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Musical works are best understood and enjoyed in the context of their place in musical history. The major time divisions are:

1. Medieval, generally before 1450. Chant, also called plainsong or Gregorian Chant, was the dominant form.

2. Renaissance, about 1450-1650, characterized by greater use of instrumentation and multiple melodic lines

3. Baroque, about 1650-1750, characterized by the use of counterpoint and growing popularity of keyboard music and orchestral music

4. Classical, about 1750-1820, a brief but important era dominated by a handful of composers

5. Romantic, about 1820-1920

6. 20th century, usually used to describe the wide variety of post-Romantic styles composed through 1999

The term contemporary music is sometimes used to describe music composed in the late 20th century through present day. In practice, usage of the term tends to be restricted to composers writing avant garde music in the classical tradition.

The dates are generalizations, since the periods overlapped. Some authorities subdivide the periods further by date or style.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Classical Music".

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