Another steady feature of Baroque music is dynamics. Composers infrequently used loud and soft indications (f and p) in their scores, and once a dynamic was chosen or set, it remained at about the same level for the whole section — sometimes even for the whole composition.

Neither in the Baroque period nor in any other, however, have performers played or sung music at an absolutely even level of dynamics. Instrumentalists made expressive changes in dynamics to bring out rhythmic accents, and singers certainly sang high notes louder than low ones. But composers did not go much beyond natural variations of these kinds.

Gradual buildups from soft to loud, and the like, were rarely used. Abrupt dynamic contrasts were preferred — again, between fairly large sections of a longer piece, or whole movements. A clear forte/piano contrast is built into the concerto genre, with its alternating blocks of music for the full orchestra and for one or more quieter solo instruments. When, exceptionally, a Baroque composer changed dynamics in the middle of a section or a phrase of music, he could count on the great surprise — even the amazement — of his listeners. A famous sudden forte in Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus has been known to electrify the audience, to bring them to their feet (see page 144).

We spoke earlier of a characteristic dualism between extravagance and order in Baroque culture (see page 99). The methodical, regular quality of Baroque musical style that we are tracing here reflects the orderly, quasi-scientific side of this dualism. But Baroque music can also be highly dramatic, bizarre, or stupendous — a reflection of the other side of the dualism. Indeed, the magnificent momentary effects that occur occasionally in Handel and Bach are all the stronger because of the regular music around them.