Monday, July 15, 2019

R.I.P "Classical Music"

Classical Music - what the HECK is it anyway ?!?!?!

Unpopular opinion alert, unpopular opinion alert, unpopular opinion alert!!!!!




 I've spent my life studying music. I've been fortunate enough to have had great teachers, colleagues and mentors, and through them I have learned such wonderful content...from the dates of obscure composers, to the number of symphonies they have written (except Schubert, the chronological/finished and unfinished bit throws me off every.single.time), to hallmarks of Franco-Flemish style (at least I remember this when I took comps).... But there is one pivotal question that lingers: what IS classical music, anyway?

 The word "classical,  is used so often, but it has almost no universal meaning - it's highly subjective and highly individualized. I've spent nearly 12 years in collegiate music schools and I feel more equipped to define obscure medical terms (my wife can attest to the fact that I know nothing about anything in the medical field) than I do this seemingly colloquial but complicated phrase phrase: classical music. I have many questions, so I will use this as a medium to start tossing them about. Does it mean music exclusively from the Classical Period - which has been semi-arbitrarily deemed 1750 - 1800? If so, why are the works of Brahms and Mahler, who were born after that, considered classical? Is it only works written by composers we deem to be worthy of the distinction? If that is true, why do the symphonies of Tchaikovsky receive this "distinction", but "Nutcracker" and "1812" do not? Is it because they are highly recognizable pieces that they have become too popular to be deemed "classical"? Then why do we consider the opening movement of Beethoven 5 to be a classical piece, everyone knows that, right? It gets even more complicated than that, the Candide Overture is standard repertoire and widely considered to be "classical" but to some, the rest of Candide is not, why?!?!?!?!

While the questions are complicated, and I've presented a few of thousands, I have a bigger question: Why does it matter? In an era where the phrase, "classical music" carries exclusive, and at times elitist, sexist, racist, and hurtful connotations, why do we need it? I worry that the moniker is neither descriptive, nor inclusive; and quite frankly damaging to music. How often do people hear the phrase "classical music" and the knee jerk reaction is, "I don't like that"? If it is a challenge for musicians and patrons to define, how can the casual fan understand the "that" in which they "don't like"?

Thus, "classical music" is dead to me. No, not Brahms, Beach, William Grant Still, and Mendelssohn - I love them, and I love their music, I mean the phrase. Requiem aeternam, "Classical Music," I will never utter you again.

My question for you - is it important to refer to music by genre? Are these phrases limiting? If we don't call it "classical music" what do we call it?


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