Classical music is one of the oldest surviving forms of music but why? Within the last one hundred years we have generally seen a new form of music every decade as time goes and there listeners die their type of music has been forgotten, so what Iâm asking is what is your opinion on why classical music has survived the ages?
Classical music is not the first form of music and has only been around for a few hundred years, is it because it has been recorded through the use of paper? And do you think that it will continue to survive the coming ages or is it just another fad?
I think classical music will last quite a while longer. The rise popular culture and the obsession with fame and celebrities, it seems, have also given birth to things like American Idol, tabloids, online promotion... and a need for instant gratification. We've become a more more more society, and society has been doing everything possible to feed that need. We end up with albums and songs that entertain for a while but are ultimately simple, shallow, and made for topping charts.
Classical music, and its descendants (movie and game scores, generally) is usually complex and involved. Here you're talking large orchestras, not just a guitar and some drums. Orchestral music is much longer lasting because of its complexity--you can listen to it over and over again and continually hear things you didn't notice before. You can aurally deconstruct all of the parts of the music, and all of the instruments meshing together to create this one, rich sound. It's fascinating! It's awesome at setting moods and painting pictures--without a single lyric. You might even say that orchestral music is to literature as today's hits are to popular, fad-inducing books.
As long as people continue to find value in the music, it will last. If the music doesn't have much to offer in the first place, it goes out of style pretty quickly. You have to take into account the very difficult, very complex work of composition, and the work done for a quick buck to instantly gratify the greedy public.
Those are just my initial thoughts. I'm not saying that only orchestral music will last, and certainly not that all orchestral music will last. But it's a topic worth pondering.
Having spent most of my life with classical music, I've got some pretty strong views on its state today:
Those are just my initial thoughts. I'm not saying that only orchestral music will last, and certainly not that all orchestral music will last. But it's a topic worth pondering.
Money's everything dude. Classical music now only occupies less than 1% of all music CD sales. Horowitz was known as "the last Romantic pianist" but really should have been called "the last concert pianist" because after him and his surviving contemporaries like Vladimir Ashkenazy (since retired to conduct) and Emmanuel Ax, the pianist world has been left fairly bereft of big figures... Lang Lang not really counting because his approach was essentially to be the antithesis to anything even resembling accepted performing practice of the pianist's repertoire (on the basis of having been to some of his recitals).
Other figures like Andre Rieu have been credited with repopularising classical music, perhaps, but only by really pandering to the "bang for your buck gratification" mentality of the modern punter, thus Rieu is held in contempt by most of the crusty old classical performing world. The main problem is that actual training in classical music takes ages to do well and doesn't have the cultural base like it did that allowed Beethoven to break away from the old patronage model. The patronage model might be what's required just to keep the industry alive now.
As for classical music influences, it has to roll with the times meaning that film music, videogame music (thanks largely to Nobuo Uematsu) and other kinds of programme music are the new face of classical music, also parodies and comedy sketches. For this reason it will always survive, sure, as will the core popular repertoire. But as for the rest... it's a niche. I consider myself a Rachmaninoff specialist, for example, and that's not even getting close to the remote shelves of the library.
Is this classical music?
Because it's Jack Black of Tenacious D, I'll forgive the fact that he just ripped into Bach, Beethoven AND Mozart in the same medly.
You make some excellent points, and I should clarify that I wasn't touching on the state of "new" classical music, just the lifespan of "old" classical (which I believe will always hold a place in our society, and which I believe there will always be people who want to listen to it). As for the actual creation of this music, I think you've summed it up pretty well--it's a dying breed. I actually can't think of any recent composers of that genre.
I do believe that movie and game scores are the successors of classical music, and I actually was thinking specifically of Nobuo Uematsu as well as Spencer Nilsen and Steve Jablonsky (for games). However, it has recently been a struggle to find budding composers of scores as this type of music, too, has gone more towards profit rather than quality, and these days just about everyone is a Hans Zimmer clone. The truly unique, new composers are few and far between.
Movie scores are my forte, and I have the strongest feelings about them. I consequently have positive feelings for scores' ancestor, classical music.
Pianos are indeed classical instruments, and often part of the orchestra, but they are phenomenal solo instruments. I was leaning towards them being sort of their own orchestra--they stand alone that well, and are sometimes that complex.
The term classical music, is in todays world, grouping together renaissance through to contemporary music. A big mistake, as all present will know, but the stereotypical view prevails most of the time. But no-one doesn't know a good core of about a dozen classical pieces. even the the musical cesspits of our society will recognise in tune, if not name, pieces, like the minute waltz (Chopin) or Saint saens' the swan, or even the musically-speaking (of course) prostitute of the day, offenbach and his chartulae opus.
and classical (in the broad sense) pieces we find today are classics the have endured hundreds of years. many pieces fall by the roadside, and only the best survive to this day. and this collection of simply divine pieces inspives a plethora of contemorary pieces, some added to the greats, (exempli gratia I giorni by ludovico Einaudi) some do not.
And another thing. which piece piece of music has given you the most joy or emotion, listening to it or playing it.
