Baroque means highly decorated. Baroque music is splendid, dressed up, and full of confidence. It is also very complicated. It has overlapping melodies, trills, and runs that decorate the music like flowers on a birthday cake.
Opera appeared during this period. Opera is a singing play, like a musical. Opera singers had to learn how to sing very loud because there was no way back then to amplify their voice. One famous opera singer defined opera as a controlled scream.
There was a greater interest in instrumental music. Two popular keyboard instruments of the day were the organ and harpsichord. The violin was the queen of instruments during this time. During the Renaissance instrumental music was written for dances. Now instrumental music was written for its own sake.
This was also the beginning of the orchestra. Families of instruments began to appear during this time. Composers would assign musical parts to certain instruments. Composers would also use words to tell the musicians how to play the music. Many of the musical forms that were used during this time are still used today.
The composer's job was to make the music emotional. Feelings like joy and pain were represented by musical themes called motives.
Baroque music is polyphonic (many voices of equal importance), giving music of this period a thick texture. Music of this time is very emotional and expressive, too.
Counterpoint was used a lot during this period and combines two or more lines of equal importance in a composition. Counterpoint and polyphony are similar terms, but counterpoint is usually used to describe music of the Baroque period. Listen to Invention No. 8 by Bach to hear two voices of equal importance.
The main elements of Baroque music are a strong rhythm, terraced dynamics (passages of loud music followed by soft music), and improvisation. Improvisation means to make up the music as you go along.
Art and music were supported by the nobility--kings and queens and dukes-- and the Catholic Church. People who supported musicians were called patrons.
