Eighteenth-Century Resources — Music
This page, edited by Jack Lynch of Rutgers – Newark, is part of the larger collection of Eighteenth-Century Resources on the Net.
Music
Eighteenth-century music is surprisingly sparse — most music resources on the Web are either general or commercial, devoted to hawking CDs. The following are worth a browse:General Musical Resources
- Music Resources on the Internet
- Meta-index of resources on classical music and jazz on the Internet.
- Classical Music — Classical Net Home Page
- Includes discussions of the basic repertoire, almost 2,000 recommended CDs, reviews, information on composers, and links.
- The Eighteenth Century
- General survey.
- The Classical Music Pages (Matt Boynick)
- An impressive general site by a young conductor. Includes music history, composer pages, and introductory music theory. Not strictly 18th-c.; includes pages on Vivaldi, Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven.
- Classical Music UK
- A very substantial set of links to all things musical.
- World of Classical Music (Johan Alkerstedt)
- Illustrations and brief biographies of selected major composers from the Renaissance to the present, including Pachelbel, Purcell, Vivaldi, J. S. Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert.
- The Symphony — An Interactive Guide
- An impressive guide to the form, with pages on Beethoven, Haydn, and Mozart (along with others from other periods). Unscholarly but solid.
- The Lied and Art Song Texts Page
- An extensive collection of texts (in original languages and sometimes English translations) of many thousands of lieder and other songs. Not limited to the 18th c., but it's well served. Very impressive.
- Forthcoming Conferences in Music (UK)
- Calls for papers and other information on conferences.
- Society for Seventeenth-Century Music (Irvine)
- Mostly information on the Society, but with some useful links, including one to Doctoral Dissertations in Musicology.
- Pagina del liuto barocco/The Baroque Lute Page
- Italian and English information on the lute and its composers and players.
- Classicism, Lieder and Lute
- "Dedicated to Classical and early Romantic Lied and its relationship to lutenistic art, a relationship which requires a certain stretch of imagination." Includes tablatures of lute music.
- Tombeaux for Lute
- Information on the genre, with tablature.
- Composers (Michael Norrish, Cambridge)
- Very brief and informal biographical sketches, with links to Web resources.
- Fasola Home Page
- "Information Resources for Sacred Harp and Other American Shape Note Traditions."
- Folk Music of England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales and America (Lesley Nelson)
- A superb collection of resources on folk music from the sixteenth century to the present, including texts, MIDI transcriptions of the music, some historical commentary, and links.
- Musical Improvisation in the Eighteenth Century (Martin Maner, Wright State Univ.)
- A guide to improvisation, including scores and MIDI files. Very informative; requires some musical knowledge, but nothing very abstruse.
- Baroque WebRing
- A collection of over 100 sites, mostly unscholarly, on Baroque music, including performance styles, recordings, and so on.
- An American Ballroom Companion: Dance Instruction Manuals, ca. 1490-1920 (Library of Congress)
- A collection of more than 200 dance manuals.
- Ballard Music Printers of the French Baroque (Tula Giannini)
- A long scholarly article on 18th-c. music printing, with extensive documentation.
- American Music Timeline - 18th century
Composers and Performers
Johann Sebastian Bach
- J. S. Bach Home Page (Jan Hanford and Jan Koster)
- A first-rate overview of Bach's life and work, with a catalogue of compositions (indexed by by BWV number, category, title, year, key, instrument, &c.), portraits, recommended recordings, and links to other sites.
- Dave's J. S. Bach Page: A Directory of J. S. Bach Resources on the Internet
- Another fine meta-page of Bach resources, with informationon biography, recordings, performances and performers, scores, and more.
- Newsgroup alt.music.j-s-bach
- Unmoderated discussion group.
- J. S. Bach: Analysis of Canons & Fugues (Timothy Smith, Northern Arizona Univ.)
- Extensive commentary and analysis on the canons and fugures, including selections from scores and audio clips. Very scholarly.
- Alexandre H. Hohmann's Bach Page (Geocities)
- Extensive site, more adulatory than scholarly, featuring biography, images, docments (including letters), texts of cantatas, &c. Requires frames. Like all Geocities sites, irritatingly commercial.
- Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (Wolfgang Schmieder, Chicago)
- The complete BWV catalogue in Filemaker and Acrobat format.
- Bach Plucked! (Canberra, Australia)
- "Devoted to the playing of Bach and his contemporaries on the lute and guitar." Includes reviews of recordings and some MIDI files, along with links to other Bach sites. Requires frames.
- Scores, libretti, etc.
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- Cantatas (Netherlands) (under development)
- Christmas Oratorio (Germany)
- St. John Passion (Germany)
- St. Matthew Passion (Germany)
Ludwig van Beethoven
- Beethoven Bibliography Database (San Jose State Univ.)
- An index of over 2,500 books and scores.
- Scores, libretti, etc.
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- Choral Fantasy (in German and English) (Indiana)
George Augustus Polgreen Bridgetower
- George Augustus Polgreen Bridgetower (c. 1780-1860), Black Violinist Accompanied by Beethoven (William J. Zick)
- Brief biography of the violinist.
André Campra
- L'Europe galante (Intac.com)
C. W. Gluck
- Armida (in Italian)
Georg Friderich Handel
- Alexandre H. Hohmann's Handel Page (Geocities)
- Extensive site, more adulatory than scholarly, featuring biography, images, docments (including letters), &c. Requires frames. Like all Geocities sites, irritatingly commercial.
- George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) (Brad Leissa and David Vickers)
- Brief bio, reviews of recordings, a chronology, bibliographies, links, and some background information. An increasingly useful page, as new material is added.
Franz Joseph Haydn
- Franz Joseph Haydn 1732-1809
- A thorough biography, list of works, discography, and links. Very heavy on the Java.
- Scores, libretti, etc.
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- Symphony no. 104 in D Major (ZIP file from Gutenberg)
- Die Jahreszeiten (The Four Seasons (Germany)
- Te Deum (Wisconsin)
Etienne Nicolas Méhul
- Scores, libretti, etc.
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- Stratonice (1792)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
- Mozart Project (Steve Boerner)
- Extensive and well-designed site, including a biography (incomplete), information on compositions (by Köchel number), short essays, and links to other sites.
- The W. A. Mozart Page (MHRCC.org)
- Links to other Mozart resources on the Web; categories include biography, works, reviews, movies, other sites, T-shirts, and other classical music sites.
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Matt Boynick, Germany)
- Extensive outline of Mozart's works, though only a few are filled in. Gives information (date, orchestration, key, dedication, location of autograph score) and audio clips.
- Alexandre H. Hohmann's Mozart Page
- Extensive site, more adulatory than scholarly, featuring biography, images, docments (including letters), &c. Requires frames.
- Mozart Society of America
- Brief information on the Society, with a few links.
- The Mozart Page (Midiworld)
- MIDI files of Mozart's music.
- Mozart, the Man and the Artist, as Revealed in His Own Words, ed. Friedrich Kerst and Henry Edward Krehbiel (Gutenberg)
- Full text of the book.
- Scores, libretti, etc.
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- La Clemenza di Tito
- La Clemenza di Tito (Geocities)
- Don Giovanni (Italy)
- The Magic Flute Project
Gioacchino Rossini
- Scores, libretti, etc.
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- La Cenerentola (Stanford)
- Il Turco in Italia (Cambridge)
- William Tell (French) (Stanford)
- William Tell (Italian) (Stanford)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
- Scores, libretti, etc.
Chevalier de Saint-Georges
- Chevalier de Saint-Georges (1739-1799), African-American Composer, Violinist, and Conductor
- A biography and discgraphy of the late-century composer.
Franz Schubert
- Notes on Franz Schubert (Bart Berman)
- A biography, analysis of the piano works, pictures, and links provided by a pianist.
Johann George Tromlitz
- Johann George Tromlitz (1725-1805)
- Chatty biography and bibliography on the 18thc. flautist.
Carl Maria von Weber
- Der Freischütz (Stanford)
Scores and MIDI files
- Postscript-encoded scores for pieces by Bach and Mozart (Germany)
- Available through FTP.
- Classical MIDI Files (Midiworld)
- Includes Bach, Haydn, Handel, Mozart, and Scarlatti
- MIDI files of Bach (UCSD)
- Mac-compatible.
Selected Commercial Sites
- Artaria
- Recordings of late 18th-c. music.
- Folkers & Powell Historical Flutes
- Information on historical flutes, heavy on the 18th c.
Authentic Layout 4 first violins on the left 4 second violins on the right 2 violas 2 cellos 2 double basses 2 flutes 2 oboes 2 bassoons 2 horns 2 trumpets on a raised platform a pair of timpani on a raised platform 1 harpsichord played by the director The two small violin groups would play without vibrato, achieving Mozart's antiphonal effects with great clarity. The proportionally larger woodwind would strike through the textures, and the brass would play out with full force, obeying Mozart's dynamic markings. The director would hold the performance together with audible harpsichord signals. The andante would move at comfortable walking pace. All repeats would be played. Traditional 20 first violins on the left 20 second violins and the left 10 violas in the center 10 cellos on the right 4 double basses on the right. 2 flutes 2 oboes 2 bassoons 2 horns 2 trumpets 1 pair of timpani Woodwinds would be submerged. Brass would be encouraged to blend. The conductor would mold the music. The andante would be slow, and most repeats omitted. The strings would play with vibrato.
work in progress
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