Baroque music is the style of Western music extending approximately from 1600 to 1750. This era follows the Renaissance and was followed in turn by the Classical era. The word "baroque" comes from the Portuguese word barroco, meaning "misshapen pearl", a negative description of the ornate and heavily ornamented music of this period; later, the name came to be applied also to its architecture.
Baroque music forms a major portion of the classical music canon, being widely studied, performed, and listened to. Composers of the baroque era include Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel, Alessandro Scarlatti, Antonio Vivaldi, Georg Philipp Telemann, Jean-Baptiste Lully, Arcangelo Corelli, François Couperin, Denis Gaultier, Claudio Monteverdi, Jean-Philippe Rameau and Henry Purcell.
The baroque period saw the creation of functional 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 expanded the size, range, and complexity of instrumental performance, and also established opera as a musical genre. Many musical terms and concepts from this era are still in use today.
Read more about Baroque Music: Etymology, Timeline of Baroque Composers
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