Editing Common practice period (section)

{{short description|Western music history period (c. 1650 to 1900)}}
{{Inline|date=June 2022}}
{{History of Western art music}}

In [[Western classical music]], the '''common practice period''' ('''CPP''') was the period of about 250 years during which the [[tonality|tonal system]] was regarded as the only basis for composition. It began when composers' use of the tonal system had clearly superseded earlier systems, and ended when some composers began using significantly modified versions of the tonal system, and began developing other systems as well. Most features of '''common practice''' (the accepted concepts of composition during this time) persisted from the mid-[[Baroque Music|Baroque]] period through the [[Classical music era|Classical]] and [[Romantic Music|Romantic]] periods, roughly from 1650 to 1900. There was much stylistic evolution during these centuries, with patterns and conventions flourishing and then declining, such as the [[sonata form]]. The most prominent unifying feature throughout the period is a [[Harmony|harmonic]] language to which [[music theorist]]s can today apply [[Roman numeral analysis|Roman numeral chord analysis]]; however, the "common" in common practice does not directly refer to any type of harmony, rather it refers to the fact that for over two hundred years only one system was used.