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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" also applies to non-Western art music. Classical music is often characterized by formality and complexity in its musical form and harmonic organization, particularly with the use of polyphony. Since at least the ninth century it has been primarily a written tradition, 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. (Full article...)
Image 1The opening bars of the Commendatore's aria in Mozart's opera Don Giovanni. The orchestra starts with a dissonant diminished seventh chord (G# dim7 with a B in the bass) moving to a dominant seventh chord (A7 with a C# in the bass) before resolving to the tonic chord (D minor) at the singer's entrance. (from Classical period (music))
Image 2Painting by Evaristo Baschenis of Baroque instruments, including a cittern, viola da gamba, violin, and two lutes. (from Baroque music)
Image 3Johann Sebastian Bach, 1748 (from Baroque music)
Image 4Fortepiano by Paul McNulty after Walter & Sohn, c. 1805 (from Classical period (music))
Image 5Haydn portrait by Thomas Hardy, 1792 (from Classical period (music))
Image 6Double-manual harpsichord by Vital Julian Frey, after Jean-Claude Goujon (1749) (from Baroque music)
Image 7A modern string quartet. In the 2000s, string quartets from the Classical era are the core of the chamber music literature. From left to right: violin 1, violin 2, cello, viola (from Classical period (music))
Image 8A group of Renaissance musicians in The Concert (1623) by Gerard van Honthorst (from Renaissance music)
Image 91875 oil painting of Franz Schubert by Wilhelm August Rieder, after his own 1825 watercolor portrait (from Classical period (music))
Image 10View of Vienna in 1758, by Bernardo Bellotto (from Classical period (music))
Image 11Gluck, detail of a portrait by Joseph Duplessis, dated 1775 (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna) (from Classical period (music))
Image 12George Frideric Handel (from Baroque music)
Image 13Claudio Monteverdi in 1640 (from Baroque music)
Image 14Portion of Du Fay's setting of Ave maris stella, in fauxbourdon. The top line is a paraphrase of the chant; the middle line, designated "fauxbourdon", (not written) follows the top line but exactly a perfect fourth below. The bottom line is often, but not always, a sixth below the top line; it is embellished, and reaches cadences on the octave.Play (from Renaissance music)
Image 15The Mozart family c. 1780. The portrait on the wall is of Mozart's mother. (from Classical period (music))
Image 16A large instrumental ensemble's performance in the lavish Teatro Argentina, as depicted by Panini (1747) (from Baroque music)
Image 17Jean-Baptiste Lully by Paul Mignard (from Baroque music)
Image 18Marc-Antoine Charpentier (from Baroque music)
Image 19A young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, a representative composer of the Classical period, seated at a keyboard. (from Classical period (music))
Image 20Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, by Caspar David Friedrich, is an example of Romantic painting. (from Romantic music)
Image 21Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, posthumous painting by Barbara Krafft in 1819 (from Classical period (music))
Image 22Bernhard Crusell, a Swedish-Finnish composer and clarinetist, in 1826 (from Classical period (music))
Image 23Individual sheet music for a seventeenth-century harp. (from Baroque music)
Image 24Musicians from 'Procession in honour of Our Lady of Sablon in Brussels.' Early 17th-century Flemish alta cappella. From left to right: bass dulcian, alto shawm, treble cornett, soprano shawm, alto shawm, tenor sackbut. (from Renaissance music)
Image 25Portrait of Beethoven by Joseph Karl Stieler, 1820 (from Classical period (music))
Image 26Hummel in 1814 (from Classical period (music))
Image 27Portrait of Mendelssohn by James Warren Childe, 1839 (from Classical period (music))
Image 28Josef 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 (from Romantic music)
“ | Music is enough for a life — but a life is too short for music. | ” |
— Richard Strauss |
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