Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra Musica Angelica is an internationally renowned Baroque orchestra based in Long Beach, California and led by music director Martin Haselböck, award-winning organist, conductor, and composer. Musica Angelica is dedicated to the historically informed performance of Baroque and early Classical music on period instruments. Its programs include a mixture of known masterworks by composers such as Bach, Handel and Vivaldi, along with rarely heard ‘musical gems’ by lesser-known composers. Musica Angelica was founded in 1992 by lutenist Michael Eagan and gambist Mark Chatfield. Since its inception, Musica Angelica has produced an annual subscription season of orchestral and
Baroque music 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