INSTRUMENT UPDATE During the Baroque Period, instrumental music started to become as important as vocal music. There was an increase in the quantity of music written for flute, oboe, bassoon, trombone, valveless trumpets and horns, harpsichord, and organ.

During the baroque era, instrumental music became as important as vocal music. The baroque period saw the creation of tonality. During the period, composers and performers used more elaborate musical ornamentation, made changes in musical notation, and developed new instrumental playing techniques.

Baroque music is characterised by:

• long flowing melodic lines often using ornamentation (decorative notes such as trills and turns)
• contrast between loud and soft, solo and ensemble.
• a contrapuntal texture where two or more melodic lines are combined.

During the baroque era, instrumental music became as important as vocal music. Baroque music expanded the size, range, and complexity of instrumental performance, and also established opera, cantata, oratorio, concerto, and sonata as musical genres. Many musical terms and concepts from this era are still in use today.

The vocal forms of the Baroque period were based on the monodic style. The composers put a numeral above or below the bass note, indicating the chord required (thus called figured bass) and the performer filled in the necessary harmony. Baroque vocal forms are the opera, the cantata and the oratorio.

General characteristics of melodies in the Baroque period Melodies were based on motifs , which were often repeated and developed. Melodies became longer – especially those of Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frederick Handel – and ends of phrases merged into the starts of new ones.

The Baroque period refers to an era that started around 1600 and ended around 1750, and included composers like Bach, Vivaldi and Handel, who pioneered new styles like the concerto and the sonata. The Baroque period saw an explosion of new musical styles with the introduction of the concerto, the sonata and the opera.

Baroque music is a style of Western art music composed from approximately 1600 to 1750. The Baroque period saw the creation of tonality. During the period, composers and performers used more elaborate musical ornamentation, made changes in musical notation, and developed new instrumental playing techniques.

Baroque music is tuneful and very organized and melodies tend to be highly decorated and elaborate. Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven composed during the Classical Period. Music from the Classical Period is orderly, balanced and clear. Chopin, Mendelssohn, Schubert and Schumann composed during the Romantic Period.

Baroque art is asymmetric and has more dramatic use of colours. Renaissance art is symmetric and has less dramatic use of colours. Bernini and Caravaggio are one of the famous artists of the baroque art. Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo are one of the famous artists of the renaissance art.