movement la mer 
___MASK23___ is art music produced or rooted in the traditions of Western music , including both liturgical ( religious ) and secular music . While a more accurate term is also used to refer to the period from 1750 to 1820 ( the ___MASK7___ ), this article is about the broad span of time from roughly the 11th century to the present day , which includes the ___MASK7___ and various other periods . The central norms of this tradition became codified between 1550 and 1900 , which is known as the common - practice period . The major time divisions of Western art music are as follows : European art music is largely distinguished from many other non - European and some popular musical forms by its system of staff notation , in use since about the 16th century . Western staff notation is used by composers to indicate to the performer the pitches ( e . g ., melodies , basslines , chords ), tempo , meter and rhythms for a piece of music . This can leave less room for practices such as improvisation and " ad libitum " ornamentation , which are frequently heard in non - European art music and in popular - music styles such as jazz and blues . Another difference is that whereas most popular styles adopt the song ( strophic ) form , classical music has been noted for its development of highly sophisticated forms of instrumental music such as the concerto , symphony , sonata , and mixed vocal and instrumental styles such as opera which , since they are written down , can sustain larger forms and attain a high level of complexity . Joseph Maurice Ravel ( 7 March 1875  28 December 1937 ) was a French composer , pianist and conductor . He is often associated with ___MASK77___ along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy , although both composers rejected the term . In the 1920s and 1930s Ravel was internationally regarded as France ' s greatest living composer . An orchestra is a large instrumental ensemble typical of ___MASK23___ , which features string instruments such as violin , viola , cello and double bass , as well as brass , woodwinds , and percussion instruments , grouped in sections . Other instruments such as the piano and celesta may sometimes appear in a fifth keyboard section or may stand alone , as may the concert harp and , for performances of some modern compositions , electronic instruments . The harp is a stringed musical instrument which has a number of individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard , which are plucked with the fingers . Harps have been known since antiquity in Asia , Africa , and Europe , dating back at least as early as 3500 BC . The instrument had great popularity in Europe during the Middle Ages and ___MASK28___ , where it evolved into a wide range of variants with new technologies , and was disseminated to Europe ' s colonies , finding particular popularity in Latin America . While some ancient members of the harp family died out in the Near East and South Asia , descendants of early harps are still played in Burma and in Sub - Saharan Africa , while other defunct variants in Europe and Asia have been revived by musicians in the modern era . The violin is a wooden string instrument in the violin family . It is the smallest and highest - pitched instrument in the family in regular use . Smaller violin - type instruments are known , including the violino piccolo and the kit violin , but these are virtually unused in the 2010s . The violin typically has four strings tuned in perfect fifths , and is most commonly played by drawing a bow across its strings , though it can also be played by plucking the strings with the fingers ( pizzicato ). Violins are important instruments in a wide variety of musical genres . They are most prominent in the Western classical tradition and in many varieties of folk music . They are also frequently used in genres of folk including country music and ___MASK45___ and in jazz . Electric violins are used in some forms of rock music ; further , the violin has come to be played in many non - Western music cultures , including Indian music and Iranian music . The violin is sometimes informally called a fiddle , particularly in Irish traditional music and bluegrass , but this nickname is also used regardless of the type of music played on it . Achille - Claude Debussy ( 22 August 1862  25 March 1918 ), known since the 1890s as Claude - Achille Debussy or Claude Debussy , was a French composer . He and Maurice Ravel were the most prominent figures associated with Impressionist music , though Debussy disliked the term when applied to his compositions . He was made Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1903 . He was among the most influential composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries , and his use of non - traditional scales and chromaticism influenced many composers who followed . La mer , trois esquisses symphoniques pour orchestre ( French for The sea , three symphonic sketches for orchestra ) , or simply La mer ( i . e . The Sea ) , is an orchestral composition ( L 109 ) by the French composer Claude Debussy . Composed between 1903 and 1905 , the piece was initially not well received , but soon became one of Debussy ' s most admired and frequently performed orchestral works .