Alessandro Scarlatti
Biography of the Italian composer Alessandro Scarlatti by Rosalind Halton
Contributor: Rosalind Halton

Alessandro Scarlatti in the 21st century
Assumptions and some Facts
Contributor: Rosalind Halton

Antonio Vivaldi (1678 - 1750)
Biography of the Italian Composer Antonio Vivaldi, predecessor of Nicola Porpora at the Venetian Ospedale
Contributor: James Sanderson

Cantate da Camera of Alessandro Scarlatti
Article featured at the Scarlatti Project
Contributor: Rosalind Halton

Domenico Scarlatti
Extracted with permission from The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music edited by Stanley Sadie © Macmillan Press Ltd., London.
Contributor: James Sanderson

Editorial principles: The Scarlatti Cantatas
Principles used in Rosalind Halton's Scarlatti Editions
Contributor: Rosalind Halton

Farinelli
Life of the great 18th century singer
Contributor: James Sanderson

Hexachord, The
Abridged from the article in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
Contributor: William Drabkin

Introduction to British Library Manuscript Add 29484
Written by the collector in the fly-leaf of this manuscript. An interesting contemporary view.
Contributor: James Sanderson

Leonardo Leo - (1694 - 1744)
James Sanderson's biography of the Neapolitan composer.
Contributor: James Sanderson

Orphans and Musicians in Venice
Denis Stevens describes a unique system of social support in 18th-century Venice that brought great economic, social and cultural benefits.
Contributor: Denis Arnold

Pietro Metastasio
Life of the 18th century poet and librettist
Contributor: James Sanderson

Porpora in England
A brief history of Porpora's time at the Opera of the Nobility in England
Contributor: James Sanderson

Researching the Cantatas of Alessandro Scarlatti
Article featured at the Scarlatti Project
Contributor: Rosalind Halton

To the Lovers of Musick
Introduction to the 1711 edition of Pepusch's 'Six English Cantatas'
Contributor: John Hughes

Tomaso Albinoni (1671 - 1751)
Short biography of a composer known mainly for his instrumental works
Contributor: James Sanderson

OPERA
"...a drama set to music and made up of vocal pieces with orchestral accompaniment and with orchestral overtures and interludes..."*

BAROQUE
The term Baroque probably ultimately derived from the Italian word barocco, which was a term used by philosophers during the Middle Ages to describe an obstacle in schematic logic. Subsequently the word came to denote any contorted idea or involuted process of thought. Another possible source is the Portuguese word barroco (Spanish barrueco), used to describe an irregular or imperfectly shaped pearl, and this usage still survives in the jeweller's term baroque pearl. In art criticism the word Baroque came to be used to describe anything irregular, bizarre, or otherwise departing from established rules and proportions.*

ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA

 Detail from Nicola Porpora's Componimento drammatico Gli orti Esperidi