Diving For Pearls – Part Two

[Please feel free to leap straight into this second part of the ‘Diving for Pearls’ episode but there’s background information in the first half you might enjoy if by chance you have missed it.]

How did the term ‘baroque’, the French version of a very old Portuguese word for a misshapen pearl… which became an insult applied to complicated music… and was then rehabilitated as a description of an ornate style of art and architecture… become the term now almost universally used to describe music written between 1600 and 1750? And what has ‘diving’ got to do with anything? The answers are in this two part episode of Classical For Everyone exploring lesser known Baroque composers. And there’s a merman. But way more importantly… there is amazing music by Rameau, Rebel, Caldara, von Biber, Marais, Keiser, Leonarda, Strozzi, Stradella, Scarlatti, Locatelli and Valentini.

[Episode image: The Canning Jewel (reverse) – Collection, Victoria & Albert Museum.]