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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about Western art music from the Middle Ages to the present. For
other uses, see Classical music (disambiguation).
Members of a youth orchestra standing to acknowledge applause after
performing.
Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered
to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is
sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical
music" can also be applied to non-Western art musics. Classical music is often
characterized by formality and complexity in its musical form and harmonic
organization,[1] particularly with the use of polyphony.[2] Since at least the ninth
century, it has been primarily a written tradition,[2] spawning a sophisticated
notational system, as well as accompanying literature in analytical, critical,
historiographical, musicological and philosophical practices. A foundational
component of Western culture, classical music is frequently seen from the
perspective of individual or groups of composers, whose compositions,
personalities and beliefs have fundamentally shaped its history.[citation needed]

Rooted in the patronage of churches and royal courts in Europe,[1] surviving

early medieval music is chiefly religious, monophonic and vocal, with the music
of ancient Greece and Rome influencing its thought and theory. The earliest
extant music manuscripts date from the Carolingian Empire (800–887),[3] around
the time which Western plainchant gradually unified into what is termed
Gregorian chant.[4] Musical centers existed at the Abbey of Saint Gall, the Abbey
of Saint Martial and Saint Emmeram's Abbey, while the 11th century saw the
development of staff notation and increasing output from medieval music
theorists. By the mid-12th century, France became the major European musical
center:[3] the religious Notre-Dame school first fully explored organized rhythms
and polyphony, while secular music flourished with the troubadour and trouvère
traditions led by poet-musician nobles.[5] This culminated in the court-sponsored
French ars nova and Italian Trecento, which evolved into ars subtilior, a stylistic
movement of extreme rhythmic diversity.[5] Beginning in the early 15th century,
Renaissance composers of the influential Franco-Flemish School built on the
harmonic principles in the English contenance angloise, bringing choral music to
new standards, particularly the mass and motet.[6] Northern Italy soon emerged
as the central musical region, where the Roman School engaged in highly
sophisticated methods of polyphony in genres such as the madrigal,[6] which
inspired the brief English Madrigal School.

The Baroque period (1580–1750) saw the relative standardization of common-

practice tonality,[7] as well as the increasing importance of musical instruments,
which grew into ensembles of considerable size. Italy remained dominant, being
the birthplace of opera, the soloist centered concerto genre, the organized
sonata form as well as the large scale vocal-centered genres of oratorio and
cantata. The fugue technique championed by Johann Sebastian Bach exemplified
the Baroque tendency for complexity, and as a reaction the simpler and song-like
galant music and empfindsamkeit styles were developed. In the shorter but
pivotal Classical period (1730–1820), composers such as Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart, Joseph Haydn, and Ludwig van Beethoven created widely admired
representatives of absolute music,[8][9] including symphonies, string quartets
and concertos. The subsequent Romantic music (1800–1910) focused instead on
programmatic music, for which the art song, symphonic poem and various piano
genres were important vessels. During this time virtuosity was celebrated,
immensity was encouraged, while philosophy and nationalism were embedded—
all aspects that converged in the operas of Richard Wagner.

By the 20th century, stylistic unification gradually dissipated while the

prominence of popular music greatly increased. Many composers actively
avoided past techniques and genres in the lens of modernism, with some
abandoning tonality in place of serialism, while others found new inspiration in
folk melodies or impressionist sentiments. After World War II, for the first time
audience members valued older music over contemporary works, a preference
which has been catered to by the emergence and widespread availability of
commercial recordings.[10] Trends of the mid-20th century to the present day
include New Simplicity, New Complexity, Minimalism, Spectral music, and more
recently Postmodern music and Postminimalism. Increasingly global,
practitioners from the Americas, Africa and Asia have obtained crucial roles,[3]
while symphony orchestras and opera houses now appear across the world.

Terminology and definition

Ideological origins

(from left to right) Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven from the 1904 Beethoven–
Haydn–Mozart Memorial. The three are part of the First Viennese School and
among the first composers to be referred to as "Classical".
Both the English term classical and the German equivalent Klassik developed
from the French classique, itself derived from the Latin word classicus, which
originally referred to the highest class of Ancient Roman citizens.[11][n 1] In
Roman usage, the term later became a means to distinguish revered literary
figures;[11] the Roman author Aulus Gellius commended writers such as
Demosthenes and Virgil as classicus.[13] By the Renaissance, the adjective had
acquired a more general meaning: an entry in Randle Cotgrave's 1611 A
Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues is among the earliest extant
definitions, translating classique as "classical, formall [sic], orderlie, in due or fit
ranke; also, approved, authenticall, chiefe, principall".[11][14] The musicologist
Daniel Heartz summarizes this into two definitions: 1) a "formal discipline" and 2)
a "model of excellence".[11] Like Gellius, later Renaissance scholars who wrote in
Latin used classicus in reference to writers of classical antiquity;[12][n 2]
however, this meaning only gradually developed, and was for a while
subordinate to the broader classical ideals of formality and excellence.[15]
Literature and visual arts—for which substantial Ancient Greek and Roman
examples existed—did eventually adopt the term "classical" as relating to
classical antiquity, but virtually no music of that time was available to
Renaissance musicians, limiting the connection between classical music and the
Greco-Roman world.[15][n 3]

It was in 18th-century England that the term 'classical' "first came to stand for a
particular canon of works in performance."[15] London had developed a
prominent public concert music scene, unprecedented and unmatched by other
European cities.[11] The royal court had gradually lost its monopoly on music, in
large part from instability that the Commonwealth of England's dissolution and
the Glorious Revolution enacted on court musicians.[11][n 4] In 1672, the former
court musician John Banister began giving popular public concerts at a London
tavern;[n 5] his popularity rapidly inaugurated the prominence of public concerts
in the London.[19] The conception of "classical"—or more often "ancient
music"—emerged, which was still built on the principles of formality and
excellence, and according to Heartz "civic ritual, religion and moral activism
figured significantly in this novel construction of musical taste".[15] The
performance of such music was specialized by the Academy of Ancient Music and
later at the Concerts of Antient Music series, where the work of select 16th and
17th composers was featured,[20] especially George Frideric Handel.[15][n 6] In
France, the reign of Louis XIV (r. 1638–1715) saw a cultural renaissance, by the
end of which writers such as Molière, Jean de La Fontaine and Jean Racine were
considered to have surpassed the achievements of classical antiquity.[21] They
were thus characterized as "classical", as was the music of Jean-Baptiste Lully
(and later Christoph Willibald Gluck), being designated as "l'opéra française
classique".[21] In the rest of continental Europe, the abandonment of defining
"classical" as analogous to the Greco-Roman World was slower, primarily
because the formation of canonical repertoires was either minimal or exclusive to
the upper classes.[15]

Many European commentators of the early 19th century found new unification in
their definition of classical music: to juxtapose the older composers Wolfgang
Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn, and (excluding some of his later works) Ludwig
van Beethoven as "classical" against the emerging style of Romantic music.[22]
[23][24] These three composers in particular were grouped into the First
Viennese School, sometimes called the "Viennese classics",[n 7] a coupling that
remains problematic by reason of none of the three being born in Vienna and the
minimal time Haydn and Mozart spent in the city.[25] While this was an often
expressed characterization, it was not a strict one. In 1879 the composer Charles
Kensington Salaman defined the following composers as classical: Bach, Handel,
Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Weber, Spohr and Mendelssohn.[26] More broadly,
some writers used the term "classical" to generally praise well-regarded outputs
from various composers, particularly those who produced many works in an
established genre.[11][n 8]

Contemporary understanding
The contemporary understanding of the term "classical music" remains vague
and multifaceted.[30][31] Other terms such as "art music", "canonic music",
"cultivated music" and "serious music" are largely synonymous.[32] The term
"classical music" is often indicated or implied to concern solely the Western
world,[33] and conversely, in many academic histories the term "Western music"
excludes non-classical Western music.[34][n 9] Another complication lies in that
"classical music" is sometimes used to describe non-Western art music exhibiting
similar long-lasting and complex characteristics; examples include Indian
classical music, Gamelan music, and various styles of the court of Imperial China
(see yayue for instance).[1] Thus in the later 20th century terms such as
"Western classical music" and "Western art music" came in use to address this.
[33] The musicologist Ralph P. Locke notes that neither term is ideal, as they
create an "intriguing complication" when considering "certain practitioners of
Western-art music genres who come from non-Western cultures".[36][n 10]

Complexity in musical form and harmonic organization are typical traits of

classical music.[1] The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) offers three definitions
for the word "classical" in relation to music:[27]

"of acknowledged excellence"

"of, relating to, or characteristic of a formal musical tradition, as distinguished
from popular or folk music"
and more specifically, "of or relating to formal European music of the late 18th
and early 19th centuries, characterized by harmony, balance, and adherence to
established compositional forms".
The last definition concerns what is now termed the Classical period, a specific
stylistic era of European music from the second half of the 18th century to the
beginning of the 19th century.[37]

History
Further information: History of music, List of classical music composers by era,
and Dates of classical music eras
Major eras of
Western classical music
Early music
Medieval c. 500–1400
Transition to Renaissance
Renaissance c. 1400–1600
Transition to Baroque
Common practice period
Baroque c. 1600–1750
Transition to Classical
Classical c. 1730–1820
Transition to Romantic
Romantic c. 1800–1910
Transition to Modernism
New music
Modernism from c. 1890
Contemporary from c. 1945
• 20th-century
• 21st-century
vte
Roots
Further information: Ancient music, Music of ancient Greece, and Music of
ancient Rome
The Western classical tradition formally begins with music created by and for the
early Christian Church.[38] It is probable that the early Church wished to
disassociate itself from the predominant music of ancient Greece and Rome, as it
was a reminder of the pagan religion it had persecuted and by which it had been
persecuted.[38] As such, it remains unclear as to what extent the music of the
Christian Church, and thus Western classical music as a whole, was influenced by
preceding ancient music.[39] The general attitude towards music was adopted
from the Ancient Greek and Roman music theorists and commentators.[40][n 11]
Just as in Greco-Roman society, music was considered central to education;
along with arithmetic, geometry and astronomy, music was included in the
quadrivium, the four subjects of the upper division of a standard liberal arts
education in the Middle Ages.[42] This high regard for music was first promoted
by the scholars Cassiodorus, Isidore of Seville,[43] and particularly Boethius,[44]
whose transmission and expansion on the perspectives of music from
Pythagoras, Aristotle and Plato were crucial in the development of medieval
musical thought.[45] However, scholars, medieval music theorists and
composers regularly misinterpreted or misunderstood the writings of their Greek
and Roman predecessors.[46] This was due to the complete absence of surviving
Greco-Roman musical works available to medieval musicians,[46][n 12] to the
extent that Isidore of Seville (c. 559 – 636) stated "unless sounds are
remembered by man, they perish, for they cannot be written down", unaware of
the systematic notational practices of Ancient Greece centuries before.[47][n 13]
The musicologist Gustave Reese notes, however, that many Greco-Roman texts
can still be credited as influential to Western classical music, since medieval
musicians regularly read their works—regardless of whether they were doing so
correctly.[46]
However, there are some indisputable musical continuations from the ancient
world.[48] Basic aspects such as monophony, improvisation and the dominance
of text in musical settings are prominent in both early medieval and music of
nearly all ancient civilizations.[49] Greek influences in particular include the
church modes (which were descendants of developments by Aristoxenus and
Pythagoras),[50] basic acoustical theory from pythagorean tuning,[39] as well as
the central function of tetrachords.[51] Ancient Greek instruments such as the
aulos (a reed instrument) and the lyre (a stringed instrument similar to a small
harp) eventually led to several modern-day instruments of a symphonic
orchestra.[52] However, Donald Jay Grout notes that attempting to create a
direct evolutionary connection from the ancient music to early medieval is
baseless, as it was almost solely influenced by Greco-Roman music theory, not
performance or practice.[53]

Early music
Main article: Early music
Medieval
Main article: Medieval music
See also: List of medieval composers, List of medieval music theorists, and List of
medieval musical instruments

Musician playing the vielle (fourteenth-century Medieval manuscript)

Medieval music includes Western European music from after the fall of the
Western Roman Empire by 476 to about 1400. Monophonic chant, also called
plainsong or Gregorian chant, was the dominant form until about 1100.[54]
Christian monks developed the first forms of European musical notation in order
to standardize liturgy throughout the Church.[55][56] Polyphonic (multi-voiced)
music developed from monophonic chant throughout the late Middle Ages and
into the Renaissance, including the more complex voicings of motets. During the
earlier medieval period, the vocal music from the liturgical genre, predominantly
Gregorian chant, was monophonic, using a single, unaccompanied vocal melody
line.[57] Polyphonic vocal genres, which used multiple independent vocal
melodies, began to develop during the high medieval era, becoming prevalent by
the later 13th and early 14th century. Notable medieval composers include
Hildegard of Bingen, Léonin, Pérotin, Philippe de Vitry, Guillaume de Machaut,
Francesco Landini, and Johannes Ciconia.

Many medieval musical instruments still exist, but in different forms. Medieval
instruments included the flute, the recorder and plucked string instruments like
the lute. As well, early versions of the organ and fiddle (or vielle) existed.
Medieval instruments in Europe had most commonly been used singly, often self
accompanied with a drone note, or occasionally in parts. From at least as early as
the 13th century through the 15th century there was a division of instruments
into haut (loud, shrill, outdoor instruments) and bas (quieter, more intimate
instruments).[58] A number of instrument have roots in Eastern predecessors
that were adopted from the medieval Islamic world.[59] For example, the Arabic
rebab is the ancestor of all European bowed string instruments, including the lira,
rebec and violin.[60][61]

Renaissance
Main article: Renaissance music
See also: List of Renaissance composers
The musical Renaissance era lasted from 1400 to 1600. It was characterized by
greater use of instrumentation, multiple interweaving melodic lines, and the use
of earlier forms of bass instruments. Social dancing became more widespread, so
musical forms appropriate to accompanying dance began to standardize. It is in
this time that the notation of music on a staff and other elements of musical
notation began to take shape.[62] This invention made possible the separation of
the composition of a piece of music from its transmission; without written music,
transmission was oral, and subject to change every time it was transmitted. With
a musical score, a work of music could be performed without the composer's
presence.[63] The invention of the movable-type printing press in the 15th
century had far-reaching consequences on the preservation and transmission of
music.[64]

An illuminated opening from the Chigi codex featuring the Kyrie of Ockeghem's
Missa Ecce ancilla Domini
Many instruments originated during the Renaissance; others were variations of,
or improvements upon, instruments that had existed previously. Some have
survived to the present day; others have disappeared, only to be re-created in
order to perform music on period instruments. As in the modern day, instruments
may be classified as brass, strings, percussion, and woodwind. Brass instruments
in the Renaissance were traditionally played by professionals who were members
of Guilds and they included the slide trumpet, the wooden cornet, the valveless
trumpet and the sackbut. Stringed instruments included the viol, the rebec, the
harp-like lyre, the hurdy-gurdy, the lute, the guitar, the cittern, the bandora, and
the orpharion. Keyboard instruments with strings included the harpsichord and
the clavichord. Percussion instruments include the triangle, the Jew's harp, the
tambourine, the bells, the rumble-pot, and various kinds of drums. Woodwind
instruments included the double-reed shawm (an early member of the oboe
family), the reed pipe, the bagpipe, the transverse flute, the recorder, the
dulcian, and the crumhorn. Simple pipe organs existed, but were largely confined
to churches, although there were portable varieties.[65] Printing enabled the
standardization of descriptions and specifications of instruments, as well as
instruction in their use.[66]
Vocal music in the Renaissance is noted for the flourishing of an increasingly
elaborate polyphonic style. The principal liturgical forms which endured
throughout the entire Renaissance period were masses and motets, with some
other developments towards the end, especially as composers of sacred music
began to adopt secular forms (such as the madrigal) for their own designs.
Towards the end of the period, the early dramatic precursors of opera such as
monody, the madrigal comedy, and the intermedio are seen. Around 1597,
Italian composer Jacopo Peri wrote Dafne, the first work to be called an opera
today. He also composed Euridice, the first opera to have survived to the present
day.

Notable composers of the Renaissance include Josquin des Prez, Giovanni

Pierluigi da Palestrina, John Dunstaple, Johannes Ockeghem, Orlande de Lassus,
Guillaume Du Fay, Gilles Binchois, Thomas Tallis, William Byrd, Giovanni Gabrieli,
Carlo Gesualdo, John Dowland, Jacob Obrecht, Adrian Willaert, Jacques Arcadelt,
Cipriano de Rore, and Francesco da Milano.

Common-practice period
The common practice period is typically defined as the era between the
formation and the dissolution of common-practice tonality.[citation needed] The
term usually spans roughly two-and-a-half centuries, encompassing the Baroque,
Classical, and Romantic periods.

Baroque
Main article: Baroque music
See also: List of Baroque composers

Baroque instruments including hurdy-gurdy, harpsichord, bass viol, lute, violin,

and baroque guitar
Baroque music is characterized by the use of complex tonal counterpoint and the
use of a basso continuo, a continuous bass line. Music became more complex in
comparison with the simple songs of all previous periods.[67] The beginnings of
the sonata form took shape in the canzona, as did a more formalized notion of
theme and variations. The tonalities of major and minor as means for managing
dissonance and chromaticism in music took full shape.[68]

During the Baroque era, keyboard music played on the harpsichord and pipe
organ became increasingly popular, and the violin family of stringed instruments
took the form generally seen today. Opera as a staged musical drama began to
differentiate itself from earlier musical and dramatic forms, and vocal forms like
the cantata and oratorio became more common.[69] For the first time, vocalists
began adding ornamentals to the music.[67]

The theories surrounding equal temperament began to be put in wider practice,

as it enabled a wider range of chromatic possibilities in hard-to-tune keyboard
instruments. Although J.S. Bach did not use equal temperament, changes in the
temperaments from the then-common meantone system to various
temperaments that made modulation between all keys musically acceptable
made possible his Well-Tempered Clavier.[70]

Baroque instruments included some instruments from the earlier periods (e.g.,
the hurdy-gurdy and recorder) and a number of new instruments (e.g., the oboe,
bassoon, cello, contrabass and fortepiano). Some instruments from previous eras
fell into disuse, such as the shawm, cittern, rackett, and the wooden cornet. The
key Baroque instruments for strings included the violin, viol, viola, viola d'amore,
cello, contrabass, lute, theorbo (which often played the basso continuo parts),
mandolin, Baroque guitar, harp and hurdy-gurdy. Woodwinds included the
Baroque flute, Baroque oboe, recorder and the bassoon. Brass instruments
included the cornett, natural horn, natural trumpet, serpent and the trombone.
Keyboard instruments included the clavichord, the tangent piano, the
harpsichord, the pipe organ, and, later in the period, the fortepiano (an early
version of the piano). Percussion instruments included the timpani, snare drum,
tambourine and the castanets.

One major difference between Baroque music and the classical era that followed
it is that the types of instruments used in Baroque ensembles were much less
standardized. A Baroque ensemble could include one of several different types of
keyboard instruments (e.g., pipe organ or harpsichord),[71] additional stringed
chordal instruments (e.g., a lute), bowed strings, woodwinds, and brass
instruments, and an unspecified number of bass instruments performing the
basso continuo,(e.g., a cello, contrabass, viola, bassoon, serpent, etc.).

Vocal oeuvres of the Baroque era included suites such as oratorios and cantatas.
[72][73] Secular music was less common, and was typically characterized only
by instrumental music. Like Baroque art,[74] themes were generally sacred and
for the purpose of a catholic setting.

Notable composers of the Baroque era include Johann Sebastian Bach, Antonio
Vivaldi, George Frideric Handel, Johann Pachelbel, Henry Purcell, Claudio
Monteverdi, Barbara Strozzi, Domenico Scarlatti, Georg Philipp Telemann,
Arcangelo Corelli, Alessandro Scarlatti, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Jean-Baptiste Lully,
and Heinrich Schütz.
Classical
Main article: Classical period (music)
See also: List of Classical-era composers

Joseph Haydn (1732–1809), portrayed by Thomas Hardy (1791)

Though the term "classical music" includes all Western art music from the
medieval era to the 21st century, the Classical era was the period of Western art
music from the 1750s to the early 1820s[75]—the era of Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart, Joseph Haydn, and Ludwig van Beethoven.

The Classical era established many of the norms of composition, presentation,

and style, and when the piano became the predominant keyboard instrument.
The basic forces required for an orchestra became somewhat standardized
(though they would grow as the potential of a wider array of instruments was
developed). Chamber music grew to include ensembles with as many as 8-10
performers for serenades. Opera continued to develop, with regional styles in
Italy, France, and German-speaking lands. The opera buffa, a form of comic
opera, rose in popularity. The symphony came into its own as a musical form,
and the concerto was developed as a vehicle for displays of virtuoso playing skill.
Orchestras no longer required a harpsichord, and were often led by the lead
violinist (now called the concertmaster).[76]

Classical era musicians continued to use many of the instruments from the
Baroque era, such as the cello, contrabass, recorder, trombone, timpani,
fortepiano (the precursor to the modern piano) and organ. While some Baroque
instruments fell into disuse e.g. the theorbo and rackett, many Baroque
instruments were changed into the versions still in use today, such as the
Baroque violin (which became the violin), Baroque oboe (which became the
oboe) and Baroque trumpet, which transitioned to the regular valved trumpet.
During the Classical era, the stringed instruments used in orchestra and chamber
music such as string quartets were standardized as the four instruments which
form the string section of the orchestra: the violin, viola, cello, and double bass.
Baroque-era stringed instruments such as fretted, bowed viols were phased out.
Woodwinds included the basset clarinet, basset horn, clarinette d'amour, the
Classical clarinet, the chalumeau, the flute, oboe and bassoon. Keyboard
instruments included the clavichord and the fortepiano. While the harpsichord
was still used in basso continuo accompaniment in the 1750s and 1760s, it fell
out of use at the end of the century. Brass instruments included the buccin, the
ophicleide (a replacement for the bass serpent, which was the precursor of the
tuba) and the natural horn.

Wind instruments became more refined in the Classical era. While double-reed
instruments like the oboe and bassoon became somewhat standardized in the
Baroque, the clarinet family of single reeds was not widely used until Mozart
expanded its role in orchestral, chamber, and concerto settings.[77]

Notable composers of the Classical era include Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart,

Joseph Haydn, Franz Schubert, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Luigi Boccherini,
Antonio Salieri, Carl Czerny, and Pierre Rode. Ludwig van Beethoven is commonly
regarded as a transitional composer whose music combines both late Classical
and early Romantic elements.

Romantic
Main article: Romantic music
See also: List of Romantic-era composers

Josef Danhauser's 1840 painting of Franz Liszt at the piano surrounded by (from
left to right) Alexandre Dumas, Hector Berlioz, George Sand, Niccolò Paganini,
Gioachino Rossini, and Marie d'Agoult with a bust of Ludwig van Beethoven on
the piano
The music of the Romantic era, from roughly the first decade of the 19th century
to the early 20th century, was characterized by increased attention to an
extended melodic line, as well as expressive and emotional elements, paralleling
romanticism in other art forms. Musical forms began to break from the Classical
era forms (even as those were being codified), with free-form pieces like
nocturnes, fantasias, and preludes being written where accepted ideas about the
exposition and development of themes were ignored or minimized.[78] The
music became more chromatic, dissonant, and tonally colorful, with tensions
(with respect to accepted norms of the older forms) about key signatures
increasing.[79] The art song (or Lied) came to maturity in this era, as did the epic
scales of grand opera, ultimately transcended by Richard Wagner's Ring cycle.
[80]

In the 19th century, musical institutions emerged from the control of wealthy
patrons, as composers and musicians could construct lives independent of the
nobility. Increasing interest in music by the growing middle classes throughout
western Europe spurred the creation of organizations for the teaching,
performance, and preservation of music. The piano, which achieved its modern
construction in this era (in part due to industrial advances in metallurgy) became
widely popular with the middle class, whose demands for the instrument spurred
many piano builders. Many symphony orchestras date their founding to this era.
[79] Some musicians and composers were the stars of the day; some, like Franz
Liszt and Niccolò Paganini, fulfilled both roles.[81]

European cultural ideas and institutions began to follow colonial expansion into
other parts of the world. There was also a rise, especially toward the end of the
era, of nationalism in music (echoing, in some cases, political sentiments of the
time), as composers such as Edvard Grieg, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and Antonín
Dvořák echoed traditional music of their homelands in their compositions.[82]

In the Romantic era, the modern piano, with a more powerful, sustained tone and
a wider range took over from the more delicate-sounding fortepiano. In the
orchestra, the existing Classical instruments and sections were retained (string
section, woodwinds, brass, and percussion), but these sections were typically
expanded to make a fuller, bigger sound. For example, while a Baroque orchestra
may have had two double bass players, a Romantic orchestra could have as
many as ten. "As music grew more expressive, the standard orchestral palette
just wasn't rich enough for many Romantic composers."[83]

The families of instruments used, especially in orchestras, grew larger; a process

that climaxed in the early 20th century with very large orchestras used by late
romantic and modernist composers. A wider array of percussion instruments
began to appear. Brass instruments took on larger roles, as the introduction of
rotary valves made it possible for them to play a wider range of notes. The size
of the orchestra (typically around 40 in the Classical era) grew to be over 100.
[79] Gustav Mahler's 1906 Symphony No. 8, for example, has been performed
with over 150 instrumentalists and choirs of over 400.[84] New woodwind
instruments were added, such as the contrabassoon, bass clarinet and piccolo
and new percussion instruments were added, including xylophones, snare drums,
celestas (a bell-like keyboard instrument), bells, and triangles,[83] large
orchestral harps, and even wind machines for sound effects. Saxophones appear
in some scores from the late 19th century onwards, usually featured as a solo
instrument rather than as in integral part of the orchestra.

The Wagner tuba, a modified member of the horn family, appears in Richard
Wagner's cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen. It also has a prominent role in Anton
Bruckner's Symphony No. 7 in E Major and is also used in several late romantic
and modernist works by Richard Strauss, Béla Bartók, and others[85] Cornets
appear regularly in 19th century scores, alongside trumpets which were regarded
as less agile, at least until the end of the century.

Notable composers of the Romantic era include Ludwig van Beethoven, Pyotr
Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Frédéric Chopin, Hector Berlioz, Franz Schubert, Robert
Schumann, Felix Mendelssohn, Franz Liszt, Giuseppe Verdi, Richard Wagner,
Johannes Brahms, Alexander Scriabin, Nikolai Medtner, Edvard Grieg, and Johann
Strauss II. Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss are commonly regarded as
transitional composers whose music combines both late Romantic and early
modernist elements.

20th and 21st centuries

Concept art for the 1913 production of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring. Many
early 20th century composers such as Mahler, Sibelius and Vaughan Williams
were heavily influenced by the forces of nature.
Main articles: Neue Musik, 20th-century classical music, and 21st-century
classical music
At the turn of the century, music was characteristically late romantic in style with
its expressive melodies, complex harmonies, and expansive forms. This era was
marked by the works of several composers who pushed forward post-romantic
symphonic writing. Composers such as Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss
continued to develop the western classical tradition with expansive symphonies
and operas, while the likes of Jean Sibelius and Vaughan Williams infused their
compositions with nationalistic elements and influences from folk songs. Sergei
Prokofiev began in this tradition but soon ventured into modernist territories. At
the same time, the impressionist movement, spearheaded by Claude Debussy,
was being developed in France, with Maurice Ravel as another notable pioneer.
[86]

Modernist
Main article: Modernism (music)
Modernist classical music encompasses many styles of composition that can be
characterised as post romantic, impressionist, expressionist, and neoclassical.
Modernism marked an era when many composers rejected certain values of the
common practice period, such as traditional tonality, melody, instrumentation,
and structure.[87] Some music historians regard musical modernism as an era
extending from about 1890 to 1930.[88][89] Others consider that modernism
ended with one or the other of the two world wars.[90] Still other authorities
claim that modernism is not associated with any historical era, but rather is "an
attitude of the composer; a living construct that can evolve with the times".[91]
Despite its decline in the last third of the 20th century, there remained at the
end of the century an active core of composers who continued to advance the
ideas and forms of modernism, such as Pierre Boulez, Pauline Oliveros, Toru
Takemitsu, George Benjamin, Jacob Druckman, Brian Ferneyhough, George Perle,
Wolfgang Rihm, Richard Wernick, Richard Wilson, and Ralph Shapey.[92]

Two musical movements that were dominant during this time were the
impressionist beginning around 1890 and the expressionist that started around
1908. It was a period of diverse reactions in challenging and reinterpreting older
categories of music, innovations that lead to new ways of organizing and
approaching harmonic, melodic, sonic, and rhythmic aspects of music, and
changes in aesthetic worldviews in close relation to the larger identifiable period
of modernism in the arts of the time. The operative word most associated with it
is "innovation".[93] Its leading feature is a "linguistic plurality", which is to say
that no single music genre ever assumed a dominant position.[94]
The orchestra continued to grow during the early years modernist era, peaking in
the first two decades of the 20th century. Saxophones that appeared only rarely
during the 19th century became more commonly used as supplementary
instruments, but never became core members of the orchestra. While appearing
only as featured solo instruments in some works, for example Maurice Ravel's
orchestration of Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition and Sergei
Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances, the saxophone is included in other works
such as Sergei Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet Suites 1 and 2 and many other works
as a member of the orchestral ensemble. In some compositions such as Ravel's
Boléro, two or more saxophones of different sizes are used to create an entire
section like the other sections of the orchestra. The euphonium is featured in a
few late Romantic and 20th century works, usually playing parts marked "tenor
tuba", including Gustav Holst's The Planets, and Richard Strauss's Ein
Heldenleben.

Prominent composers of the early 20th century include Igor Stravinsky, Claude
Debussy, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Sergei Prokofiev, Arnold Schoenberg, Nikos
Skalkottas, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Karol Szymanowski, Anton Webern, Alban Berg,
Cécile Chaminade, Paul Hindemith, Aram Khachaturian, George Gershwin, Amy
Beach, Béla Bartók, and Dmitri Shostakovich, along with the aforementioned
Mahler and Strauss as transitional figures who carried over from the 19th
century.

Post-modern/contemporary
Main articles: Postmodern music and Contemporary classical music
See also: High modernism, List of 20th-century classical composers, and List of
21st-century classical composers
Postmodern music is a period of music that began as early as 1930 according to
some authorities.[88][89] It shares characteristics with postmodernist art – that
is, art that comes after and reacts against modernism.

Some other authorities have more or less equated postmodern music with the
"contemporary music" composed well after 1930, from the late 20th century
through to the early 21st century.[95][96] Some of the diverse movements of the
postmodern/contemporary era include the neoromantic, neomedieval,
minimalist, and post minimalist.

Contemporary classical music at the beginning of the 21st century was often
considered to include all post-1945 musical forms.[97] A generation later, this
term now properly refers to the music of today written by composers who are
still alive; music that came into prominence in the mid-1970s. It includes
different variations of modernist, postmodern, neoromantic, and pluralist music.
[92]

Performance

A string quartet performing for the Mozart Year 2006 in Vienna

Performers who have studied classical music extensively are said to be
"classically trained". This training may come from private lessons from
instrument or voice teachers or from completion of a formal program offered by
a Conservatory, college or university, such as a Bachelor of Music or Master of
Music degree (which includes individual lessons from professors). In classical
music, "...extensive formal music education and training, often to postgraduate
[Master's degree] level" is required.[98]

Performance of classical music repertoire requires a proficiency in sight-reading

and ensemble playing, harmonic principles, strong ear training (to correct and
adjust pitches by ear), knowledge of performance practice (e.g., Baroque
ornamentation), and a familiarity with the style/musical idiom expected for a
given composer or musical work (e.g., a Brahms symphony or a Mozart
concerto).[citation needed]

The key characteristic of European classical music that distinguishes it from

popular music, folk music, and some other classical music traditions such as
Indian classical music, is that the repertoire tends to be written down in musical
notation, creating a musical part or score. This score typically determines details
of rhythm, pitch, and, where two or more musicians (whether singers or
instrumentalists) are involved, how the various parts are coordinated. The
written quality of the music has enabled a high level of complexity within them:
fugues, for instance, achieve a remarkable marriage of boldly distinctive melodic
lines weaving in counterpoint yet creating a coherent harmonic logic. The use of
written notation also preserves a record of the works and enables Classical
musicians to perform music from many centuries ago.

Although classical music in the 2000s has lost most of its tradition for musical
improvisation, from the Baroque era to the Romantic era, there are examples of
performers who could improvise in the style of their era. In the Baroque era,
organ performers would improvise preludes, keyboard performers playing
harpsichord would improvise chords from the figured bass symbols beneath the
bass notes of the basso continuo part and both vocal and instrumental
performers would improvise musical ornaments.[99] Johann Sebastian Bach was
particularly noted for his complex improvisations.[100] During the Classical era,
the composer-performer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was noted for his ability to
improvise melodies in different styles.[101] During the Classical era, some
virtuoso soloists would improvise the cadenza sections of a concerto. During the
Romantic era, Ludwig van Beethoven would improvise at the piano.[102]

Women in classical music

Main article: Women in classical music
Further information: Women in music
Lithograph of a young girl at the piano, with a hand on the keyboard but the face
turned back, dressed in a festive gown
Clara Schumann a noted composer and pianist
Almost all of the composers who are described in music textbooks on classical
music and whose works are widely performed as part of the standard concert
repertoire are male composers, even though there have been a large number of
women composers throughout the history of classical music. Musicologist Marcia
Citron has asked "[w]hy is music composed by women so marginal to the
standard 'classical' repertoire?"[103] Citron "examines the practices and
attitudes that have led to the exclusion of women composers from the received
'canon' of performed musical works". She argues that in the 1800s, women
composers typically wrote art songs for performance in small recitals rather than
symphonies intended for performance with an orchestra in a large hall, with the
latter works being seen as the most important genre for composers; since
women composers did not write many symphonies, they were deemed not to be
notable as composers.[103] In the "...Concise Oxford History of Music, Clara
S[c]humann is one of the only female composers mentioned."[104] Abbey Philips
states that "[d]uring the 20th century the women who were composing/playing
gained far less attention than their male counterparts."[104]

Historically, major professional orchestras have been mostly or entirely

composed of musicians who are men. Some of the earliest cases of women being
hired in professional orchestras was in the position of harpist. The Vienna
Philharmonic, for example, did not accept women to permanent membership
until 1997, far later than the other orchestras ranked among the world's top five
by Gramophone in 2008.[105][n 14] The last major orchestra to appoint a
woman to a permanent position was the Berlin Philharmonic.[109] As late as
February 1996, the Vienna Philharmonic's principal flute, Dieter Flury, told
Westdeutscher Rundfunk that accepting women would be "gambling with the
emotional unity (emotionelle Geschlossenheit) that this organism currently has".
[110] In April 1996, the orchestra's press secretary wrote that "compensating for
the expected leaves of absence" of maternity leave would be a problem.[111]

Martha Argerich at the Kirchner Cultural Centre, Buenos Aires

In 2013, an article in Mother Jones stated that while "[m]any prestigious
orchestras have significant female membership—women outnumber men in the
New York Philharmonic's violin section—and several renowned ensembles,
including the National Symphony Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony, and the
Minnesota Orchestra, are led by women violinists", the double bass, brass, and
percussion sections of major orchestras "...are still predominantly male".[112] A
2014 BBC article stated that the "...introduction of 'blind' auditions, where a
prospective instrumentalist performs behind a screen so that the judging panel
can exercise no gender or racial prejudice, has seen the gender balance of
traditionally male-dominated symphony orchestras gradually shift."[113]

Notable female composers of classical music include Clara Schumann, Fanny

Mendelssohn, Amy Beach, Lili Boulanger, Ethel Smyth, and Louise Farrenc.

Relationship to other music traditions

Popular music
Classical music has often incorporated elements or material from popular music
of the composer's time. Examples include occasional music such as Brahms's use
of student drinking songs in his Academic Festival Overture, genres exemplified
by Kurt Weill's The Threepenny Opera, and the influence of jazz on early and mid-
20th-century composers including Maurice Ravel, exemplified by the movement
entitled "Blues" in his sonata for violin and piano.[114] Some postmodern,
minimalist and postminimalist classical composers acknowledge a debt to
popular music.[115][failed verification]

George Gershwin's 1924 orchestral composition Rhapsody in Blue has been

described as orchestral jazz or symphonic jazz. The composition combines
elements of classical music with jazz-influenced effects.

Numerous examples show influence in the opposite direction, including popular

songs based on classical music, the use to which Pachelbel's Canon has been put
since the 1970s, and the musical crossover phenomenon, where classical
musicians have achieved success in the popular music arena.[116] In heavy
metal, a number of lead guitarists (playing electric guitar), including Ritchie
Blackmore and Randy Rhoads,[117] modeled their playing styles on Baroque or
Classical-era instrumental music.[118]

Folk music
Composers of classical music have often made use of folk music (music created
by musicians who are commonly not classically trained, often from a purely oral
tradition). Some composers, like Dvořák and Smetana,[119] have used folk
themes to impart a nationalist flavor to their work, while others like Bartók have
used specific themes lifted whole from their folk-music origins.[120]
Khachaturian widely incorporated into his work the folk music of his native
Armenia, but also other ethnic groups of the Middle East and Eastern Europe.
[121][122]

Commercialization

With the advent of radio broadcasting and record shop, live classical music
performances have been compiled into compilation CDs (WQXR for Tower
Records, 1986).
Certain staples of classical music are often used commercially (either in
advertising or in movie soundtracks). In television commercials, several passages
have become clichéd, particularly the opening of Richard Strauss' Also sprach
Zarathustra (made famous in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey) and the opening
section "O Fortuna" of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana; other examples include the
"Dies irae" from the Verdi Requiem, Edvard Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain
King" from Peer Gynt,[123] the opening bars of Beethoven's Symphony No. 5,
Aram Khachaturian's "Sabre Dance", Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" from Die
Walküre, Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee", and excerpts of Aaron
Copland's Rodeo.[citation needed] Several works from the Golden Age of
Animation matched the action to classical music. Notable examples are Walt
Disney's Fantasia,[124] Tom and Jerry's Johann Mouse, and Warner Bros.' Rabbit
of Seville and What's Opera, Doc?[125]

Similarly, movies and television often use standard, clichéd excerpts of classical
music to convey refinement or opulence: some of the most-often heard pieces in
this category include Bach's Cello Suite No. 1, Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik,
Vivaldi's Four Seasons, Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain (as orchestrated by
Rimsky-Korsakov), and Rossini's "William Tell Overture". Shawn Vancour argues
the commercialization of classical music in the 1920s may have harmed the
music industry.[126]

Education
Further information: Music education
During the 1990s, several research papers and popular books wrote on what
came to be called the "Mozart effect": an observed temporary, small elevation of
scores on spatial reasoning tests as a result of listening to Mozart's music. The
approach has been popularized in a book by Don Campbell, and is based on an
experiment published in Nature suggesting that listening to Mozart temporarily
boosted students' IQ by 8 to 9 points.[127] This popularized version of the theory
was expressed succinctly by the New York Times music columnist Alex Ross:
"researchers... have determined that listening to Mozart actually makes you
smarter."[128] Promoters marketed CDs claimed to induce the effect. Florida
passed a law requiring toddlers in state-run schools to listen to classical music
every day, and in 1998 the governor of Georgia budgeted $105,000 per year to
provide every child born in Georgia with a tape or CD of classical music. One of
the co-authors of the original studies of the Mozart effect commented "I don't
think it can hurt. I'm all for exposing children to wonderful cultural experiences.
But I do think the money could be better spent on music education
programs."[129]

References
Notes
The Ancient Roman citizenship classes in question were derived from the
guidelines set forth by the legendary king Servius Tullius in the Servian
constitution.[12]
In 1690, many decades after Cotgrave's 1611 definition, Antoine Furetière's
posthumous Dictionnaire universel echoed Aulus Gellius in praising Cicero, Julius
Caesar, Sallust, Virgil, and Horace and referring to them as classique.[13]
This is why the Neoclassicism movement of the mid 18th-century was
widespread in fields such as architecture and painting but not music.[16]
Before the beginning of the 18th-century, there was a brief flowering of court
music following the Stuart Restoration.[11] Composers such as Matthew Locke
and later Henry Purcell found considerable success,[17] particularly with the
popular court masques.[18]
John Banister's concerts quickly gained popularity, allowing him to later move
his venue to Lincoln's Inn Fields, and then Essex Street; at its peak, his ensemble
consisted of nearly 50 musicians.[19]
For further information on the development of a classical music canon in 18th-
century England, see Weber, William (Autumn 1994). "The Intellectual Origins of
Musical Canon in Eighteenth-Century England". Journal of the American
Musicological Society. 47 (3): 488–520. doi:10.2307/3128800. JSTOR 3128800.
Some critics, from the 19th to 21st centuries, defined the First Viennese School
in different ways. Commentators such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and later
Ludwig Finscher excluded Beethoven from the school entirely, while the
musicologist Friedrich Blume included all three in addition to Franz Schubert.[22]
Charles Rosen included Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, but only their
instrumental music.[22]
The earliest use of the term "classical music" in English literature given by the
Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is in the 1829 diary of English musician Vincent
Novello, who said "This is the place I should come to every Sunday when I wished
to hear classical music correctly and judiciously performed".[27] However, this is
predated by at least 9 years from the title of the English writer John Feltham
Danneley's 1820 Introduction to the Elementary Principles of Thorough Bass and
Classical Music.[28][29]
In addition to the title of Taruskin 2005, see also, the titles of Grout 1973,
Hanning 2002 and Stolba 1998, all of which include the term "Western music"
but essentially exclude non-classical music in the Western world. Grout 1973 was
first published in 1960, and it was not until the fifth edition prepared by Claude V.
Palisca in 1996 that any information on jazz and popular music was included.[35]
The musicologist Ralph P. Locke cites composer Tan Dun as an example, and
notes the title of a 2004 publication, Locating East Asia in Western Art Music.[36]
See also the title of Barone, Joshua (23 July 2021). "Asian Composers Reflect on
Careers in Western Classical Music". The New York Times. Archived from the
original on 28 December 2021. Burkholder, Grout & Palisca 2014, p. 1009 note
that "We may well wonder whether the term "Western [classical] music" is still
appropriate when Western culture has spread around the world, and some of the
most practices performers and interesting new composers come from China,
Japan and Korea. Given its global reach, it may be time to rename this tradition,
but as eclectic and diverse as it has become, its roots are still in Western culture
reaching back through Europe to ancient Greece".
From all available evidence, it appears that no, or few, significant musical
developments can be credited to Ancient Rome, who largely adopted the
practices of their Ancient Greek predecessors.[41]
Musicologist Donald Jay Grout notes that even by the 20th century there were
only fragments and a few more sizable examples of such Greco-Roman music
that survive.[38]
The entirety of early medieval Europe may not have been without a notional
system for music, see Gampel 2012, who argues against the traditional
conclusion of Isidore of Seville's remark.
In 1997, the Vienna Philharmonic was "facing protests during a [US] tour" by the
National Organization for Women and the International Alliance for Women in
Music. Finally, "after being held up to increasing ridicule even in socially
conservative Austria, members of the orchestra gathered [on 28 February 1997]
in an extraordinary meeting on the eve of their departure and agreed to admit a
woman, Anna Lelkes, as harpist."[106] As of 2013, the orchestra has six female
members; one of them, violinist Albena Danailova became one of the orchestra's
concertmasters in 2008, the first woman to hold that position.[107] In 2012,
women still made up just 6% of the orchestra's membership. VPO president
Clemens Hellsberg said the VPO now uses completely screened blind auditions.
[108]
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Burton, Clemency (21 October 2014). "Culture – Why aren't there more women
conductors?". BBC. Archived from the original on 23 November 2015. Retrieved
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Kelly, Barbara L. (2001). "Ravel, Maurice, §3: 1918–37". In Sadie, Stanley; Tyrrell,
John (eds.). The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2nd ed.). London:
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See, for example, Siôn, Pwyll Ap (2001). "Nyman, Michael". In Sadie, Stanley;
Tyrrell, John (eds.). The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2nd ed.).
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Notable examples are the Hooked on Classics series of recordings made by the
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in the early 1980s and the classical crossover
violinists Vanessa Mae and Catya Maré.
Carew, Francis Wayne (1 January 2018). The Guitar Voice of Randy Rhoads
(Master of Arts). Wayne State University. pp. 1–2. Archived from the original on
29 March 2019. Retrieved 2 October 2019.
Walser, Robert (October 1992). "Eruptions: heavy metal appropriations of
classical virtuosity". Popular Music. 11 (3): 263–308.
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Yeomans, David (2006). Piano Music of the Czech Romantics: A Performer's
Guide. Indiana University Press. p. 2. ISBN 978-0-253-21845-2.
Stevens, Haley; Gillies, Malcolm (1993). The Life and Music of Béla Bartók.
Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 129. ISBN 978-0-19-816349-7.
Bakst, James (1977). "Khachaturyan". A History of Russian-Soviet Music (Reprint
ed.). Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. p. 336. ISBN 0837194229.
Rosenberg, Kenyon C. (1987). "Khachaturian, Aram". A Basic Classical and
Operatic Recordings Collection for Libraries. Metuchen, New Jersey: Scarecrow
Press. p. 112. ISBN 9780810820418.
Kaufman, Joanne (25 March 2018). "Selling Products With a Swelling Score". The
New York Times. Retrieved 16 September 2025.
"The Legacy of Fantasia: How Disney's 1940 Classic Revolutionized Music in
Film". PMA Magazine. 13 November 1940. Retrieved 16 September 2025.
"Five uses of classical music in cartoons". Classical Music. 15 October 2019.
Retrieved 16 September 2025.
Vancour, Shawn (March 2009). "Popularizing the Classics: Radio's Role in the
Music Appreciation Movement 1922–34". Media, Culture & Society. 31 (2): 19.
doi:10.1177/0163443708100319. S2CID 144331723.
Steele, Kenneth M.; Bella, Simone Dalla; Peretz, Isabelle; Dunlop, Tracey; Dawe,
Lloyd A.; Humphrey, G. Keith; Shannon, Roberta A.; Kirby, Johnny L.; Olmstead, C.
G. (1999). "Prelude or requiem for the 'Mozart effect'?" (PDF). Nature. 400
(6747): 827–828. Bibcode:1999Natur.400..827S. doi:10.1038/23611. PMID
10476959. S2CID 4352029. Archived (PDF) from the original on 30 October 2021.
Retrieved 17 February 2022.
Ross, Alex. "Classical View; Listening To Prozac... Er, Mozart" Archived 17
February 2022 at the Wayback Machine, The New York Times, 28 August 1994.
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Goode, Erica. "Mozart for Baby? Some Say, Maybe Not" Archived 17 February
2022 at the Wayback Machine, The New York Times, 3 August 1999. Retrieved on
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Sources
Books
Albright, Daniel (2004). Modernism and Music: An Anthology of Sources. Chicago:
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Beard, David; Gloag, Kenneth (2005). Musicology: The Key Concepts. London:
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Burkholder, J. Peter; Grout, Donald Jay; Palisca, Claude V. (2014). A History of
Western Music (9th ed.). New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-
91829-8.
Du Noyer, Paul, ed. (2003). The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music: From Rock,
Pop, Jazz, Blue, and Hip-Hop to Classical, Folk, World, and More. London: Flame
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Swafford, Jan (1992). The Vintage Guide to Classical Music. New York: Vintage
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Journal and encyclopedia articles
Botstein, Leon (2001). "Modernism". Grove Music Online. Oxford: Oxford
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56159-263-0. (subscription, Wikilibrary access, or UK public library membership
required)
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(subscription, Wikilibrary access, or UK public library membership required)
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Use". Archiv für Musikwissenschaft. 69 (H. 4): 318–328. doi:10.25162/afmw-
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56159-263-0. (subscription, Wikilibrary access, or UK public library membership
required)
Morgan, Robert P. (1984). "Secret Languages: The Roots of Musical Modernism".
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6034-2.
Owens, Tom C. (2008). "Classical Music". In Stearns, Peter N. (ed.). The Oxford
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Further reading
Beckerman, Michael; Boghossian, Paul, eds. (2021). Classical Music:
Contemporary Perspectives and Challenges. Cambridge: Open Book Publishers.
ISBN 978-1-80064-116-7.
Bryant, Wanda (2000). "Ancient Greek Music". In Rice, Timothy; Porter, James;
Goertzen, Chris (eds.). The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music: Europe.
Abingdon-on-Thames: Routledge. pp. 77–79. ISBN 0-8240-6034-2.
Hanning, Barbara Russano (2002) [1998]. Concise History of Western Music (2nd
ed.). New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-97775-7.
Johnson, Julian (2002). Who Needs Classical Music?: Cultural Choice and Musical
Value. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kramer, Lawrence (2007). Why Classical Music Still Matters. Simpson Book in the
Humanities. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-25082-6.
Nettl, Bruno (2000). "The Role of History in Contemporary European Art-Music
Culture". In Rice, Timothy; Porter, James; Goertzen, Chris (eds.). The Garland
Encyclopedia of World Music: Europe. Abingdon-on-Thames: Routledge. pp. 89–
98. ISBN 0-8240-6034-2.
Nettl, Bruno (2014) [2001]. "Music". Grove Music Online. Oxford: Oxford
University Press. doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.40476. ISBN 978-1-
56159-263-0. (subscription, Wikilibrary access, or UK public library membership
required)
Randel, Don Michael, ed. (2003). The Harvard Dictionary of Music (4th ed.).
Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0674011632.
Scholes, Percy (1988). The New Oxford Companion to Music. Oxford: Oxford
University Press. ISBN 0-19-311316-3.
Seebass, Tilman (2000). "Notation and Transmission in European Music History".
In Rice, Timothy; Porter, James; Goertzen, Chris (eds.). The Garland Encyclopedia
of World Music: Europe. Abingdon-on-Thames: Routledge. pp. 80–88. ISBN 0-
8240-6034-2.
Stolba, K Marie (1998). The Development of Western Music: A History (3rd ed.).
New York: McGraw-Hill Companies. ISBN 0-697-29379-3.
External links
Grove Music Online – online version of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and
Musicians.
MGG Online – online version of Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart
Historical classical recordings from the British Library Sound Archive
Official ClassicalMusicOnly WebSite
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