which instruments formed the core of the baroque orchestra
The Baroque orchestra is the type of large ensemble for mixed instruments that existed during the Baroque Era of Western Classical music, commonly identified as 1600 -- 1750. Baroque orchestras are typically much smaller, in terms of the number of performers, than Romantic music era orchestras from the 1800s. Baroque orchestras originated in France where Jean-Baptiste Lully added the newly re-designed hautbois (oboe) and transverse flutes to his vingt-quatre violons du Roy (this translates as "The twenty-four violins of the King"). As well as violins and woodwinds, the baroque orchestra contained basso continuo instruments such as the theorbo, lute, harpsichord and / or pipe organ.