Steve Schwartz writes:

>Modern has been an "historical" designation for some time, at least
>40 years.  As a term, it leaves much to be desired, as does the term
>"Classical," to denote Mozart, Haydn, et al.

Granted that no designation is perfect, I'm satisfied with "Classical Era"
to represent music from the time of Mozart and Haydn.  The stylistic
similarities do it for me.

Of course, it's so much easier for folks to look at a distant historical
period and find similar strains to lump a group of composers and works
together.  This is hard to do for the period we live in and recent past
periods.

Don Satz