Well yes, technically it does depend on the time era that the composer wrote that music. But in cases where people say Chopin is their favourite classical composer, they most likely are just talking about the style of music. Usually they don't know that classical music is different from Romantic or Baroque. It's now casually considered as "that orchestra stuff with loads of violins and old people conducting". Opera, is also considered "classical" by many, regardless of the time era. Anyway, just think of it as people referring to the "orchestra mumbo jumbo" kind of thing, rather than between the 18th and 19th century; In other words, they're talking about art music. People consider some video game music composers to be "classical" composers, but the word they're looking for here is "art" music. It doesn't really bother me that much, though, because some people make mistakes like mixing up their "they're"s. It's all forgivable. And I do believe that if Chopin composed anything before he was 15, it could be considered Classical.
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