Notes on History and Theory of Modern Classical Music (Modern Abstract Art Music):  I find modern music very complicated largely due to the huge range of styles.  For example, the Baroque period lasted for 150 years and most of the music fell into a similar structure.  In contrast, modern music (starting from the late 1800’s to the present) includes a huge contrast in styles and structures.  In the document below, I tried to generalize these into categories and describe the evolution of the music.  I then grouped many of the composers into categories of music for which they are best known.  I also provided a brief biography of many of the important “modern” composers and provided some examples of their most important compositions.  The list of important compositions also includes descriptions of each piece of music.