in the relative minor is bracketed by two fast movements, mostly structured as a ritornello. The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment plays the Brandenburg Concertos in which the opening tutti (played by the full ensemble) reappears as a formal marker between episodes of display by the concertino (solo instruments) and again as a conclusion, thus producing a psychologically satisfying structure. Vivaldi and others who
Bibliography: Boyd, Malcolm. Bach, the Brandenburg Concertos. New York, NY, USA: Cambridge UP, 1993. Print. 18th Century Overtures. Westport, CT: Hyperion, 1979. Print. Clark, Caryl Leslie. The Cambridge Companion to Haydn. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2005. Print. Hosler, Bellamy. Changing Aesthetic Views of Instrumental Music in 18th Century Germany. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research, 1981 Landon, H. C. Robbins, and Joseph Haydn. The Symphonies of Joseph Haydn. London: Universal Edition, 1955 Schulenberg, David. The Music of J.S. Bach: Analysis and Interpretation. Lincoln: U of Nebraska, 1999