Classical music era





The classical music era in Western music occurred in the second half of the
18th century. Although the term classical music is used as a blanket term
meaning all kinds of music in a certain tradition, it can also mean this
particular era within that tradition.

The classical music era falls between the Baroque and the Romantic periods.
Amongst its earliest composers were Joseph Haydn and Carl Philipp Emanuel
Bach. The best known composer from this period is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
The last classical composers are generally taken to be Ludwig van Beethoven,
who after writing in a classical style in his early works, pushed its
conventions and forms into new territory, and Franz Schubert, who served as
a bridge between the Classical and Romantic Era.

Classical music itself is distinguished by the use of dynamic contrast to
accent suspension and return to the tonic. Earlier composers did not have as
many tools of dynamic contrast; later composers found more more varied uses
for those tools.

Classical-period music is distinguishable from Baroque music by its
plainness of style, without the heavy and complex Baroque figurations, and
from Romantic music by its general emotional coolness and its regularity of
form. Forms pioneered in the classical period include the symphony and the
string quartet; the concerto also saw considerable development.

Composers of the classical era

   * Juan Crisostomo de Arriaga
   * Ludwig van Beethoven
   * Luigo Boccherini
   * Luigi Cherubini
   * Domenico Cimarosa
   * Franz Danzi
   * John Field
   * Christoph Willibald Gluck
   * Franz Joseph Haydn
   * Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778 - 1837)
   * Joseph Martin Kraus
   * Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
   * Niccol˜ Paganini
   * Antonio Salieri
   * Fernando Sor (1778-1839)
   * Louis Spohr
   * Carl Maria von Weber (although chronologically Classical, his music
     tends to be Romantic)
   * Franz Schubert