Rhythms become more definite, regular, and insistent in Baroque music; a single rhythm or similar rhythms can be heard throughout a piece or a major segment of a piece. Compare the subtle, floating rhythms of Renaissance music, changing section by section as the motives for the imitative polyphony change. (Renaissance dance music is an exception, and in the area of dance music there is a direct line from the Renaissance to the Baroque.)

Related to this new regularity of rhythm is a new emphasis on meter. One technical feature tells the story: Bar lines begin to be used for the first time in music history. This means that music’s meter is systematically in evidence, rather than being downplayed as it was in the Renaissance. (Full disclosure: For ease of reading, we have added bar lines to our examples in Chapters 6 and 7, but there are no bar lines in the original music.) The strong beats are often also emphasized by certain instruments, playing in a clear, decisive way. Strong rhythms and clear meter are conspicuous in Gabrieli’s motet “O magnum mysterium.”