Classical Music: Still Relevant

In our world of music, there are more genres than we can count, each one taking our ideas of music to completely different interpretations. If prompted to list musical genres that are still being developed, the vast majority of people would be able to come up with a plethora of different styles. Although we might not have ever explored them, we would certainly be able to list them on our fingers. However, perhaps a lot of people would not come up with classical music as a genre being developed today. This is not the case. In the sixteenth century, classical music was huge. Today it is nowhere near as popular as it once was, but this does not mean that it no longer produced.

Classical music is officially defined as "conventional music following long-established principles". I personally hate this definition. Perhaps the classical music we usually think of by Bach, Beethoven, and other composers of that time would follow this definition, but a ton of classical music would not. To use an extreme example, The Rite of Spring, by Igor Stravinsky in the early twentieth century, was so controversial that at its first showing, riots were formed in the streets from patrons that had become furious with the very nonconventional musical material in the piece. I urge you to listen to selections of this piece, but shall not include it in the post as it is indeed a 100-year old piece. Examples of breaking away from the norm in classical music is quite common, so perhaps a better definition would be "instrumental music with one or many predominantly acoustic instruments".

Today there are many musicians who continue the tradition of classical music, but I shall focus specifically on my favorite, Ludovico Einaudi (pictured above). Einaudi is specifically a pianist, but writes many other parts for his songs as well. Notably, Einaudi also incorporates soft, ambient electronics in a few of his songs, but we would still consider him as a classical artists, as the emphasis is indeed placed on the acoustic instruments, while the electronics are used to create ambience. The piece below is his newest work to date, entitled Night. (In classical music we call an individual musical idea a "piece of music" rather than a "song". I tend to like to refer to all "songs" as "pieces" as I believe that the latter term does a much better job describing music as the art that it is.)

Night starts off with its very ambient electronic harmony, but within the first thirty seconds the melody is introduced on the classical piano which is the first introduction of "purpose" in the piece. As the piano gains momentum towards 1:30, strings are then introduced. The strings serve to advance the melody that the piano had established earlier by adding a greater layer of depth. Finally at around 2:40 the full idea of the piece is achieved. Where the beginning of the piece was generally ambiguous, this new section is explicitly clear with its faster and louder moving notes. The rest of the piece restates the ideas from before to add emphasis, until it ends abruptly. The abrupt ending leaves the piece almost hanging in the air, left for us to reflect upon. This piece, like many others in the genre, is an idea that is gradually developed, perhaps like a story. In this sense a piece is an experience, rather than a catchy tune.

Classical music is by no means dead. Artists all over the world are still expressing their ideas in this very old genre of music, some with considerable success. Classical music is (in many people's opinions) still just as good as it has been, and should never be overlooked.