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Classical music is art music that is created or founded in Western cultural traditions, and is widely thought to have originated in Europe after the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the late fifth century CE and continues to this day. Western musical traditions deemed distinct from or a refinement of Western folk or popular music traditions are referred to as classical music.

Medieval (500–1400), Renaissance (1400–1600), Baroque (1600–1750), Classical (1750–1820), Romantic (1800–1910), Modernist (1890–1975), and Postmodern era/Contemporary (1950–present) eras are the key periods. These time periods and dates are all estimates, but they indicate progressive aesthetic developments that varied in intensity and importance across the Western world.

The term “classical music” was used in the early nineteenth century to distinguish the period between Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven as a golden age. The Oxford English Dictionary records the first mention of “classical music” in approximately 1829.

The system of staff notation, which has been in use since the 11th century, distinguishes European art music from many other non-European classical and popular musical styles. In order to unify liturgy throughout the Church, Catholic monks created the first versions of modern European musical notation. Composers employ Western staff notation to communicate the pitches and durations of a piece of music to the performer.

It contains holy (religious) as well as secular (non-religious) music. Classical music has been noted for the development of highly sophisticated forms of instrumental music such as the symphony, concerto, fugue, sonata, and mixed vocal and instrumental styles such as opera, cantata, and mass, in contrast to most popular styles that adopted the song (strophic) form or a derivation of this form.

Given the wide range of styles in European classical music, from monastic plainchant to Classical and Romantic symphonies for orchestra from the 1700s and 1800s to avant-garde atonal compositions from the 1900s, it’s difficult to single out characteristics that can be applied to all works of that genre. Nonetheless, for all compositions and accurate performance, a standardized method of exact mensural notation (which developed into current bar notation around 1600) has been used in classical music since the late 13th century.

Another is the development and production of complicated solo instrumental works (e.g., the fugue). The first symphonies were composed during the Classical period, and the symphony group and compositions were major aspects of Classical-period music beginning in the mid-eighteenth century.

The use of orchestration, counterpoint, harmony, musical development, rhythm, phrasing, texture, and form in works of classical repertoire is frequently complicated. Classical music is known for the creation of extremely advanced instrumental musical genres such as the concerto, symphony, and sonata, whereas most popular styles are generally produced in song form. Classical music is also known for its use of complex vocal and instrumental genres, such as opera. In opera, voice soloists and choruses perform staged theatrical pieces accompanied by an orchestra.

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