As you remember from earlier theory and history classes, melodies, or melodic motives, may be manipulated in several ways. In Baroque music, it was very common for composers to present relatively short melodic figures, or fragments, then develop, or manipulate, them in numerous ways. Many of the techniques used in this style are already familiar to you from previous study. This would include techniques such as repetition, sequence, variation, interpolation, and so on. Since the polyphonic music of the Baroque period is based on the interaction of simultaneous melodic lines whichh then generated functional harmonic motion,, it's important to understand how these melodic lines are constructed.