It's more accurate to call it Orchestral Music, Chamber Music, and all that, or to identify it by time period, as in Renaissance Baroque, Classical, Romantic, etc.

My favorite of it, by the way, is called Early Music, which takes place at and before the Renaissance. The harmonies were more open, the melodies more free of rhythm and fluid, and the whole thing more meditative but just as exciting and engaging as anything you can listen to. Josquin is one of my favorite composers of that or any era.

But, maybe my very favorite composer is Alan Hovhaness, an American that died in 2001. He composed music from a more Eastern perspective, but merged it with elements of Western Music. Delicate and beautiful.

I understand all those, but it seems to chop something that has a unifying principle in to pieces...e.g., Orchestral and Chamber Music refer to large and small ensembles playing in that style commonly referred to as classical, right? Or am I misunderstanding the terms?

I like Early Music a lot too, especially early vocal music. I once was in a group her in Ann Arbor called Our Lady's Madrigal Singers. I loved it. (And then I got a job that I was required to be at on Saturdays, and had to stop going since a major activity was weekend performances at the Michigan Renaissance Festival.) The group is now called Arbor Consort, and I hope to get back to singing with them at some point.