What's the story with classical music?

[kenny saunders]

So obviously there was Beethoven, Bach and whole bunch of other genius-level composers back in the day (like 1700-1900), and then seemingly a gap, with some later notable standouts Rachmaninov and surely some others, and now the only thing that springs to mind to me as classical music, is film scores / trailer music, or a composer like Einaudi. So did classical music as a genre morph into score music?

disclaimer: I'm no scholar so maybe there's a bunch of composers I'm unaware of so that's why I'm asking.

[vurt]

modern stuff from the 1900s on wagner (more opera), varese, saint -saens, gorecki.
then look at electronic music (not edm) for stockhausen and serialism reich, et al.
not all strictly "classical" as thats a specific thing within "concert music"
but we do tend to call any symphonic type stuff classical if it's not really our area of expertise (some folk will hate me for suggesting some of those, seriously)

[vurt]

there are of course a lot more, this was just a quick off the top of my head list.
check recent bbc proms programmes, they often have a modern composer in amongst the big names

[whyterabbyt]

So obviously there was Beethoven, Bach and whole bunch of other genius-level composers back in the day (like 1700-1900), and then seemingly a gap

<cough>

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20th-cent ... ical_music

[jancivil]

Classical music as a genre (ie., the classical period, let’s say 1750 to 1820) morphed into the Romantic period. Beethoven is seen as a transitional figure, along with Berlioz. Franz Schubert I would call solidly Romantic. Super virtuosi Liszt and Chopin exemplified high romanticism in western European concert art music, by dint of that extremity in expression. The late Romantic composer Arnold Schoenberg made a significant break, or we might say stretched harmonic chromaticism to its breaking point around the turn of the century, by 1920 developing dodedecaphonic serialism as the technique for ensuring the full chromatic as ubiquitous. There was no gap.

Debussy represented the real deviation from the norm long before then. <In 1889, at the Paris Exposition Universelle, Debussy first heard Javanese gamelan music.>
Maurice Ravel’s more famous things may be Pavane pour une infante défunte, 1899, and in 1923 Bolero. no gap.

[Michael L]

You can use search terms like "contemporary classical" and "20th century classical" in Spotify to find many terrific playlists.

If you want to see who is being performed you can check out symphony archives, e.g. NY Philharmonic:
https://archives.nyphil.org/performancehistory/#program

[niterateaudio]

So did classical music as a genre morph into score music?

Not at all. Lots of classical music being made and released. A lot of releases are performances of famous works written in the past because they are popular sells. But there are modern composers romping around.

Re: What's the story with classical music?

You can checkout a history on here. Your local library should have an online subscription access. There are many modern works that are standards in repertoires. . check out Aaron Copleand "Appalachian Spring"..

https://www.oxfordreference.com/display ... 345C4AFABE

[resynthesis]

Have a look at the programmes from the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival if you want to know how late 20th century new music developed. It started in 1978 and is still going strong(ish).

[rp314]

Depending on how you define the term it's alive, dead or just taking the occasional nap. A century ago folks in Vienna were likely enjoying themselves by mostly listening to great waltzes. But, probably unbeknownst to them, there were some great composers in their city cooking up a batch of some wonderfully different music.

The way I define it, it's never going to be completely dead but maybe coming out of a terrible pandemic many folks prefer something a bit safer, say, Country Music or even Viennese waltzes...

[niterateaudio]

Depending on how you define the term it's alive, dead or just taking the occasional nap. A century ago folks in Vienna were likely enjoying themselves by mostly listening to great waltzes. But, probably unbeknownst to them, there were some great composers in their city cooking up a batch of some wonderfully different music.

The way I define it, it's never going to be completely dead but maybe coming out of a terrible pandemic many folks prefer something a bit safer, say, Country Music or even Viennese waltzes...

Why do you think the post pandemic will have an affect on peoples music tastes for classical music? I think if anything, recession and unemployment may generate a lot more interest in angrier music that will appeal to youth who feel they have bleak chances and getting a job and income.

[vurt]

Depending on how you define the term it's alive, dead or just taking the occasional nap. A century ago folks in Vienna were likely enjoying themselves by mostly listening to great waltzes. But, probably unbeknownst to them, there were some great composers in their city cooking up a batch of some wonderfully different music.

The way I define it, it's never going to be completely dead but maybe coming out of a terrible pandemic many folks prefer something a bit safer, say, Country Music or even Viennese waltzes...

Why do you think the post pandemic will have an affect on peoples music tastes for classical music? I think if anything, recession and unemployment may generate a lot more interest in angrier music that will appeal to youth who feel they have bleak chances and getting a job and income.

some waltzes are angrier than other waltzes

[vurt]

there's a large school not far from here, one thing i have noticed in recent years, less kids carrying guitar cases and more carrying violin/trumpet/flute type cases when i see them at the bus station

obviously this is a tiny sampling, but it does suggest that the idea of classical instruments is still a thing at least in the minds of some.
it did used to be pretty much all guitar, electric and acoustic.

[Michael L]

Anna Meredith composes classical music for the proms and also for her own band with tuba, cello, clarinet, guitar and drums:

[aMUSEd]

So did classical music as a genre morph into score music?

No

[Michael L]

So did classical music as a genre morph into score music?

No

Royal patrons of the arts morphed into film producers.