What is 20th-century classical music?
'''20th-century classical music''' is [[classical music]] written during the last [[century]]. During earlier periods of music history composers from different countries wrote in styles which were often quite similar. For example, composers in the [[Classical music period]] (about [[1740]]-[[1820]]) had fairly similar ideas about what forms to use (e.g. [[sonata form]]), what [[musical instrument|instruments]] should be used in [[orchestra]]s or how to write good tunes. [[Classical music]] from the [[20th century]] is extremely varied. There are lots of different “schools” (meaning: ways of thinking) as lots of composers had their own ideas about how to compose in ways that were different from what had been done before. A lot of these genres (types of music) had names ending in “ism”: there was [[serialism]], [[Expressionism]], [[Neoclassicism]], [[Impressionism]] as well as [[jazz]], [[world music]] (music from non-European cultures) and [[folksong]] and, later on [[electronic music]] and then [[Minimalism]] and even [[post-modernism]]. The names of periods in history were usually given to them many years afterwards. For example, the term [[Middle Ages]] was not used until long after the Middle Ages had finished. It is difficult to know what to call the period we live in now. In music people often talk about “Modern Music” meaning any music written after [[1900]]. We also talk about “Contemporary Music” meaning more or less the same thing (“contemporary” means “things that are happening in our time”, i.e. “living composers”). Now that the [[21st century]] has started some musicians are starting to talk about “20th century music” (1900-2000) and a period called “Contemporary Music” (1975-today). This article will discuss classical music written from 1900 to the year 1999. ==Reaction to Romanticism== Many European composers at the beginning of the 20th century felt that the system of [[tonality]] (music in major and minor [[key (music)|keys]]) had been used for so long that it was time to do create a new appr