Lesson 2: Melody
Part I - Tempo, Meter, and Phrasing
During the Baroque era, all of these aspects would remain unchanged throughout the course of the piece. i.e. if a piece began in a minor key, it remained so for the entirety of the piece. Tempos rarely changed in the middle of a piece either.
Part II - Vocal instrumental cross influence
Often in Baroque music, vocal music imitated instrumental music. And vice versa.
Part III - Features of Baroque Melody
The biggest distinguishing feature of Baroque melody is the idea of devolping melodies and counter-melodies. Many times in music before the Baroque era, melodies were not developed or expanded on. At least not often. Another big feature of Baroque music is the idea of sequences.
Fig.1 sequence
Notice that in the upper voice, there is an ascending figure of four eighth notes. This is known as a sequence, and is extremely common in Baroque music.
