Bach wrote for single instruments, duets, and small ensembles. Many of his solo works, such as his six sonatas and partitas for violin (BWV 1001–1006), six cello suites (BWV 1007–1012), and partita ...
Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach, Saxe-Eisenach, on 21 March 1685 O.S. (31 March 1685 N.S.). He was the son of Johann Ambrosius Bach, the director of the town musicians, and Maria Elisabeth ...
The term "concerto" was initially used to denote works involving voices and instruments in which the instruments had independent parts—as opposed to the Renaissance common practice in which the instr ...
The term sonatina, literally "small sonata", is often used for a short or technically easy sonata.Instrumentation In the Baroque period, a sonata was for one or more instruments almost always with con ...
Inventions are similar in style to a fugue, though they are much simpler. They consist of a short exposition, a longer development, and, sometimes, a short recapitulation. The key difference is that i ...
A fugue begins with the exposition and is written according to certain predefined rules; in later portions the composer has more freedom, though a logical key structure is usually followed. Further en ...
The clavichord was invented in the early fourteenth century. In 1504, the German poem "Der Minne Regeln" mentions the terms clavicimbalum (a term used mainly for the harpsichord) and clavichordium, de ...
The case holds in position all of the important structural members: pinblock, soundboard, hitchpins, keyboard, and the jack action. It usually includes a solid bottom, and also internal bracing to mai ...
A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed."Harpsichord" designates the whole family of similar plucked keyboard ...
The organ has had an important place in classical music throughout its history. Antonio de Cabezón, Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, and Girolamo Frescobaldi were three of the most important composers and ...
Pipe organs use wind moving through pipes to produce sounds. Since the 16th century, pipe organs have used various materials of pipes, which can vary widely in timbre and volume. The pipes are divided ...
Flutes produce sound by directing a focused stream of air across the edge of a hole in a cylindrical tube. The flute family can be divided into two sub-families: open flutes, and closed flutes.To prod ...
Modern brass instruments generally come in one of two families:Valved brass instruments use a set of valves (typically three or four but as many as seven or more in some cases) operated by the player' ...
In Western classical music, smaller ensembles are called chamber music ensembles. The terms duet, trio, quartet, quintet, sextet, septet, octet, nonet and dectet describe groups of two up to ten music ...
Counterpoint most generally involves very different, independent, and harmonious musical lines. In each era, contrapuntally organized music writing has been subject to rules—sometimes strict ones. Ch ...
