"Classical music" is a broad, imprecise term, usually referring to music produced in, or rooted in the traditions of, Western art, ecclesiastical and concert music, encompassing a broad period from roughly 1000 to the present day. The central norms of this tradition developed throughout this period but reached their heights of complexity and development in the period between 1550 and 1900: known as the common practice period.
When used (at it is most frequently) as a synonym for Western Art Music, the term encompasses, by nature, a broad spectrum of musical styles and approaches, ranging from the serious and strict application of compositional techniques (such as fugue) to music of a deliberately entertaining and more ephemeral nature (cf. operetta, for example).
European Classical Music is largely distinguished from many other non-European, and popular musical forms, by its system of staff notation, in use since about the 16th century. Western staff notation was and is used by composers to precisely prescribe to the performer the pitch, speed, meter, individual rhythms and exact execution of a piece of music, leaving far less room for notions such as improvisation and ornamentation that is frequently heard and seen in non-European art musics (compare Indian Classical Music and Japanese traditional music), and Popular Music.
The public taste for and appreciation of formal music of this type is often described as having waned through the later part of the 20th century and into the present millennium, particularly in the USA and UK, although it continues to thrive elsewhere in the world. Certainly, this period has seen classical music falling well behind the immense commercial success of popular music.
The term classical music did not appear until the early 19th century, in an attempt to "canonize" the period from Bach to Beethoven as an era in music parallel to the golden age of sculpture, architecture and art of classical antiquity (from which very little music has directly survived). The earliest reference to "classical music" recorded by the Oxford English Dictionary is from about 1836.citation needed] Since that time it has come into common parlance as a generic term denoting the opposite of light or popular music.