Skip to content

Choose a Chapter | Purchase the eBook | Podcasts | Online Listening Lab

Prelude Listening to Music Today
1 Melody: Musical Line
2 Rhythm and Meter: Musical Time
3 Harmony: Musical Space
4 The Organization of Musical Sounds
5 Musical Texture
6 Musical Form
7 Musical Expression: Tempo and Dynamics
8 Voices and Musical Instrument Families
9 Western Musical Instruments
10 Musical Ensembles
11 Style and Function of Music in Society
12 The Culture of the Middle Ages
13 Medieval Music
14 The Renaissance Spirit
15 Renaissance Sacred Music
16 Renaissance Secular Music
17 The Baroque Spirit
18 Vocal Music of the Baroque
19 Orchestral Music of the Baroque
20 Baroque Keyboard Music
21 The Classical Spirit
22 The Development of Classical Forms
23 The Classical Symphony
24 The Classical Concerto and Sonata
25 Classical Opera
26 The Spirit of Romanticism
27 The Romantic Miniature
28 Romantic Program Music
29 Romantic Opera
30 The Late Romantics
31 America's Emerging Musical Voice
32 The Impressionist Era
33 Main Currents in Early-Twentieth-Century Music
34 Early-Twentieth-Century Innovators
35 Nationalism and Music
36 Ragtime, Blues, and Jazz
37 New Directions
38 Contemporary Composers Look to World Music
39 Music for the Stage and Screen
40 The Many Voices of Rock
41 Some Current Trends

Chapter 20: Baroque Keyboard Music

Study Plan

Reduce Text Size Increase Text Size Email Print Page
"He, who possessed the most profound knowledge of all the contrapuntal arts, understood how to make art subservient to beauty." —C. P. E. BACH, ABOUT HIS FATHER, J. S. BACH

Key Points

  • The organ, harpsichord, and clavichord were the main keyboard instruments of the Baroque era.
  • J. S. Bach's keyboard music includes chorale preludes (short organ works elaborating a chorale melody) and preludes and fugues (a free-form piece followed by a strict imitative piece). He also wrote many suites for solo keyboard performance.
  • Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier is his most famous collection of preludes and fugues, and The Art of Fugue is his last and most comprehensive example of contrapuntal writing.

Section Menu

Norton Gradebook

Instructors now have an easy way to collect students’ online quizzes with the Norton Gradebook without flooding their inboxes with e-mails.

Students can track their online quiz scores by setting up their own Student Gradebook.