Baroque Era: Musical Styles

The Baroque era was a time where musical form was explored. New melodic lines and harmonic progressions were emerging, as were new combinations of instruments. Some of the most significant developments were the new forms of music. These forms included the fugue, canon, chorales and pieces with new variations on a bass line. Other instrumental forms such as the sonata and concerto were more formalized.

Counterpoint found its true definition in the Baroque era. When there are multiple melodic lines happening at the same time, the music is considered to be contrapuntal. This is really another name for polyphony. Usually polyphony is used to describe vocal music and counterpoint is used to describe instrumental music.

The major instruments composed for were the organ and voice.

Listen to the example below: