Classical music

This article disambiguates several traditions of music called "classical music". For the most common uses in English, please see European classical music and Classical period (music).

Classical music in its widest sense is held to refer to music deriving from learned traditions, taught through institutions either specifically devoted to music (e.g. modern Western) or through institutions or traditions (typically religious) dedicated to transmission of specific schools of music. Classical music is thus contrasted with popular or folk music.

In the English language, the term "classical music" is usually a homophoric reference to European classical music and its derivative styles, and is rarely used to refer to traditional musical styles of other regions. It can also carry the specific meaning of concert music dating from the period of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn, and their immediate successors. This Classical music era is thus distinguished from, for example, the music of the preceding Baroque and the subsequent Romantic eras. It is with respect to this latter canon that the term 'classical music' was first used, in the 1820s and 1830s, denote a body of music that was compared to the classical traditions of art, sculpture and architecture of Ancient Greece and Rome.

The following genres of music may all be referred to as 'classical' in the sense of having a consensus core canon:
*Andalusian classical music
*Arab classical music
*Bengali classical music
*Burmese classical music
*Carnatic music
*Central Asian classical music
*Chinese classical music
*Charya or Nepalese classical music
*Classical Jazz
*Classical period (music)
*Classical rock
*European classical music, classical music of Western cultures
*Experimental music, a movement within 20th century classical music
*Gagaku or Japanese classical music
*Gamelan or Indonesian classical music
*Greek classical music
*Hindustani classical music
*Indian classical music
*Klasik or Afghan classical music
*Korean court music
*Laotian classical music
*Mugam or Azerbaijani classical music
*Music of Orissa
*musiqi-e assil or Iranian classical music
*Nangma or Tibetan classical music
*Orthodox Byzantine music
*Ottoman classical music
*Philippine classical music
*Pinpeat or Cambodian classical music
*Sufiana Kalam or Kashmiri classical music
*Thai court music
*Vietnamese classical music