Jon Johanning wrote:

>To me, Bach and Handel stand out among the Baroque crew because they were
>the most individualistic -- the others sound to me like much of a muchness,
>though I know that this will outrage the Baroque lovers. All I can say is
>that, outside of JSB and some Handel (and a smidgen of Vivaldi), I don't
>ordinarily find myself lingering for many hours in the Baroque garden of
>delights.

Certainly if that musical era itself doesn't speak to you (outside of those
composers), I have no problem with your preferences.

However, I tend to see that the term "Baroque" by many refers only to the
18th century form of it, not seeming to consider how diverse it truly was.
Of course, this is understandable in some sense from the reference point
of the orchestra, which was only evolving into a form we recognize today
during the Baroque era, but it took some time to get there.  After all,
especially in the earlier 17th century, the "rules" were still being
figured out.

Yet even in the time of Bach and Handel, there were folks like Rameau,
who I gather don't figure in many folks' minds because he wrote so much
for the theatre and relatively less in purely instrumental works vs.
Bach/Handel/Vivaldi.  Still, for instrumental music, how about a Biber,
who could push the envelope of violin playing long before the 19th century
concerti we usually talk about on this List?

And let's not forget this guy Monteverdi, who was on the other end of the
Baroque era.  What's he, chopped liver? Some amazingly high quality music
was being written in the WESTERN hemisphere during that time too, taking a
Spanish base soup stock and adding in Native American and African spices,
the whole creole being sent back to Europe--where some aftertaste found its
way even to staid old Germany.  Would Bach have been shocked to find out
how a Chaconne *used* to be played a century before he wrote his?

>p.s.  I love playing transcriptions of S. Weiss, too -- almost as good as
>Bach on the guitar.

I would also recommend some 17th century lute masters who wrote some very
colorful works, but which may not transcribe so well to a modern guitar:
Piccinini, Kapsberger, the Gaultiers etc.

Bill H., Baroque and alone again as usual.