THE CLASSICAL ERA
The Classical era begins roughly around 1730 and ends in around 1820. The music of the Classical period was like most of the arts around that time; structured. The people of the Classical era had moved on from the complexity of the Baroque period and were using homophony much more than ever before. Since Homophony is more to do with a singular part accompanied by several others often playing chords, the music produced in the Classical period was more focused around the details of the melody line than anything else.
The beginning of the Classical period, sometimes called Galant or Rococo, forms and styles of music remained from the Baroque period, however it was composed more simply. Although over time the basic composition of the music changed since the purpose was so different to that of the Baroque period. Since the music was now more focused on the sole melody line, that one line had to be much more interesting to listen to and soon the music of the Classical era became very dramatic. To make the music more dramatic the changes in the melody line would become a lot more accentuated
During the Classical Era composers became a lot more interested in themes and emotions different notes and chords could produce. The composers grasped these concepts and began to play with them, trying new and interesting ways of using the emotions that each piece provoked. A lot of the time a specific piece would be dedicated to a particular emotion so that if someone were feeling that emotion, granted they wanted to, they could get it out of their system. Say for example that a man was feeling sad, he could listen to the sad music, have a cry and then get on with his life.