# The 10 Best Baroque Tracks of All Time A bass line with numbers under it, a soloist above, and the invention of the idea that a piece should be driven by harmony moving somewhere. Also the invention of opera, the concerto and the fugue, which is a fair century and a half of work. - **Origin:** Italy, Germany and England, 1600 - **Also known as:** baroque music, basso continuo, figured bass - **Tracks:** 10 - **Updated:** 2026-08-30 - **Canonical page:** https://waxonia.com/genre/baroque/ ## The list ### 1. [Johann Sebastian Bach](https://waxonia.com/artist/johann-sebastian-bach/) — [Goldberg Variations](https://waxonia.com/track/johann-sebastian-bach--goldberg-variations/) *1741* Thirty variations over a bass line, returning at the end to the aria unchanged. Glenn Gould recorded it twice, at opposite tempos, twenty-six years apart, and both are right. [Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/Johann%20Sebastian%20Bach%20Goldberg%20Variations) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah392lnFHxM) ### 2. [Johann Sebastian Bach](https://waxonia.com/artist/johann-sebastian-bach/) — [Mass in B minor](https://waxonia.com/track/johann-sebastian-bach--mass-in-b-minor/) *1749* Assembled at the end of his life from music written across four decades, for a liturgy his own church did not use. The largest single achievement in Western music, put together from parts. [Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/Johann%20Sebastian%20Bach%20Mass%20in%20B%20minor) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=3FLbiDrn8IE) ### 3. [Henry Purcell](https://waxonia.com/artist/henry-purcell/) — [Dido and Aeneas](https://waxonia.com/track/henry-purcell--dido-and-aeneas/) *1689* Dido's Lament is five descending chromatic notes repeated eleven times while a woman decides to die. The most economical devastation anyone has written. [Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/Henry%20Purcell%20Dido%20and%20Aeneas) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=uGQq3HcOB0Y) ### 4. [Antonio Vivaldi](https://waxonia.com/artist/antonio-vivaldi/) — [The Four Seasons](https://waxonia.com/track/antonio-vivaldi--the-four-seasons/) *1725* Worn smooth by four hundred years of use, and still startling if you read the sonnets printed alongside it — barking dogs, drunk peasants, ice underfoot. Programme music before the term existed. [Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/Antonio%20Vivaldi%20The%20Four%20Seasons) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=AIMFORGkRuA) ### 5. [George Frideric Handel](https://waxonia.com/artist/george-frideric-handel/) — [Messiah](https://waxonia.com/track/george-frideric-handel--messiah/) *1741* Written in twenty-four days, to a libretto assembled entirely from scripture, for a Dublin charity. Handel wrote for the theatre and it shows in the best possible way. [Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/George%20Frideric%20Handel%20Messiah) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=usfiAsWR4qU) ### 6. [Claudio Monteverdi](https://waxonia.com/artist/claudio-monteverdi/) — [L'Orfeo](https://waxonia.com/track/claudio-monteverdi--lorfeo/) *1607* Not the first opera and the first good one. Monteverdi works out in a single evening that an orchestra can characterise, and the form never looks back. [Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/Claudio%20Monteverdi%20L'Orfeo) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=jUep3sqe35o) ### 7. [Gregorio Allegri](https://waxonia.com/artist/gregorio-allegri/) — [Miserere mei, Deus](https://waxonia.com/track/gregorio-allegri--miserere-mei-deus/) *1638* The Sistine Chapel forbade copies for over a century, until the fourteen- year-old Mozart heard it twice and wrote it out from memory. The high C is probably a transcription error, and nobody wants it corrected. [Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/Gregorio%20Allegri%20Miserere%20mei%2C%20Deus) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=rs5bc_P1kKo) ### 8. [Johann Sebastian Bach](https://waxonia.com/artist/johann-sebastian-bach/) — [Brandenburg Concerto No. 3](https://waxonia.com/track/johann-sebastian-bach--brandenburg-concerto-no-3/) *1721* Nine string players, no soloist, and every one of them busy. Bach sent the set to a margrave who appears never to have had them played, which is the most Bach fact available. [Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/Johann%20Sebastian%20Bach%20Brandenburg%20Concerto%20No.%203) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=pdsyNwUoON0) ### 9. [Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber](https://waxonia.com/artist/heinrich-ignaz-franz-biber/) — [Rosary Sonatas](https://waxonia.com/track/heinrich-ignaz-franz-biber--rosary-sonatas/) *1676* Each sonata retunes the violin differently, so the player's fingers produce intervals they are not expecting. Devotional music that is also a physical ordeal, and it sounds like it. [Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/Heinrich%20Ignaz%20Franz%20Biber%20Rosary%20Sonatas) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=WcRxH6LfMuE) ### 10. [Johann Pachelbel](https://waxonia.com/artist/johann-pachelbel/) — [Canon in D](https://waxonia.com/track/johann-pachelbel--canon-in-d/) *1680* Two bars of bass, twenty-eight repetitions, three violins in strict canon above. Ubiquitous to the point of parody, and structurally the ancestor of every loop-based record on this site. [Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/Johann%20Pachelbel%20Canon%20in%20D) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=lgh68Swuak0) --- Hand-curated by Waxonia. We host no audio; all links point to streaming platforms.