1. Grace and Grandeur: The Baroque Dance Suite
First, listen to the hornpipe movement from Handel’s Water Music, and pay special attention to the meter. Can you determine the pattern of beats? Does the quick tempo make it easier or more difficult to follow the meter? What about change in instrumentation?

2. Baroque Instruments Dramatic improvements in string instruments
Stradivarius violins
Strings were made of of gut rather than steel
Still looked similar but playing techniques (especially bowing) were different
Woodwinds were used for loud outdoor events
Composers began to use them for their color
Oboe, recorder, and flute (all wood) would represent happy country scenes. Bassoon would represent sadness.
Trumpet developed from a marching instrument but were still “natural”
French Horn (also natural) was used for its warm/mellow sound
Timpani was occasionally added for low bass tones to accompany trumpets

3. The Baroque Suite
One of the most important genres of the Baroque period was the suite
Multi-movement work made up of a series of contrasting dances. Performed by a variety of instruments.
Many different dances of contrasting moods but in the same key.
German allemande, French courante, Spanish sarabande, Engligh gigue (jig), minuet, gavotte, bouree, or hornpipe.
Some dances weren’t courtly but instead came from peasants.
Sometimes opened with an overture.

4. Each dance in the suite was set in either binary form (A-A- B-B), or in ternary form (A-B-A)
The principal of combining dances into a suite could be applied to solo instruments (especially harpsichord and violin) and to chamber ensembles and orchestras.

5. Handel and the Orchestra Suite
Two important suites by Handel are Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks.
The conditions of playing in a noisy outdoor environment prompted Handel to create music that had lively rhythms and catchy melodies.
Water Music opens with a trumpet fanfare that is answered by horns and strings.