Dictionary of Music - Birding America

Bartók, Béla 31IMPORTANT BAROQUE COMPOSERSComposer Country Noted forSamuel Scheidt (1587–1654) Germany Organ and harpsichord music, church choralmusic.Johann Hermann Schein (1586–1630) Germany Organ music, church choral music, madrigals,instrumental suites.Heinrich Schütz (1585–1672)* Germany Church choral music.Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562–1621)* Netherlands Harpsichord and organ music, church choralmusic; teacher of Scheidt, other North Germanorganists.Giuseppe Tartini (1692–1770)* Italy Violin music.Georg Philipp Telemann (1681–1767)* Germany Operas, oratorios, orchestral and chamber music.Guiseppe Torelli (1658–1709)* Italy Concerti grossi, violin music.Giovanni Battista Vitali (c. 1644–1692) Italy Violin music.Antonio Vivaldi (c. 1675–1741)* Italy Concertos, concerti grossi, church music.* See separate article on each of these composers for additional information.baroque pitch Also, old pitch. A standard pitchbased on 435 cycles per second for the A above middleC. Lower than present-day CONCERT PITCH, it iswidely used for performing baroque music on periodinstruments.barrelhouse A blues style of piano playingfavored by black performers in the 1920s and persistinginto the 1930s. In regular 4/4 time, it featureda heavy left-hand vamp called “stomping,” or, sometimes,a walking bass.barrel organ Also, hurdy-gurdy. A mechanicalmusical instrument in which a wooden cylinder (thebarrel) is turned, either by hand or by clockwork,thereby causing organ pipes to play a particular tune.Pins and staples are driven into the surface of the barrel,and when the barrel is rotated, the pins actagainst levers that force air through the organ pipes atthe proper times and for the desired duration. Sincethe positions of the pins are fixed, only a single tuneor series of tunes can be played with one barrel.Mechanical organs date as far back as the sixteenthcentury, and by the eighteenth century theywere quite common, especially in England. Theywere used for home entertainment and also in smallchurches that could not afford a large pipe organ orthe salary of an organist. Such organs were ordinarilyprovided with a number of interchangeable barrels,one for each hymn to be played. One form ofbarrel organ, in France called orgue de barbarieand in England bird organ, was used to teachcanaries and other songbirds to sing popular tunes ofthe day. Early in the nineteenth century, portablebarrel organs were made; they were mounted oncarts and wheeled through the street by street musicianspopularly called organ grinders. In this kind oforgan, called a street organ, the cumbersome barrelwas replaced by perforated and folded cardboardstrips. See also MECHANICAL INSTRUMENTS.Bartók (bär′tok), Béla (bā′lə) 1881–1945. AHungarian composer and pianist who became famousfor his studies of East European folk music and forthe use of folk elements along with modern devices inhis own highly original compositions. Bartók beganhis studies as a young boy, first being taught piano byhis mother and later attending the Budapest Conservatory.In his early years, he was strongly attracted tothe music of the French impressionist composers. Healso became very interested in folk music, and soondiscovered that what people generally thought of asHungarian folk music was quite different from themusic actually sung by country people in remote