What’s in a name? | 5 November 2011

There was a time when ‘classical music’ meant something you could put your finger on. It denoted the musical period between roughly 1750 and 1800, when Haydn, Mozart and many others wrote symphonies, concertos and instrumental pieces with a sense of form and grace that were likened to the art and architecture of Classical Greece and Rome. And it sat happily between two other important musical periods, the Baroque and the Romantic. Everybody knew where they stood.

Not any more. Nowadays, for some people, ‘classical music’ probably means the same as ‘highbrow music’ — something that’s not for them. Otherwise it has become a catch-all phrase or term that nearly everyone else uses without ever trying to define it.  So what might it mean today? ‘Classical’ or ‘classic’ usually refers to something that has endured, stood the test of time. In that case, what about Albert Ketelbey’s ‘In a Monastery Garden’, Eric Coates’s ‘Sleepy Lagoon’ (of Desert Island Discs fame), ‘The Lambeth Walk’, ‘Roll Out the Barrel’, the Beatles’ ‘A Hard Day’s Night’? Are they pieces of ‘classical music’? Not for most of us.

Perhaps they’re not old enough. Well, medieval plainsong has been around for more than 1,000 years. But do people speak of that as ‘classical music’? Not very often. On the other hand, living composers such as Arvo Pärt and Harrison Birtwistle are widely regarded as part of the ‘classical music’ scene, even if they only wrote a piece of music yesterday. So what are we talking about? Surely Haydn and Beethoven have cast-iron ‘classical’ credentials. Yes, but how about their numerous arrangements of Scottish and English folk songs? Nice little earners, but are they ‘classical music’? Incidentally, song in general, as distinct from choral music, is a problem.