c. 1600–1650

Early Baroque

Around 1600, Italian musicians explored solo song and musical drama partly through efforts to recover the expressive power they associated with ancient Greek theater. Monteverdi and his contemporaries developed opera and text-centered composition alongside continuing Renaissance polyphony. Courts and churches sponsored these experiments, and the opening of public opera houses in Venice in 1637 broadened the audience for musical drama.

Musical terms

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Key musical characteristics

Tonal direction strengthened
Opera united music, theater, and spectacle
Continuo supported melody and harmony
Idiomatic instrumental writing and contrast became central

Music theory concepts

Figured bass: Intervals written above a bass line to guide improvised harmonic realization.
Emerging functional tonality: Increasing organization around major and minor keys, bass motion, and directed cadences.
Cadential 6/4: A dominant embellishment that intensifies arrival at a perfect cadence.
Sequences: Short harmonic and melodic patterns repeated at successive pitch levels.
Rule of the octave: Conventional harmonizations for ascending and descending scale degrees.

Famous composers

Writers and poets

John Milton
Molière
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

Visual artists

Caravaggio
Artemisia Gentileschi
Rembrandt
Diego Velázquez

Key historical event

The Thirty Years’ War ended in 1648, redrawing European political and confessional relationships.

Notable invention

The modern telescope, developed at the beginning of the century, transformed observation and scientific thought.