What Makes A "classical Sound"

I have been playing piano for about 6 years now, and have just recently (the past month or so) started composing my own piano pieces.

I mostly play contemporary music and improv, but I have taken an interest in classical music, more specifically, bagatelles, preludes, etudes, and sonatas for the piano.

My question is this: What gives a piece that "classical sound". When I compose a piece, and listen to it, it sounds very contemporary and modern. How can I achieve a more classical era style? Are there specific rules or guidelines that these composers follow?

Thanks.

I - vi - IV - ii - V - I6/4 - V7 - I

Without the V.

How can I achieve a more classical era style? Are there specific rules or guidelines that these composers follow?

Time to head to http://imslp.org/wiki/ and study from composers. There's way too much to even begin to try to explain what composers do what and which epochs mean what. Study music history.

Since you're a pianist you can simply learn to play pieces and study them while you're at it. Good luck.

I - vi - IV - ii - V - I6/4 - V7 - I

Surely there is more to it than certain chord progressions.

After analyzing a bunch of piano sonatas, bagatelles, and etudes, etc. The only things I have noticed are the abundance of cascades and certain notes in the melody step "out-of-key" often.

I know am I missing something here...In a double blind test, if you have a person listen to a classical era bagatelle/sonata, and then you had them listen to a modern piece for contemporary piano, the person would be able to identify the classical-era song with ease.

Okay, well apart from the use of functional harmony, there are a number of other features:

Sonata forms, ternary and rondo structures dominate

Texture tends to be primarily melody-and-accompaniment, and counterpoint is limited. Bass figurations and repeated notes in the accompaniment voices are common. Melody is often quite ornate. The 'cascades' you note are melodic decorations such as turns and arpeggiations, whilst the 'out-of-key' notes are little chromatic inflections which are treated as suspensions.

Everything tends to be lightly scored, with little doubling of voices.

Dissonance still follows the rules of sixteenth-century counterpoint, so is largely confined to suspensions and all must be prepared and resolved.

Other devices such as the 'Mannheim rocket' (a rapid upwards melodic gesture); a loud chord or series of chord at the start of a piece or important new section; predominance of major keys; dance forms such as the minuet, gavotte and quadrille replace the older baroque dance rhythms.

Note; the above is highly generalised and mainly applies to the early- and mid-classical periods. By the time Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn are writing, these principles are starting to give way to the romantic aesthetic.

I've made writing Classical-Revival music my raison d'etre for my entire life as a composer, and I couldn't begin to quantify what goes into a Classical-sounding piece. As was said earlier, listen carefully to the kind of music you would like to emulate (and a lot of it), and then imitate it. It will take a lot of practice, but you'll eventually get it.

As was said earlier, listen carefully to the kind of music you would like to emulate (and a lot of it), and then imitate it. It will take a lot of practice, but you'll eventually get it.

Yes, this seems like a good way to go. I've done this in the past and it works quite well!

However, I am having difficulty applying this to classical pieces. One thing that I have noticed is that classical piano pieces tend to have the left hand not only playing a bassline, but also an accompanying melody that supports the right hand melody. This differs greatly from my modern style where I primarily play only a supporting bassline with my left hand.