Music
Baroque Music Quiz
Bach, Handel, Vivaldi — how well do you know the 1600-1750 era of ornate music?
Bach, Handel, Vivaldi — how well do you know the 1600-1750 era of ornate music?
Jean-Baptiste Lully, the dominant composer at the court of Louis XIV, accidentally stabbed his own foot with his conducting staff during a performance and died of gangrene — one of the most bizarre deaths in music history. This 50-question quiz covers the full Baroque era (1600-1750), from Monteverdi's L'Orfeo to Bach's final fugue, spanning the innovations of opera, concerto, and tonality itself.
The Baroque era in Western classical music spans roughly 1600 to 1750. It begins with Monteverdi's early operas and ends conventionally with the death of Johann Sebastian Bach on July 28, 1750.
Antonio Vivaldi composed The Four Seasons (Le quattro stagioni) around 1720, published in 1725 as part of his collection Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione. Vivaldi was an Italian priest nicknamed "Il Prete Rosso" (The Red Priest) for his red hair.
Basso continuo is the foundational accompaniment system of Baroque music. It consists of a bass line instrument (like cello or bassoon) playing the written notes, while a harmony instrument (typically harpsichord or organ) improvises chords above using a system called figured bass notation.