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Something like that. But the main thing about all this is that none of those ways is wrong. Each way seems right for those particular performers who are doing it at the time, and right for the particular occasion at which they're doing it, whether it's for dancing; or on a television show; or at Birdland. So now at last we have a better word for classical music — exact music, —and while there may be even a better word for it which I can't think of at the moment at least "exact" is not a wrong word; and classical is a wrong word.
As a matter of fact, I'm sure that you can all probably think up a lot of other words better than "exact" to describe the music that's usually called classical, and I'd love for you to write me any of the ones you think of that are really good. Who knows? Maybe one of your words will really catch on and become a part of our language, so that we'll never have to use that wrong word "classical" again. Well, why is the word "classical" a wrong word?
Because, you see, while there is such a thing as classical music, it means something very different from what we've been talking about. It doesn't mean long-hair music — it means only one certain kind of long-hair music. For instance, take this well-know musical phrase:. Do you know what that is? Well, let's hear it. Right -Scheherezade. Next question: is that classical music? It's not. Classical music refers to a very definite period in the history of music, which is called the classical period.
The music that was written in that time is called classical music, and Scheherezade simply wasn't written in that time. But this music was.
I'm sure you can tell the difference between Scheherezade and this bit of Mozart we just played. The Mozart is classical music. Now let's see if we can get some idea of when this classical period happened.
It lasted about a hundred years - from about to , which is, as you know, called the 18th Century. But what do we know about this 18th Century? Well, let's take the first half of it, for instance - the first 50 years. We've all learned in school what America was like during those years: it was still being settled; pioneers were exploring new savage territories; there were new frontiers all over the place; we were fighting the Indians right and left.
In other words, we were going through a tough time, living a rough life and building a new country from the ground up. Now this same time in Europe was very different. Over there we find a nice old civilization that had been building for hundreds of years; and so by the time the 18th Century rolled around, Europe was no longer just exploring and nailing logs together, it was already trying to make perfect what it had already built up. And so these same first 50 years in Europe were a time of rules and regulations and of getting those rules and regulations to be as exactly right as possible.
This is what makes classicism - this bringing of rules to a pitch of perfection. It makes classical architecture, classical drama and classical music. That's what classical music really means: music written in a time when perfect form and balance and proportion are what everybody is looking for -music which tries more than anything else to have a perfect shape - like a beautiful ancient Greek vase.
Now the two giant musical names of these first 50 years of the 18th Century were Bach and Handel. Especially Bach; because he took all the rules that the composers who lived before him had been experimenting with, and fiddling with - and he made those rules as perfect as a human being can make them.
For instance, take that form called the fugue. Now the rules of a fugue are something like the printed directions you get when you buy an Erector set; they tell you exactly how to build a house, or a fire truck, or a Ferris Wheel. You start a Ferris Wheel by attaching one metal section to another on the floor; then you add one exactly four notches higher; then another five notches higher than that; and so on.
The you make the wheel that goes around the whole construction. That's just what Bach does in a fugue; take this one, for instance, from his Fourth Brandenburg Concerto. He lays the foundation for his Ferris Wheel by starting with the viola -that's the first section. Then he adds the second section - by a violin, exactly four notches higher - which means, in musical terms four notes higher, and four bars later:.
Now the foundation is built, and Bach can start surrounding it with his circular wheel. Now the wonderful thing about that foundation is that it's not just five separate bits, one at a time; they're all joined together; which means that whenever a new instrument is added, the others still go on playing something else; so that by the time the fifth piece is attached - by the flute -you have five different parts all going at once - just as the five different pieces of the Erector set are all joined together at once.
Now, listen to it all together. Now Bach died in , which is very convenient for us, because it just neatly divides the century into two halves. The next 50 years were very different indeed. Everything changed; the new big giants were now named Haydn and Mozart, and their music is completely different from Bach's. But it was still classical music, because Haydn and Mozart were still looking for the same thing Bach was looking for - perfection of form and shape.
But not through fugues any more. Now it was all going to be different. Now, how does such a change happen? Do composers just go to a convention, like the Republicans in Chicago, and decide by voting to change the style of music? Well, not at all; it happens by itself; because as times change, and history changes, people change with it; and composers are people too; so it stands to reason that their music is also going to change. The people of Haydn and Mozart's time thought Bach was old fashioned and boring with all those fugues and things.
And they wanted something new - not so complicated - with pretty tunes and easy accompaniments, music that was elegant and refined and pleasant.
And this was right in line with the times; it was a time of elegance and refinement, good manners, proper etiquette; it was a time of lace cuffs and silk suits and powdered wigs and jewelled fans for the lades and gentlemen of the court. So out came lovely, elegant music for them in which the main thing was the tune.
The tune had to be good. Now listen to this marvelous tune from a piano concerto by Mozart. Notice there's no Erector set here; only the gorgeous melody, with a simple little accompaniment underneath. Simple, but oh how beautiful. Nobody could write melodies like Mozart. But that melody, beautiful as it is, is also full or rules and regulations, just as Bach's fugue was; only they are a whole bunch of other rules and regulations, rules which make the easy, pleasant kind of music that was wanted in those second 50 years of the century.
Another thing about this new, easy, pleasant kind of music was that it was fun. Those people in lace cuffs and powdered wigs wanted to be entertained. They wanted amusement and pleasure out of music —beautiful melodies, sure — but also gay, witty, high spirits. Now Mozart was a master of this, too. For instance, here's the overture to "The Marriage of Figaro", an opera by Mozart.
A very strict piece, which follows still another bunch of rules and regulations about something called sonata form which we won't go into, but it's as different from a Bach fugue as milk is from orange juice. The main thing about it is not how it's put together, like that old Erector set, but that it's gay and witty and exciting - and - fun. Just listen to it. Isn't that fun?
It's like a ride in a roller-coaster, full of laughing and good humor. It leaves you breathless. 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. 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. 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.
In my view, what all classical music has in common is something intangible, more an essence than anything else: a set of values.
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