Common-Practice Period

In the history of European art music, the term common practice period refers to the era between the formation and the dissolution of the tonal system. Though there are no exact dates for this phenomenon, most features of the common-practice period persisted from the mid to late baroque period, through the Classical and Romantic periods, or roughly from around 1650 to 1900. While certain prevailing patterns and conventions characterize the music of this period, the time period also saw considerable stylistic evolution. Some conventions evolved during this period that were rarely employed at other times during what may still be labeled "common practice" (for example, Sonata Form).

Thus, the dates 1650–1900 are necessarily nebulous and arbitrary borders that depend on context. The most important unifying feature through this time period concerns a harmonic language to which modern music theorists can apply Roman numeral analysis.