Outline of classical music

History of classical music

Early music

• Medieval – Period characterized by the development of early music notation systems and a strong emphasis on vocal music. Sacred music like Gregorian chant and various other religious and non-religious styles were developed during this time.
• * Ars antiqua
• * Ars nova
• * Ars subtilior
• Renaissance – Period characterized by the development of polyphony and a richer use of harmony and melody. Genres like the Mass, motet, and madrigal were developed during this time.
• * Transition to Baroque

Common practice period

• Baroque – Period characterized by the development of tonality and a greater emphasis on contrast and ornamentation in music. Genres like the opera, cantata, oratorio, and concerto were developed during this time.
• * Galant music
• * Empfindsamkeit
• Classical – Period characterized by a shift towards clarity, balance, and structure in music, emphasizing melodic expression and symmetrical forms. Genres like the symphony, sonata, and string quartet were developed during this time.
• * Sturm und Drang
• * [Transition from Classical to Romantic music|Romantic music|Transition to Romantic] Romantic – Period characterized by a focus on emotional expression, individualism, and breaking away from the strict forms of the Classical era featuring more expansive and expressive compositions. Previous genres such as the symphony and opera were enhanced and also new genres such as the art song, nocturne and symphonic poem were developed.
• * Musical nationalism
• * Post-romanticism

20th and 21st century

• Modernism – Period characterized by a departure from traditional harmonic and formal structures, embracing experimentation and innovation in music. Composers sought new approaches to tonality, rhythm, and sonority.
• * Neoromanticism
• * Expressionism
• * Impressionism
• * Serialism
• * Neoclassicism
• * Post-tonality
• * FuturismContemporary classical music – Period characterized by a vast diversity of styles and an openness to incorporating elements from various musical traditions and technologies.
• * Experimental music
• ** Minimalism
• *** New Simplicity
• *** Holy minimalism
• *** Postminimalism
• ** Spectral music
• ** Spatial music
• ** Electronic music
• *** Electroacoustic music
• ** Aleatoric music
• * Avant-garde music
• * Postmodern music
• ** Neoconservative postmodernism
• * Punctualism
• * Microtonal music
• * New Complexity
• * Neue Musik

Composers

• '''Modernist, 20th and 21st century composers'''

Composition schools

• * Saint Martial school – Produced some of the earliest polyphonic music, with Adémar de Chabannes being the best known composer.
• * Notre-Dame School – Developed polyphonic music, with key composers being Léonin and Pérotin.
• * Franco-Flemish School – Developed polyphony in vocal music, prominent composers include Guillaume Dufay, Johannes Ockeghem and Josquin des Prez.
• * Roman School – Focused on the development of Church music, with composers like Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and Tomás Luis de Victoria.
• * Venetian School – Developed the Venetian polychoral style and played a crucial role in the early development of the Baroque style, with composers like Giovanni Gabrieli.
• * Neapolitan School – Crucial to the development of Italian opera, with figures like Alessandro Scarlatti, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi and Domenico Cimarosa.Classical and Romantic schools
• * Mannheim School – Known for innovations in orchestral music, influencing the Classical style, with composers like Johann Stamitz.
• * First Viennese School – Developed and refined forms such as the symphony, sonata, string quartet and expanded the harmonic language of the time. The main composers were Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven.
• * The Five – Group of Russian composers that created a distinct Russian national style of music. It was led by Mily Balakirev and included César Cui, Modest Mussorgsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Borodin.
• * New German School – Emphasized programmatic themes and dramatic expressiveness with composers like Richard Wagner and Franz Liszt.
• * Giovane scuola – Focused on the development of verismo in opera, with composers like Giacomo Puccini, Pietro Mascagni and Ruggero Leoncavallo.20th and 21st century schools
• * English Pastoral School – Characterized by its incorporation of Tudor music and English folk elements to evoke the English countryside, creating a distinctively national style of classical music. Notable figures include Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gustav Holst and Gerald Finzi.
• * Second Viennese School – Pioneered atonality and later developed the twelve-tone serial technique, breaking away from traditional tonality. The main figures were Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg and Anton Webern.
• * Darmstadt School – Focused on avant-garde techniques, with figures like Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen.

Classical music composition

Aspects of classical music compositions

Purpose of music

• * Absolute – Music not intended to represent or illustrate something else. Self-contained and not explicitly about anything outside the music itself.
• * Programmatic – Music intended to evoke images or convey the impression of events, stories, or natural scenes.Religious or Secular
• * Religious – Music composed for religious purposes. If it's composed for use in religious rituals and ceremonies it's liturgical music.
• * Secular – Music composed for non-religious purposes.

Genre

• '''Classical, Romantic, 20th and 21st century genres'''

Tonality and key

• Key - specific scale that forms the basis of the tonal structure of a piece of music.
• Tonality - system of organizing musical compositions around a central pitch or tonic, defining the hierarchy of pitches and chords that gives music its sense of direction and resolution.
• * Major Tonality – Music based on a major scale, often characterized by a bright, happy, or triumphant mood.
• * Minor Tonality – Music based on a minor scale, often conveying a melancholic, dark or introspective mood.
• * Modal Music – Music that employs modes that differ from conventional major and minor scales, prevalent in Western music before the widespread adoption of the major-minor tonality system.
• * Polytonality – Simultaneous use of two or more tonalities or keys.
• * Atonality – Music without a key or tonal focal point.

Form

• Binary form – musical form in two related sections, both of which are usually repeated
• Ternary form – three-part musical form consisting of an opening section, a following section and then a repetition of the first section, usually schematized as A–B–A.
• Strophic form – song structure in which all verses or stanzas of the text are sung to the same music.
• Rondo form – contains a principal theme which alternates with one or more contrasting themes, generally called "episodes", but also occasionally referred to as "digressions" or "couplets". Some possible patterns include: ABACA, ABACAB, ABACBA, or ABACABA.
• Sonata form – musical structure generally consisting of three main sections: an exposition, a development, and a recapitulation. It has been used widely since the middle of the 18th century.
• Arch form – sectional structure for a piece of music based on repetition, in reverse order, of all or most musical sections such that the overall form is symmetric, most often around a central movement. The sections need not be repeated verbatim but must at least share thematic material.
• Cyclic form – technique of musical construction, involving multiple sections or movements, in which a theme, melody, or thematic material occurs in more than one movement as a unifying device.

Texture

• Monophonic – A single melodic line without accompaniment.
• Polyphonic – Multiple independent melody lines played simultaneously.
• Homophonic – A dominant melodic line which stands out above the accompaniment.

Tempo

• Common tempo markings, from slow to fast:

Metre and rhythm

• Metre - recurring pattern of beats providing a structured framework, while rhythm is the arrangement of notes and rests within this framework, creating the distinctive flow and character of a piece.
• Rhythm - variation of the length and accentuation of a series of sounds. Often reinforced with percussion instrumentation.

Other composition related concepts

Cataloging methods

• Opus number – Number assigned to a composition or set of compositions to indicate the chronological order of composition or publication of a composer's pieces. Can be unreliable as some numbers were assigned posthumously and also some composers did not use opus numbers at all.
• Catalogues of classical compositions – Systematic listings of a composer's compositions, often organized in chronological order. Typically created by musicologists or scholars specializing in a particular composer's works. For example, Johann Sebastian Bach's works were catalogued in the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis by Wolfgang Schmieder.

  Sections and other musical concepts

• Movement – Self-contained part of a composition.
• Subject – Musical material, usually a recognizable melody, upon which part or all of a composition is based.
• Exposition – Initial presentation of the thematic material of a musical composition or movement.
• Development – Section following the exposition where the thematic material is elaborated, expanded, and transformed.
• Recapitulation – Section where the initial themes introduced in the exposition return, following the development section.
• Coda – Final section of a piece or movement.
• Cadenza – Ornamental section of a piece played or sung by a soloist or soloists, often allowing virtuosic display.
• Motif – Short musical idea or recurring figure.
• * Leitmotif – Short, recurring musical figure associated with a particular person, place, or idea.

  Miscellaneous

• Musical cryptogram – Sequence of musical symbols which refers to an extra-musical text, usually between note names and letters.
• * BACH motif – Succession of notes 'B flat, A, C, B natural which in German musical nomenclature form J. S. Bach's name.
• * DSCH motif – Succession of notes 'D, E-flat, C, B natural which in German musical nomenclature form Dmitri Shostakovich's name.
• Stile antico – Also known as "prima practica", it refers to a composition style from the 16th century.
• Stile moderno – Also known as "seconda pratica", it refers to a composition style from the early Baroque period that contrasts with the traditional stille antico.
• Musica reservata – Style in a cappella vocal music of the latter half of the 16th century.
• Musical repertoire – Collection of music pieces played by an individual musician or ensemble, composed for a particular instrument or group of instruments, voice, or choir, or from a particular period or area.

Performance of classical music

Musicians

Instrumentalists

• Soloist – Individual performer who plays a solo instrument.
• Ensemble – Small group of instrumentalists, such as quartets or chamber music ensembles.
• Orchestra – Large group of instrumentalists, typically consisting of string, woodwind, brass, and percussion sections.

Vocalists

• Female main voice types
• Male main voice types
• Choir – Musical ensemble of singers.

Other roles

• Conductor – Individual who leads ensembles and orchestras, interpreting the music and guiding the musicians during performances.
• Concertmaster – Leading violinist in an orchestra who plays solo passages and assists the conductor in leading.
• Kapellmeister – Historically, it indicated the music director in cathedrals or for monarchs, with the term evolving to denote leaders of smaller musical groups.
• Page-turner – Person employed to turn sheet music pages for a soloist during a performance.

Instruments

• * Bowed string instruments – Instruments that are played by a bow rubbing the strings.Aerophones – Instruments that produce sound primarily by causing a body of air to vibrate, without the use of strings or membranes and without the vibration of the instrument itself adding considerably to the sound.
• * Woodwind instruments – Instruments that produce sound by splitting the air blown into them on a sharp edge, such as a reed or a fipple. Despite the name, a woodwind may be made of any material, not just wood. Membranophones and idiophones – Instruments that produce sound primarily by way of a vibrating stretched membrane or by the vibration of the instrument itself. Typically part of the percussion section of an orchestra.Electrophones – Instruments that produce sound primarily through electrical means.

Other concepts

• Historically informed performance – This approach aims to perform music in a style and manner faithful to the era in which it was composed, often using period instruments and techniques derived from historical research to closely align with the composer's original intent.
• Concert pitch – It's the pitch reference to which a group of musical instruments are tuned for a performance. Concert pitch may vary from ensemble to ensemble, and has varied widely over time.

Classical music industry

Buildings

• Concert hall – Building with a stage that serves as a performance venue. These are some significant concert halls.Opera house – Theatre building used for performances of opera, including a stage and an orchestra pit. These are some significant opera houses.

Events

Recordings and publications

• '''Publications and academic journals'''

Awards

Education and promotion

• '''Other organizations'''

Other media

Other classical music related concepts

Classical music in society

• Women in classical music – Contributions and roles of women in classical music.
• List of women composers by birth date – Chronological catalog of female composers.
• Music criticism – Analysis and evaluation of musical performances and compositions.
• Classical music and politics – Intersection of political themes and classical music.
• Environmentalism in classical music – Intersection of environmental themes and classical music.
• List of classical music concerts with an unruly audience response – Unruly audience reactions at classical concerts.
• Classical crossover music – Fusion of classical music with other genres.
• Baroque pop – Genre that combines rock music with particular elements of classical music.
• List of jazz-influenced classical compositions – Classical works incorporating jazz elements.

Musicology

• Musicology – Academic study of music, including its history and theory.
• Music therapy – Use of music for therapeutic and health-related purposes.
• Music library – Collection and repository of musical scores, recordings, and literature.

Miscellaneous

• War of the Romantics – 19th-century debate over musical aesthetics and composition.
• List of burial places of classical musicians – Graves of composers, conductors and other musicians.

Classical music by region