classical music, serious music

traditional genre of music conforming to an established form and appealing to critical interest and developed musical taste

• chamber music — serious music performed by a small group of musicians
• opera — a drama set to music; consists of singing with orchestral accompaniment and an orchestral overture and interludes
• cantata, oratorio — a musical composition for voices and orchestra based on a religious text
• concerto — a composition for orchestra and a soloist
• fugue — a musical form consisting of a theme repeated a fifth above or a fourth below its first statement
• rondo, rondeau — a musical form that is often the last movement of a sonata
• sonata — a musical composition of 3 or 4 movements of contrasting forms

• music genre, musical genre, genre, musical style — an expressive style of music