Why does classical music last longer than other genres?

Answer 1

Most music is loosely structured, simple, and short, because that is the kind that the average player can share easily with others. There are folk songs still sung today that are older than almost any Classical Music, but they are not sung very often. This kind of music is entertaining for a while, but can become annoying if repeated often. Classical music is highly structered, and it is actually written down, as opposed to most other kinds of music. Performing it requires long hours of practice, and a complete knowledge of the instrument and how to play. Concerts are carefully organized to draw the publc at a specific time, rather than when ever the mood strikes the musician. Classical music stands up well to repeated listening, because there is so much depth to it. To take a different approach than the one contributed above, consider the time when there was no radio, no cd's or dvd's, no LP's or 45's (for the more mature among us...). Go way back to a time when the ONLY way that you could ever hear music was if live people actually played it. Nearly every home had 1 or more Musical Instruments which were played with greater or lesser skill. Concerts were major events and most people who attended them had lots of money. [My grandmother, born in 1899, told us that when she was a child in Bordeaux, they would be allowed to gather in an area in the rafters way above the stage, when operas were performed there. They paid a whopping 10 centimes for the privilege, and they heard lots and lots of to-die-for music.] Pieces that were prepared for these concerts tended to be longer, because people were simply dying to hear music. They couldn't go to their favorite music stores the next day to pick up the CD. [There is the famous story of J.S. Bach walking many miles to hear a performance by the great organist Buxtehude. You would think a person crazy for doing that today.] So, for example, symphonies developed into works of several 'movements' (often 3, but the # varies), and these movements exposed the listeners to a wide range of moods and intellectual experiences. Sometimes lively 'dance-like' music (usually movement #2) and other sections that followed a more complex development that invited the listener to both think, and enjoy. Concerts really were 'events', and these larger works were not always played 'all at once' the way they are today. Originally, movements of symphonies were separated by other pieces of music, or other kinds of performances altogether! They must have been a kick. The social, aesthetic and cultural realities today are SO different. The needs are different, time constraints are different, and music availability is different. At the drop of a hat, you can change what you're listening to, or turn it all off altogther-- and literally any time of night or day. A faster pace requires an entirely different approach. Today's music is neither better nor worse (take, for example, the exquisite music by brilliant Jazz performers); rather, it fits our time and place in history. And we always have the great "classic" works to go back to for pleasure and inspiration.