The term "baroque", meaning an extravagant style, was orgianally applied to the architecture of the period 1600-1750. It is used to define a period of music. Sacred music developed int eh Baroque era, but non-sacred, secular, and instrumental music became much more important. IN fact, the Barouqe era was the first period in which instrumental music was as important as vocal music. in the Baroque era, one voice, usually the highest voice part (the soprano voice), was given the melody while the other lower voices harmonized the melody.

In the Baroque era, composers began to write contrasting sections withing a pice. The best example of this is the sonata, a new musical form developed in the Baroque era. A sonata is an instrumental work for a solo instrument perfoming alone or with accompaniment. Other new musical forms included cantatas and oratorios, multi-movement vocal works with instrumental accompaniment. Oratorios were more likely to be sacred, and were frequently based on verses from the Bible. Neither cantatas nor oratorios used staging, scenery, or costumes. The opera, which did use staging, scenery, costumes, and action, also developed during the Baroque era. An opera is a play, usually secular, set to music and staged, with orchestral accompanimeent.

The instruments which accomapnied the singers in oratorios, cantatas, and operas, ahad their own parts. The orchestras which accompanied singers in the Baroque era were different from today's orchestras. In the Baroque era, an "orchestra" was likely to be whatever musicians were available at the time. Eventually, composers began to specify which instruments should plya which parts. The instrument swere developing too. The viols of the Renaissance era became violins, violas, cellos, and bass violins. Flutes and oboes became more like today's instruments, and around 1700, the first clarinets were used. Trombones were similar to today's instrumetns, but trumpets had no valves and were difficult to play. some had slides, like mini-trombones. Muisc notation was about the same. IN previous eras, music was written for specific purposes, usually church services. During hte Baroque era, music became more expressive. For the first time, people went to vocal and orchestral concerts for the sole purpose of listening to music.