• 1605 – Gunpowder plot thwarted
• 1607 – first English colony established in America
• 1616 – Death of Shakespeare
• 1618 – beginning of Thirty-years war ended in 1648 with Peace of Westphalia, which gave each ruler the right to impose their faith
• 1649 – Charles the I beheaded
• 1653 – Cromwell becomes Lord Protector of England
• 1683 – Ottoman Empire defeated in the battle of Vienna ending the Turkish expansion into Europe
• 1688 – King James II overthrown and constitutional monarchy established limiting the powers of the crown
• 1701 – Spanish war of succession in which the Austrians, Prussians, Dutch, Portugese and British fought to stop the crowns of France and Spain being united under one ruler. Did not finally end until 1714.
• 1709 – Peter I wins decisive victory over Sweden changing the balance of power in Northern Europe in favour of Russia
• 1740 – Frederick the Great comes to power in PrussiaPrussia

Borromini’s Church of Saint Yves at the Sapienza in Rome (1642-1660)

• Strophic (e.g. arias)
• Through composed (e.g. recitative)
• Binary, ternary and ritornello

• With the exception of dance movements, phrases tend to be irregular and relatively long
• Particularly in earlier Baroque music the use of dramatic leaps and other effects are used to express strong emotion
• Ornaments are increasingly standardised
• Embellishment of the melody is often written out
• Regular pulse with clear accents (this is less true of recitative and quasi-improvised keyboard music, particularly in the early Baroque)

And particularly in later Baroque music …

• Triadic and scalic melodic figures are common
• Frequent use of syncopation
• Rhythmically active (busy melodic lines and texture)
• Frequent use of sequence
• The melody is ‘spun out’ into a continuous thread from motivic ideas introduced at the opening of a movement (called fortspinnung in German)

• Gradual shift from modal to tonal harmony, but both still used in early Baroque
• Freer use of dissonance than in Renaissance (particularly in ‘second practice’ at beginning of C17)
• Expressive use of chromaticism (particularly common in ‘second practice’ music)
• Suspensions are very characteristic, particularly in later Baroque music

And in later Baroque music …

• Clear modulations for large sections of the music, preparing the way for the tonal structures of the Classical era
• frequent circles of fifths

• In early Baroque, emergence of monody (reaction against polyphonic complexity of late Renaissance)
• Basso continuo (melody instrument plus keyboard instrument or sometimes lute) which supports the melodic writing, allowing it to be more free
• Music is written for specific forces, with characteristic styles for different instruments
• Increased use of violin family
• Dynamic contrast is specified by composers – usually in ‘terraced’ blocks
• Contrast is also an important feature of texture, as in the concerto grosso in which a small and large group of instruments alternate.
• Use of ground bass

Although perhaps the most famous and admired Baroque figure, the late-Baroque J. S. Bach was considered by many to be old-fashioned, due to the complexity of his textures and harmonies in a time when composers were tending to simplify their music (a trend that continued in the later eighteenth century – what we now call the Classical era). Bach’s sons Johann Christian and Carl Philippe Emmanuel  wrote in a newer and more fashionable style and were much more renowned than their father.