Word: instrument
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...violin, viloncello, and organ by Arcangelo Corelli, the first mature composer of violin music. Being a master of the violin himself, he greatly improved the technique of violin playing. This was demonstrated in his compositions in which he was able to bring out the different characteristics of the instrument. The slow movements of his sonnets are perfect vehicles for displaying the singing quality of a violin. It was also Corelli who made the first step towards the development of the sonata form, by the introduction of contrasted themes within his works. The full realization of this idea...
George Friederich Handel, one of the greatest of Thorough Bass composers, made an important advance in the development of the concerto. In this period it was more common for composers to write a concerto grosso, a form of music in which a group of solo instruments are heard against a full orchestra, instead of the concerto where the contrast is made with a single instrument. But Handel needed relaxation between the sections of his Oratorios, so he turned to the Concerto, which in its contemporary state proved to be too heavy. Either some new form was needed, or some...
...contrast to the graceful organ style of Handel, is that of Johann Sebastian Bach, whose organ music is more of a religious nature. He seems to think of the organ as a sacred instrument. The music he composes for it is inborn. While Handel0 adapted to the organ many ideas which he used in other forms of music, making it easier for the listener to understand, Bach treated the organ as an instrument whose great resources offered new ideas for music...
Music written for harpsichord does often make better sense when played on the instrument for which it was intended. Since the harpsichord seems to have a definite place musically, it is strange that modern composers in their search for new colors and mediums have not attempted to write for it, except in a very few instances (De Falla's Concerto and his puppet-opera El Retablo de Maese Pedro, for example), It will be interesting in the future to see whether this instrument will take its place again as a medium of the expression of the time, or will remain...
From a Belgian experimenter Galileo got the idea that led him to construct his first telescope. With the new instrument, which he called cannocchiale ("tubespec-tacles"), he was the first human being to see the satellites of Jupiter, the spots on the sun, the mountains of the moon. In Venice the splendid Doge (Venetian dialect for Duce) puffed up the steps of the Campanile of St. Mark's to take a telescopic gander, immediately doubled Galileo's annual stipend of 500 florins ($30,800 at the 1940 gold price...