Baroque Style How-to

I'm trying to write my next piece in Baroque style. I've already got the basic melody, but I have no idea how to 'baroque it up', so to speak. I've listened to plenty of Bach and Handel, but I feel like I'm missing the crucial link which allows me to absorb them.

Advice?

Counterpoint ;) You want to write authentic sounding baroque music you have to have a good handle on baroque style counterpoint. I recommend getting yourself a book on the subject (and one on harmony if you haven't already studied it). I can recommend Harold Owen's "Counterpoint - from Josquin to Stavinsky".

Good luck ;)

Counterpoint is the way to go.

I disagree a bit with what both of you are saying. Well, yes of course, Baroque music is mainly contrapuntal, but that is understood. Modern composers use counterpoint as well, but you can bet it doesn't sound like Bach.

The Baroque relies on aesthetics; if you've ever seen Baroque architecture, just imagine that the building you're looking at is a composition. Yes, it has form and specific dimension (counterpoint, in this analogy), but what makes it Baroque is the ornamentation.

So if you want to make something sound Baroque, use ornaments (mordents, trills, appogiaturas, etc.) tastefully.

Although, ornamentation barely puts a dent in recreating Baroque style. There are so many subtle yet important stylistic details that makes Bach sound the way he does.

So, my advice:

The best thing that you can do is listen. Listen to everything Baroque that you can, and soon enough you'll take bits of music from what you listen to and put it in your own words, so to speak.

An equally good thing that you can do is play a lot of Baroque music. You'll get an amazing understanding of what' going in terms of style.