The major musical development of the classical period

Also they have a change from one pattern of note lengths to another, which may be either sudden or gradual. Texture – Classical music is basically homophobic. However, texture is treated as flexibly as rhythm. Pieces shift smoothly or suddenly from one texture to another. Melody – Classical melodies are one of the most tuneful and easy to remember. The themes of even highly sophisticated compositions may have a folk or popular flavor. Occasionally, composer simply borrowed popular tunes, but more often, they wrote original themes with a popular character.

Classical melodies often sound balanced and symmetrical because they are frequently made up of two phrases of the same length. The second phrase, in such melodies, may begin like the first, but it will end more conclusively and it will be easier to sing. Dynamics and the piano – The Classical composers’ Interest In expressing shades of emotion led to the widespread use of gradual dynamic change – crescendo (gradually tenting louder) and diminuendo ( gradually getting softer). The end of basso continuo – The basso continuo was gradually abandoned during the classical period.

One reason why the basso continuo became obsolete was that more and more music was written for amateurs,

who could not master the difficult art of Improvising from a figured bass. The dates of the Classical period in are generally known as being between about 1750 and 1820. However, the term classical music is used colloquially to describe a rarity of Western musical styles from the ninth century to the present, and especially from the sixteenth or seventeenth to the nineteenth.

The Classical period falls between the Baroque and the Romantic periods. The best known composers from this period are Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven; other notable names include Lugging Bickering, Muzzy Clementine, Antonio Soles, Antonio Saltier, Francis Joseph Gooses, Johann Stamina, Carl Frederica Able, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, and Christopher Willable Cluck. Ludwig van Beethoven is also sometimes regarded either as a Romantic composer or a composer who was part of the transition to the Romantic.