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It is difficult to pick particular years for the beginning and end points of eras in European classical music. There are several reasons for this. First, these eras began and ended at different times in different locations. Second, works of particular styles can be found that were composed after the style was no longer popular or important. Third, the styles themselves overlap and absolute categorization is not possible in all cases. For example, a "late Renaissance" piece would likely be very similar to an "early Baroque" piece.

Date ranges of classical music eras are therefore somewhat arbitrary, and are only intended as approximate guides. Scholars of music history do not agree on the start and end dates, and in many cases disagree whether particular years should be chosen at all.

The following graph depicts commonly accepted dates for major movements in classical music.

<timeline> Preset = TimeHorizontal_AutoPlaceBars_UnitYear ImageSize = width:550

Colors =

 id:offWhite     value:rgb(0.97,0.97,0.97)
 id:paleGray     value:rgb(0.86,0.86,0.86)
 id:darkGray     value:gray(0.6)
 id:baroqueBlue  value:rgb(0.6,1,0.6)

BackgroundColors = canvas:offWhite

Period = from:400 till:2000 ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:200 start:400 gridcolor:paleGray

Define $bold = fontsize:M shift:(10,-7)

BarData=

 barset:Composers

PlotData=

1. set defaults

 width:15 fontsize:S textcolor:black align:left anchor:from shift:(10,-4) color:baroqueBlue

 barset:Composers

 from:476 till:1400 text:"Medieval"
 from:1400 till:1600 text:"Renaissance"
 from:1600 till:1750 text:"Baroque" 
 from:1730 till:1820 text:"Classical"
 from:1815 till:1910 text:"Romantic"
 from:1900 till:1999 text:"20th century"

</timeline>

Additionally:

• Ancient music extended from approximately 1500 B.C. until the fall of Rome in 476 A.D.
• Prehistoric music encompasses that music which existed prior to any historical record.