Baroque melody tends toward complexity. Composers liked to push melodies to the very limits of ornateness and luxuriance. Baroque melodies may extend over two whole octaves; they twist and turn in an intricate way as they reach high and low. It can be maintained that in the European classical tradition, the art of melody reached a high point in the late Baroque era, a point that has never been equaled since.

These long melodies, with their wealth of decorations added to the main direction of the line, are not easy to sing. Shown below is the first-movement theme of Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5. Almost anyone can learn to sing the first two bars, but if you can sing the rest you have a very good ear:

One easily recognized feature of Baroque melodies is their frequent use of sequence (see page 26). A (slightly free) sequence is shaded near the end of the melody above. Near the beginning (also shaded) the melody catches hold of a simple gesture — just two different pitches — and repeats it again and again at many pitch levels. Sequences provide Baroque music with one of its most effective means of forward motion.