Jacopo Peri

Credited with writing the first opera, “Euridice,” and seen as key in transitioning music from Renaissance to Baroque stylings

Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck

Established North Germany organ tradition, the harmonically and rhythmically complex improvisatory style that was later mastered by Dieterich Buxtehude

Claudio Monteverdi

First musical dramatist, sometimes considered first Baroque opera composer, who built on Peri’s Renaissance-Baroque transition work

Gregorio Allegri

An early instrumentalist who is more well-known for his vocal works, mainly “Miserere mei, Deus,” which is sung annually at the Sistine Chapel during Holy Week

Girolamo Frescobaldi

Influential early instrumental Baroque keyboard composer who showed how interesting keyboard music, unaccompanied by voice, could be

Heinrich Schütz

With “Dafne,” first German opera composer and the most renowned German composer before Bach and Handel

Samuel Scheidt

Student of Sweelinck who helped spread North German organ tradition throughout Europe, and noted for his “patterned variation” keyboard technique in which chorale phrases build to a climax

Denis Gaultier

French lutenist known for writing graceful melodic lines with clear phrase structures

William Lawes

Minor figure but possibly the most notable English composer along with John Blow prior to Henry Purcell. His viol consort suites juxtaposed bizarre, spine-tingling themes with pastoral ones

Francesco Cavalli

Helped bring opera to the masses with his performances in small public houses that relied on limited orchestras of strings and basso continuo

Giacomo Carissimi

First master of the oratorio, which set biblical or other forms of sacred text to music in dramatized settings that dispensed with scenery and costumes

Antonio Bretali

Helped establish the tradition of Italian opera seria

Johann Jakob Froberger

Developed the keyboard suite and contributed to the exchange of musical traditions through his travels outside Germany

Barbara Strozzi

Arguably the most notable female composer of the Baroque period with vocal pieces that are firmly rooted in the seconda pratica tradition but that have more lyricism than Monteverdi’s work

Johann Heinrich Schmelzer

Virtuoso violinist who helped bring the sonata form to Germany and whose innovative techniques in playing and tuning greatly influenced Biber.

Jean-Henri d’Anglebert

Known mainly for his four suites of harpsichord music and the standard he set for the material quality of the music books he published

Jean-Baptiste Lully

The Italian founder of French opera who, with Moliiere, created comédie-ballet, which combined theater, comedy, incidental music, and ballet. “Psyché” is his most well-known work

Dieterich Buxtehude

Pinnacle of North German organ tradition who is said to have inspired Bach to walk 200 miles to hear him play. His organ works today remain central to the standard organ repertoire

Marc-Antoine Charpentier

Known for his sacred music, which is considered more varied, expressive, and accessible than that of Lully, his contemporary

Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber

Widely regarded as one of the most important composers for the violin in the history of the instrument, pioneering many tuning and playing techniques and composing works that use multiple stops in intricate polyphonic passages. His “Mystery Sonatas” are among the earliest known pieces for solo violin

John Blow

English composer whose opera, “Venus and Adonis,” is credited with influencing Henry Purcell’s landmark opera, “Dido and Aeneas,” and who composed hundreds of anthems for Anglican church services

Domenico Gabrielli

Composer of some of the earliest works for solo cello, including a group of seven ricercari for unaccompanied cello

Johann Pachelbel

Known today mostly for his Canon in D, which is loved and dismissed in equal measure by critics. In his time, he was greatly admired for his work, considered the highest achievement of the South German organ tradition, which is simpler, more melodic than that of the North German organ traditon

Arcangelo Corelli

Eminent instrumentalist composer who is widely credited with developing two of the most significant forms of instrumental music there is, the sonata and the concerto. His “Christmas Concerto” remains a favorite today

Marin Marais

Master of the basse de viol and the leading French composer for the instrument, which today has largely been replaced by the cello

Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer

Widely regarded as one of the best keyboardists of his day, but most of his work has been lost, so the German composer’s work is rarely heard today

Giuseppe Torelli

Matured Corelli’s idea of the concerto and today his 12 concerti of opus 8 constitute one of the great achievements of the Baroque period

Henry Purcell

Combined French and Italian influences into a unique English Baroque style. The opera “Dido and Aeneas” is his most well-known work and today he remains one of England’s most eminent composers

Alessandro Scarlatti

Founder of the Neapolitan school of opera, which took Italian opera in a more Classical, less Baroque style, and influenced even non-Italian opera, including the work of Handel

Johann Christoph Pez

German composer whose work, heavily influenced by Lully’s French style, is little played today but was highly regarded during his time for the quality of his sonatas

Attilio Ariosti

Noted for his opera and, maybe more importantly, his work for the viola d’amore, which is a violin-like instrument characterized by non-playing “sympathetic strings” that resonate “in sympathy” with the strings above them when they’re played. Biber is another composer who made memorable use of sympathetic strings

Jean-Féry Rebel

French violin prodigy who studied under Lully and whose work often had a surprisingly modern, and often under-appreciated, sound to it, with striking counter-rhythms and complex harmonies

François Couperin

French keyboard master who innovated fingering techniques, established new heights of ornamentation, and brought Corelli’s sonata form to France

Tomaso Albinoni

Italian composer whose instrumental music greatly influenced Bach but who is almost entirely known today for a piece of music he didn’t actually write, the “Adagio in D Minor.” The piece was mainly written by Italian musicologist Remo Giazotto, who, after Albinoni’s death, took the small bit that Albinoni had written and turned it into the piece that’s so familiar today

Antonio Vivaldi

The greatest and most prolific writer of concertos, including the set of four violin concertos so popular today, the “Four Seasons”

Jan Dismas Zelenka

Czech Baroque composer whose music is admired for its daring compositional structure, harmonic invention, and counterpoint

Pietro Castrucci

Virtuoso violinist who studied under Corelli and eventually settled in London. HIs work is little known today, but he is credited with inventing the violetta marina, an instrument no one today has seen but is believed to be a smaller version of the viola d’amore

Georg Philipp Telemann

Hyper-prolific composer of some 3,000 works who was greatly admired by Bach, a friend of his, and whose music is said to serve as a bridge between German Baroque and Classical styles

Jean-Philippe Rameau

French harpsichord genius whose music built on the work of Lully and became the pinnacle of the French opera tradition

Johann Gottfried Walther

German music theorist, organist, composer, and lexicographer of the Baroque era. He was most well known as the compiler of the Musicalisches Lexicon. 

Johann Sebastian Bach

The titan of western art whose music is revered for its intellectual depth, technical command, and artistic beauty

Domenico Scarlatti

Master harpsichord composer whose work, starting with his 555 keyboard sonatas, helped transition music from a Baroque to a Classical sound

George Frideric Handel

German-born British composer who made his fame and established his imminence as a writer of operas and oratorios, but who is as well-known today for his concerti grossi, including “The Water Music,” and his sonatas

Benedetto Marcello

Much admired in his time for his Vivaldi-like work, he’s largely known today for his Estro poetico-armonico, a musical setting for voices, figured bass, and occasional solo instruments

Sylvius Leopold Weiss

German lutenist who was perhaps the most prolific composer for the instrument with his approximately 600 pieces for it

Francesca Geminiani

Instrumentalist composer in the manner of Corelli but with his concerti grossi and sonatas, enlarged the canvas by varying the material more than Corelli and enriching the orchestral colorations

Johann Friedrich Fasch

German violinist held in high regard by Bach for his work, including his cantatas, concertos, and symphonies, but his vocal works have largely been lost

Giuseppe Antonio Brescianello

Violinist and lutenist known mainly for his 12 concerti e sinphonie op. 1 and 18 pieces for gallichone, a type of lute

Francesco Maria Veracini

Violinist best known for his suites of violin sonatas. His bowing technique so impressed Tartini that it led this latter composer to withdraw from public while he studied how to apply it to his own work

Giuseppe Tartini

Corelli’s most significant successor in writing music for the violin. He wrote 150 or so violin concertos and a hundred violin sonatas, including his “Devil’s Trill Sonata,” which Tartini said came to him in a dream

Pietro Locatelli

Violin virtuoso whose “L’arte del violino, opus 3,” a collection of 12 concertos for solo violin, strings, and basso continuo, was one of the most influential musical publications of the early eighteenth century. Locatelli’s style is considered a bridge between Corelli and Vivaldi

Jean-Marie Leclair

 Renowned violinist who is considered to have founded the French violin school.

Johann Joachim Quantz

Widely regarded as the greatest player and teacher of the flute, and composer for the instrument. He was also an innovative designer of the instrument, adding keys to enhance intonation

Johann Adolph Hasse

A popular composer in his day, best known for his prolific operatic output and for his role in developing opera seria, the noble, serious form of opera that contrasts with opera buffa, or comic opera

Carlos Seixas

Portuguese composer influenced by the German Empfindsamer Stil (“sensitive style”) for keyboard works. Only three orchestral pieces and around 100 keyboard sonatas, plus a handful of choral works for liturgical use, are available today

Baldassare Galuppi

Known as “the father of the comic opera,” he enjoyed considerable fame for the dramma giocoso (“merry”) style of opera that he helped usher in

Giovanni Battista Pergolesi

Along with Galuppi, an innovator of opera buffa, or comic opera, whose work helped establish the traditions that would govern the writing of opera buffa for more than a century

William Boyce

English “Galante” composer best known for his set of eight symphonies, anthems, and odes. “Galante” refers to a simplified, modern style of music that, in some accounts, is seen as a kind of transition between the Baroque and Classical periods of music

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