What Term Is Often Used to Define Classical Music?

Many people use the term “classical music” to describe a wide range of music from different periods and styles. However, there is no one definitive answer to this question.

The Classical Period

Classical music is a term that often gets thrown around, but what does it actually mean? Classical music is a genre of music that was popular in the 18th and 19th centuries. This type of music is usually characterized by its use of classical instruments, and its focus on melody and harmony.

The Baroque Period

The Baroque period is often defined as the period of Western art music from 1600 to 1750. The term “baroque” comes from the Portuguese word barroco, meaning “misshapen pearl”. At this time, there was a great deal of experimentation with new musical styles and forms.

The early years of the Baroque period saw the rise of the solo concerto and sonata as well as the cantata and oratorio. Opera was also invented during the Baroque period, and it quickly became one of the most popular forms of entertainment. The late Baroque period is often referred to as the “Golden Age” of music, and it saw the rise of composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel, Antonio Vivaldi, and Georg Philipp Telemann.

The Classical Period

The Classical period was an era of classical music between roughly 1730 and 1820. The Classical period falls between the Baroque and the Romantic periods. Classical music has a lighter, clearer texture than Baroque music and is less complex. It is mainly homophonic, using a clear melody line over a subordinate chordal accompaniment, but counterpoint was by no means forgotten, especially later in the period.

The major figures of the Classical era include Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven; other notable composers include Johann Christian Bach, Giovanni Battista Sammartini, Heinrich von Biber, Franz Anton Hoffmeister, and Niccolo Jommelli. Classical music forms such as the sonata, concerto grosso, symphony and overture developed during this time.

The Romantic Period

The Romantic period is a music era from about 1815 to 1910. The romantic period is often used to define classical music. This music period is characterized by its expressive and often controversial style, as well as its highly emotional character.

The Romantic Period

The Romantic Period of classical music is often said to begin in the early 1800s and end around 1900. This period saw composers drifting away from the structured, ordered music of the earlier Classical period into something more expressive and emotional. The new style was felt in all forms of art, from painting and literature to fashion and even architecture.

The music of the Romantic Period was marked by several distinct characteristics:

-An increased emphasis on emotion, feeling, and expression
-A move away from traditional tonality and formal structure
-The use of more chromaticism, or tonal ambiguity
-An increased focus on programmatic music, or music that told a story or painted a picture

The Romantic Era

The Romantic era was a period of great creativity in which composers sought to express their innermost thoughts and emotions in music. The main features of Romantic music are its sentimental (or emotional) expression, its free-flowing form, and its radical disregard for the classical rules of balance, proportion, and modulation.

In general, Romantic composers were more interested in expressive melodies and harmonies than in developing formal designs. They were also fascinated by exoticism, incorporating elements from folk music and other cultures into their works. As the era progressed, composers began to experiment with new harmonic progressions and chromatic effects that had not been used before.

Perhaps the most important development of the Romantic era was the rise of the symphonic poem, a work for orchestra that told a story or conveyed a mood without using traditional musical forms such as sonata or rondo. These new musical “pictures” were immensely popular with audiences, and they inspired many painters and poets as well.

The Modern Period

Classical music is a very broad term. It is generally used to describe music that is not contemporary or popular music. The term “classical music” can refer to music from the Medieval period, the Renaissance, the Baroque period, the Classical period, and the Romantic period. The term can also be used to describe art music from the 20th century and 21st century.

The Modern Era

The Modern Era of classical music is often said to begin after the Romantic period, around 1880. But it’s hard to pinpoint an exact date when the modern era began, as there were composers who were influenced by both the romantic and modern styles. The modern era is characterised by a move away from traditional tonality, orharmony based around key centres, towards atonality, in which there is no real sense of key. There was also a move away from traditional forms such as sonata form towards more experimental forms. The most important composers of the modernist period include Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern and Alban Berg, who together founded the Second Viennese School; Igor Stravinsky; and Sergei Prokofiev.

The Contemporary Era

The Contemporary Era, or Modern Period, is the musical period following the Classical period. It is generally considered to have begun in the late 19th century and ended in the 1940s or 50s, although some Western musicologists would mark it as lasting until composers began writing in an atonal style in the 1950s. Contemporary music was influenced by diverse styles such as jazz and folk music, as well as by nationalistic trends within Europe.

During the Contemporary Era, composers sought to break with tradition and explore new ideas and sounds. This led to a wide range of styles, from highly-structured tonal pieces to atonal works that eschewed any sort of tonal center. The period also saw a rise in the use of electronics in music, as well as an increased focus on performance art.