History of Music - Classical Era

Broad characteristics of Classical Era Music

1750

Some broad characteristics to keep in mind for the Classical Era are:
- Texture
Now favouring Homophonic music, texture tended toward being thinner, and less dense than that of the typical Polyphony of Bach’s music.
- Instrumentation.
- Phrasing
Shorter phrases replaced the longer, running Baroque phrases. A good example is Mozart’s Piano Sonata in C, with 2-4 bar phrases, in comparison with pieces like the Toccata and Fugue, featuring long, polyphonic phrases that visit several different keys.