[1] Baroque orchestras are typically much smaller, in terms of the number of performers, than their Romantic-era counterparts.
Baroque orchestras originated in France where Jean-Baptiste Lully added the newly re-designed hautbois (oboe) and transverse flutes to his orchestra, Les Vingt-quatre Violons du Roi ("The Twenty-Four Violins of the King").
As well as violins and woodwinds, baroque orchestras often contained basso continuo instruments such as the theorbo, the lute, the harpsichord and the pipe organ.
There were large differences in size, instrumentation and playing styles—and therefore in orchestral soundscapes and palettes—between the various European regions.
Examples of large scale Baroque orchestras would include Corelli's orchestra in Rome which ranged between 35 and 80 players for day-to-day performances, being enlarged to 150 players for special occasions.