Renaissance

• Ballade
• Carol
  Carol (music)
  A carol is a festive song, generally religious but not necessarily connected with church worship, and often with a dance-like or popular character....
  
  
• Chanson
  Chanson
  A chanson is in general any lyric-driven French song, usually polyphonic and secular. A singer specialising in chansons is known as a "chanteur" or "chanteuse" ; a collection of chansons, especially from the late Middle Ages and Renaissance, is also known as a chansonnier.-Chanson de geste:The...
  
  
• Galliard
  Galliard
  The galliard was a form of Renaissance dance and music popular all over Europe in the 16th century. It is mentioned in dance manuals from England, France, Spain, Germany and Italy, among others....
  
  
• Intermedio
  Intermedio
  The intermedio, or intermezzo, in the Italian Renaissance, was a theatrical performance or spectacle with music and often dance which was performed between the acts of a play to celebrate special occasions in Italian courts. It was one of the important predecessors to opera, and an influence on...
  
  
• Laude
  Laude
  The lauda or lauda spirituale was the most important form of vernacular sacred song in Italy in the late medieval era and Renaissance. Laude remained popular into the nineteenth century....
  
  
• Madrigal
  Madrigal (music)
  A madrigal is a secular vocal music composition, usually a partsong, of the Renaissance and early Baroque eras. Traditionally, polyphonic madrigals are unaccompanied; the number of voices varies from two to eight, and most frequently from three to six....
  
  
• Madrigal comedy
  Madrigal comedy
  Madrigal comedy is a term for a kind of entertainment music of the late 16th century in Italy, in which groups of related, generally a cappella madrigals were sung consecutively, generally telling a story, and sometimes having a loose dramatic plot. It is an important element in the origins of opera...
  
  
• Madrigale spirituale
  Madrigale spirituale
  A madrigale spirituale is a madrigal, or madrigal-like piece of music, with a sacred rather than a secular text...
  
  
• Mass
  Mass (music)
  The Mass, a form of sacred musical composition, is a choral composition that sets the invariable portions of the Eucharistic liturgy to music...
  
  
  • Cyclic mass
    Cyclic mass
    In Renaissance music, the cyclic mass was a setting of the Ordinary of the Roman Catholic Mass, in which each of the movements – Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei – shared a common musical theme, commonly a cantus firmus, thus making it a unified whole...
    
    
  • Parody mass
    Parody mass
    A parody mass is a musical setting of the mass, typically from the 16th century, that uses multiple voices of another pre-existing piece of music, such as a fragment of a motet or a secular chanson, as part of its melodic material. It is distinguished from the two other most prominent types of...
    
    
  • Paraphrase mass
    Paraphrase mass
    A paraphrase mass is a musical setting of the Ordinary of the Mass, using as its basis an elaborated version of a cantus firmus, typically chosen from plainsong or some other sacred source...
    
    
  • Cantus firmus mass
• Motet
  Motet
  In classical music, motet is a word that is applied to a number of highly varied choral musical compositions.-Etymology:The name comes either from the Latin movere, or a Latinized version of Old French mot, "word" or "verbal utterance." The Medieval Latin for "motet" is motectum, and the Italian...
  
  
• Motet-chanson
  Motet-chanson
  The motet-chanson was a specialized musical form of the Renaissance, developed in Milan during the 1470s and 1480s, which combined aspects of the contemporary motet and chanson....
  
  
• Opera
  Opera
  Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
  
  
• Pavane
  Pavane
  The pavane, pavan, paven, pavin, pavian, pavine, or pavyn is a slow processional dance common in Europe during the 16th century .A pavane is a slow piece of music which is danced to in pairs....
  
  
• Ricercar
  Ricercar
  A ricercar is a type of late Renaissance and mostly early Baroque instrumental composition. The term means to search out, and many ricercars serve a preludial function to "search out" the key or mode of a following piece...
  
  
• Tiento
  Tiento
  Tiento is a musical genre originating in Spain in the mid-15th century. It is formally analogous to the fantasia , found in England, Germany, and the Low Countries, and also the ricercare, first found in Italy. The word derives from the Spanish verb tentar , and was originally applied to music...
  
  
• Toccata
  Toccata
  Toccata is a virtuoso piece of music typically for a keyboard or plucked string instrument featuring fast-moving, lightly fingered or otherwise virtuosic passages or sections, with or without imitative or fugal interludes, generally emphasizing the dexterity of the performer's fingers...
  
  

Baroque

• Allemande
  Allemande
  An allemande is one of the most popular instrumental dance forms in Baroque music, and a standard element of a suite...
  
  
• Cantata
  Cantata
  A cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir....
  
  
• Concerto
  Concerto
  A concerto is a musical work usually composed in three parts or movements, in which one solo instrument is accompanied by an orchestra.The etymology is uncertain, but the word seems to have originated from the conjunction of the two Latin words...
  
  
  • Concerto grosso
    Concerto grosso
    The concerto grosso is a form of baroque music in which the musical material is passed between a small group of soloists and full orchestra...
    
    
• Fugue
  Fugue
  In music, a fugue is a compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject that is introduced at the beginning in imitation and recurs frequently in the course of the composition....
  
  
• Gavotte
  Gavotte
  The gavotte originated as a French folk dance, taking its name from the Gavot people of the Pays de Gap region of Dauphiné, where the dance originated. It is notated in 4/4 or 2/2 time and is of moderate tempo...
  
  
• Gigue
  Gigue
  The gigue or giga is a lively baroque dance originating from the British jig. It was imported into France in the mid-17th century and usually appears at the end of a suite...
  
  
• Mass
  Mass (music)
  The Mass, a form of sacred musical composition, is a choral composition that sets the invariable portions of the Eucharistic liturgy to music...
  
  
• Minuet
  Minuet
  A minuet, also spelled menuet, is a social dance of French origin for two people, usually in 3/4 time. The word was adapted from Italian minuetto and French menuet, and may have been from French menu meaning slender, small, referring to the very small steps, or from the early 17th-century popular...
  
  
• Opera
  Opera
  Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
  
  
  • Opera buffa
    Opera buffa
    Opera buffa is a genre of opera. It was first used as an informal description of Italian comic operas variously classified by their authors as ‘commedia in musica’, ‘commedia per musica’, ‘dramma bernesco’, ‘dramma comico’, ‘divertimento giocoso' etc...
    
    
  • Opera seria
    Opera seria
    Opera seria is an Italian musical term which refers to the noble and "serious" style of Italian opera that predominated in Europe from the 1710s to c. 1770...
    
    
• Oratorio
  Oratorio
  An oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...
  
  
• Partita
  Partita
  Partita was originally the name for a single instrumental piece of music , but Johann Kuhnau and later German composers used it for collections of musical pieces, as a synonym for suite.Johann Sebastian Bach wrote two sets of Partitas for different instruments...
  
  
• Passacaglia
  Passacaglia
  The passacaglia is a musical form that originated in early seventeenth-century Spain and is still used by contemporary composers. It is usually of a serious character and is often, but not always, based on a bass-ostinato and written in triple metre....
  
  
• Prelude
  Prelude (music)
  A prelude is a short piece of music, the form of which may vary from piece to piece. The prelude can be thought of as a preface. It may stand on its own or introduce another work...
  
  
• Sarabande
  Sarabande
  In music, the sarabande is a dance in triple metre. The second and third beats of each measure are often tied, giving the dance a distinctive rhythm of quarter notes and eighth notes in alternation...
  
  
• Sinfonia
  Sinfonia
  Sinfonia is the Italian word for symphony. In English it most commonly refers to a 17th- or 18th-century orchestral piece used as an introduction, interlude, or postlude to an opera, oratorio, cantata, or suite...
  
  
• Sonata
  • Flute sonata
    Flute sonata
    A flute sonata is a sonata usually for flute and piano, though occasionally other accompanying instruments may be used. Flute sonatas in the Baroque period were very often accompanied in the form of basso continuo.-List of Flute Sonatas:*George Antheil...
    
    
• Suite
  Suite
  In music, a suite is an ordered set of instrumental or orchestral pieces normally performed in a concert setting rather than as accompaniment; they may be extracts from an opera, ballet , or incidental music to a play or film , or they may be entirely original movements .In the...
  
  

Classical and Romantic

• Bagatelle
  Bagatelle (music)
  A bagatelle is a short piece of music, typically for the piano, and usually of a light, mellow character. The name bagatelle literally means a "trifle", as a reference to the innocent character of the piece.-Earliest known bagatelle:...
  
  
• Ballet
  Ballet (music)
  Ballet as a music form progressed from simply a complement to dance, to a concrete compositional form that often had as much value as the dance that went along with it. The dance form, originating in France during the 17th century, began as a theatrical dance. It was not until the 19th century that...
  
  
• Carol
  Carol (music)
  A carol is a festive song, generally religious but not necessarily connected with church worship, and often with a dance-like or popular character....
  
  
• Concerto
  Concerto
  A concerto is a musical work usually composed in three parts or movements, in which one solo instrument is accompanied by an orchestra.The etymology is uncertain, but the word seems to have originated from the conjunction of the two Latin words...
  
  
  • Cello concerto
  • Clarinet concerto
    Clarinet concerto
    A clarinet concerto is a piece for clarinet and orchestra . Albert Rice has identified a work by Giuseppe Antonio Paganelli as possibly the earliest known concerto for solo clarinet; its score appears to be titled "Concerto per Clareto" and may date from 1733. It may, however, be intended for...
    
    
  • Concerto grosso
    Concerto grosso
    The concerto grosso is a form of baroque music in which the musical material is passed between a small group of soloists and full orchestra...
    
    
  • Double bass concerto
    Double bass concerto
    A double bass concerto is a piece of music for solo double bass with an orchestra. The first concerti for solo bass were written in the late classical period by Domenico Dragonetti and Johannes Matthias Sperger. Several concerti were also written by Johann Baptist Vanhal, Carl Ditters von...
    
    
  • Flute concerto
    Flute concerto
    A flute concerto is a concerto for solo flute and instrumental ensemble, customarily the orchestra. Such works have been written from the Baroque period, when the solo concerto form was first developed, up through the present day...
    
    
  • Oboe concerto
    Oboe concerto
    A number of concertos have been written for the oboe, both as a solo instrument as well as in conjunction with other solo instrument, and accompanied by string orchestra, chamber orchestra, full orchestra, band, or similar large ensemble.These include concertos by the following...
    
    
  • Piano concerto
    Piano concerto
    A piano concerto is a concerto written for piano and orchestra.See also harpsichord concerto; some of these works are occasionally played on piano...
    
    
  • Trumpet concerto
    Trumpet concerto
    A trumpet concerto is a concerto for solo trumpet and instrumental ensemble, customarily the orchestra. Such works have been written from the Baroque period, when the solo concerto form was first developed, up through the present day...
    
    
  • Viola concerto
    Viola concerto
    The viola concerto is a concerto contrasting a viola with another body of musical instruments, usually an orchestra or chamber music ensemble. Early examples of the viola concerto include, among others, Georg Philipp Telemann's concerto in G major, and several concertos by the Stamitz clan...
    
    
  • Violin concerto
    Violin concerto
    A violin concerto is a concerto for solo violin and instrumental ensemble, customarily orchestra. Such works have been written since the Baroque period, when the solo concerto form was first developed, up through the present day...
    
    
• Étude
  Étude
  An étude , is an instrumental musical composition, most commonly of considerable difficulty, usually designed to provide practice material for perfecting a particular technical skill. The tradition of writing études emerged in the early 19th century with the rapidly growing popularity of the piano...
  
  
• Impromptu
  Impromptu
  An impromptu is a free-form musical composition with the character of an ex tempore improvisation as if prompted by the spirit of the moment, usually for a solo instrument, such as piano...
  
  
• Intermezzo
  Intermezzo
  In music, an intermezzo , in the most general sense, is a composition which fits between other musical or dramatic entities, such as acts of a play or movements of a larger musical work...
  
  
• Lied
  Lied
  is a German word literally meaning "song", usually used to describe romantic songs setting German poems of reasonably high literary aspirations, especially during the nineteenth century, beginning with Carl Loewe, Heinrich Marschner, and Franz Schubert and culminating with Hugo Wolf...
  
  
• Mass
  Mass (music)
  The Mass, a form of sacred musical composition, is a choral composition that sets the invariable portions of the Eucharistic liturgy to music...
  
  
• Mazurka
  Mazurka
  The mazurka is a Polish folk dance in triple meter, usually at a lively tempo, and with accent on the third or second beat.-History:The folk origins of the mazurek are two other Polish musical forms—the slow machine...
  
  
• Nocturne
  Nocturne
  A nocturne is usually a musical composition that is inspired by, or evocative of, the night...
  
  
• Opera
  Opera
  Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
  
  
  • Ballad opera
    Ballad opera
    The term ballad opera is used to refer to a genre of English stage entertainment originating in the 18th century and continuing to develop in the following century and later. There are many types of ballad opera...
    
    
  • Opera buffa
    Opera buffa
    Opera buffa is a genre of opera. It was first used as an informal description of Italian comic operas variously classified by their authors as ‘commedia in musica’, ‘commedia per musica’, ‘dramma bernesco’, ‘dramma comico’, ‘divertimento giocoso' etc...
    
    
  • Opera comique
    Opera Comique
    The Opera Comique was a 19th-century theatre constructed in Westminster, London, between Wych Street and Holywell Street with entrances on the East Strand. It opened in 1870 and was demolished in 1902, to make way for the construction of the Aldwych and Kingsway...
    
    
  • Opera seria
    Opera seria
    Opera seria is an Italian musical term which refers to the noble and "serious" style of Italian opera that predominated in Europe from the 1710s to c. 1770...
    
    
  • Operetta
    Operetta
    Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
    
    
  • Overture
    Overture
    Overture in music is the term originally applied to the instrumental introduction to an opera...
    
    
  • Singspiel
    Singspiel
    A Singspiel is a form of German-language music drama, now regarded as a genre of opera...
    
    
  • Zarzuela
    Zarzuela
    Zarzuela is a Spanish lyric-dramatic genre that alternates between spoken and sung scenes, the latter incorporating operatic and popular song, as well as dance...
    
    
  • Concert Aria
    Concert Aria
    A concert aria is normally a free-standing aria or opera-like scene composed for singer and orchestra, written specifically for performance in concert rather than as part of an opera...
    
    
• Oratorio
  Oratorio
  An oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...
  
  
• Polonaise
  Polonaise
  The polonaise is a slow dance of Polish origin, in 3/4 time. Its name is French for "Polish."The polonaise had a rhythm quite close to that of the Swedish semiquaver or sixteenth-note polska, and the two dances have a common origin....
  
  
• Prelude
  Prelude (music)
  A prelude is a short piece of music, the form of which may vary from piece to piece. The prelude can be thought of as a preface. It may stand on its own or introduce another work...
  
  
• Quartet
  Quartet
  In music, a quartet is a method of instrumentation , used to perform a musical composition, and consisting of four parts.-Western art music:...
  
  
  • Piano quartet
    Piano quartet
    In European classical music, piano quartet denotes a chamber music composition for piano and three other instruments, or a musical ensemble comprising such instruments...
    
    
  • String quartet
    String quartet
    A string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string players – usually two violin players, a violist and a cellist – or a piece written to be performed by such a group...
    
    
• Quintet
  Quintet
  A quintet is a group containing five members.It is commonly associated with musical groups, such as a string quintet, or a group of five singers, but can be applied to any situation where five similar or related objects are considered a single unit....
  
  
  • Piano quintet
    Piano quintet
    In European classical music, a piano quintet is a work of chamber music written for piano and four other instruments, most commonly piano, two violins, viola, and cello . Among the most frequently performed piano quintets are those by Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, César Franck, Antonín Dvořák...
    
    
  • String quintet
    String quintet
    A string quintet is a musical composition for a standard string quartet supplemented by a fifth string instrument, usually a second viola or a second cello , but occasionally a double bass. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who favoured addition of a viola, is considered a pioneer of the form...
    
    
• Requiem
  Requiem
  A Requiem or Requiem Mass, also known as Mass for the dead or Mass of the dead , is a Mass celebrated for the repose of the soul or souls of one or more deceased persons, using a particular form of the Roman Missal...
  
  
• Rhapsody
  Rhapsody (music)
  A rhapsody in music is a one-movement work that is episodic yet integrated, free-flowing in structure, featuring a range of highly contrasted moods, colour and tonality. An air of spontaneous inspiration and a sense of improvisation make it freer in form than a set of variations...
  
  
• Rondo
  Rondo
  Rondo, and its French equivalent rondeau, is a word that has been used in music in a number of ways, most often in reference to a musical form, but also to a character-type that is distinct from the form...
  
  
• Scherzo
  Scherzo
  A scherzo is a piece of music, often a movement from a larger piece such as a symphony or a sonata. The scherzo's precise definition has varied over the years, but it often refers to a movement which replaces the minuet as the third movement in a four-movement work, such as a symphony, sonata, or...
  
  
• Serenade
  Serenade
  In music, a serenade is a musical composition, and/or performance, in someone's honor. Serenades are typically calm, light music.The word Serenade is derived from the Italian word sereno, which means calm....
  
  
• Sinfonia concertante
  Sinfonia concertante
  Sinfonia concertante is a musical form that emerged during the Classical period of Western music. It is essentially a mixture of the symphony and the concerto genres: a concerto in that one or more soloists are on prominent display, and a symphony in that the soloists are nonetheless discernibly a...
  
  
• Sonata
  • Bassoon sonata
    Bassoon sonata
    A bassoon sonata is a sonata for bassoon, often with piano accompaniment. Sonatas written for bassoon were relatively uncommon until the second half of the twentieth century. Occasionally, sonatas written for bassoon can also be performed on cello...
    
    
  • Cello sonata
    Cello sonata
    A cello sonata is usually a sonata written for cello and piano, though other instrumentations are used, such as solo cello. The most famous Romantic-era cellos sonatas are those written by Johannes Brahms and Ludwig van Beethoven...
    
    
  • Clarinet sonata
    Clarinet Sonata
    A clarinet sonata is piece of music in sonata form for clarinet, often with piano accompaniment.The Clarinet Sonatas by Brahms are of special significance to the clarinet repertoire...
    
    
  • Piano sonata
    Piano sonata
    A piano sonata is a sonata written for a solo piano. Piano sonatas are usually written in three or four movements, although some piano sonatas have been written with a single movement , two movements , five or even more movements...
    
    
  • Violin sonata
    Violin sonata
    A violin sonata is a musical composition for violin, which is nearly always accompanied by a piano or other keyboard instrument, or by figured bass in the Baroque period.-A:*Ella Adayevskaya**Sonata Greca for Violin or Clarinet and Piano...
    
    
• Symphony
  Symphony
  A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, scored almost always for orchestra. A symphony usually contains at least one movement or episode composed according to the sonata principle...
  
  
• Waltz
  Waltz (music)
  A waltz, or valse from the French term, is a piece of music in triple meter, most often written in time signature but sometimes in 3/8 or 3/2...