Classical music is generally considered the music from the period of 1730 to 1830, during which time the symphony and works of Haydn and Mozart developed. In music the term is “applied to a work that accepts certain basic conventions of form and structure as the natural framework for the expression of ideas, as distinguished from music that is more concerned with the individual emotions than with the achievement of formal unity…balance, order, clarity and a focus on formal composition and performance,” (Baker-Siepmann, 1987: 194). The twelve tones are used to create functional tonality as a means of expressing music. Jazz, in contrast, is much more based on individual emotions, informal composition and performance and individual interpretation. Jazz covers too many styles to discuss them in length, but they all share common characteristics, “performers of Jazz improvise within the convention of their chosen style. The improvisation is accompanied by the repeated chord progression of a popular song or an original composition. Instrumentalists emulate black vocal styles, including the use of glissandi and slides, nuances of pitch, and tonal effects such as growls and wails. Performers create rhythms characterized by constant syncopation and also by swing-a sensation of pull and momentum that arises as the melody is heard together with, then at variance with, the expected pulse or division of pulse,” (Encarta, 1996: 1).
Classical music, like Jazz, has developed and evolved over the years. For example, the modernists who compose classical music still return to the great composers and styles to create their music. These modernists are “essentially conservative in their musical views and believed above all in continuing validity of functional tonality as a means of musical expression,” (Teachout, 1997: 1). Jazz music also heralds back to the great Jazz musici
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