Sep 25, 2026 · 48 min · 10 segments
How did 'baroque', the French version of a very old Portuguese term for a misshapen pearl… which became an insult applied to complicated music… and was then rehabilitated as a description of an ornate…
In the 1600s
the Portuguese word barroco was used to describe irregularly and or imperfectly shaped pearls.
writing that the music lacked coherent melody, was filled with unremitting dissonant pearls.
I'll get to how the term came to be applied to so much music later, but for now, here is the overture to Hippolyte et Agassiz, just so you know where all the name-calling started.
It's about three minutes long, and this is William Christie directing Les Arts Florescents.
That was the overture to Jean-Philippe Rameau's Hippolyte et Arressi and William Christie directed Les Arts Florissants.
In the 1600s
the Portuguese word barroco was used to describe irregularly and or imperfectly shaped pearls.
writing that the music lacked coherent melody, was filled with unremitting dissonant pearls.
I'll get to how the term came to be applied to so much music later, but for now, here is the overture to Hippolyte et Agassiz, just so you know where all the name-calling started.
It's about three minutes long, and this is William Christie directing Les Arts Florescents.
That was the overture to Jean-Philippe Rameau's Hippolyte et Arressi and William Christie directed Les Arts Florissants.
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