Chapter Summary

Instrumental music became virtually equal in quantity and quality with vocal music during the Baroque. Many music instruments and instrumental techniques became extraordinarily advanced. Significant forms of keyboard music included the fugue, toccata, suite, and prelude. The sonata was an important composition for solo instruments, and the concerto grosso a popular orchestral form. Vocal and ensemble music were accompanied by the continuo, which emphasized the newly significant bass line and "realized'' the figured bass according to the rules of tonality.