Belle voci ou de l’influence italienne au style allemand

During the 17th century and the first half of the 18th century, commercial development and the emergence of a wealthy merchant class fostered the development of the arts and music. Baroque composers lived in a period of strong cultural expansion, and their works reflected the optimism and energy of a relatively opulent and dynamic period, in a Europe confident in its future. In the 17th century, vocal music occupied a predominant place in the musical landscape. Through its rhetorical and expressive qualities, the voice reigned over music, and literary writing remained the medium of musical language. Instruments would not definitively free themselves from this hierarchy until much later.

Vocal and instrumental music in the 17th (and 18th) century were thus the fruit of numerous exchanges in Europe, both because of commercial relations, for example between cities such as Venice and Hamburg, and because of the existence of the Holy Roman Empire, or even the travels of many foreign composers who traveled throughout Europe. We will savor the correspondences and nuances between the Italian style, with its exuberant virtuosity and expressiveness, and the German style, a synthesis of different currents, more austere and intimate, through precious motets and cantatas by the greatest composers of this time as well as a magnificent repertoire for organ and viola da gamba.