BY ANGUS DAVISON
Most of us intuitively know if a piece of music is classical. But what makes it so? What does all classical music have in common that makes it…well, classical?
Leonard Bernstein once suggested that what all classical music has in common is its notational precision. He proposed that unlike popular music, which is notated loosely and often radically reimagined by different performers, classical music should be played essentially the same way each time. There is something to be said for this. Every classical pianist’s interpretation of a Chopin ‘Mazurka’ will differ, but they’ll all play the same notes – whereas each jazz pianist will play ‘Take the A Train’ in markedly different ways. But Bernstein hasn’t take into account graphically notated classical music, or even baroque figured bass. So notation isn’t what all classical music has in common.
Maybe there are specific harmonic or rhythmic traits that all classical music works have in common. Surprising numbers of people seem to hold this view. But the briefest comparison of almost any significant 18th and 20th Century work shows it’s just not the case. In fact, as regards rhythm and harmony, Mozart’s music has less in common with much 20th Century music than it does with contemporary popular music.
Perhaps instrumentation is what makes a piece classical. Many of the instruments commonly employed by classical composers are rarely used in other genres. And some specific combinations of those instruments are associated exclusively with classical music – a wind quintet, for example. But Steve Reich’s ‘Electric Counterpoint’ employs electric guitars and it’s classical. And then there’s musique concrete and electronic classical music. No, instrumentation isn’t what makes classical music classical either.
In my view, what all classical music has in common is something intangible, more an essence than anything else: a set of values. All music betrays the values of those who invent it. And I think this is what all classical music has in common – its making is underpinned by the same core values. To distil these into language is immensely difficult. But ‘excellence’ and ‘inquiry’ seem basically apposite; ‘excellence’ for self-explanatory reasons and ‘inquiry’ because the best classical composers and performers maintain a questioning mindset in all aspects of their practice.
This conception of what it is for music to be classical is really just as much about what it is to be a classical musician. And this makes sense to me. After all, music is made by people, for people. Why else does it exist? At its core, all art is human. I simply cannot believe that what makes classical music classical is something as mundane as notation, or even sound. What makes classical musical classical is the values of the people who make it, who love it, and who view the world through its frame.
Pictured: Mozart Sonata K331. Image mannheimmerphil via Flickr (Creative Commons 4.0).
