Baroque music is brimming with energy, and this energy is channeled into a highly regular, determined sort of motion. Like today’s popular music, Baroque music gets its rhythmic vitality by playing off distinctive rhythms against a very steady beat. The meter nearly always stands out, emphasized by certain instruments in the ensemble. Most characteristic of these “marking-time” instruments is the busy, crisp harpsichord.

Attentive listening will also reveal another aspect of regularity in the steady harmonic rhythm — that is, a Baroque piece tends to change chords at every measure or at some other set interval. (Do not expect to hear this happening all the time, but it happens often enough so that we can speak of a tendency.)