Time to Drop the Phrase “Classical Music”
The genre is vastly richer and more complex than that.
Pop star and polymath David Byrne once ridiculed the phrase “world music.” American music retailers, Byrne said, consign the vast number of rich musical forms and genres from around the world to a single small bin labeled “world music,” which might contain everything from Tibetan monks throat-singing to Persian oud soloists to Bollywood soundtracks.
This is understandable given the parochial tastes of the average American. But there is another genre many Americans claim to be familiar with. It’s referred to as “classical music.” And this phrase is as grossly misleading and inappropriate as “world music.”
Ask anyone to name a few “classical” composers, and they might mention Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, or Handel. And strictly speaking, these are classical composers—that is, they wrote music during (or close to) the period of history known as the Classical period (roughly the 18th century).
But the phrase “classical music” encompasses a vast world of music that is anything but classical. It’s a bit like using the term “apple” to refer to every fruit on Earth. Hopelessly misleading and inadequate. (You could say the same about the word “jazz,” but that’s for a different essay.)
The phrase “classical music” has become destructive to its perceived genre. It has become a code phrase meaning “stuffy, boring music by dead composers played in fancy concert halls by people in tuxedos and appreciated mainly by white people near death themselves.” But this kind of music is only a small part of what is labeled “classical.”
Here’s the thing: while orchestras throughout the nation struggle to fill concert halls and remain afloat…while countless high school counselors advise teens not to pursue a career in “classical music,” while sales of classical music continue to decline…the genre itself has exploded into a thousand kinds of music—much of it with nothing more in common than the fact that it’s performed for the entertainment of others. Which is why the phrase “classical music” must die.
What should we replace it with? A good place to start would be “Steve Reich Guitar Works” or “John Cage Percussion Music.” Describe it as what it is, or file it under the composer’s name—but don’t throw it into a bin labeled “classical music.” I really don’t want to go to a grocery store and see all the fruit sitting under a huge sign that says “APPLES.” So don’t do it with music.
I leave you now with three brief examples of what is typically referred to as “classical music.” (None of these composers would ever be filed anywhere else.) Give them a listen—they’re all very short. Notice how wildly different each is from the other, and ask yourself if each piece has anything to do with Beethoven?
