PERCUSSION

Baroque period composers very rarely utilized percussion instruments,but instruments were used. It would seem that certain percussion instruments would be associated with ballet and dance music. Drums certainly figured amongst the instruments in marches with oboes, and they were by definition associated with military music. The only percussion instruments for which separate parts were written were the timpani (played in pairs, tuned to tonic key). They were played on horseback when used in military music, one drum being placed on sides of the horse. In various works by J.S. Bach the timpani were an indispensable complement to the trumpets.

Keyboard Instruments

Keyboard instruments were involved in a major portion of the instrumental literature of the time peroid. During this era, the two types of keyboards were the harpsichord and the organ.

The Baroque organ was more powerful than the Renaissance organ. Organs were mostly associated with church music and used for solos or accompaniments. A boom in organ useage took place during this period.

The clavichord produced sound by striking a metal wedge against a string when a key was pressed(like a piano). The sound was weak, but the instrument was able to produce a few dynamics. It wasused mainly in Germany and usually played as a solo instrument.

Brass

The main brass instruments of the era were the trumpet and french horn. These instruments were known as natural trumpets and horns because they lacked valves. Because of their limitations in these instruments were used for orchestral color.

Woodwinds

The oboe, recorder, and bassoon were common during the Baroque era. The only one of these instruments which did not survive the transition to the Classical period was the recorder . These woodwinds were all made 100% wood, includeing the flute, and had few or no keys, unlike later modles. They generally have a softer sound than modern versions.

Work Cited

http://trumpet.sdsu.edu/m345/Baroque_Music1.html

www.cello.org/heaven/baroque/baroque.htm

http://baroque-music.com/frames/info/ww.shtml

http://library.thinkquest.org/15413/history/history-bar-inst.htm

http://www.toucansolutions.com/compendium/index.html

String Instruments

The principal instruments in Baroque music are the bowed, unfretted, string instruments of the violin family. During the Baroque period Violin making was at its highest point . The best violins in the world today were made then in a town in northern Italy called Cremona. These instruments made by the Stradivari and Guarneri families continue to be prized by the greatest violinists. The violin, viola, cello and double bass(all the modern members of the violin family) were available to Baroque composers.
The Baroque period inherited fretted, bowed instruments from the Renaissance . The most important among these was the viola da gamba, or gamba, an instrument with a range similar to a cello. The gamba disappeared by the end of the eighteenth century.