Whereas the majority of popular styles, such as rock music, lend themselves to the song form, classical music can also take on the form of the concerto, symphony, opera, dance music, suite, étude, symphonic poem, and others.

Classical composers often aspire to imbue their music with a very complex relationship between its affective (emotional) content and the intellectual means by which it is achieved. Many of the most esteemed works of classical music make use of musical development, the process by which a musical germ, idea or motif is repeated in different contexts or in altered form. The classical genres of sonata form and fugue employ rigorous forms of musical development.

Along with a certain desire for composers to attain high technical achievement in writing their music, performers of classical music are faced with similar goals of technical mastery, as demonstrated by the proportionately high amount of schooling and private study most successful classical musicians have had when compared to “popular” genre musicians, and the large number of secondary schools, including the conservatories, dedicated to the study of classical music. The only other genre in the Western world with comparable secondary education opportunities is jazz.