So what is classical music?

[Florestan]

Following on from the thread on goodreads, what is this beastie we call, broadly speaking, classical music?

What criteria are applied to distinguish contemporary 'classical' music from other forms? Is it simply 'art music'? What training, if any, does a composer need to 'qualify'? How much of it is technical and how much conceptual?

[Roland]

Anything not involving Paul McCartney.

[Roland]

Seriously, it's a sliding scale depending on quality, with classical music at the top. Apects of postmodernism have us believe there's no such thing as quality, worth or meaning in art, that a five year old's daubing has the same worth as a Renoir. I go along with David Wolverton's analysis of literature, reworked here to describe good, or classical, music:

Music that fascinates is better than music that bores. Music that is eloquent is better than the babboon howlings of the musically damned. Music that is profound, that transmits valuable insight, is better than music that is pedestrian or is opaque. Music that speaks to many is better than music that speaks to few. Music that is beautiful in form is better than music that is inelegant, rambling or clumsy. Music that transports me to another world is better than music that leaves me sitting alone and troubled in my chair. Music that artfully moves me emotionally or intellectually is better than music that leaves me emotionally or intellectually anesthetized.

http://www.tangentonline.com/index.p...529&Itemid=284

[Herzeleide]

I agree with Roland.

[elle-sophocles]

Like many intuitive concepts, it's easier to lob identified characteristics around than to offer a finite definition.

Characteristics of classical music:

- greater focus on technique
- versatile medium for expression
- necessitates emotion and artistic interpretation
- necessitates formal study

I think there may also be certain philosophies underpinning classical music, such as a fascination with the past and archaic mindsets, humility and a sort of philosophical or spiritual yearning to seek something divine or greater than us in music.

[Florestan]

I think the word you are looking for is: nerdiness.

I mean that in a good way.

Nerds are the only sort of people I like.

Seriously, as with all the arts, the composer/musician has a powerful drive to try to share their aesthetic responses to the world with others by representing them in such a way as to make them meaningful to others. And as with all the arts, 'success' at doing this varies greatly. But then what is success? Popularity is not necessarily the end result of effectively sharing one's vision.