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Baroque: Baroque Dance
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In the arts, the Baroque was a Western cultural epoch, commencing roughly at the turn of the 17th century in Rome. It was exemplified by drama and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music.
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Much of the Baroque keyboard music written for the harpsichord and clavichord was written in suites comprising separate dance pieces, changing in tempo and meter but maintaining key unity throughout. The suite (Italian: Partita, Sonata da Camera; German: Suite, Partita, Overture; French: Order, Suite; English: Lessons) consists of dances such as the allemande, courante, sarabande, gigue and others such as the gavotte, musette, bouree, minuet and pavane. Each dance movement is usually written in two sections called Binary form, and is generally performed with each section repeated. Other forms of keyboard music from the Baroque period are theme and variations, passacaglia, chaconne, invention, prelude, fugue, choral prelude, ricercare, fantasy, toccata and concerto.
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Most instrumental music was played in chamber settings during the Baroque period, given the patronage of the aristocracy and the lack of public performing spaces until the 18th century. Instruments were built to sound full and rich, but in small sized halls. A variety of instrumental forms emerged during this period that reflected the new instruments and their individual colors. Dances, variations, counterpoint (point to point or part to part), and alternation between solo and tutti passages became the predominant molds of musical expression.
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Baroque Dance