Dates of classical music eras

Picking particular years for the beginning and end points of eras in European classical music is difficult for several reasons. First, these eras began and ended at different times in different locations. Second, works of particular styles can be found that were composed after the style was no longer popular or important. Third, the styles themselves overlap and absolute categorization is not possible in all cases. For example, a "late Renaissance" piece would likely be very similar to an "early Baroque" piece.{{cite book |last=Carter |title=Seventeenth Century Music |page=1}}

Date ranges of classical music eras are therefore somewhat arbitrary, and are only intended as approximate guides. Scholars of music history do not agree on the start and end dates, and in many cases disagree whether particular years should be chosen at all. The 20th century has exact dates, but is strictly a calendar based unit of time. The Modernist era is confined mostly to the 20th century, but the Postmodern era continues into the current century which is therefore not a separate musical era in its own right.

The following graph depicts commonly accepted dates for major eras in classical music.

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Period = from:400 till:2000

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from:476 till:1400 text:"Medieval"

from:1400 till:1600 text:"Renaissance"

from:1600 till:1750 text:"Baroque"

from:1730 till:1820 text:"Classical"

from:1815 till:1910 text:"Romantic"

from:1900 till:1999 text:"20th century"

Not shown on the chart:

• Prehistoric music encompasses that music which existed prior to any historical record.
• Ancient music extended from approximately 1500 BCE until the fall of Rome in 476 CE.
• Modernist, and Postmodernist music have been tacitly combined under the 20th century banner as defined by the calendar. However postmodernist music constitutes a separate era from the modernist, and extends into the 21st century which is musically a continuation of the 20th.

• Concert program
• History of music
• List of classical music composers by era

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• {{cite book |last=Carter |first=Tim |title=The Cambridge History of Seventeenth Century Music |chapter=Renaissance, Mannerism, Baroque |year=2005 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-79273-8 |pages=1–3|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mHJvKVq0vXoC&q=9780521792738&pg=PA1|accessdate=5 March 2018}}
• {{cite book |last=Grout |first=Donald Jay |authorlink=Donald Jay Grout |title=A History of Western Music |edition=Revised |year=1973 |publisher=W. W. Norton |location=New York |isbn=0-393-09416-2 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofwestern00grou }}
• {{Cite web |url=http://www.naxos.com/education/brief_history.asp |title=History of Classical Music |accessdate=2 January 2009 |date= |work=Naxos.Com Introduction to Classical Music |publisher=Naxos Digital Services Ltd |location=Hong Kong}}

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