{"id":194,"date":"2017-05-28T10:43:11","date_gmt":"2017-05-28T08:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/drvenneforeningen.dk.linux182.unoeuro-server.com\/2017\/05\/28\/klassisk-musik\/"},"modified":"2024-11-23T00:20:53","modified_gmt":"2024-11-22T23:20:53","slug":"klassisk-musik","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drvenneforeningen.dk\/en\/klassisk-musik\/","title":{"rendered":"\"CLASSICAL\" MUSIC"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When I use the word \u2019classical\u2019 for music, I mean \u201918th and 19th century art music - and similar\u2019. I think this is a simple and useful definition of the term. In everyday speech and in DR's classical music channel P2, the term \u2019classical music\u2019 covers a jumble of different music, which makes the term so broad that it completely loses its meaning. It's everything from the monastic monks\u2019 chant and Monteverdi madrigals to Johann Strauss' Viennese waltz and Per N\u00f8rg\u00e5rd's latest symphony. <\/p>\n

I'm offering a reward to the person who can find the decisive common factor in these four examples. That is, the thing that justifies categorising them under the same hat - \u2019classical music\u2019.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A little background:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2019Classical Art\u2019 was the name of a book we read in Ancient Studies in high school. It was about ancient Greek art and architecture. We got the overall impression of classical art as something lofty and ideal. In sculpture, it was an exquisite naturalism in the representation of the human body and in architecture a harmonious form with an emphasis on symmetry and unity of expression. We learnt that this \u2019classical\u2019 art from a relatively short period between about 450 and 325 BC has a universal character whose ideals have had a dominant influence on all later European art.<\/p>\n

We also read another book in this context. It was in German, and it was about a guy called Winckelmann, who was a pioneer of \u2019classicism\u2019 - a trend that in the late 18th century cultivated classical art as the ideal for contemporary expression. Winckelmann put it quite aphoristically \u201cThe only way for us to become great ... is to imitate antiquity.\u201d<\/em>  And it was he who brought together the character of classical art in the familiar \u2019Noble simplicity and quiet greatness\u2019<\/em> (\u2019noble simplicity and quiet grandeur\u2019).<\/p>\n

Classicists looked up to the great classical art as the ideal with characteristics that also applied to their own art.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We learnt at school that the word \u2019classical\u2019 was synonymous with \u2019exalted\u2019, \u2019noble\u2019 and \u2019old\u2019, or perhaps rather \u2019timeless\u2019. I attended Frederiksborg Statsskole, an old Latin school from the time of the King of Diamonds, which after a fire was rebuilt in 1836 in a \u2019neoclassical style\u2019 (!) All around the school there was evidence that the classical virtues were cultivated here. Casts and phrases from classical Greek and Roman antiquity. For example, above the gymnasium the sentence \u201dSana mens in corpore sano\u201d<\/em> (\u2019a healthy soul in a healthy body\u2019). We must never - even when sweating our ribs - forget our classical heritage.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We also had music - both in middle school and high school. And here too, classical music was paramount. The \u2019classical music\u2019. But in understanding the concept, we encountered the problem that something was missing - the music of antiquity. While classical art and architecture were the \u2019classical\u2019 art of antiquity, \u2019classical music\u2019 turned out to originate primarily from Winckelmann's time - the late 18th century: What some call \u2019(Viennese) classical music\u2019 and some call \u2019(Viennese) classicist\u2019 music: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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We don't know what the music sounded like in Athens and Rome<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The explanation? - Well, it's actually very simple. Because while sculpture and architecture are preserved in forms that survive centuries - stone and masonry - we know very little about what music sounded like in ancient Greece and Rome. As we all know, the microphone and tape recorder were only invented in the last century. Preserving sound was out of the question in ancient times, while architecture, painting and sculpture are self-evident.<\/p>\n

We have some written records of the music of that time - church music in particular has been passed down both in writing and in a partially unbroken vocal tradition. But secular music, theatre music and various types of everyday music have been lost.<\/p>\n

So while Winckelmann and co. found it easy to find their ideals in \u2019classical\u2019 art at the end of the 18th century, music was more difficult. Efforts to, in Winckelmann's words, \u201dimitate antiquity\u201d in music came up against the fact that they had no idea what it sounded like.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Similar difficulties had been encountered before in history. A few centuries earlier - during the so-called \u2019Renaissance\u2019 at the end of the 16th century - music sought to revive the ancient ideals known from descriptions and images (Renaissance = \u2019rebirth\u2019 - implied \u2019of antiquity\u2019), and it was believed that this had been simple music with melody (song, flute) and accompaniment (guitar) for theatre use. In a rebellion against the highly complicated polyphonic music that was all the rage in the late 16th century, the progressives cultivated a new simplicity in an attempt to emulate classical ideals. This led to early opera in the early 17th century - primarily in Italy. And these Renaissance endeavours were - paradoxically - the starting point for Baroque music. Monteverdi is the big name.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

200 years later - in the late 18th century - this was not the path they chose. The great composers of the time, Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, were also interested in ancient ideals, but they realised that current knowledge about ancient music was mostly guesswork. So they refrained from trying to emulate it.<\/p>\n

Admittedly, there are many who call the great European music of Winckelmann's time \u2019classicist\u2019 or \u2019Viennese classicist\u2019. The implication is that here we have something that parallels the visual arts and architecture of the time in its imitation of ancient art. As has already been suggested, this parallel is highly problematic - due to the lack of a musical model.<\/p>\n

The respect for the ideals of antiquity was there, but the ability and desire to emulate it - not at all.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u2019Classic\u2019 - unique<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Our use of the word \u2019classical\u2019 to describe the lofty, timeless, ideal has become so infectious that much more than ancient art is now labelled \u2019classical\u2019. The Renaissance multigenius, the Italian Leonardo da Vinci (1552-1619), we do not hesitate to consider him \u2019one of the great classics\u2019 alongside his contemporaries, the Englishman Shakespeare (1564-1616) and the Spaniard Cervantes (1547-1616). The term is thus used equally for the great monuments that each art form has. The great unicorns. - Wherever their ideals are found. And wherever in history they unfold. - They themselves have become \u2019classics\u2019.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Like the three mentioned above, they are icons that summarise what has gone before and provide the ultimate statement of what can be achieved right now - statements that everything later must relate to. A kind of \u2019state of the art\u2019 that stands as a monument to what people can achieve in that particular field at that particular time. But they are also the ones who set new things in motion with their unique interpretation of time.<\/p>\n

The general meaning of the word \u2019classic\u2019 comes from the Latin \u2019classicus\u2019, First class,<\/em> and \u2019classis\u2019, Privileged.<\/em><\/p>\n

In this way, every time and every area can have its \u2019classics\u2019. For example, without looking at ancient Greece, we talk about the \u2019classic\u2019<\/em> Spitfire Mk. IIa<\/em>, if Wegner's \u2019classic\u2019 Y-chair<\/em> and about the \u2019classic\u2019 PH5 lamp<\/em>.<\/p>\n

But that's not how we use the word \u2019classical music\u2019.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u2019Classical\u2019 music<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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In a strange way, music has attached itself to the term \u2019classical\u2019. You can publish a book with the title CLASSICAL FOR ALL without having to specify that it is classical Music<\/strong>, it's about. What else!<\/p>\n

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\u2019Classical music\u2019 - not in the sense of \u2019the music of Greek and Roman antiquity\u2019, but the general term - is closely linked to European bourgeois education. It is part of a unified civic culture that emerged in 18th- and 19th-century Central Europe and became a fixed curriculum for the social groups that set out to create, assert and defend the framework and expression of their own self-understanding. In music, it was the concert hall, the opera and the bourgeois salon that formed the framework, and the expression became the great unifier - the genius who summarised and personified the great humanistic ideals. What was lacking in ancient role models was found in the great figures of the time, who could summarise and express the eternal thoughts.<\/p>\n

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Great things were happening in music at the same time as the other art forms had their \u2019classicist\u2019 period - in Winckelmann's time. In retrospect, the relatively short period from Haydn to Mozart to Beethoven (a total of about 75 years) was crucial for all later European musical culture. This is when music got its \u2019classics\u2019, and they gained the status in music that the models of antiquity had for the other art forms.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 The term \u2019Classical music\u2019 (and not \u2019classical music\u2019!) is primarily used by musicologists to describe these three greats - the Viennese classics (\u2019Viennese-\u2019 because all three were active in Vienna in the period up to and around 1800). And there's a lot of sense in that.<\/p>\n

But the problem is that the term is also used for everything else.<\/p>\n

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I am not alone in my ambition to clarify this question. Countless attempts have been made to determine what \u2019classical music\u2019 really is - positively. But without much success - despite the fact that Danish Radio has an entire department dedicated to the phenomenon. P2, the classical music channel!<\/em> It's packed all day long - all week long. Apparently there is enough \u2019classical music\u2019! So if you want to find out what it's all about by listening, just tune in to P2. Or go through the \u2019playlists\u2019 that are kept of all P2\u2019s programmes. This will most likely make the whole mess even more confusing - apart from the fact that it will lead to the category \u2019P2 music\u2019 and not \u2019Classical music\u2019, which is what we were looking for.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The medium<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Or perhaps it is the medium that determines the genre? In other words: rather than finding a musical definition of the phenomenon \u2019classical music\u2019, we need to find out where it belongs - the medium, the users, the places. When music is played in P2, in DR Byen's new concert hall, by DR's symphonic ensembles, at the Opera, in church... it is \u2019classical music\u2019. If music belongs on the Tivoli Lawn, in Cph. Jazzhouse, in Caf\u00e9 Rust ... it's not classical music. Because then the music is different - just like clothing, political affiliation and housing conditions. We all know that. But now the ambition was to search for the musical definition of the term \u2019classical music\u2019. And maybe win the promised reward.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The bounty was offered to the person who can find the musical common ground in everything that is commonly referred to as \u2019classical music\u2019 and which DR's classical music channel P2 markets: Catholic monks' chant, Renaissance madrigals, Strauss waltzes and Per N\u00f8rg\u00e5rd's latest symphony - as well as folk songs, folk music from Denmark and other countries, church music, chamber music, new music, opera, operetta, film music ... all music that can be found on the channel.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u2019Classical\u2019 vs. \u2019rhythmic\u2019 music<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Of course, you can't rule out that the use of the term \u2019classical music\u2019 has a cultural-political purpose - it can be useful to have a label that implicitly denotes a quality compared to a whole lot of other, less worthy things - pop, rock, folk... - with the term \u2019classical\u2019 you want to ensure respect compared to everything else.<\/p>\n

In the 1970s, the term \u2019rhythmic music\u2019 appeared. In reality, the label was just as impossible as the label \u2019classical music\u2019. But it had cultural political clout - for use in the showdown with the favouritism of classical music. Perhaps this is also where we find the explanation for the stubborn persistence of the term \u2019classical music\u2019. As a bastion against all the other things that crowd in.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Front view<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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However, this doesn't change the need for an understanding of what \u2019classical music\u2019 is - in a musical sense.<\/p>\n

Until now, we have defined the \u2019classical\u2019 as the unique, the sublime, the role model - and found strong examples of classical role models. Ancient art in ancient Greek and Roman visual art and architecture, and the \u2019Big Three\u2019 in Vienna around 1800 for music. The former had imitators in Winckelmann's time, the Viennese have similarly formed the basis for later music - its \u2019classics\u2019.<\/p>\n

So let me suggest that we reserve the term \u2019classical music\u2019 for my initial determination based on the music:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201d18th and 19th century compositional music - and what's similar\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Here we have a manageable declaration for a music that we ourselves have labelled \u2019classical\u2019 (and not \u2019classicist\u2019), and which we can therefore relate to - and then \u2019what is similar\u2019. Because just as classical artists and architects have many imitators and epigones, so do the great classical composers. And since we're not looking for a quality label, but a musical one, they belong.<\/p>\n

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What is played based on other traditions and other ideals, we have equally good terms for: - Renaissance music, circus music, Baroque music, marching music, 12-tone music, film music, high school songs, romanticism, jazz, pop, new simplicity, melody grand prix... - a merry mix of terms taken from time, place and usage.<\/p>\n

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Maybe I'm about to score the bounty? On the contrary. It was delegated to my readers and concerns what is common to all the many instances that are colloquially grouped under the broad term \u2019classical music\u2019. Teasing - sure. But perhaps the way to an understanding of the problem. - However, I did get a really useful clarification of what \u2019classical music\u2019 actually is - in a musical and music historical sense: \u2019Art music of the 18th and 19th centuries - and what's similar\u2019<\/em> is a durable box for our genre. With it in hand, we can get better at knowing what we are talking about - and want. Because there's something impractical about operating with a category that on the one hand is used exclusively with sharp boundaries to other genres - and on the other hand has to accommodate everything.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Or maybe \u2019classical music\u2019 is like Kierkegaard's \u201dthe word: Schnur in the lexicon, which means firstly a cord, secondly a son's wife. All that was missing was that the word cord should mean, thirdly, a camel, and fourthly, a dustpan.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I use the word 'classical' for music, I mean '18th and 19th century art music - and similar'. I think this is a simple and useful definition of the term. In everyday speech and in DR's classical music channel P2, the term 'classical music' covers a jumble of different music, which makes the term so broad that it's quite...<\/p>","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":195,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"indlaegs_forfatter":[152],"class_list":["post-194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ikke-kategoriseret","indlaegs_forfatter-finngravesen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drvenneforeningen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drvenneforeningen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drvenneforeningen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drvenneforeningen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drvenneforeningen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/drvenneforeningen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":196,"href":"https:\/\/drvenneforeningen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194\/revisions\/196"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drvenneforeningen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drvenneforeningen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drvenneforeningen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drvenneforeningen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194"},{"taxonomy":"indlaegs_forfatter","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drvenneforeningen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/indlaegs_forfatter?post=194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}