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Defining Classical Music

31st Aug 2014, 12:08 PM		#1 REPORT
	Gill Sans SUBS Member since Apr 2014 1108 Points Moderator	The forum topic Classical World.....WHY? started out as a discussion of how we define Classical music and whether we need a dedicated World for it. Defining any genre is often impossible, but it seems quite easy for classical music. For me, Classical Music is that music which is performed and, in particular, written by formally trained practitioners. For over a century, the normal path to a classical training has been through a College of music, where previously the path was through a cathedral choristry or by private tuition from a trained composer. There will always be exceptions to any rule and these will have to be considered on an individual basis, but I doubt this will lead to many arguments in this genre. We will have to consider cases of established pop artists either performing from the classical repertoire or composing works to be performed by an orchestra, and if the results are broadly acceptable to Classical music lovers we can accept them into this World. An example of each would be Sting and Paul McCartney. In the case of Classical musicians performing pop songs I think we would have to be very cautious and my suggestion would be to have a link from the Classical World artist to the other non-generic Worlds.