Thread: For love of the Baroque...

Peter Philips is really quite early -- wiki says he was born in 1560 and died when he was 60 years old. Maybe the closest continental comparison is Titelouze and Ascanio Mayone, or perhaps Giovanni de Macque. Is Philips's keyboard music more backward looking than Titelouze's or Mayone's or de Macque's? I can't answer that off the cuff, it's a hard question. Just from informal listening the toccatas in Trabaci's Bk 1 (1603) sound very Peter Philips like to me.

Or Frescobaldi? He's a generation later really, there's a 20 year age gap. There's nothing quite like the Cento Partite in Philips, but you've got to bear in mind that it's a late work. Having said that, there's nothing like the 9th or 11th toccatas form Bk 2 either-- Frescobaldi's just the better composer!

In the UK the ABRSM piano syllabus leans heavily on Bach, Handel and Scarlatti with some Vivaldi, Purcell and Telemann for variety. The Baroque keyboard albums published by ABRSM are actually aimed at harpsichord players and cover the full range from Albinoni to Zipoli although they can also be used by piano players. Interestingly, they are actually considerably harder (technically) to play on a piano than on a harpsichord.

We are lucky to have a local Baroque group who specialise in the wilder reaches of English Baroque - Boyce, Blow, Mudge, Avison and others.

We're also lucky to have English Touring Opera who will be at both Norwich and Snape (Aldeburgh) doing Rameau's Dardanus this year.

Philips' dates are almost the same as Sweelinck who whose work straddled the end of the Renaissance and beginning of the Baroque eras. What's interesting is that Philips is writing pavans and galliards upon grounds in a way that looks backwards rather than forwards.

Originally Posted by classical yorkist

I listened to some Antonio Soler this morning and I really, really not like it. Far too galante for my taste, sickly sweet urgh. I turned him off and put some Purcell Fantasias on and immediately felt much better.

Keep taking the medicine!

Originally Posted by classical yorkist

I listened to some Antonio Soler this morning and I really, really not like it. Far too galante for my taste, sickly sweet urgh. I turned him off and put some Purcell Fantasias on and immediately felt much better.

I think the warning should be that they named an ice cream after him

Originally Posted by Mandryka

Isn't he a bit like Scarlatti?

Wiki suggests he may have studied under Scarlatti. He's late Baroque to early classical writing both keyboard and liturgical music. Listen to a fandango by each of them and you will be aware that Soler is making much more of the harmonic background and is more classical whereas Scarlatti's is much leaner and more Baroque.

Originally Posted by Ingélou

I finished listening to Peri's Euridice - just the music, and it's hard to imagine that the performance can be very dramatic, as it's really just one long song - but what a song. Hauntingly beautiful and melancholic.

Looking into Peri's life, I see that he collaborated with Giulio Cacchini...
Cacchini was ten years older than Peri and because his daughter was singing he took over some of the writing - then rushed out his own version of Euridice so that he could claim to have published the first opera!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Iq6bB4kE8s

When I began listening to Giulio Cacchini's version of Euridice, because of the accompanying instruments I found it less haunting in its beauty than Jacopo Peri's. Given the history of the two versions, the rivalrous collaboration between Cacchini & Peri and the former's rush to get his version printed first, it's no surprise that the dominant melodies are the same.

However, this production of Cacchini's Euridice by Scherzi Musicali has more animated singing as well as lovely instrumentation, and there seem to be more 'tunes' too - after a while I found it very engaging & I am contemplating buying the cd if it's still available.

It was Peri's idea, but Cacchini snatched it and ran with it...

Now to have a listen to Cacchini's daughter Francesca, maybe better known than him as female composers were so thin on the ground. There are a few items on YouTube, though, as seems typical, her most well-known pieces are duplicated.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=fr...w=1203&bih=865

I do hope that I find her a good composer, and not just a Token Woman on the Baroque Long List (she isn't on the original Wiki list of the OP).

Originally Posted by Ingélou

Now to have a listen to Cacchini's daughter Francesca, maybe better known than him as female composers were so thin on the ground. There are a few items on YouTube, though, as seems typical, her most well-known pieces are duplicated.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=fr...w=1203&bih=865

Ooh, this one - Ciacciona - is fab: full of life, and what a catchy rhythm.
One to put on when I'm feeling a bit jaded.

Never heard either composers' Euridice. I'm not even sure I've heard of Peri. So I sampled each work and initially kept on listening to Caccini's Euridice, then switched to Peri's version, and can't have enough of it. I don't think I 'd prefer one work over other since they're quite different, depends if you are in the mood for more austere or lush sound. Although I have to say Caccini's composition sounds more attractive immediately, while with Peri you have to listen to the music a little bit longer to let it mesmerise you.

Update: I've listened a little to Alessandrini's recording of Caccini's Euridice and it sounds very different to the performance directed by Nicholas Achten (on youtube and the one that I prefer). I sometimes forget how much depends on various arrangements and performance.

Sometimes I think you could listen to a different baroque composer everyday of your life and not run out. This music just nourishes my soul.



http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Isabella_Leonarda

I'm halfway through listening to Francesca Caccini's opera, and I'm loving it. The melodies are so beautiful and the singing is very good, in my opinion.
(I'd quite like to buy this cd, but it doesn't seem to be available now. A more recent one is, but I don't know if it's as good.)





The Wiki list that I included in my OP, and that I am working through, as a joy not a duty, doesn't include either Francesca Caccini or her father Giulio. Not surprising, perhaps, as there are so many baroque composers - very few could make the Short List.

I'm happy to say that Talk Classical now has its own composer guestbooks on both Caccinis:

Giulio Caccini (1551 - 1618)

Francesca Caccini (1587 - 1641)

Thank you, Taggart!