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The 18th Century was an age of growing popularity for opera and independent instrumental music. Vivaldi composed operas and instrumental concertos in Venice. Rameau wrote serious and comic operas in Paris. Handel wrote successful operas––first in Italy, then in London––as well as keyboard and independent ensemble music. Johann Sebastian Bach, primarily a composer of church music, also wrote important works for organ, harpsichord, instrumental sonatas, concertos, and secular cantatas for festive occasions. Each of the following seven composers wrote important music for worship as well as music for entertainment. A review of this music describes the growing importance of the secular musical culture of Europe and identifies some of the influences that helped to shape Lutheran sacred music of the era. Antonio Vivaldi (1768-1741), an ordained priest, was head and musical director of an internationally renowned orphanage school for girls in Venice. Vivaldi was a facile, prolific composer who wrote more than 500 concertos (including The Four Seasons) and Sinfonie, and 90 solo and trio sonatas. All are in a style that often features violins in passages of great energy and rhythmic vitality. He wrote about 50 operas, 40 secular cantatas, and several dramatic oratorios that enriched the Italian tradition of writing in the operatic style. Bach made at least 10 transcriptions of Vivaldi concertos. Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764), the most prominent French musician of his day, wrote only a few operas, some keyboard works, and an influential treatise on musical theory. It provided musicians with a well-organized, enduring concept of harmonic progressions and tonality. Rameau wrote French operas in the grand style that included ballet and featured instrumental movements of elegance, liveliness, and grace. His keyboard and small ensemble works reveal many of these same qualities. George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) contributed music in four major areas: opera oratorio, keyboard, and instrumental ensemble. After periods of preparation in Germany and Italy, he composed about 40 popular Italian operas, chiefly in England. For financial reasons Handel left the opera form for oratorio production. Of those, Messiah (1742) was and remains his most celebrated work. Handel’s 26 oratorios are powerful, effective vehicles for presenting the Biblical sagas that he favored. In spite of their glorious choral music, they generally are not considered worship music because of their operatic characteristics. His orchestral suites, such as Water Music and Royal Fireworks, illustrate his skill in writing tuneful, well-crafted ceremonial music. His keyboard and small ensemble works similarly reveal a lighter approach to polyphonic writing than that of Bach. Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) wrote at least 20 operas, and many secular cantatas, and songs. His nearly 100 concertos, overtures, and works for small ensemble and keyboard, all give evidence of his great skill in writing music that often was light, yet dramatic and powerful. Antonio Caldara (1670-1736) was an influential Italian composer of more than 3,000 works, including dramatic operas, oratorios, and cantatas. Bach, who personally transcribed some of Caldara’s sacred music for his own use, knew his work. François Couperin (1668-1733) is best known as a composer of more than 27 suites of dances and descriptive pieces for harpsichord. Bach was well acquainted with his famous treatise on melodic ornamentation. J. S. Bach (1685-1750) wrote a large body of secular music. Some of it was for entertainment and some was for dedications and presentations. By far the largest part of his music not written for worship seems to have been designed for teaching purposes or to satisfy his desire to completely explore the possibilities inherent in any given music form. Generally, his keyboard works could be played on the harpsichord, clavichord, or later, on the fortepiano. These include The Well-tempered Clavier, Parts 1 and 2 (BWV 846-869, 870-893) of 1722 and about 1740. They contained 48 preludes and fugues. Each was written in one of the 12 major and minor keys, and illustrated many possibilities of composition and performance. The keyboard suites called French (BWV 825-830), English (BWV 806-811), and the Partitas (BWV 825-830) all consist of stylized dance movements. The Goldberg Variations (BWV 988) comprise 30 masterful variations on a theme. Bach’s many solo sonatas for individual unaccompanied instruments explore the possibilities of implied harmonic writing for single wind or stringed instruments without basso continuo. Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos (BWV 1046-1051) are mostly three-movement concertos in Italian style. The Orchestral Suites (BWV 1066-1069) of about 1729-1731 are sets of lively dance movements. The orchestral works probably were intended for outdoor performance, perhaps at Zimmermann’s Coffee House on a Leipzig summer evening. Two of Bach’s most ingenious works were created in the last years of his life. The Musical Offering (BWV 1079) of 1747 consists of intricate fugues and canons based on a theme given to him by Frederick the Great of Prussia. The Art of the Fugue (BWV 1080), left unfinished at Bach’s death, was his greatest exposition of all types of contrapuntal writing. Bach also wrote more than 40 secular cantatas for various personal and civic events. They are in a style that can be humorous, touchingly personal, or impressive yet closely resembling that of his sacred cantatas.
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