It might be a classic, but is it classical?

Classical music is classified as music that was written in the Classical Era: the period from the 1750s to the 1820s. This was the era of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn, and Ludwig van Beethoven among others.

Anything after this time would count as non-classical. This would be pieces of music composed before 1730 or after 1820.

When most people think of ‘classical music’, they think of fancy orchestral music from before about 1900. Mozart, Bach, Debussy; usually, people will tell you those are all ‘classical’ composers. ‘Classical’ really refers to a specific musical (and cultural) movement that lasted through most of the 1700s. The start and end dates for it, historically, aren’t exact, but RouteNote‘s guidelines are that we treat it as lasting from 1730 to 1820. Before this it’s baroque, after this it’s romantic.

Original composers credited in your artist data, date of composition in the C line, title formatting; all of this needs to be done whether your release is from a baroque composer like Bach, a classical composer like Mozart, or a romantic composer like Debussy. The only difference is that only music from 1730 to 1820 can use the ‘Classical’ genre tag. If it’s from outside of this period, please use another genre (usually this is ‘Vocal’ or ‘Instrumental’). All of the rules found in the articles below apply to all of these releases.

Check out the full RouteNote Style Guide here!

If you have any further queries, feel free to get in touch with us!

More on classical releases:
When should I use classical formatting when creating a release?
Should I credit the composer in the C line of a classical release?
How should I format my track title for a classical release?
How should I format my album title for a classical release?
Should I credit the composer as an artist for a classical release?