Bill Hong wrote:

>>Biber is certainly known, but isn't considered to be in the Top Tier
>>of Baroque composers.

Donald Satz replied

>Who is in that top tier? In terms of gereral popularity, I think it's Bach,
>Handel, and Vivaldi.  Concerning personal preference, I limit it to Bach
>and Handel.
>
>The 2nd tier is more interesting and consists of baroque composers
>who managed to stay well above the "banal" category: Zelenka, F.
>Couperin, Kuhnau, Rameau, Biber, Hasse, Purcell, Planicky, Telemann,
>and D. Scarlatti.  Being a fan of consort music, I tend to place
>composers like Locke, Jenkins, and Lawes in a special category.

Purcell second tier? Some would also query Telemann.

One of the problems of the Baroque is that covers such a large timespan 150
years approx.  Thus, all of the above are correctly described as Baroque
composers.  But then so is Monteverdi who doesn't even get a mention in
any tier.

I think that to compare Monteverdi, Purcell and Bach within the same
category is folly.  Whilst the music categorisation may the same the
compositional idiom is quite different in each case.  For the purpose
of comparism it might be better to divide the baroque into 3 periods.

Bob Draper
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