Jean-Baptiste Lully (UK: /ˈlʊli/, US: /luːˈliː/; French: [ʒɑ̃ baˈtist lyˈli]; born Giovanni Battista Lulli, Italian: [ˈlulli]; 28 November 1632 – 22 March 1687) was an Italian-born French composer, instrumentalist, and dancer who spent most of his life working in the court of Louis XIV of France. He is considered a master of the French Baroque style. Lully disavowed any Italian influence in French music of the period. He became a French subject in 1661.
How to listen to and understand music
Mozart Variations K.265
Bach, Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 582
Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 582
Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor (BWV 582) is an organ piece by Johann Sebastian Bach. Presumably composed early in Bach’s career, it is one of his most important and well-known works, and an important influence on 19th and 20th century passacaglias: Robert Schumann described the variations of the passacaglia as “intertwined so ingeniously that one can never cease to be amazed.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passacaglia_and_Fugue_in_C_minor,_BWV_582
Passacaglia
The passacaglia (/pæsəˈkɑːliə/; Italian: [pasːaˈkaʎːa]) is a musical form that originated in early seventeenth-century Spain and is still used today by composers. It is usually of a serious character and is often, but not always, based on a bass-ostinato and written in triple metre.
Concerto grosso
A concertino, literally “little ensemble”, is the group of soloists in a concerto grosso. This is opposed to the ripieno and tutti which is the larger group contrasting with the concertino.
Though the concertino is the smaller of the two groups, its material is generally more virtuosic than that of the ripieno. Further, the concertino does not share thematic material with the ripieno, but presents unique ideas. This contrast of small group to large group and one thematic group against another is very characteristic of Baroque ideology—similar to terraced dynamics where the idea is significant contrast.
Bach – Cantata 140: Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140 (1731)
Purcell – Dido & Aeneas – When I am laid in earth (Dido’s lament) Elin Manahan Thomas
Mozart: Symphony No. 40, 4th mov.
Cipriano de Rore – Datemi pace
Josquin des Prez – Wikipedia
Josquin des Prez (French: [ʒɔskɛ̃ depʁe]; c. 1450/1455 – 27 August 1521), often referred to simply as Josquin, was a French composer of the Renaissance. His original name is sometimes given as Josquin Lebloitte and his later name is given under a wide variety of spellings in French, Italian, and Latin, including Iosquinus Pratensis and Iodocus a Prato. His motet Illibata Dei virgo nutrix includes an acrostic of his name, where he spelled it “Josquin des Prez”. He was the most famous European composer between Guillaume Dufay and Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, and is usually considered to be the central figure of the Franco-Flemish School. Josquin is widely considered by music scholars to be the first master of the high Renaissance style of polyphonic vocal music that was emerging during his lifetime.
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525 – 2 February 1594) was an Italian Renaissance composer of sacred music and the best-known 16th-century representative of the Roman School of musical composition. He had a lasting influence on the development of church music, and his work is considered as the culmination of Renaissance polyphony.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Pierluigi_da_Palestrina