A Brief History of Guitar Music and Composers

Josquin’s career was defined by the invention of the printer which allowed his masses and other compositions to be printed and shared more easily among the country. In many of his pieces, he illustrates his gift of the pervasive imitation technique: a polyphonic piece with the repetition of a melody at different pitch levels than the original. Many scholars contribute his textural influences on the beginning of word-painting technique (music that reflects the emotion or meaning of the song). He wrote all different types of music throughout his lifetime such as: masses, motets, instrumental pieces, chansons, and even motet-chanson (a new form during the time). He had many techniques for his masses such as paraphrase and canonic masses. Many of his motets, he wrote for five or six voices instead of the standard four voices and often used imitation. The most famous of his pieces are Ave Maria… Virgo serena and Missa Pange lingua. Overall, Josquin des Prez was one of the most well-known and influential composer during the Renaissance period and many scholars credit him to be the first to master polyphonic music. He contributed tons to the Franco-Flemish school and helped lead the way for greater harmonic development. He is truly a well-rounded composer who helped push the Renaissance musical period to the next level and created many beautiful, well-known sacred and secular

Reality comes from creating an imagined thought - whether that thought stemmed from something that someone has seen to what someone has heard, or even felt. The composer that will be discussed throughout this essay composed Morir non può il mio cuore in 1566, this composer is none other but Maddalena Casulana. During the years in which Casulana composed music, she was always looking to present her dedications of her madrigal volumes in a way to provide a little more biographical information than most would at the time. Throughout 1560-1569, she began to publish what would ultimately become her three-volume collection of madrigals (1568; 1570; 1583) that were published the year of her death and which were the first three books of madrigals by a women composer to ever be printed (Franck, Brownstone, 1995. Page 46, 48). Casulana presented her music in a very dramatic way, she was different and unique, focusing and attracted to the topics of ones passing and perpetual dying (Sadie, 1980. Page 2). She was an Italian composer and singer who told a story through the pieces she had composed; expressing each piece in a distinct and narrative way. Maddalena Casulana contributed a great deal of music that till this day will be remembered and cherished.

Antonio Vivaldi was born in 1678 in Venice; he was the eldest of nine children born to Giovanni Vivaldi and Camilla Calicchio. His family was fairly poor; his father was a barber turned professional violinist. His father cofounded a musical fraternity called the Sovvegno Dei Musicisti di Santa Cecilia in 1685 with Giovanni Legrenzi, a famous Venetian music figure. Antonio traveled around performing with his father

This text was written in Italy where the author came from. it was written when he was 49 years old and the renaissance was actively happening at the time.

It is during one of the residences he had in Milan when “he played at Verona, Padua—where the "prison" stories seem to have originated” [Paganini, rumored to have spent eighty years in a dungeon for a murder] (Stratton). He composed fifteen Quartets for Violin, Viola, Cello, and Guitar during this period (Lloja). Ironically, it wasn’t until 1825 that Paganini felt he had developed his skills to put them on display throughout Europe (Lloja). Paganini’s reputation would, at times, proceed him on these travels. When he visited Naples for the first time in 1819, he found the local musicians had composed a tricky and incredibly difficult piece for him to perform sight unseen (Stratton). Nicolo played it flawlessly the first time through, even after it became apparent that the other musicals had practiced the piece earlier (Stratton). His reputation continued to growing outside of Italy, Paganini decided to leave for fame and wealth

Composer of Per La Gloria D’Adorarvi, Giovanni Battista Bononcini(1672-1748) was born into a family of composers. Both his father and brother were composers. Although he was orphaned at age 8, he still followed in his fathers footsteps, releasing instrumental music by age 15. Throughout his life, he moved around to many different European countries, but he was born and died in Italy. This shows through in his Italian baroque style, which he helped spread around Europe in his travels.

Also he had composed keyboard pieces, oratorios, symphonies, and operas. He performed his first major opera when he was fourteen it was staged in Milan in 1770 the style of the opera was opera seria, Mitriade.

Artist included Perugino, Battista Spagnoli, Raphael, Andrea Mantegna, Castiglione and Bandello. Some writers included Ariosto and Baldassare Castiglione, and musicians Bartolomeo Tromboncino and Marchetto Cara.

Henry Purcell is seen as one of the greatest composers of the Baroque period and one of the greatest of all English composers. His earliest surviving works date from 1680 and show a complete command of musical composition. They include some fantasias for viols, masterpieces of contrapuntal writing, and more contemporary sonatas for violins, which reveal some acquaintance with Italian models. Purcell, in his time, became increasingly in demand as a composer, and his theatre music in particular made his name familiar to many who knew nothing of his church music or the odes and welcome songs he wrote for the court of three different kings over twenty-five years.

Another famous piece of his would be a motet he wrote called: Sicut Cervus. Sicut cervus is well known and thought to be one of the main motets that captures the true idea of Renaissance counterpoint. This motet about love has a good polyphonic flow and a good melody and is very pretty which amplifies its lyrics of love. He is famous for many of his religious masses, secular madrigals and his counterpoint music, many people and religious leaders enjoyed his styling and

Vittorio Sica, a young male of the age of 24, Born and raised in Paris, France.

On March 6th, 1475 Leonardo di Buonarrota and Francesca Neri had their second out of five sons in the small village of Caprese, Italy. They named him Michelangelo di Lodovivo Buonarroti Simoni. But soon after being birthed Michelangelo moved to Florence, Italy with his family.

Giovanni Palestrina was an Italian composer who was born in Palestrina, near Rome. Giovanni was born on February 3, 1525 and died February 2, 1594. He studied with Robin Mallapert and Firmin Label. Giovanni went to school at St. Maria Maggiore. He spend most of his job in the city. Giovanni was influenced by the Northern European style of polyphony. He played organ for his church that he was deeply into.

Antonio Vivaldi was born on March 4, 1678 in the town of Venice, Italy. His father was quite the musician and helped his son master the violin and also helped him get find lessons from some the best composers in Italy. Sadly, do to his symptoms that were similar to asthma often causing him to have severe shortness of breath he was unable to master several instruments. At one point in his early life he even became a priest but this was short lived do to his continuing health issues therefore he had to give up his priesthood. “At the age of 25, Antonio Vivaldi was named master of violin at the Ospedale della Pietà (Devout Hospital of Mercy) in Venice” (). This is where he spent in upwards of thirty years teaching his students and only having

The Guitar is a stringed musical instrument with six or twelve strings that is played by either plucking or strumming the strings. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. If an individual were asked to identify a guitar most people would answer the question correctly more so than they would if they were asked about another instrument. When people think about famous guitarists, they more than likely think of famous rock and roll guitarists and do not think about the many other famous guitarists in other musical genres such as jazz or country. The guitar is a well-known instrument that influences many musical genres including Country.