This section contains materials on the major instrumental genres of the Baroque period, including sonata, suite, and concerto. You’ll also find information on the composers who worked in those genres. As with our study of vocal music, we’re going to hold off on studying the work of the best known composers of the late Baroque until you get to the next section. Bach and Handel each composed masterworks in almost all the genres of the period. As mentioned previously, their music represents the culmination of Baroque style, so we’ll put the reading material on Bach and Handel in a separate section.

This section includes the following pages:

• Slideshow: Instrumental Music in the Baroque
• Sonata
• Arcangelo Corelli
• Sonata in B flat Major, Opus 5 No. 2: II Allegro
• Concerto
• Antonio Vivaldi
• The Four Seasons
• Suite