The major time divisions of Western art music are as follows:

• Ancient music period, before 500 AD
• Early music period, which includes
  • Medieval era (500–1420) including
    • Ars antiqua (1170–1310)
    • Ars nova (1310–1377)
    • Ars subtilior (1360–1420)
  • Renaissance era (1400–1600)
• Common-practice period, which includes
  • Baroque era (1600–1750)
  • Galant music era (1720s–1770s)
  • Classical era (1750–1820)
  • Romantic era (c.1800–1910)
• Late 19th-century to 20th- and 21st-centuries (1890–present) which includes:
  • Modernist era (1890–1975) that overlaps from the late-19th century
    • Impressionism (1890–1925) that also overlaps from the late-19th century
    • Expressionism (1900–1930)
    • Neoclassicism (1920–1950), predominantly in the inter-war period
  • Postmodern era/Contemporary (1950–present)
    • Experimental (1950–present)
    • Minimalism (early 1960s–1990)
    • Postminimalism (early 1980s–present)