(Ger., pigtail). An irreverent description of the type of music composed by wig-wearing BAROQUE musicians. The zopf (stylized pigtail) is familiar from the portraits of JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH, GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL, FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDN, and their contemporaries. WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART even wore a zopf as a child.

The Zopf era came to a sudden end at the threshold of the 19th century. LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN'S portraits show him with tousled hair, but he never wore a wig.