Canter Bridge

There’s a reason why all those drug store compilations with the breathless titles (‘Most Relaxing Classical Music Ever!) sell year after year. The pre-Classical baroque style really is relaxing.

You can do one of two things with a Baroque compilation like this endearing little CD from a 1990s Sunday Times (London) collection. You can play it in fire-and-forget mode, cranking it up on the stereo and puttering away in mindless fashion for the sheer relaxing effect of it. Or you can listen carefully to the regular tempos, the strong fugal instinct, the gentle severity of the scoring. Either way, the likes of Biber, Anon, Locke, Frescobaldi, Speer, Buxtehude, Couperin, Sanz, Montalbano, and Scheidt (I know, you’ve never heard of any of these names, since musical history begins with Bach and Albinoni) are well worth the attention you can give to them.

Baroque music has found a niche on FM and satellite radio these days. Its admirers are often die-hards, this for good reason.

If you appreciate ‘classical’ music, you owe it to yourself to get acquainted with its early antedent. Go buy some Baroque.