Classical Music
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
The original Great Divide of the music world is those who listen to classical music, against those who listen to popular music. A moments reflection reveals that classical music is, in fact, far more popular than popular music, having achieved popularity lasting in some cases half a milennium.. So then you call it classical versus contemporary. And Philip Glass and John Cage knock on your door to tell you that their music is both classical and contemporary.
That's music for you. Everybody has an opinion.
So, how to define classical music? Well, for the most part, it's played by the prchestra. Except for the bits which are performed by small ensembles or soloists. It's generally acoustic rather than electronic, apart form theose classical musicians who use electric violins, guitars, organs and so on. And it's usually been around for a while. Except for the new stuff.
Now we've got that cleared up, let's move on to the actual music. By period, because - trust me - there's an awful lot of it.
