I never quite understand it when people go around proclaiming that classical music is dead or outdated. In fact, a good deal of music today is either one step removed from being classical, or is in fact copied from classical music. Even rap often uses classical nods as the little repeating clip in the background.
As a little experiment, I took the flower aria from Bizet’s Carmen and more or less kept the melody and chords, but made a “modern” version of it. It took almost no effort, and admittedly I did not do much of a quality job of it (I spent 20 minutes ..), but I think it’s sort of a proof of concept in any case.
The original is very beautiful and you should listen to it!
A piano reduction of the original (warning: very bad – it’s just a skeleton): here.
My “modern” version of it: here.
Melike says:
If, by classical music, you mean Western Tonality, then you’re right. But I think what people are referring to is the instrumentation and musical form. Classical music is “dead” for the most part, because nowadays, most people would prefer to listen to your “modern” version instead of the original, just because it’s not an orchestra and doesn’t go on for hours.
I agree that melodies that were written centuries ago are still convincing today, but it’s just a question of arrangement.
June 29, 2006, 8:37 pmjhlo says:
Yep, agreed. I have a hard time, though, understanding why arrangement or length are really of all that much importance. I suppose that they are important in defining a musical style in formal terms, but I think it’s laughable the near-nonexistent distinctions between many genres of music today, especially in the whole “alternative rock” scene. I just find the difference between say pop and rock to be less than the difference between Chopin and Brahms, and the difference between contemporary “classical music” and pre-20th century classical music to be greater than that between contemporary major/minor mode music and classical music proper. Again, I guess this comes to arrangement, or the way that the musicians dress. Or something. But that just seems so trivial in comparison.
Hm, I don’t have much of a point here. But I must say that a lot of electric guitar riffs sound straight out of something like the harpsichord rampage in Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5, even in timbre in addition to structure and harmony, and bass guitars still sound an awful like double basses to me. It’s just that the orchestras and choruses have been reduced to synthesized versions, and the dynamics have been simplified to “soft,” “loud,” “very loud,” and “too loud.”
June 29, 2006, 10:02 pmjhlo says:
I meant solos, not riffs. Well, solos over riffs, more like, I guess ..
June 29, 2006, 10:14 pmMelike says:
It’s because technology has changed the role of music. In the old days, people didn’t have the luxury of listening to music whenever they wanted, so when they did listen to it, they wanted to sit down and enjoy it. Nowadays, music is everywhere and people’s attention spans are so short. That’s why four-minute songs with a beat you can tap your foot to are more appealing.
June 30, 2006, 2:11 amAlso, music used to be an intellectual thing that rich people enjoyed. The common man today wouldn’t give a damn about how a piece follows sonata form. I guess what I’m saying is that popular music got dumbed down to reach a wider audience, so classical music has become obscure to most.
Melike says:
Well, another thing is that with jazz and electronic music that appeared in the 20th century, classical instruments like violins, flutes, etc. got pushed out of popularity. That’s another reason why people feel so alienated when they hear classical music. The melodies, harmonies, etc. could be similar, but the sound is so different.
June 30, 2006, 2:14 am