What is classical music?

[JohnG]

Movie scores are often quite beautiful - - but they were written for a specific purpose, ie to accompany a film. Other music is composed to be enjoyed on its own.

The more you schedule "other kinds of classical music" the more i find myself listening to WQXR. I also like QXRs full day of program listing - - not only for current day, but also for previous and next day. Nicole Marie is the best at putting up what will be next. Other times listing does not go up until well into the piece being played.

I always try to get back to Beethoven.com before noon for Nat Anthem and Bach. -John-

[Shapley]

Movie scores are often quite beautiful - - but they were written for a specific purpose, ie to accompany a film. Other music is composed to be enjoyed on its own.

The more you schedule "other kinds of classical music" the more i find myself listening to WQXR. I also like QXRs full day of program listing - - not only for current day, but also for previous and next day. Nicole Marie is the best at putting up what will be next. Other times listing does not go up until well into the piece being played.

I always try to get back to Beethoven.com before noon for Nat Anthem and Bach. -John-

Hello, John. Welcome back!

Ballet Music is definitely classical, but was written for a specific purpose, i.e. to accompany a dance. Similarly, overtures and other bits of incidental music were written to entertain audiences at plays and other forms of non-musical entertainment. Movie music often includes inter-acts and closing sequences, which are made as stand-alone music, designed to entertain moviegoers as they wait for the second part of the film to start, or to lure them into remaining for the credits.

Some film music is also written as a part of the script, just as opera music is done. I'm not talking about musicals so much as the music that is woven into the film sequence.

V/R
Shapley

[Nicole Marie]

Hello JohnG - Thanks for the post. We do not list next day programming because we do not know what we will play! We are a request only station so we can not see that far down the road. Listeners get to program the station and they pick the tunes piece by piece. We do list the past 7 days worth of music on the Music Log so you can see what we have played. With hundreds of requests a day it makes it kind of fun to pick the music while I'm in the studio.

As for the definition of classical music... I'm a snob so the term for me is very narrow. But for the station we push the boundaries a bit. We are classical music without the attitude and do not want to push people away from classical music. (Too many stations do that by making new comers feel "looked down on". That attitude has only hurt the art form and driven people away.) Classical music should be inviting and fun - that is it's purpose as entertainment. So if we play a Bruch concerto or a Zappa composition it is all on the same level for us! Enjoy!

[Shapley]

A bit more on this thought:

John Williams Finale's frequently seem to be nothing more than strung-together clips of the incidental music from the film. However, some of his music definitely has stand-alone merit: Schindler's List, Fiddler on the Roof, and Memoirs of A Geisha come to mind, but I'm sure there are others.

Howard Shore has composed a masterwork with his Lord of the Rings soundtrack. I will be traveling to St. Louis soon to hear a performance of the Lord of the Rings Symphony, composed from the film music. I am curious as to when a CD release of this work can be expected.

I suppose my reference to ballet was a bit off the mark, ideally, in ballet the music and the dance are meant to compliment one another, the dance being a visual interpretation of the music, or the music an audio interpretation of the dance, depending on which came first. This, of course, is not the same as music for film or plays. It occured to me after I had posted that I was in error.

[navneeth]

Classical music is boring, slow music. I like Beethoven's Ain Kline night music though.

[analog]

I guess it'd be whatever the majority of listeners agree on. Words evolve with time as our surroundings change, to keep current with what's our everyday experience .

Didn't Arthur Fiedler predict in early sixties, "We'll be playing the Beatles in symphony halls" ?

found this somewhere......

Origin and Definition

The term classical music originates from the Latin term classicus, meaning taxpayer of the highest class. Slowly after making its way through the French, German, and English languages, one of the earliest definitions of the word meant “classical, formall, orderlie, in due or fit ranke; also, approved, authenticall, chiefe, principall.” Today, one of the ways Merriam-Webster defines classical is “of, relating to, or being music in the educated European tradition that includes such forms as art song, chamber music, opera, and symphony as distinguished from folk or popular music or jazz.”

Periods of Classical Music

Music historiographers classified the six periods of music by stylistic differences.

* Before 1400 – Medieval – characterized by Gregorian chant, mostly religious
* 1400-1600 – Renaissance – increase of secular music, madrigals, and art song
* 1600-1750 – Baroque – known for its intricate ornamentation
* 1750-1820 – Classical – balance and structure
* 1820-1900 – Romantic – emotional, large, programmatic
* Beyond 1900 – 20th Century – limitless

I am not sophisticated and can doze off on a long slow piece. Don't know enough to appreciate what's going on, still need somebody to point out to me a when fugue has just occured.

But music that moves, picks up and carries my psyche, is very stirring. I came out of an Atlanta Symphony performance of Beethoven's Fifth so excited that i spent $150 in the lobby buying ASO souvenirs - umbrellas, tee shirts, and a license plate for my homely truck !

speaking of that - there's a piece where Peter Shickele narrates the Fifth as if it were a football game,, Miami high school teachers loved it for the kids.. WTMI played it around 1990 - do you still have it?

a.

[Schmeelkie]

I used to think of classical as pre-1900 - maybe earlier...thinking that classical was like the classics - been around a long time/stood the test of time. But it's really more of a genre...

Interestingly the radio station I mainly listen to in the car somewhat recently went from, "rock from the '70s, 80's, '90's and now" to "all kinds of rock". Probably due to too many decades to list and they wanted to separate themselves from the "classic rock" station that pretty much doesn't touch anything after about 1990. Husband has switched to the "classic rock" channel and I stuck with "all kinds of rock". What do you want from someone who owns everything recorded by Rush and VanHalen...I like to think I have a broader range of music appreciation.

[Shapley]

speaking of that - there's a piece where Peter Shickele narrates the Fifth as if it were a football game,, Miami high school teachers loved it for the kids.. WTMI played it around 1990 - do you still have it?

That is New Horizons In Music. We were discussing it recently on another thread. I think we all need to kick in and flood them with requests for it. I'm posting one now.

Respectfully,

Shapley R. Hunter

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