Classical music emerged in 1750, and it was dominant until around 1820. It began when a growing interest of a more balanced style of music was preferred by the European middle class. The style of music was given its name "classical" because, according to the Think Quest Website, "The characteristics that people preferred in music were very similar to those qualities exhibited in the art of ancient Greece and Rome."
During the classical music era, there were multiple musical forms that were popular, including the solo concerto. This form was a piece of music that was written for an orchestra, but it only featured one instrument. It typically consisted of four contrasting movements and was created by Franz Haydn, a famous classical composer of the time. Other forms of music were the symphony, which attracted mass audiences, and the opera buffa, which was a comic form of opera.
In addition to the famous Haydn from Austrian, Mozart was another Austrian composer who mainly conducted symphonies and wrote numerous piano concertos. Born in 1770, Ludwig van Beethoven was a classical composer from Germany, who entered the world of classical music when it was in its prime. The public expressed a great interest in the heroic figure at the time, and it inspired Beethoven to write his only opera piece about heroism and freedom fighting. During Beethoven's lifetime, he focused on writing piano sonatas, string quartets and symphonies.
The orchestra was the basic musical set up that performed classical music. It was made up of string instruments--such as violins, violas and cellos--but also featured wind instruments to blend the sound. Generally, there were one or two flutes, and there were also pairs of oboes, clarinets, bassoons, french horns, trumpets and kettledrums.
The main characteristics that make up the style of classical music include being more homophonic than baroque (a style of music prior to classical music), emphasizing the beauty, elegance and balance of the music. Classical music also offers more dynamics, instruments, key changes and tempo changes. The melodies in classical music often are shorter than in a baroque, and they project clear-cut phrases with clearly marked cadences.