this post was submitted on 30 Mar 2024
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I know this seems pedantic but this is “european classical music”, just calling it “classical music” helps cement the narrative that music is a European project that white Europeans pioneered, developed and mastered instead of music being a global phenomena of human culture stretching back millennia.
I mean whatever I am not saying calling it classical music is absolutely terrible but it is worth thinking about because there is actually a lottttt of politics behind “Classical Music” and none of it is cute or fun.
"European classical music" is a gross misnomer too, when every other continent also had composers in the classical and following periods of orchestral music.
Thank you for your comment and for bringing in some sanity.
I'm a former cellist, who has been trained in the western cannon, and you're absolutely right.
Music is music. The so-called classical tradition is just hyped up musical culture from the rich and powerful European elite of those days.
There's nothing in it more special or high minded except for the fact that it was a learned tradition. It was especially cultivated to cater to those who were wealthy enough to actually pay for the privilege of having music played to them whenever they feel like listening to it.
I'm over-simplifying, but that's pretty much the gist of it. In the 19th century, and with industrialization, more and more people came to have their own pianos at home, so they too could have music at home whenever they felt like listening. Guys like Brahms made a huge buck back in the day catering to this new public.
The point being that classical music is just a fancy name for that music tradition which, as you correctly pointed out, is a white European thing used to assert a supposed intellectual dominance over other peoples and their own cultures.
Remember, music is music. There's nothing inherently good about classical European music. Actually, if you hear that tradition thoroughly enough (I did), you'll quickly find out that some of it is actually really badly written, even by the so-called great (I'm looking at you, Beethoven, and your Op. 91, Wellington's Victory "Battle Symphony" -- what a piece of crap!).
tl;dr Classical music is indeed a politically charged term with nasty political implications. As a musical tradition, it is indeed over-hyped and made up to be something bigger than it actually is.
OK, buddy.