The foundations of modern harmony - and our ideas of tension, release, movement, and energy - have their roots in the Baroque era. Tonality, which remains the basis for the accessibility of modern pop music, was first employed fully during the Baroque era. Italian, French, and German composers contributed to this development, but none had as powerful an impact on the history of music as Johann Sebastian Bach, whose works clarified many of the existing rules of music and invented countless new ones. This period begins with the early seventeenth century operas of Claudio Monteverdi and ends with the deaths of Bach and George Frideric Handel in the middle of the eighteenth century.

Notable Artists: Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel, Antonio Lucio Vivaldi