On Classical Music. in The Napkin.
- Sept. 25, 2016, 4:02 a.m.
- |
- Public
Has it been pointed out that there is more “classical” music now than there has been in the past simply due to movie soundtracks? Alexander Courage, Jerry Goldsmith, James Horner, John Williams, Howard Shore, etc. We call it “classical” to indicate something of the past. Yet. Despite musical trends of the past 100 years, it’s still the orchestra which best suits a movie soundtrack.
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eucatastrophe. ⋅ September 24, 2016
If this question is not rhetorical: yes, absolutely. One of my friends from university is working on her doctoral degree in film music. It's a huge area of study within the classical world, as it's very obviously an extension of classical music.
It's unfortunate that you think "classical" means "of the past," though. There are so many current classical composers still. Here's a good reddit post full of modern composers to get you started. https://www.reddit.com/r/classicalresources/comments/13asuv/composer_index_contemporary/
But film music is not technically "classical" because they don't serve the same purpose. A quick google search brought up several articles on the differences, like http://musicalnotesofdralf.blogspot.com/2012/02/classical-music-vs-film-music.html and https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2008/apr/07/canfilmmusiceverbeclassical, the latter of which I quote: " Classical music is designed to be considered, contemplated and - being the most abstract of all the art forms - to provoke a truly subjective response in each of its listeners. Film music, on the other hand, is meant to accompany moving pictures, to provide an objective commentary to the on-screen action. Robbed of that on-screen imagery, it loses much of its meaning."
Also, to say that orchestral music best suits films is... a little myopic, perhaps. Maaaaany soundtracks don't use an orchestra. Birdman was almost entirely just a drum solo, and it was incredible. Lots of current pop music, rap, minimalism, synth, etc, are used all over the place.
In short: classical music is its own purpose, and film music is support. Film music came from classical music and is still studied by musicians & music theorists, but they are not the same thing. Classical music still exits for itself!
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