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Unmeasured Prelude
Unmeasured or non-measured prelude is a prelude in which the duration of each note is left to the performer. Typically the term is used for 17th century harpsichord compositions that are written without rhythm or metre indications, although various composers of the Classical music era were composing small preludes for woodwind instruments using non-measured notation well into the 19th century. The form resurfaced in the aleatory music of the 20th century, where various other aspects of performance are also left to free interpretation. Unmeasured preludes for lute The first unmeasured preludes appeared during the Renaissance era. They were short improvised compositions for lute, usually performed as an introduction to another piece of music or to test the instrument. Later unmeasured lute preludes retained the improvisatory character of the genre but became more complex and lengthy. Unmeasured preludes flourished into full-fledged compositions by the middle of the 17th century. H ...
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Prelude (music)
A prelude (german: Präludium or '; la, praeludium; french: prélude; it, preludio) is a short piece of music, the form of which may vary from piece to piece. While, during the Baroque era, for example, it may have served as an introduction to succeeding movements of a work that were usually longer and more complex, it may also have been a stand-alone piece of work during the Romantic era. It generally features a small number of rhythmic and melodic motifs that recur through the piece. Stylistically, the prelude is improvisatory in nature. The term may also refer to an overture, particularly to those seen in an opera or an oratorio. History The first preludes to be notated were organ pieces that were played to introduce church music, the earliest surviving examples being five brief ''praeambula'' in the Ileborgh Tablature of 1448. These were closely followed by freely composed preludes in an extemporary style for the lute and other Renaissance string instruments, whic ...
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Élisabeth Jacquet De La Guerre
Élisabeth Claude Jacquet de La Guerre (, née Jacquet, 17 March 1665 – 27 June 1729) was a French musician, harpsichordist and composer. Life and works Élisabeth-Claude Jacquet de La Guerre (née Jacquet) was born on March 17, 1665, into a family of musicians and master instrument-makers in the parish of Saint-Louis-en-l'Île, Paris. She came from a rich family of masons, musicians, composers, and instrument makers. Her grandfather, Jehan Jacquet, and her father, Claude Jacquet, were harpsichord makers. Rather than just teaching his sons, Claude Jacquet taught both his sons and daughters how to survive and thrive in the world. This upbringing, support from her father, and her family's rich history of musicianship was a major stepping stone for her musical career. She received her initial musical education from her father. At the age of five, Louis XIV took notice of her when she performed, evidently as a child prodigy, at his palace of Versailles. This eventually led to her ...
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Temperament Ordinaire
The phrase temperament ordinaire (French ''tempérament ordinaire'', meaning literally "ordinary temperament" or "usual temperament") is a term for musical intonation, particularly the tempered tuning of keyboard instruments. In modern usage, it usually refers to temperaments falling within the range (as understood broadly) of tunings now known as " well-tempered". The expression occurs primarily in French-language works of the 17th and 18th centuries concerning theory and practice of musical intonation with regard to keyboard instruments.(Huygens, 1691): C Huygens, "Lettre touchant le Cycle Harmonique", in "Histoire des Ouvrages des Sçavans" (publ. Rotterdam) Oct 1691, (issue for Sept-Oct-Nov), pages 78-88.(Rousseau, 1751): J-J Rousseau, "Tempérament", in "Encyclopédie" of Diderot and D'Alembert, Paris, 1751 onwards, volume 16, pages 56-58 (see alsEncyclopédie: Tempéramentfor English translation). It is discussed again, in the same or a similar musical application, in mode ...
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Equal Temperament
An equal temperament is a musical temperament or tuning system, which approximates just intervals by dividing an octave (or other interval) into equal steps. This means the ratio of the frequencies of any adjacent pair of notes is the same, which gives an equal perceived step size as pitch is perceived roughly as the logarithm of frequency. In classical music and Western music in general, the most common tuning system since the 18th century has been twelve-tone equal temperament (also known as 12 equal temperament, 12-TET or 12-ET; informally abbreviated to twelve equal), which divides the octave into 12 parts, all of which are equal on a logarithmic scale, with a ratio equal to the 12th root of 2 ( ≈ 1.05946). That resulting smallest interval, the width of an octave, is called a semitone or half step. In Western countries the term ''equal temperament'', without qualification, generally means 12-TET. In modern times, 12-TET is usually tuned relative to a standard pit ...
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Nicolas Siret
Nicolas Siret (3 March 1663 – 22 June 1754) was a French baroque composer, organist and harpsichordist. He was born and died in Troyes, France, where he worked as organist in the Church of Saint Jean and the Cathedral of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. Both his grandfather and his father were organists in Troyes. Siret was a friend and admirer of François Couperin, and his first collection of harpsichord pieces, published approximately in 1709, was dedicated to Couperin. The suites of this collection all begin with a French overture, following the tradition established by Jean-Baptiste Lully. Siret's second volume of harpsichord pieces (''Second livre de pièces de clavecin'', published in 1719) was, along with Couperin's ''L'art de toucher le clavecin'', one of the last publications to include unmeasured preludes. Siret also wrote some "pièces de caractère" (pieces of descriptive character, not dances), stylistically reminiscent of Couperin, and a single organ work by him surviv ...
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L'art De Toucher Le Clavecin
''L'art de toucher le clavecin'' (English: ''The Art of Playing the Harpsichord'') is a didactic treatise by the French composer François Couperin François Couperin (; 10 November 1668 – 11 September 1733) was a French Baroque composer, organist and harpsichordist. He was known as ''Couperin le Grand'' ("Couperin the Great") to distinguish him from other members of the musically talented .... It was first published in 1716, and was followed by a revised edition in 1717. The treatise was written to instruct keyboard players in performance practice, particularly for Couperin's ''Pièces de Clavecin''; Couperin, upon its publication, noted that it was "absolutely indispensable for playing my ''Pièces'' in the style most suitable to them". With the early music revival, it became one of the primary sources for the keyboard fingering system which prevailed in Europe during the Baroque era. It also sheds light on the ornamentation used at the time. It is considered one of th ...
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François Couperin
François Couperin (; 10 November 1668 – 11 September 1733) was a French Baroque composer, organist and harpsichordist. He was known as ''Couperin le Grand'' ("Couperin the Great") to distinguish him from other members of the musically talented Couperin family. Life Couperin was born in Paris, into a prominent musical family. His father Charles was organist at the Church of Saint-Gervais in the city, a position previously held by Charles's brother Louis Couperin, the esteemed keyboard virtuoso and composer whose career was cut short by an early death. As a boy François must have received his first music lessons from his father, but Charles died in 1679 leaving the position at Saint-Gervais to his son, a common practice known as ''survivance'' that few churches ignored. With their hands tied, the churchwardens at Saint-Gervais hired Michel Richard Delalande to serve as new organist on the understanding that François would replace him at age 18. However, it is likely Couperi ...
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Giovanni Battista Draghi (composer)
Giovanni Battista Draghi (ca. 1640 – buried 13 May 1708) was an Anglo-Italian composer and keyboard player. He may have been the brother of the composer Antonio Draghi. Draghi was brought to London in the 1660s by King Charles II who was trying, unsuccessfully, to establish Italian opera in England. He remained in England for the rest of his life. In 1673 Draghi was made first organist of the queen's Catholic chapel in Somerset House. In 1684 he took part in what became known as the ''Battle of the Organs''. He was hired by master organ maker Renatus Harris to demonstrate the superiority of his organ when Harris was trying to gain the contract to build the new organ for the Temple Church. Harris' rival "Father" Bernard Smith hired organists and composers John Blow and Henry Purcell to demonstrate his organ and won the contest. Draghi was awarded a pension by King William III William III (William Henry; ; 4 November 16508 March 1702), also widely known as William of Ora ...
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Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer
__NOTOC__ ) , baptised = ( cs, }), Royal Bohemia, Austria , death_date = , death_place = Rastatt, Margravial Baden , occupations = organist, composer, , flourished = , era = Baroque , known_for = bringing many French elements through Jean-Baptiste Lully (his instructor) into music , list_of_works = , spouse = , partner = , children = , parents = , notable_family = Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer (some authorities use the spelling Johann Kaspar Ferdinand Fischer) (1656 August 27, 1746) was a German Baroque composer. Johann Nikolaus Forkel ranked Fischer as one of the best composers for keyboard of his day; however, partly due to the rarity of surviving copies of his music, his music is rarely heard today. Life Fischer seems to have been of Bohemian origin, possibly born at Schönfeld, but details about his life are sketchy. Fischer was baptized and spent his youth in Schlackenwerth, north-west Bohemia. The first record of his existence is found in th ...
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Louis Marchand
Louis Marchand (2 February 1669 – 17 February 1732) was a French Baroque organist, harpsichordist, and composer. Born into an organist's family, Marchand was a child prodigy and quickly established himself as one of the best known French virtuosos of his time. He worked as organist of numerous churches and, for a few years, as one of the four ''organistes du roy''. Marchand had a violent temperament and an arrogant personality, and his life was filled with scandals, publicized and widely discussed both during his lifetime and after his death. Despite his fame, few of his works survive to this day, and those that do almost all date from his early years. Nevertheless, a few pieces of his, such as the organ pieces ''Grand dialogue'' and ''Fond d'orgue'' have been lauded as classic works of the French organ school. Life Marchand came from a musical family: his grandfather, Pierre (d.1676) had been a schoolmaster and music teacher and his three sons, Jean (Marchand's father), Pie ...
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Jean-Henri D'Anglebert
Jean-Henri d'Anglebert ( baptized 1 April 1629 – 23 April 1691) was a French composer, harpsichordist and organist. He was one of the foremost keyboard composers of his day. Life D'Anglebert's father Claude Henry known as AnglebertJean constructed himself a new name, to suggest nobility, using his surname (Henry) as a second given name, and his father's nickname, Anglebert, to suggest land ownership was an affluent shoemaker in Bar-le-Duc. Nothing is known about the composer's early years and musical education. Since he at one time composed a tombeau for Jacques Champion de Chambonnières, it is possible that Chambonnières was his teacher—or at any rate a friend for whom D'Anglebert had much respect. The earliest surviving manuscript with D'Anglebert's music dates from 1650–1659. It also contains music by Louis Couperin and Chambonnières, and possibly originated in their immediate circle; thus already by the mid-1650s D'Anglebert must have been closely associated with th ...
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Jean-Philippe Rameau
Jean-Philippe Rameau (; – ) was a French composer and music theorist. Regarded as one of the most important French composers and music theorists of the 18th century, he replaced Jean-Baptiste Lully as the dominant composer of French opera and is also considered the leading French composer of his time for the harpsichord, alongside François Couperin. Little is known about Rameau's early years. It was not until the 1720s that he won fame as a major theorist of music with his ''Treatise on Harmony'' (1722) and also in the following years as a composer of masterpieces for the harpsichord, which circulated throughout Europe. He was almost 50 before he embarked on the operatic career on which his reputation chiefly rests today. His debut, ''Hippolyte et Aricie'' (1733), caused a great stir and was fiercely attacked by the supporters of Lully's style of music for its revolutionary use of harmony. Nevertheless, Rameau's pre-eminence in the field of French opera was soon acknowledged, ...
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