In music,
galant refers to the
style which was fashionable from the 1720s to the 1770s. This movement featured a return to simplicity and immediacy of appeal after the complexity of the late
Baroque era. This meant simpler, more song-like melodies, decreased use of
polyphony, short, periodic phrases, a reduced harmonic vocabulary emphasizing tonic and dominant, and a clear distinction between soloist and accompaniment.
C. P. E. Bach and
Daniel Gottlob Türk, who were among the most significant theorists of the late 18th century, contrasted the galant with the "learned" or "strict" styles (; ). The German
empfindsamer Stil, which seeks to express personal emotions and sensitivity, can be seen either as a closely related North-German dialect of the international galant style (; ; ; ), or as contrasted with it, as between the music of
Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach, a founder of both styles, and that of
Johann Christian Bach, who carried the galant style further and was closer to classical.