From about 1600, Western composers stopped writing modal music.
Instead they used major and minor keys to write tonal music. This was a big change. In Western countries, most music is still tonal, hundreds of years later.
Modulating (switching between keys) turned out to be a good way of creating contrast in music.
Composers developed new structures for organising music using modulation and contrast e.g. binary, ternary and rondo forms.
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Recognising Baroque music
The dynamics change suddenly. Each bit is either loud or soft. You won’t hear any gradual changes in volume – no crescendos or diminuendos. This is called terraced or stepped dynamics.
The melody’s built up from short musical ideas (called motifs), so you get a fair bit of repetition.
The harmonies are simple, with a fairly narrow range of chords – mainly I and V.
The melody is packed with ornaments, added in to make it sound more interesting.
The texture’s often contrapuntal (polyphonic).
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Basso Continuo
A basso continuo is a continuous bass part. It's played throughout a piece, and the chords are based on it.
It was often played on an organ or harpsichord (harpsichords were popular Baroque instruments). It could also be played by more than one instrument e.g. cellos, double basses and bassoons.
Other Baroque instruments are the flute, recorder, oboe, bassoon and orchestral strings (violins, violas, cellos and double basses).
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