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Classical music is a term with three different meanings:
"Classical music" is a broad, imprecise term, usually referring to music produced in, or rooted in the traditions of, . When used (at it is most frequently) as a synonym for ''Western Art Music'', the term encompasses, by nature, a broad spectrum of musical styles and approaches, ranging from the serious and strict application of compositional techniques (such as Fugue ) to music of a deliberately entertaining and more ephemeral nature (cf. Operetta , for example). Adorno, Theodore, "On the Social Situation of Music", ''Essays on Music'', ed. Richard Leppart, trans. Susan H. Gillespie, (California, 2002), 429. European Classical Music is largely distinguished from many other non-European, and Popular Music al forms, by its system of Staff Notation , in use since about the 16th century. Western staff notation was and is used by composers to precisely prescribe to the performer the pitch, speed, meter, individual rhythms and exact execution of a piece of music, leaving far less room for notions such as improvisation and ornamentation that is frequently heard and seen in non-European art musics (compare Indian Classical Music and Japanese Traditional Music ), and Popular Music . The public taste for and appreciation of formal music of this type is often described as having waned through the later part of the 20th century and into the present millennium, particularly in the USA and UK, although it continues to thrive elsewhere in the world.Julian Lloyd Webber's speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland stated that "Declining audiences, government cuts, disastrous CD sales, sponsors pulling out of the arts, fewer children learning musical instruments, and a total lack of interest from the general media, unless semi-naked bimbo violinists ... are involved. ... It is in stark contrast to music-making in the Far East, where there are still huge numbers of children learning instruments, healthy classical CD sales, media that take a real interest in classical music and, above all, concert halls that are packed with young people as a direct result of that media interest." Certainly, this period has seen classical music falling well behind the immense commercial success of popular music. ''The economic importance of music in the European Union'' includes comparison of the number of concerts, venues and musicians employed in classical and popular music The term classical music did not appear until the early 19th century, in an attempt to "canonize" the period from Bach to Beethoven as an era in music parallel to the golden age of Sculpture , Architecture and art of Classical Antiquity (from which very little music has directly survived).Rushton, Julian, ''Classical Music'', (London, 1994), 10 The earliest reference to "classical music" recorded by the Oxford English Dictionary is from about 1836. Since that time it has come into common parlance as a generic term denoting the opposite of light or Popular Music ."Classical", ''The Oxford Concise Dictionary of Music'', ed. Michael Kennedy, (Oxford, 2007), ''Oxford Reference Online'', accessed 23 July, 2007 TIMELINE According to one school of thought, musical works are best understood in the context of their place in musical history; for adherents to this approach, this is essential to full enjoyment of these works. There is a widely accepted system of dividing the history of classical music composition into stylistic periods. According to this system, the major time divisions are:
The dates are Generalizations , since the periods overlapped. Some authorities subdivide the periods further by date or style. However, it should be noted that these categories are somewhat arbitrary; the use of Counterpoint and Fugue , which is considered characteristic of the baroque era, was continued by Mozart , who is generally classified as typical of the classical period, by Beethoven who is often described as a founder of the romantic period, and Brahms , who is classified as romantic. ASPECTS Classical music is considered primarily a ''written'' musical tradition, preserved in Music Notation , as opposed to being transmitted orally, by rote, or in recordings of particular performances. While there are differences between particular performances of a classical work, a piece of classical music is generally held to transcend any Interpretation of it. The use of musical notation is an effective method for transmitting classical music, since the written music contains the technical instructions for performing the work. The written score, however, does not usually contain explicit instructions as to how to interpret the piece in terms of production or performance, apart from directions for dynamics, tempo and expression (to a certain extent); this is left to the discretion of the performers, who are guided by their personal experience and musical education, their knowledge of the work's idiom, and the accumulated body of historic performance practices. However, Improvisation once played an important role in classical music. A remnant of this improvisatory tradition in classical music can be heard in the Cadenza , a passage found mostly in concertos and solo works, designed to allow skilled performers to exhibit some of their skill. Traditionally this was improvised by the performer; however more often than not, it is written for (or occasionally by) the performer beforehand. Classical music concerts often take place in a relatively solemn atmosphere, and the audience is usually expected to stay quiet and still to avoid distracting the concentration of other audience members. The performers often dress formally, a practice which is taken as a gesture of respect for the music and the audience, and performers do not normally engage in direct involvement or casual banter with the audience. Private readings of Chamber Music may take place at more informal domestic occasions. Its written transmission, along with the veneration bestowed on certain classical works, has led to the expectation that performers will play a work in a way that realizes in detail the original intentions of the composer. Indeed, deviations from the composer's instructions are sometimes condemned as outright ethical lapses. During the 19th century the details that composers put in their scores generally increased. Yet the opposite trend — admiration of performers for new "interpretations" of the composer's work — can be seen, and it is not unknown for a composer to praise a performer for achieving a better realization of the composer's original intent than the composer was able to imagine. Thus, classical music performers often achieve very high reputations for their musicianship, even if they do not compose themselves. Generally however, it is the composers who are remembered more than the performers. Classical composers often aspire to imbue their music with a very complex relationship between its affective (emotional) content, and the intellectual means by which it is achieved. Many of the most esteemed works of classical music make use of Musical Development , the process by which a musical germ, idea or ''motif'' is repeated in different contexts, or in altered form, so that the mind of the listener consciously or unconsciously compares the different versions. The classical genres of Sonata Form and Fugue employ rigorous forms of musical development. (See also History Of Sonata Form ) Another consequence of the primacy of the composer's written score is that '' Improvisation '' plays a relatively minor role in classical music, in sharp contrast to traditions like Jazz , where improvisation is central. Improvisation in classical music performance was far more common during the Baroque era than in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and recently the performance of such music by modern classical musicians has been enriched by a revival of the old improvisational practices. During the Classical period, Mozart and Beethoven sometimes improvised the Cadenza s to their Piano Concerto s (and thereby encouraged others to do so), but they also provided written cadenzas for use by other soloists. Complexity Classical works often display great musical complexity through the composer's use of often seeks to distinguish and explain these structural levels. Emotion As with many forms of fine art, classical music often aspires to communicate a transcendent quality of emotion, which expresses something universal about the human condition. While emotional expression is not a property exclusive to classical music, this deeper exploration of emotion arguably allows the best classical music to reach what has been called the "sublime" in art. Many examples often cited in support of this, for instance Beethoven's setting of Friedrich Schiller 's poem, '' Ode To Joy '' in his 9th Symphony , which is often performed at occasions of national liberation or celebration, as in Leonard Bernstein famously performing the work to mark the tearing down of the Berlin Wall , and the Japan ese practice of performing it to observe the New Year. However, some composers, such as Iannis Xenakis , argue that the emotional effect of music on the listeners is arbitrary and therefore the objective complexity or informational content of the piece is paramount. "The emotional effect of music is directly dependent upon cultural experiences of the audience (see Memes )" Ethnomusicoligist A.Sampson-Kelly. Instrumentation Classical and popular music are often distinguished by their choice of instruments. The instruments used in common practice classical music were mostly invented before the mid-19th century (often, much earlier), and codified in the 18th and 19th centuries. They consist of the instruments found in an Orchestra , together with a few other solo instruments (such as the Piano , Harpsichord , and Organ ). Electric instruments such as the Electric Guitar and Electric Violin play a prominent role in popular music, but of course play no role in classical music before the twentieth century, and only appear occasionally in the classical music of the 20th and 21st centuries. Both classical and popular musicians have experimented in recent decades with electronic instruments such as the Synthesizer , electric and digital techniques such as the use of sampled or computer-generated sounds, and the sounds of instruments from other cultures such as the Gamelan . None of the bass instruments existed until the Renaissance. In Medieval Music, instruments are divided in two categories: loud instruments for use outdoors or in church, and quieter instruments for indoor use. Many instruments which are associated today with popular music used to have important roles in early classical music, such as Bagpipes , Vihuela s, Hurdy-gurdies and some woodwind instruments. On the other hand, the acoustic guitar, for example, which used to be associated mainly with popular music, has gained prominence in classical music through the 19th and 20th centuries. Finally, while Equal Temperament became gradually accepted as the dominant Musical Temperament during the 19th century, different historical temperaments are often used for music from earlier periods. For instance, music of the English Renaissance is often performed in Mean Tone temperament. INFLUENCE One criterion used to distinguish works of the classical musical canon is that of cultural durability. However, this is not a distinguishing mark of all classical music: while works by J. S. Bach (1685 – 1750) continue to be widely performed and highly regarded, music by many of Bach's contemporaries is deemed mediocre, and is rarely performed, even though it is squarely in the "classical" realm. To some extent, the notion of such durability is a Self-fulfilling Prophecy (and therefore a fallacy), simply by virtue of the fact that classical music is studied and preserved at much higher levels than other music. Popular music Classical music has often incorporated elements or even taken material from popular music. Examples include occasional music such as Brahms' use of student drinking songs in his '' Academic Festival Overture '', genres exemplified by Kurt Weill 's '' The Threepenny Opera '', and the influence of jazz on early- and mid-twentieth century composers including Maurice Ravel , as exemplified by the movement entitled "Blues" in his sonata for violin and piano. Certain Postmodern , Minimalist and Postminimalist classical composers acknowledge a debt to popular music.See, for example, There are, likewise, numerous examples of influence flowing in the opposite direction, including Popular Songs Based On Classical Music , the use to which '' Pachelbel's Canon '' has been put since the 1970s, and the musical Crossover phenomenon, where classical musicians have achieved success in the popular music arena (one notable example is the " Hooked On Classics " series of recordings made by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in the early 1980s). In fact, it could be argued that the entire genre of film music could be considered part of this influence as well, since it brings orchestral music to vast audiences of movie-goers who might otherwise never choose to listen to such music (albeit for the most part unconsciously). Folk music Composers of classical music have often made use of Commercialism Certain staples of classical music are often used commercially (that is, either in advertising or in the soundtracks of movies made for entertainment). In television commercials, several loud, bombastically rhythmic orchestral passages have become clichés, particularly the opening "O Fortuna" of Carl Orff 's Carmina Burana ; other examples in the same vein are the Dies Irae from the Verdi Requiem, Edvard Grieg 's In The Hall Of The Mountain King , and excerpts of Aaron Copland 's "Rodeo". Similarly, movies often revert to standard, cliched snatches of classical music to represent refinement or opulence: some of the most-often heard pieces in this category include Mozart 's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik and Vivaldi 's Four Seasons . Education Throughout history, parents have often made sure that their children receive classical music training from a young age. Some parents pursue music lessons for their children for social reasons or in an effort to instill a useful sense of self-discipline. Some consider that a degree of knowledge of important works of classical music is part of a good general education. The 1990s marked the emergence in the United States of research papers and popular books on the so-called programs." REFERENCES BIBLIOGRAPHY
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