# Classical music and Now



## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

How odd it is to see this era of historical revisionism in classical music; how these accomplishments of Steve Reich, Philip Glass, and Terry Riley are often relegated by people who should know better as being 'not classical' or as 'modernism' (possibly the single most ignorant and damaging term ever invented to describe (discount) an important and vital branch of the classical music tree). The minimalists, at their best, define what the word classical really means. They used their own experiences, filtered through an almost unbelievable originality informed by a musicianship as audacious as it was expansive, to manifest into sound through a musical reality that illuminated their individuality. 

So what can we gather from this statement? 

(1) I seem to be 'anti-history,' meaning by the word 'history' the way that anything which has lasted long enough seems to accrue a 'history' at the end, which looks back on and tries to define (or in some cases re-define) what has happened. If a car accident happens, and there are ten witnesses, you will get ten different versions of what happened; this is history, not an exact science by any stretch.

(2) I see other terms, such as 'modernism,' as devisive and damaging.

(3) I see classical music as a 'tree' with diverse and diverging branches, yet all connected to the roots of the form.

(4) I see classical music as a personal expression of one's personality and being, using composition and performance (talking about your ideas through your works and instrument) as the vehicle.

So, the 'unstable' and ever-changing factor here, which will always continue to threaten rigid 'historical' notions of what classical music is, or is supposed to be, seems to be the human factor. 

As each new generation comes along, living in whatever new reality that has developed, they will express their experiences of the ever-changing 'now' into the reality of the musical forms which they have learned to use, in their lifetimes, in their 'now.'

This seems diametrically opposed to any idea of a 'history' which is rigidly fixed and defined. 

So, we can say, classical music is about 'time and changes,' and the time is now; and time is always changing.


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