The word oratorio, from the Italian for pulpit, was "named from the kind of musical services held in the church of the Oratory of St Philip Neri in Rome (Congregazione dell'Oratorio ) in the latter ha ...
Gluck was born in Erasbach (now a district of Berching, Bavaria) the first of six surviving children. His father, Alexander Johannes, came from a long line of foresters, and married Gluck's mother, Ma ...
C. P. E. Bach was born in Weimar in 1714 to Johann Sebastian Bach and his first wife, Maria Barbara. The composer Georg Philipp Telemann was his godfather. When he was ten years old, he entered the St ...
The word ballet comes from the French and was borrowed into English around 1630. The French word in turn has its origin in Italian balletto, a diminutive of ballo (dance) which comes from Latin ballo, ...
In general, 'trio' denotes a group of three solo instruments or voices (Randel 2003). The term is also used to describe a composition for such a group. The most common types of such compositions are t ...
Divertimento (/d??v?rt??m?nto?/; from the Italian divertire "to amuse") is a musical genre, with most of its examples from the 18th century. The mood of the divertimento is most often lighthear ...
In the oldest usage, which survives in informal form to the present day, a serenade is a musical greeting performed for a lover, friend, person of rank or other person to be honored. The classic seren ...
The origins of the string quartet can be traced back to the Baroque trio sonata, in which two solo instruments performed with a continuo section consisting of a bass instrument (such as the cello) and ...
The word symphony is derived from Greek συμφων?α (symphonia), meaning "agreement or concord of sound", "concert of vocal or instrumental music", from σ?μφωνο? (symphōnos), "harmonious ...
In commercial popular music, instrumental tracks are sometimes renderings of a corresponding release that features vocals, but they may also be compositions originally conceived without vocals. An ins ...
The accompaniment part usually provides the harmonic background and the rhythmic structure for the piece of music or song. The harmonic background is usually provided by one or more instruments that p ...
While homophony can be heard in nearly all European musical traditions, the first notated examples appeared during the Medieval period in dance music, such as the Estampie. However, because manuscript ...
In the middle of the 18th century, Europe began to move toward a new style in architecture, literature, and the arts, generally known as Classicism. This style sought to emulate the ideals of Classica ...
1681–1701: Childhood and early youth Telemann's birthplace, the city of Magdeburg, in early 18th century. Some 50 years before Telemann's birth the city was sacked and had to be rebuilt.Telemann was ...
Handel was born in 1685 in Halle, Duchy of Magdeburg, to Georg H?ndel and Dorothea Taust. His father, 63 when George Frideric was born, was an eminent barber-surgeon who served the court of Saxe-Weis ...
