The Baroque Era of Music

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The Baroque period of music lasted from approximately 1600 – 1750 AD. It falls into the Common Practice period and was the most predominant style of writing after the Renaissance period and before the Classical period (the Classical period uses many elements from the Baroque period). The word Baroque means highly decorated and essentially gives us an insight into what the music of the time was like. Many pieces in the Baroque style have three or four different parts which work together to produce a melodic melody which modulates to relative keys. The Baroque period developed from the Renaissance period. These two periods shared the same idea of counterpoint, yet Baroque music differed from that of the Renaissance period by having stronger rhythms and longer melodies. The era was the beginning of a number of dance suites which all have different characteristics. For example the Minuet in simple triple time does not have an anacrusis and is graceful whilst the gigue is in compound duple time, has a short anacrusis and is often very contrapuntal (where the melody is shared between two o...

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