The Well-Tempered Ear

Classical music: Why are mornings the right time for listening to Baroque music?

By Jacob Stockinger

Recently I have spent many mornings listening to a lot of Baroque music. It was programmed on Wisconsin Public Radio.

That’s how I ended up listening to so many great concertos, sonatas, cantatas and other music by Johann Sebastian Bach (below top) and Antonio Vivaldi (below bottom) – my two favorites – as well as Georg Frideric Handel, Domenico Scarlatti, Georg Philipp Telemann and several masters of the Italian baroque. (At the bottom is Bach’s appealing Brandenburg Concerto No. 6, written for lower strings without violins, which I heard.)

Of course so much of Baroque music is appealing by itself and on its own at any time.

And I have heard it in recordings and in live performance  at all different times of the day – mornings, afternoons and nights.

But somehow Baroque music just feels most right in the morning.

I think I have some ideas why.

But it seems like a great question to ask readers about.

So, readers, The Ear asks you: What makes mornings seem so ideal for listening to Baroque music?

Do you have a favorite Baroque composer?

And do you have a favorite Baroque piece?

Leave names of composers and pieces, along with a YouTube link, in the COMMENT section.

The Ear wants to hear.