Music Before 1800: Invention of the Orchestra

Invention of the Orchestra
Juilliard415

The orchestra as we know it was an invention of the Baroque. The effect of a large group of instrumentalists doing precisely the same thing at the same time was so striking that many contemporaries commented on its sumptuous and dramatic sound. Two charismatic leaders, Jean-Baptiste Lully in Paris and Arcangelo Corelli in Rome, perfected this new phenomenon, using the resonant low pitch of A=392. 

Led by artistic director Robert Mealy, the brilliant students of Juilliard415 explore this distinctive low tuning in a celebration of the music of these two pioneers, alongside the composers they inspired: George Frideric Handel, Marin Marais, and Georg Muffat, the man who explained to us how to play this music.

“the performance captured everything the Baroque can teach us.”
—Zachary Woolfe, The New York Times