Article by Sally Melhuish, 28 March 2025

One of the earliest known jazz renditions of Bach’s music is from 1937, of his Concerto for Two Violins (BWV 1043). This fusion of baroque music and jazz was recorded in Paris by the classically-trained African-American violinist Eddie South, French jazz violinist Stéphane Grappelli and Belgian-born Manouche Romani guitarist Django Reinhardt. Such a cross-cultural collaboration exemplifies the Baroque period itself.

Popular baroque music tends to slant towards Italian and German composers, particularly those from the late baroque period. This musical comfort food provides a diet rich in chart-toppers, with much-loved hits including Antonio Vivaldi’s Four Seasons (1723), Georg Friedrich Handel’s Messiah (1741) and Johann Sebastian Bach’s Brandenburg Concerti (1721) and Concerto in D minor for Two Violins (1731) – all composed within a 20-year period.

Venturing beyond the familiar, however, we discover music that is vastly different between countries and cultures across the 150 years that roughly signifies the Baroque period (1600-1750). Comparing the musical journeys of four contemporaries, who were all working in their own spheres, reveals the way in which distinctive and diverse styles emerged: Irishman Turlough O’Carolan (1670-1738), Dmitrie Cantemir from Moldavia (1673-1723), Spaniard Santiago de Murcia (1673-1739) and Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) from Germany.

By all accounts, Turlough O’Carolan wasn’t a particularly skilled harpist, but if the intent of a performer is to communicate and entertain, he had those skills in abundance. After being blinded by smallpox at the age of 18, O’Carolan was taught to play the harp, given a horse and a guide and he set off to try his luck as an itinerant musician. He was a gifted poet and composer, and for almost fifty years earned his living travelling around Ireland dedicating compositions to wealthy patrons and performing at weddings and funerals.

Of his two hundred compositions that survive, most are in the style of traditional Irish folk music. But after being introduced to the Italian concertos of Corelli, Vivaldi and Geminiani, O’Carolan began incorporating elements of European art music to create his own unique style.

Dmitrie Cantemir lived an extraordinary life and his impressive range of talents included being a philosopher, historian, composer and linguist who spoke eleven languages. He was born in Moldavia under Ottoman rule and spent 22 years in Istanbul, including serving in the Turkish army, before returning home to be appointed Prince of Moldavia. Believing the Ottoman Empire to be losing control of Moldavia to Russia, Cantemir switched sides to ally with Tsar Peter the Great. However, Russia’s defeat forced Cantemir to flee into exile in Russia. As well as composing his own music, Cantemir published 350 Turkish compositions in notation he developed, which helped ensure their preservation.

Santiago de Murcia’s influence stretched well beyond his native Spain. His treatise Resumen de acompañar la parte con la guitarra (1714) was clearly a source for a guitar method written by Antonio Vargas y Guzmán in Mexico in 1776. However, as the Master of Guitar to the Spanish Queen Maria Luisa, it is unlikely that de Murcia himself ever travelled to South America.

Spanish baroque music mostly preserved the distinctive characteristics of its unique sonorities, percussive elements and Moorish roots, unconcerned with the cross-pollination of trends happening in the rest of Europe. Composers did, however, borrow from traditional Hispanic American music and instrumentation after Spain’s colonisation of South America. In one of his collections of compositions, de Murcia even included a Cumbees, a dance of West African influence.

There is no evidence that any of our quartet of composers crossed paths, although Georg Philipp Telemann, with his constant sense of curiosity, probably would have loved to have known the music of the other three. He was a masterful exponent of Mixed Taste composition, effortlessly blending French, Italian and Polish styles with his own German heritage. He was an enthusiastic collector of musical morsels, and was particularly inspired after visiting Poland: “After only a week of hearing what is played there, you will have enough ideas to last a lifetime. In short, there is much to be gained from this music if you know how to work with this material properly.”

Telemann’s friend Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) was also fascinated by the music of other composers. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach mentioned his father’s lifelong “unheard-of zeal in studying”, and his extensive music library included a diverse collection of manuscripts by 17th and 18th century German, French and Italian composers. Bach also immersed himself in ‘early music’, including the Missa Sine nomine (1590) by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (c1525-1594) and Fiori musicali (1635) by Girolamo Alessandro Frescobaldi (1583-1643). This was unusual for the time, when music was often written and performed only for a specific occasion, based on the latest popular styles. Composers rarely looked to the past for inspiration.

With no interest in adapting to the emerging Galant style, Bach suffered the indignity of his music being considered old fashioned while he was still alive, and he was usurped by the next generation of composers, including his sons. A rekindling of interest in his music began in earnest after the 20-year-old Felix Mendelssohn conducted Bach’s St Matthew Passion in Berlin in 1829. Along with the Historically Informed Performance movement’s exploration and reappraisal of Bach’s entire known output, modern adaptations of his music have contributed greatly to his popularisation.

Just as Bach embraced new ideas, so do his compositions lend themselves to other styles such as contemporary classical and jazz. While the 1937 jazz rendition of his Concerto for Two Violins led to other modern adaptations, the spirit of baroque music has also expanded well beyond much of mainstream repertoire. Irish folk melodies that incorporate elements of European art music, Moldavian dances written in a Turkish idiom, and Spanish guitar music that suggests West-African influences, combine our love not just of classical music, but also folk, Celtic, Flamenco and Romani genres, where Baroque music meets World music!

Salut! Baroque presents Baroque Spirit
Friday 11 April, 7.30pm, Wesley Church Canberra
Sunday 13 April, 3.00pm, Verbrugghen Hall Sydney Conservatorium of Music