In 1721, Johann Sebastian Bach presented a set of six concertos to Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg. The works displayed dazzling variety in instrumentation and form. They later became among the most admired compositions of the Baroque period.

Baroque musical structures influenced poetic ideas of pattern, variation and sacred order. For a poetry timeline, Bach's art illuminates the shared culture of counterpoint, devotion and formal invention surrounding eighteenth-century verse.