Contemporary classical music can be understood as belonging to the period starting in the mid-1970s with the retreat of modernism, though it may also refer more broadly to all post-1945 modern musical forms. Modernism generally refers to significant departures in musical language around the early 20th century that created new understandings of harmony, melody, sound, and rhythm. Computer music originally described the applications of computing technology in music composition from the Western art music tradition.

2. Contemporary classical music can be
Understood as belonging to the period that
started in the mid- 1970s with the retreat of
modernism. However, the term may also be
employed in a broader sense to refer to all
post-1945 modern musical forms.

3.  The modern forms of art music
• The post-1945 modern forms of post-tonal
music
(including serial music, electroacoustic
music, musique concrète, experimental
music, atonal music, minimalist music, etc.)
• the post-1975 forms of this music
(including post-modern music, Spectral
music, post-minimalism, sound art, etc.)

5. Modernism
refers generally to the significant departures in musical
language that occurred at or around the beginning of
the 20th century, creating new understandings of
harmonic, melodic, sonic, and rhythmic aspects of
music.
Computer music
is a term that was originally used within academia to
describe a field of study relating to the applications
of computing technology in music composition;
particularly that stemming from the Western art
music tradition.
Polystylism (eclecticism)
is the use of multiple styles or techniques in literature, art,
film, or, especially, music, and is
a postmodern characteristic.

6. • New Simplicity
was a stylistic tendency amongst some of the younger
generation of German composers in the late 1970s
and early 1980s, reacting against not only the
European avant garde of the 1950s and 1960s, but
also against the broader tendency toward
objectivity found from the beginning of the
twentieth century.
• New Complexity
is a term dating from the 1980s, principally applied
to composers seeking a "complex, multi-layered
interplay of evolutionary processes occurring
simultaneously within every dimension of the
musical material
• Post-minimalism
is a movement in painting and sculpture that began
in the late 1960s.

8. Opera is an art form in which singers and
musicians perform a dramatic work combining
text (called a libretto) and musical score, usually
in a theatrical setting.

9. Chamber music is a form of classical music,
written for a small group of instruments which
traditionally could be accommodated in a palace
chamber.

10. Choral music refers to music which is sung by a
choir. Each musical part is sung by two or more
voices.

11. A concert is a live performance (typically
of music) before an audience. The performance
may be by a single musician, sometimes then
called a recital.