I offer the descriptions provided by the "Harvard Brief Dictionary of Music"... Classical, classicism: In amateur parlance, "classical" music usually means everything outside the field of “popular” music. In musical terminology, the term is used in a much more restricted sense; that is, it refers to the period represented by the Viennese Classics: Haydn, Mozart, the early works of Beethoven, and, to some extent, Schubert. As opposed to the Romantic style of the 19th century, Classical music is generally characterized by objectivity, emotional restraint, formalism, and simplicity. Since Haydn was born in 1732, and Beethoven and Schubert died in 1827 and 1828 respectively, the period extends from about 1750 to about 1820. Baroque: The music of the period about 1600-1750, following that of the Renaissance. ... The beginning of Baroque music is marked by the rise of the monodic style [unaccompanied song or accompanied solo song], applied to opera, oratorio, and cantata; its end, by the death of Bach (1750) and Handel (1759). It was an extremely fruitful period, during which Italian, French, German, and English composers contributed not only to the development of the opera, oratorio, cantata, aria, and recitative, but also many instrumental forms such as the fugue, concerto, sonata, suite, variations, chorale, prelude, passacaglia, chaconne, toccata, and rondeau. From the stylistic point of view, some of the main achievements of this period are the thorough-bass accompaniment, the introduction of contrasting effects (e.g., in the various movements of a sonata), and the rise of the idiomatic style in instrumental music.