Baroque music is the music written in Europe from about 1600 to 1750. It has a steady, driving beat, busy lines of notes that weave around each other, and the bright ping of the harpsichord. The three Baroque composers children meet first are Vivaldi, Bach, and Handel. A good first piece is “Spring” from The Four Seasons.
When it was
The Baroque period runs from about 1600 to 1750. The end date is the year Bach died.
Kings, queens, and churches paid for most music at this time. A composer was a kind of skilled servant, with a job at a court or a church. Bach wrote a new piece for his church almost every week for years. Handel wrote music for royal parties on the River Thames.
The word “baroque” is thought to come from a word for a pearl with an uneven shape. People first used it to mean fancy and overdone. Today it is the plain name of the period.
What it sounds like
A motor that keeps running. Many Baroque pieces set a beat and a pattern at the start and keep them going to the last bar.
Many tunes at once. One instrument starts a tune. A second joins with the same tune while the first carries on. The lines weave together.
Lots of decoration. Players add trills and turns, the way an artist of the time added curls to a picture frame.
Loud or soft, with little between. The music often switches from loud to soft in blocks.
One mood for each piece. A happy piece stays happy from start to finish. A sad one stays sad.
The instruments
The harpsichord. It looks like a small piano. Inside, each key plucks a string. It cannot play louder when a key is pressed harder. It plays along in almost all Baroque music for groups.
The organ. The grandest instrument of the time, with pipes that fill a church.
The strings. Violins, violas, cellos, and basses are the heart of the Baroque orchestra, which was small. Many had twenty players or fewer.
A few winds. Oboes, flutes, bassoons, trumpets, and horns join for color. There are no clarinets and no tubas yet.
The composers
Vivaldi lived in Venice and wrote hundreds of concertos, many for the girls he taught.
Bach worked in German churches and courts. He was a master of weaving many tunes together.
Handel was born in Germany and made his home in London. He wrote operas, music for the king, and Messiah.
Five pieces to hear first
“Spring” from The Four Seasons, first part, by Vivaldi. Birds, a brook, and a storm. See the Four Seasons listening guide.
Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, first movement, by Bach. Three groups of strings toss one bouncing idea back and forth.
Toccata and Fugue in D minor, the opening, attributed to Bach. A dramatic start on the organ that many children know from spooky films.
“Hornpipe” from Water Music, by Handel. Trumpets and horns call across the river.
“Hallelujah” chorus from Messiah, by Handel. A choir and orchestra at full strength.
Forms that began in the Baroque
The concerto. One player, or a small group, set against the rest. See symphony, concerto, and sonata explained.
The fugue. One tune that enters again and again in different voices.
The suite. A set of dances, such as the minuet and the gavotte.
Opera. A story told in song. Opera began in Italy around 1600.
How to tell it is Baroque
Ask three questions. Can you hear a harpsichord? Does the beat chug along without stopping? Are several tunes running at once? Three yes answers point to the Baroque.
Things to do together
Follow one line. Play a Bach piece and pick one instrument. Try to follow it alone, all the way through.
Sing a round. “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” sung in two groups works the way a simple fugue does. One group starts, and the other comes in with the same tune.
Dance a minuet. Step in threes, slow and stately, with a bow at the end.
Plucked or struck? Play a harpsichord piece, then the same piece on a piano. Ask which sound your child likes.
Print and play
Sort the composer cards by period and find the three Baroque ones. Mark the years 1600 to 1750 on the composer timeline to print.
The next period is the Classical era. For all four periods, see the guide to composers by era.
More from this guide
This article is part of Classical composers for kids: a guide by era, from Vivaldi to Britten.
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Use it with your kids
Print a listening page, a practice chart, or a composer fact sheet. Or try a tool, such as the composer timeline or the piece picker.