The age of Absolutism and Age of Science, from around 1700 to 1750.

Music Life in the Early Eighteenth Century

1. The church.
2. The court. Under the patronage of kings or members of lesser nobility.
3. The opera house.

The life stories of the two greatest composers of the late Baroque period show a good deal about the interaction between musicians, the patrons who supported them, and the institutions that required music. Johann Sebastian Bach labored as a church organist, a court musician, and then a major composer-ad-administrator for the Lutheran Church. George Frederic Handel, who also had a court position, became a leading opera composer and opera promoter.

Style Features of Late Baroque Music

1. Rhythm: highly regular and determined; walking bass: a bass part that moves in absolutely even notes.
2. Dynamics: the dynamic is steady in the whole section but abrupt dynamic contrasts were preferred.
3. Tone color: sonority
4. Melody: to the limits of ornateness and luxuriance; ornaments; frequent use of sequence.
5. Texture: mostly polyphonic (or contrapuntal)
6. The Continuo: yet all this polyphony is supported by a solid scaffold of harmony. The central importance of harmony in baroque music appears in the universal practice of the basso continuo chords.
7. Music form: the patronage system asks composers to rely on formulas that could be applied to quickly and efficiently.