who is considered to be the greatest english composer of the baroque period
Henry Purcell
title: Baroque music text: Baroque music Baroque music ( or ) is a period or style of Western art music composed from approximately 1600 to 1750. This era followed the Renaissance music era, and was followed in turn by the Classical era. Baroque music forms a major portion of the "classical music" canon, and is now widely studied, performed, and listened to. Key composers of the Baroque era include Johann Sebastian Bach, Antonio Vivaldi, George Frideric Handel, Claudio Monteverdi, Domenico Scarlatti, Alessandro Scarlatti, Henry Purcell, Georg Philipp Telemann, Jean-Baptiste Lully, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Arcangelo Corelli, Tomaso Albinoni, François Couperin, Giuseppe Tartini, Heinrich Schütz, title: Composer text: wrote for small ensembles including strings, brass, and woodwinds, as well as choirs and for keyboard instruments such as pipe organ, harpsichord, and clavichord. During this period, composers developed several major music forms that lasted into later periods when they were expanded and evolved further, including the fugue, the invention, the sonata, and the concerto. The late Baroque style was polyphonically complex and richly ornamented. Some of the best-known composers from the Baroque era include Claudio Monteverdi, Heinrich Schütz, Jean-Baptiste Lully, Dieterich Buxtehude, Arcangelo Corelli, Henry Purcell, François Couperin, Antonio Vivaldi, Georg Philipp Telemann, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Johann Sebastian Bach and title: Baroque music text: oratorios, respectively, and the Venetian Francesco Cavalli, who was principally an opera composer. Later important practitioners of this style include Antonio Cesti, Giovanni Legrenzi, and Alessandro Stradella. The middle Baroque had absolutely no bearing on the theoretical work of Johann Fux, who systematized the strict counterpoint characteristic of earlier ages in his "Gradus ad Parnassum" (1725). One pre-eminent example of a court style composer is Jean-Baptiste Lully. He purchased patents from the monarchy to be the sole composer of operas for the French king and to prevent others from having operas staged. He completed 15 lyric tragedies and left unfinished title: Richard Dering text: Richard Dering Richard Dering ("c." 1580–1630) — also Deering, Dearing, Diringus, etc. — was an English Renaissance composer during the era of late Tudor music. He is noted for his pioneering use of compositional techniques which anticipated the advent of Baroque music in England. Some of his surviving choral works are part of the repertoire of Anglican church music today. Despite being English, he lived and worked most of his life in the Spanish-dominated South Netherlands owing to his Roman Catholic faith. Dering was born in London around 1580, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, the illegitimate son of title: Baroque music of the British Isles text: in Paris, probably in 1665. When he returned he became the Master of the Children of the Chapel Royal and composer to the Court. Although he died aged only 27 he was highly influential on other English composers like William Turner (1651–1740), John Blow (1649–1708) and Henry Purcell (1659–95). Early in his career Purcell wrote secular music, including for the theatre. Later, as organist of Westminster Abbey and the Chapel Royal, he devoted himself to sacred music. In both fields he emerged as the most influential British composer of the era. It was directly due to Charles II's patronage that