Baroque

As an adjective, "baroque" means anything highly intricate or very ornate. While most Baroque music has both those qualities, the term refers specifically to classical music composed between the end of the sixteenth century and 1750 (the year Johann Sebastian Bach died). Much of the way westerners hear music today is based on the principles of harmony and melody solidified in this period: major and minor scales, previously considered dissonant, eventually became the norm. Pioneers Arcangelo Corelli and Antonio Vivaldi began writing music with more dramatic twists and turns than audiences were accustomed to hearing; other composers experimented with long passages for multiple voices and instruments, resulting in the dense sonorities and almost mathematical precision exemplified by Pachelbel's "Canon." Other notable achievements of this era include Claudio Monteverdi's Orfeo, perhaps the first truly great opera, and the complex, bombastic oratorios of George Frideric Handel. The orchestra also came into being during this period, and the lute, harpsichord and organ became increasingly prominent. Bach's music was a culmination of the compositional techniques of the age.