Classical music

Classical music is a Western art music tradition, set apart from folk or popular music. It is known for its formal and complex structures and harmonies, especially the use of polyphony. Since at least the 800s, it has been a written tradition, leading to a detailed system of musical notation and a body of analytical, critical, and historical writing.

This music grew out of the patronage of European churches and royal courts. The earliest surviving medieval music is mostly religious, sung by a single voice. The oldest known music manuscripts come from the Carolingian Empire (800–887), around the time when Western plainchant was becoming standardized as Gregorian chant. Important musical centers included the abbeys of Saint Gall, Saint Martial, and Saint Emmeram. The 11th century saw the invention of staff notation and more work from music theorists. By the mid-1100s, France was the main musical hub: the Notre-Dame school in Paris pioneered organized rhythms and polyphony, while secular music thrived in the troubadour and trouvère traditions led by noble poet-musicians. This led to the court-sponsored French ars nova and Italian Trecento, which evolved into ars subtilior, a style known for extreme rhythmic variety. From the early 1400s, Renaissance composers of the Franco-Flemish School built on English harmonic ideas (the *contenance angloise*), raising choral music to new heights, especially in the mass and motet. Northern Italy then became the central region, where the Roman School developed sophisticated polyphony in genres like the madrigal, which inspired the short-lived English Madrigal School.

The Baroque period (1580–1750) saw the standardization of common-practice tonality and a growing role for musical instruments, leading to larger ensembles. Italy remained dominant, giving birth to opera, the solo concerto, sonata form, and large vocal works like oratorio and cantata. The complex fugues of Johann Sebastian Bach exemplified the Baroque love of intricacy, while simpler, song-like *galant* and *empfindsamkeit* styles emerged as a reaction. In the shorter Classical period (1750–1820), composers like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn, and Ludwig van Beethoven created highly admired examples of absolute music—symphonies, string quartets, and concertos. The Romantic period (1800–1910) turned toward programmatic music, using art songs, symphonic poems, and piano pieces as key forms. Virtuosity was celebrated, scale was encouraged, and philosophy and nationalism were woven into music, all converging in the operas of Richard Wagner.

By the 1900s, stylistic unity faded as popular music grew more prominent. Many composers rejected past techniques and genres through modernism, some abandoning tonality for serialism, while others found inspiration in folk melodies or impressionism. After World War II, audiences for the first time preferred older music to new works, a trend supported by the rise of commercial recordings. From the mid-20th century to today, movements have included New Simplicity, New Complexity, Minimalism, Spectral music, Postmodern music, and Postminimalism. Classical music has become increasingly global, with musicians from the Americas, Africa, and Asia taking key roles, and symphony orchestras and opera houses now found worldwide.