The Composers' Status
To fully understand the path a person would take to becoming a composer, one must first understand the composer’s role in society during the baroque. The composer during the baroque seem be to caught between being the artist and being the hired crafts-man. On one hand, composers were experiencing musical freedom like never before. Groups such as the Florentine Camerata provided a place where musicians were able to discuss the latest trends in music and innovate new ones as well. Music also became more importance in forming a national identity, as well as providing a link to the ancients.[1] A rising middle class, that desired new music, also contributed to the raised status of composers. Music making was no long secluded to the courts and churches anymore. Public opera houses, salons, taverns, and even private homes—with the advent of printing—allowed composers to reach a much larger audience.[2]
On the other hand, composers were still bound by those who paid for their existence. The patronage system was still very much in effect during this period. Most new music was typically written for the courts and churches. Additionally, composers were not celebrated for their compositional skills alone; many first gained notoriety through their performance abilities; notably as church organist, choirmasters, or court musicians. It is at these posts that composing original music, as well as performing or at least facilitating a performance, become part of the requirements.[3] This practical relationship with the composers/musicians and their patrons represented how music functioned in the baroque society. During this period, music had its place as entertainment but it also served a very function purpose. For the city, trumpets played as the sort of alarm clock, churches used music to elevate liturgy, and the courts used music to accompany dinners and other various events.
[1] Wendy Heller, Music in the Baroque. (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2014),11.
[2] Wendy Heller, Music in the Baroque, 13.
[3] Claudio Annibaldi, “Towards a theory of musical patronage in the Renaissance and Baroque: the perspective from anthropology and semiotics,” Recercare, Vol. 10 (1998): 174
