The Age of Bach and Handel  

    At the close of the seventeenth century two great musical giants, Bach and Handel, were bom in 1685.  They had, as their heritage, all the experiments and musical compositions of the seventeenth century; and just as Palestrina's work had been the climax to the great age of medieval polyphony, so the work of Bach and Handel was the consummation of the "new music", in the "Baroque" style, that had developed throughout the seventeenth century.