BACH CONTEMPORARY is a term used to refer to three Baroque composers who were contemporaries of Johann Sebastian Bach: Domenico Scarlatti, Jean-Philippe Rameau, and George Frideric Handel. Scarlatti was an Italian composer and keyboard virtuoso who wrote 555 keyboard sonatas. Rameau was a French composer, music theorist, and harpsichordist who wrote operas, cantatas, and other works. Handel was a German-born British composer who wrote operas, oratorios, and concerti grossi. All three composers were influential in the development of Baroque music.