The word “classical” as it relates to music, is certainly an often misused term. Many people use it to refer to any piece of music played by an orchestra. Some people use that term to refer to any music that they cannot categorize into jazz, pop, or country. This is not proper use of the term.

     In the following essay I shall attempt to describe the differences in musical styles from late renaissance through the early part of the twentieth century. I will emphasize the differences between baroque and classical styles.

     I have heard people refer to the music of J.S. Bach as classical music. This is rather amusing, since the classical style did not exist until Bach had been long dead. I think the misuse of this term comes from the misconception that it is some sort of laudatory term. It is not. It is merely a label that is applied to the music that was in vogue from about 1770, until around 1800. The music of this period is called classical because the main form employed in this music, sonata form, uses proportions that are considered classical because of their association with the so-called classical period of the Greeks.

     Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven comprise the triumvirate of great composers in the classical style, though there were many lesser ones, such as Boccherini, Clementi, Salieri, Dittersdorf, Paisiello, and Weber. Thought the classical style was no longer in vogue by 1800, Beethoven enlarged the forms of this style and kept it alive in his own personal way until his death in 1827.

     In a sense, it seems arbitrary to divide music up into historic styles. Yet it makes good sense to do so because it helps us to understand music, and there are definite, easy-to-hear differences in different styles. As one style came to an end and another was being born, there was a definite sense of radical change. The end of renaissance and the onset of the baroque period was a time of rapid change in the arts. It was a revolutionary time in music. The old style was very consciously rejected by the younger generation of composers, and a very deliberate attempt was made at creating something totally new. The same thing happened again as the baroque period came to an end.

     The classical period in music was preceded by the baroque period, which stretched from 1600 up to about 1750. There was a brief period called the rococo period (also called the gallant style), which overlapped the baroque and classical, stretching from the 1720s through the 1770s.

     The baroque period was rather long and is normally divided into early, mid, and late baroque, each with its distinctive qualities. Early baroque encompasses the music from 1600 through 1650. Mid baroque runs from 1650 through 1700. Late baroque, also called high baroque, runs from 1700 through 1750. The one common characteristic running through the entire baroque period is the use of basso continuo as the primary means of composition.

     The baroque period was preceded by the Renaissance period, which ran from about 1450 through 1600. Before the Renaissance period, we have the medieval period. Not much is known about most music of the medieval period because methods of writing music were rather rudimentary in late medieval times.

     The Renaissance period was concerned mostly with vocal polyphony. Instrumental music was not taken as a serious form of art, and was used mostly for dance.

     During the baroque period, polyphony was very important, but it was a different kind of polyphony than that of the renaissance period. In baroque music, imitative polyphony became much more important, and canons and fugues developed into a very sophisticated art. In the renaissance, the equality of the voices was very important. In baroque music, the soprano and bass voices take on more importance. There is a more intimate relation between soprano and bass voices in the baroque period than in any other period of music. Incidentally, the use of the term “voices” does not necessarily imply vocal music.

     In a sense, baroque music can be said to be built from the bottom up. The beginning of the baroque period coincides with the invention of basso continuo. Basso continuo was invented in the 1690s in Italy so that the small choirs could be strengthened by a keyboard instrument, usually an organ, though sometimes a harpsichord. Choirs were small, usually only two or three singers per part. If a singer stayed home sick, then one section of the choir would be severely weakened. There was not time to write out all of the vocal parts for a keyboard player, so a kind of shorthand was invented.

     In basso continuo, only the bass line was given, but there were numbers next to the bass notes to indicate the intervals above the note that the musician would add. If there were no numbers, then it was understood that the intervals of the third and the fifth would be played, giving what is now called a triad, the most basic chord. Whether or not the third is major or minor would be determined by the key signature unless an accidental (sharp, flat, natural sign) was written next to a 3. If a 7 was written under the bass note, the musician would play the intervals of a third, fifth, and seventh above the bass, observing the key signature to determine if it is a flattened seventh or not. It was left up to the discretion of the musician as to the exact voicing, or placement of these intervals, and as to the rhythmic values given to each of them. Basso continuo gives much freedom to the keyboard player.

     Basso continuo soon found its way out of the church and became the dominant mode of composing music during the entire baroque period. In church music and opera, it retained its importance throughout the classical period, long after it had been abandoned as a method of composing instrumental music.

     The trio sonata is the backbone of the baroque. It can be said that everything, at least all instrumental music of the baroque period, is an elaboration of the basic idea of the trio sonata. The term “trio” here refers to the number of parts (voices), rather than the number of players. Thus Bach’s trio sonatas are composed for solo keyboard. Many trio sonatas were played with four instruments, two violins, for the upper part, cello for the bass line, and keyboard, for the basso continuo, playing the same bass line as the cello, and filling in the harmony above.

     So, what are the qualities of baroque music that set it apart and make it so distinguishable from classical music, and why certain musical elitists snicker at those who would refer to Bach as a classical composer? Let us now explore the qualities of baroque music, particularly the high baroque.

     Baroque music tends to be very fluid and continuous, with few pauses. It keeps the same rhythm throughout an entire movement. There are a few exceptions to the preceding statement, but in general it holds true. The melodies tend to be long and flowing. There is usually an avoidance of a strong tonic cadence until the end. This is accomplished by having the tonic chord presented in inversion when it is at the end of a cadence, also by making the last melody note of the cadence become the first melody note of the next phrase, or by overlapping the phrases in different voices. This makes the phrases flow together without giving a sense of an end to any phrase, giving baroque music a very fluid and unbroken feeling. You generally do not sense that a movement is made up of smaller units, as in classical music.

     There is much use of harmonic sequence in baroque music, and this helps to give it momentum. A harmonic sequence is a short melodic figure that is repeated by all the voices at a different pitch. Sometimes some of the notes will be altered in a sequence and sometimes not. It is called a melodic sequence, rather than harmonic sequence if the repetition at a different pitch occurs in only one voice.

     In baroque music, there is generally a strong sense of harmonic movement, what is known in our time as a chord progression. Yet at the same time, the polyphonic texture is important. For me, the harmonic motion in baroque music can best be perceived by listening to the bass.

     Another feature of the Baroque period is the liberal use of improvised ornamentation is expected by the performers. Trills, mordents, turns, and other ornaments are sometimes written into the score, but are usually expected to be improvised by the performers when not written out. Composers of the time composed with the expectation that the performers will add ornamentation to the music.

     One last feature of baroque that I wish to discuss is terraced dynamics. The instruments of the day did not have much dynamic range. A gradual crescendo or decrescendo was possible in choral music, but not in instrumental music. In order to produce a crescendo, the composers of the baroque period would gradually add instruments to the score. This produced a crescendo that increased in discrete steps rather than smoothly, thus the name, terraced dynamics.

     During the 1720s there was a reaction against the complex polyphonic textures and the serious intensity of baroque music. There was a quite deliberate attempt at creating a more simple and direct style, with more emphasis on the concept of melody with accompaniment, and with a clearly audible form. The baroque age is generally reckoned to have ended in 1750, but overlapping it is a new style called the rococo, sometimes called the gallant style.

     The composers of the rococo style tended to simplify the texture of the music and emphasize form. Simple binary form was the most common, just as in the baroque, but the new style tended to emphasize form a bit more. Rather than unfolding in a seamless flow of fluid phrases, like baroque, this new style is much more articulated. It is conceived as a series of smaller units stuck together and meant to be heard that way.

     As far as I can see, no great masterpieces were composed in the rococo style. Its best composers were Francois Couperin, C.P.E. Bach, and Johann Christian Bach. These two sons of J.S. Bach, along with his other son, Wilhelm Friedman, for the most part, abandoned the baroque style of their father. J.S. Bach himself was not totally unaffected by the new style, yet his music remained firmly rooted in the baroque, with only a few hints of rococo here and there.

     The rococo period can be thought of as a transitional time, and it blended into the classical period. No clear line can be drawn to show when the rococo era ended and the classical era began. Indeed, in many of the early works of Haydn and Mozart, there are strong elements of rococo style. One way of looking at it is to think of the classical style as a more mature and developed version of the rococo.

     The classical style is a highly articulated style. It is conceived as a series of events strung together in a very orderly fashion. Expansion of musical phrase is an important aspect of this style. Many of Mozart’s melodies can be thought of as having been created by taking a simple symmetrical melody, slicing it right down the middle and inserting between these two halves, melodic material that seems to be in search of finding its key. Periodic phrasing is another important aspect of the classical style. Phrases tend to come in well-defined groups or periods. Larger units are built from these groups of phrases, creating a large-scale sense of proportion.

     In the classical period dynamic contrast is much more important than in the baroque. It is a very dramatic style, and achieves dramatic action through strong contrast of dynamics, tonality, and rhythm.

     In baroque music, the same rhythm is almost always kept from the beginning to the end of a movement. In classical music, the rhythm is constantly changing. When the composer is increasing the tension, as is mostly done in the first half of a movement, the rhythms are getting faster and faster, and when the composer wants to decrease the tension, the rhythms become slower and slower. In fact rhythmic transition is an essential element of the classical style.

     Rhythmic transition in the classical style is achieved by using discrete, well-defined units of rhythm, and progresses from one to another in a systematic way. One common device is to have the upper half of the orchestra change to a faster rhythm first, and then the lower half catches up, only to have the upper half speed up the rhythm again, and so on. Or it might happen the other way around, with the bottom half, or bass section changing rhythm first. In piano music, one hand will change rhythm first, then the other hand will catch up. Keep in mind that I am not speaking of changes in tempo, but of rhythm.

     The rate of change of harmony, or harmonic rhythm, is another element that is used to increase or decrease the tension in classical music. Changes in harmonic rhythm are part of any style, but in the classical style these changes become a very important element of dramatic action and overall form. Listen to a work by Mozart, particularly the first half of a first movement, and you will notice times when the chords are changing faster and faster, and other times when the reverse is happening. The chords might change every three or four measures, then suddenly you hear a new chord once every measure, then twice a measure, then three or four times a measure. This, of course, like anything else, cannot go on forever, but is an important way of increasing the tension and heightening the dramatic action. Towards the end of a movement, the rate of change of harmony will become very slow, even static. Beethoven will hammer away on the same chord for a long time at the end of some of his works.

     The importance of form in the classical style can be shown by the way that composers highlighted the transitions between each section. While baroque music may gradually drift from the tonic key to the dominant, with the change of key being barely noticeable, classical music emphasizes this change of key. It is conceived as a dramatic event and made more audible as such by a change in texture and/or a change in orchestration. The middle section of a sonata form movement is tonally unstable and full of tension, and is usually preceded by an emphatic ending of the exposition. Halfway through the second half of a sonata form movement there is a return to the tonic key and a resolution of the tensions that have built up thus far. This moment is conceived as a very dramatic event. If you have been daydreaming during the development section of a sonata form movement, you will probably begin to focus on the music at this point.

     Classical composers begin and end a movement with simplicity and tonal stability. In general, the first half constantly builds tension, and the second half reduces tension until the very end, though there is a certain amount of ebb and flow of tension within this larger framework.

     Though sonata form is conceived in terms of a homophonic style, the three great classical composers in their maturity were able to incorporate polyphonic textures within sonata form (also in other forms, such as rondo, theme & variation). The most common way of doing so was to include a fugato, or short fugue, in the development section of a sonata form movement. In his maturity, Mozart was able to integrate sections with polyphonic textures into sonata form movements in a most superb manner. His greatest achievement in that endeavor is the finale of the so-called Jupiter Symphony. That extraordinary finale is in a rather loosely structured sonata form and makes ingenious use of fugal textures.

     During Beethoven’s lifetime a new style of music was emerging. Depending on what book you are reading, you will find that the romantic period in music began in 1820, 1800, or even as early as 1790. Chopin, Liszt, Schumann, Berlioz, Wagner, Tchaikovsky, and Mendelssohn were all romantic composers, though Mendelssohn retained some of the classical structures. Schubert in his youth composed mostly in the romantic style, but in his late twenties, until his untimely death at the age of thirty-one, he leaned more toward the classical style, most likely because of his deep love for Beethoven‘s music.

     The romantic period developed chromatic harmony to a far greater extreme than the classical period. The tonality of a work became blurred both by the extensive use of chromatic harmony, and by a more flexible conception of tonality itself. A piece of music, whether a single movement work, or a movement within a larger work, such as a symphony, may begin in one key and end in another. Some of Chopin’s piano music does that. With certain works by Chopin, you cannot say definitely that it is in the key of say, F major or D minor. Throughout the piece you never completely feel that either F major, or D minor, is the key.

     This looser conception of tonality and heavy use of chromatic harmony are key features of music of the romantic period. Also, composers of the Romantic period had a somewhat looser conception of form than classical composers. They eschewed the use of strict, well defined forms, especially sonata form.

     Many more instruments were available to the composer and orchestration took on more importance. Radical changes in instrument design came about during the first half of the romantic period. These newer instruments, particularly the stringed instruments, lend themselves well to the new style. Players using the new violin and bow were able to play a smoother manner, and a good violinist with a modern bow can play in such a manner that a listener cannot tell when the bow changes direction. These changes in the instruments, along with a larger choice of instruments and bigger orchestras, affected the way orchestral music was composed.

     During the 1850s there was a movement to return to the classical forms. The young Brahms was at the forefront of this neoclassical movement. He was composing in the old classical forms, but with a more modern concept of harmony. The neoclassical movement produced a few great works from other composers, but the way I see it, Brahms was the only one who consistently produced great works. His protégé, Dvorak produced a few great symphonies, as well as other works.

     During the 1890s a French composer named Claude Debussy was making a noble attempt to create a new style. Along with other French composers of the time, particularly Ravel, he was reacting against the dominance of German and Italian music, especially German.

     Debussy was the first composer to successfully employ the whole tone scale. He exploited tone color as a means of expression. He created rather diaphanous textures and diffuse harmonic progressions. The new style was called the impressionist style because its use of lush harmony and lack of well-defined form was thought of as being analogous with the impressionist style in painting. Debussy thought it was a stupid name for the style, but the name stuck.

     I will end this essay without writing about modern and post-modern styles since I do not know enough about those styles to write intelligently about them. I hope that I have been able to help the reader understand the progression of musical styles from late renaissance to early twentieth century.