Today the term “classical music” has come to define the style of Western music that began in Europe in the Middle Ages. It includes symphonies, chamber music and opera. Classical music is composed of several elements that help define its character. Since music takes place in time, rhythm is the foundation upon which every song is built. Composers determined the feel of music by alternating the pulse between fast, slow, and medium. Italian terms used in musical notation denote more than a dozen different tempos, which included allegro, moderato, and lento.

Within the changing meter of rhythm, song notes of various pitches were intertwined. Tone color (timbre) distinguished the sound and characteristics that separated one instrument or voice from another.

The classical era between 1750 and 1820 was defined by the great composers who were famous during that period, and th

Classic and romantic relates to the two basic instincts of human nature

It was during the classical period that the modern orchestra was founded. The full orchestra consisted of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns and trumpets, trombones; timpani and strings divided into first and second violins, violas, cellos and double-basses. In practice, Haydn and Mozart employed this fully orchestra very rarely, almost exclusively in opera and large-scale choral works and never in symphonies, where trombones were not used until Beethoven’s time.

When looking at literature, “romantic” was always determined by literary definitions, then it is undeniable, taking Europe as a whole, that the history or pre-history of Romanticism begins in about 1770. The similarities between what England is called early romanticism and in Germany is labeled as “Sturm und Drang” is unmistakable, and they cannot be dismissed as mere influences. Nor should we be misled by the fact that in his esthetics and in a few other works, Goethe was a Classicist; in European terms both his Werther and his Faust are Romantic works.

The differences in the two eras cover every aspect of music; its form, style, the way it reached the public, as well as the status of the composers. New concepts governed the grammar and syntax of music, new genres came into being, and commercial practices increasingly determined a composer’s reputation and by the end of the century, the public’s view of the composer had changed substantially.

It was in the eighteenth century that concert life began. In earlier times, instrumental music was chiefly intended for performance at court or for groups of gentlemen amateurs to play in their homes. As the new phenomenon arose, groups of people, both amateurs and professionals, gave concerts for their own pleasure and for others who came to hear them. The concerts of court orchestras were often opened to a paying public. During the late eighteenth century, concert life developed rapidly; traveling virtuosos went from city to city organizing concerts in each, w

Some topics in this essay:
Jefferson Franklin, Von Goethe, Mannheim School, Faust Romantic, Middle Ages, Viennese School, , Positivism Realism, Carl Theodor, Peter Schubert, classical era, music composed, romantic era, romantic composers, eighteenth century, classical music, century concert life, music written, haydn mozart, “classical music”, western music, classical music composed, eighteenth century concert,