The historical period that sounds the most interesting to me is the Classical Period (1730-1820). This period excites me because of the historical background surrounded with it, and also due to many notable composers. Some historical events that occurred during the Classical Period were the American and French Revolution, as well as the Enlightenment. It’s interesting to see how historical events have shaped composers of this time to draw their inspiration from there, such as Beethoven drawing inspiration from Napoleon during the French Revolution. The textbook describes the music from this period, by stating it had more of an “international” style, it was well balanced, symmetrical, and was based on architecture from Classical Greece.

A composer I chose for this time period was Ludwig Van Beethoven and the piece I picked was Symphony No. 3 in E major. The music was definitely how the textbook described it to be, in that I was able to hear the different melodies in the piece, which was really fascinating.