It has occurred to me that attempting to look at how music has developed over a six century window, in sixty minutes a week, for eight weeks, leaves very little time to actually listen to much of anything.  It is like taking an art survey course and then going to the art museum and being allowed only fifteen minutes to experience all of the works in a particular collection or gallery ....something of an exercise in futility, at best.  Maybe this frustration will spur the listener on to seeking out "on your own" the myriad of compositions that belong to each major composers in any of the several different time periods of history.

Another practical historical note:  As we approach later periods of time - closer to our own time period - we will find that usually a greater number of compositions have survived.  Therefore it will seem as though a magical burst of artistic creativity has ushered forth upon our culture - when in reality, the apparent quantity of musical composition may really be a function of the fact that less compositions have been lost in the shorter intervening time since a specific composer lived.  Its not that we moderns are more profound, civilized, or cultured than our grandfathers and grandmothers ...were that it were true.

Among the many greats of the Baroque, two names tower above the rest - Johann Sebastian Bach and Georg Fredrich Handel.  This has been pushed somewhat unfairly at times as there are a profusion of greats - Montiverdi, Vivaldi, Telemann, Pachelbel, and so.  We are going to look at a few examples of music by Pachelbel, Bach and Handel which are very typical to the Baroque period.

The Baroque period represents an infusion of "emotion" in art.  Now this won't seem like a cascading rush of passion to twenty-first century ears - but put yourself back at the beginning of the 17th century, and you can see in context that the Brandenburg concerti (Bach), or the Toccata and Fugue in D minor (Bach), or the Water Music Suite (Handel) made the "earth move" for those "Baroque-en" ears.

Even though we confined by time and are not able to give choral and vocal  music its due, it too is alive and well.  To cite two mountain tops there are of course the "Messiah" by Handel and the "St. Matthew Passion" by Bach.  Opera has come into its own having been given birth by Monteverdi.  The texture of the vocal music is, as a generalization, a reflection of what has developed with instrumental music of the Baroque period.
 

Listening time - I:
The Canon in D; Johann Pachelbel
Recorder Sonata in G Minor, Op. 1, Nr. 2, HVW 360 (recorder, violoncello, harpsichord) in G; George Frederick Handel:  Larghetto, Andante, Adagio, Presto (..no, its not a coffe maker!)

Notice the solo melody at the beginning of the Pachelbel canon - that's the whole piece!  The melody is a "ground" or the cake upon which all of the other icing hangs - via "ornamentation" and "elaboration".  This is similar to another repetitive melody form called a "Passacaglia". Bach and Buxtehude wrote two really nice ones for organ.

Listen to the transparent texture of the "sonata".  We used this example because its fun to play the game of keeping up with what are each of the three instruments doing.  Can you isolate the sounds of the recorder on top, countered by the violoncello bowing away on the bottom to keep up with the antics of the recorder on top, and the harpsichord "continuo"-ing along in the middle. The sonata in this period has often three to four sections ("movements") often named by the "tempo" at which its played.  Names like "allegro", "andante", "largo", "grave".  Sometimes these movements are named instead for dance forms like "minuet", "gavotte", or "hornpipe".  You could also call this music a "suite", - no, not the kind that gives you cavities if you eat too much - that's "sweet". A "suite" is a collection of pieces of music - not a box candy.  (I know the puns are atrocious, but if you survive the awful humor, I'll bet you'll remember the musical terminology.)
 

Listening time - II:
Brandenburg Concerto no. 1 (..of 6) in F, BWV 1046 ; Johann Sebastian Bach:
  Allegro, Adagio, Allegro, Menuetto.
Toccata and Fugue in D minor; Johann Sebastian Bach
The Water Music Suite in F Major, HWV 348; George Frederick Handel:
  Overture (Largo; Allegro), Air, Minuet, Bouree, Hornpipe, etc.

In the Brandenburg Concerto no. 1, can you hear "block dynamics": a.) everyone playing together, b.) a predominant but softer solo instrument backed by a softer section of instruments, or c.) different sections of the orchestra playing a game of "catch" tossing their "moment in the spotlight" back and forth among different instrumental sections?  Notice too that any of these movements would be hard pushed to last more than three or four minutes.

The Toccata and Fugue in D Minor is not only "monster and vampire" music - it has also been used for radio news commercial theme (...yes KTRH's "late breaking news" right here in Houston) and to "wake up your taste buds" in a salad dressing commercial.  What do you remember about chasing a melody ("theme") along in a "Fugue".

Do you remember for who and what the Brandenburg Concerti were written?  ...somewhat the equivalent of our modern top of the line audio system providing "good-vibes" for our dinner guests.  Do you remember the story about why the Water Music Suite was written and how it was performed?  - "inquiring minds want to know!"

So much for all of this intense unbridled Baroque emotion  ...now we turn once again to the idyllic pursuit of the perceived purity of Classical thought in art and music.  ...bet you can't say "parouse the idyllic pursuit of the perceived purity" six times real fast.