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From:  Margaret Harrison <peggyh@i...>
Margaret Harrison <peggyh@i...>
Date:  Wed May 30, 2001  2:38 am
Subject:  Re: [vocalist] Classical music


Dean FH Macy wrote:
>
> Okay vocalisters, I have been asked a question by my ten year old prodigy.
> She asked me what defines "classical music" i.e. how is classical music
> defined in today's world? She continued, "I looked up classical music in my
> school dictionary and this is what it said: (she showed me the quote) '3 a :
> of or relating to music of the late 18th and early 19th centuries

> "But you told me that "Peter & The Wolf is classical and you said that 'The
> Pines of Rome' and 'Grand Canyon Suite' and 'The Planets' and Malotte's
> 'Lord's Prayer' and 'When Darkness Stills To Grey' is all classical. But
> this is all after the 18th and 19th centuries. "

You've gotten some good answers already - I want to suggest
a way to make the two uses of the word easier for this young
person to understand. The word "classical" has two,
separate, meanings applied to music. One definition is
"classical" music as a genre of music, like "popular" music,
"rock-n-roll" music, "rap" music, "bubblegum" music, etc.

The other definition refers to a particular time period in
music history: "classical", which occurs after the "baroque"
period (e.g., Monteverdi, Vivaldi, Bach, Handel) and before
the "romantic" period (e.g., Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Wagner).
The composers most commonly identified with the classical
period are Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, and Schubert. However
the latter two transition into the next historical period,
"romantic".

You might explain to her as another example how the word
"romantic" also has multiple meanings - one relating to a
period in artistic history (in literature, visual arts, and
music), and the other having to do with a type of feeling of
love between two people, which also describes certain types
of behavior between people in love with each other (bringing
flowers, writing and saying mushy words, etc.).

> So what makes 'The Lord's
> Prayer' classical and 'The Wind Beneath my Wings' not classical?

That's a little harder to answer, but I think it has to do
with the intention of the composer. For example, John
Rutter moves between genres. I sang in church a couple of
weeks ago, his "All Things Bright and Beautiful", which is
most certainly popular in style rather than classical, as
are some of his Christmas carols like "Jesus Child" of "The
Donkey Carol". But he's written lovley choral works like his
Gloria or Requiem which are classical in intent. Some
composers straddle the popular and classical genres in a
single work, for example, most of what Bernstein wrote for
Broadway, and especially West Side Story. Check out the
"Cool" instrumental fugue - 12-tone writing in spots, but it
just sounds jazzy. The Maria/Anita duet, "A Boy Like That/I
Have a Love", would fit right into an opera, and sounds
great when sung by opera voices. Yet "Officer Krupke" is
pure musical comedy.

(After I sang the Rutter, "All Things Bright and Beautiful"
in church, the stupid tune drove me crazy the entire week,
until we sang Faure's georgeous Cantique de Jean Racine the
next week, which flushed out my brain, thank goodness! I
like many things Rutter has written, but that one I hope I
never experience again!)

Peggy

--
Margaret Harrison, Alexandria, Virginia, USA
"Music for a While Shall All Your Cares Beguile"
mailto:peggyh@i...

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