1. Introduction : monarchy, religion, and the rhetoric of the arts -- Monarchy and nobility -- Religion -- The rhetoric of the arts -- 2. The birth of opera, monody, and the concerted madrigal -- Court culture, politics, and spectacle in Florence -- The first operas -- Le nuove musiche -- Monody and the serious canzonetta in Naples, Rome, and elsewhere -- Seconda pratica and the concerted madrigal -- Court opera in Mantua, Florence, and Rome -- 3. New genres of instrumental music -- Frescobaldi and style change in lute and harpsichord music -- Chordal composition -- Modal composition -- Church organ music in early seventeenth-century Italy -- The violin and Italian instrumental ensemble music -- 4. Church music in Italy, 1600-1650 -- Churches and other religious institutions -- Persistence of traditions -- The small-scale sacred concerto -- Sacred dialogues and oratorios -- Large-scale concerted church music -- 5. Stage, instrumental, and church music in France to 1650 -- The Balet comique de la Royne -- Types of dance in court ballets, other spectacles, and social contexts -- The air de cour -- Lute music -- Harpsichord music -- Instrumental ensemble music -- Organs and organ music -- Vocal music for church.

6. Music in the Empire through the Thirty-Year's War -- The Italian influx to the Empire and Eastern Europe -- The earliest Lutheran composers to assimilate new Italian styles after 1600 -- Heinrich Schütz -- Calvinist music -- Lutheran organ music -- Froberger -- Ensemble music in the Empire -- Stadpfeifern -- The German continuo song -- 7. Music in England under the first Stuart kings and Commonwealth -- England in the European context -- Instrumental ensemble music in England -- Lute and harpsichord music -- Church music under the Stuart kings -- Madrigals, ayres, and songs -- The masque at the courts of the first Stuart kings -- Music, the English Civil War, and Commonwealth -- 8. The diffusion of new vocal genres for theater, chamber, and church in Italy, 1635-1680 -- The spread of opera from Rome -- Venetian theaters -- Incogniti operas -- Venetian opera conventions -- Venetian arias -- Florence, Naples, Genoa -- The spread of the chamber cantata -- The oratorio in Rome at mid-century -- Changes in liturgical music in Italy.

9. Music at the court of Louis XIV to the death of Lully -- Political, economic, and cultural centralization in France -- Musique de la Grande Écurie -- Musique de la Chambre -- The Chapelle Royale -- Italian opera at the French royal court -- Spectacle as propaganda at the court of Louis XIV -- The system of royal academies -- The beginnings of French opera -- Ballets de cour and Comèdies-ballets -- Tragédie en Musique -- Lully's Alceste -- Lully's harmony -- Music in the city of Paris in the age of Louis XIV -- 10. Music in Spain, Portugal, and their colonies -- The Spanish Empire and its church -- Latin liturgical music -- The Villancico and other vernacular church music -- Autos sacramentales -- Vocal chamber music -- Stage music -- The Zarzuela -- Keyboard music -- Harp and guitar -- 11. Music in the Empire during the later seventeenth century -- The new Lutheran piety and the religious aria -- Sacred concertos for solo voice -- Sacred concertos for several voices -- Chorale concertos -- Religious vocal music at the Catholic German courts -- Keyboard music -- Instrumental ensemble music -- Seventeenth-century opera in the German lands -- German music theory -- Summary -- 12. Sonata and concerto in late seventeenth-century Italy -- The Italian trio and solo sonata in the second half of the seventeenth century -- Arcangelo Corelli -- The normalized harmonic style -- The solo sonata after Corelli -- The rise of the concerto grosso -- The Bolognese trumpet sonata -- The solo violin concerto.

13. England from the Restoration through the Augustan age -- Charles II and the musical institutions of his court -- Anthems and services -- Odes and welcome songs -- Songs and domestic vocal ensembles -- Viols and violins -- Solo keyboard music -- Plays with music, dramatick operas -- All-sung operas -- 14. Italian vocal music, ca.1680-1730 -- The Neoclassical reform of Italian opera, ca.1680-1706 -- Opera seria, part 1 -- The Doctrine of the Affections -- Opera seria, part 2 -- "A perfect spiritual Melodramma" : the Italian oratorio, ca. 1680-1730 -- The chamber cantata -- Latin church music -- 15. French music from the War of the Grand Alliance to the end of the Regency -- France declines in the theater of Europe -- Italian music : rapprochement and resistance -- The cantata françoise -- Vocal church music -- Organ music -- Pièces de clavecin -- Sonatas and sonades -- Orchestral music -- The harmonic theories of Jean-Philippe Rameau -- 16. German traditions and innovations, ca. 1690-1750 -- The new Lutheran cantata -- Bach's cantatas -- Protestant oratorios and passions -- Handel's oratorios -- Bach's passions and oratorios -- Bach's keyboard works -- Instrumental ensemble music -- The end of an era, the legacy of the Baroque -- Appendix. Rhetorical figures that are frequently mirrored in music.