If you find that you already familiar with most of what is provided here, you will discover more advanced information in the several links to the Encyclopedia Britannica. Listen to the following selections on CD 1 and read the relevant notes in the accompanying booklet.
Baroque music has many dance-like qualities.
Renaissance and Baroque suites , whether for a solo instrument like a lute or an orchestra, as here, consist most often of a series of dance movements like jigs, minuets, and gavottes. This is one of the most famous examples. Note how the deeper instruments of the orchestra provide a steady rhythmic pulse underneath the melody carried by the violins on top. This combination of steady rhythm and melody is one of the main characteristics of modern popular music and is one of the reasons that Baroque music is so appealing to listeners with modern tastes. Some thought such works were more edifying than operas with all their sensational costuming and staging, especially since the texts were generally drawn from the Bible.