What are the dates of the classical period of music?

Answer 1

The beginning date is usually given as 1750, at the death of J.S. Bach. That's more just a matter of convenience, though, because there were composers continuing in the Baroque style afterwards, and the "pre-classical" or "rococo" style can fairly be said to emerge during the 1730s-1740s. Still, the decade of the 1750s also marks the beginning of Haydn's adult career, so it's a pretty good place to start.

The end of the Classical era is much, much harder. The older opinion was simply to round it off and say 1800, which also coincides more or less with the beginning of Beethoven's 2nd period--the Eroica symphony (n. 3), etc. More recently I've seen people say 1820-ish, when Beethoven goes into his more experimental 3rd period (C# minor quartet, op. 131!); this also gives a nod to Schubert, whose songs in the late 1810s (cf. "Gretchen am Spinnrad") were Romantic by anyone's definition. Also it gets you past the death of Haydn.

Same problem exists on this end of the era, though--you have holdovers who continue writing a Classical style, and there are bursts of Romanticism earlier. Carl Dahlhaus even argued in his 19th-Century Romanticism in Music that Classicism and Romanticism coexisted for most of the earlier part of the century. But 1750-1820 will do for a shorthand answer.

Answer 2

The classical period spanned the dates 1700 - 1820

Answer 3

That depends, the classical period was from the early-mid 1700's to the early 1800's, Classical Music as a whole is from about 1680-now

Answer 4

The Classical period in Western music happened during the years of 1730 to 1820. Therefore, it lasted for a total of ninety years and maybe a little more or a little less.

Answer 5

1750 to 1820