Music of the Baroque

Schulenberg (Ph.D. in musicology, 1982, SUNY Stonybrook; MA in performance practice, 1977, Stanford) is Department Chair and Professor of Music at Wagner College. He is the author of The Keyboard Music of J.S. Bach (Schirmer, 1992) and C.P.E. Bach: Keyboard Sonatas, 1744-1747, and numerous articles.

I suspect that most teachers of the baroque period will know and recommend the volume. It reads well, and given the space, it manages to offer some detail on the music selected for attention.

• Contents ; Preface ; 1 Introduction ; Music History 1600-1750: Some Basic Ideas ; Historical Background: Western Europe, 1600-1750 ; Music in European History, 1600-1750 ; The Place of Music and Musicians in Society ; Performance Practices ; 2 A Sixteenth-Century Prologue: Motet and Madrigal ; The Late Renaissance Motet: Palestrina and Lassus ; The Madrigal ; 3 Transitions Around 1600 ; Some General Developments ; The Basso Continuo ; Instruments ; Monody ; 4 Monteverdi and Early Baroque Musical Drama ; Claudio Monteverdi ; Monteverdi's Orfeo ; Later Works ; Venetian Opera ; 5 Secular Vocal Music of the Later Seventeenth Century ; Barbara Strozzi ; Alessandro Scarlatti and the Later Cantata ; The Dissemination of Baroque Style ; 6 Lully and French Musical Drama ; The French Style ; Lully's Armide ; 7 Seventeenth-Century Sacred Music ; Sacred Music in Venice: Giovanni Gabrieli ; Sacred Music in Germany: Heinrich Schutz ; Seventeenth-Century Oratorio ; Lalande and the Grand Motet ; 8 Late Baroque Opera ; Handel ; Rameau ; 9 Late Baroque Sacred Music ; J. S. Bach ; Handel and the Eighteenth-Century Oratorio ; 10 Music for Solo Instruments I: Toccata and Suite ; The Lute and Its Repertory ; Keyboard Instruments of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries ; Baroque Keyboard Music in Italy ; Baroque Keyboard Music in France and Germany ; 11 Music for Solo Instruments II: Fugues and Pieces ; Later Baroque Keyboard Music ; J. S. Bach's Music for Solo Instruments ; Eigeenth-Century Keyboard Music in France ; Other Eighteenth-Century Keyboard Composers ; 12 Music for Instrumental Ensemble I: The Sonata ; The Chief Ensemble Instruments of the Baroque ; Types of Baroque Music for Instrumental Ensemble ; The Baroque Sonata ; 13 Music for Instrumental Ensemble II: Sinfonia and Concerto ; The Bolognese Trumpet Sinfonia ; The Baroque Concerto ; 14 A Mid-Eighteenth-Century Epilogue: The Galant Style ; The Galant Style ; Bibliography ; Index