Klarinet Archive - Posting 000250.txt from 2000/07

From: "Edwin V. Lacy" <el2@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] "Classical" vs. "Pop"
Date: Thu, 6 Jul 2000 02:00:36 -0400

On Mon, 3 Jul 2000, Feanor wrote:

> A third problem is: What is "Classical" music? and what is "pop"?
> 150 years ago, there was no distinction. Then a gap opened and was
> widened, and the "classical" composers were so proud of this gap that
> they helped make it worse.

This is an often-stated contention, but I believe it is in error. It is
natural to imagine that the music of Mozart, for example, was the "popular
music" of his time. Nothing could be farther from the truth. In the 18th
century, just as today, what is best called "art music" was the province
of a very small percentage of the population. In fact, there was then a
significantly smaller proportion of society who even had access to music
of that type. It was the music of the highest echelons of society, the
educated, wealthy, priviledged and cultured classes, those who could
afford to be educated and to avail themselves of musical performances and
musical training.

Certainly the peasant classes engaged in some kind of musical expression,
but we don't know what it was, since it was never written down, and
obviously it wasn't recorded. In that sense, it was a true folk music.
Some fairly reliable surmises about this music can be made, based on
general principles of ethnomusicology, but they are just that, surmises.

If we wish to, we can bemoan the fact that an interest in "art music of
the Western tradition" represents elitism, but personally, I don't think
we should be ashamed of that fact. We will do better to recognize it and
get on with the business of trying the best we are able to make sure that
the music is preserved for the 5% or 6% or whatever it is who appreciate
it.

> And since the word "Classical" really refers to "old", I'm not sure
> it's even applicable to myself,

That's not what my dictionary says about the definition of the word
"classic" or "classical."

Ed Lacy
*****************************************************************
Dr. Edwin Lacy University of Evansville
Professor of Music 1800 Lincoln Avenue
Evansville, IN 47722
el2@-----.edu (812)479-2754
*****************************************************************

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