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→Classical vs. Popular (redux)
Back to the history section: I haven't looked at it in awhile, and possibly much of what you attribute to me represents the contributions of others who have come after me. You seem to have a sound analysis. Go ahead, though I would emphasize that 1850 was the first year in which "popular music" was performed in concert. Music is music, and any song is music. (My choir director once asked scathingly whether I considered myself a musician or a singer, by way of inducing me to co-ordinate my voice properly with other voices.) The difference is that what I call "popular music" made it onto the concert stage in or near the year that you named, and before had been sung only in strictly informal settings.--[[User:TerryH|TerryH]]<sup>[[User talk:TerryH|Talk]]</sup> 12:47, 8 April 2009 (EDT)
Back to the history section: I haven't looked at it in awhile, and possibly much of what you attribute to me represents the contributions of others who have come after me. You seem to have a sound analysis. Go ahead, though I would emphasize that 1850 was the first year in which "popular music" was performed in concert. Music is music, and any song is music. (My choir director once asked scathingly whether I considered myself a musician or a singer, by way of inducing me to co-ordinate my voice properly with other voices.) The difference is that what I call "popular music" made it onto the concert stage in or near the year that you named, and before had been sung only in strictly informal settings.--[[User:TerryH|TerryH]]<sup>[[User talk:TerryH|Talk]]</sup> 12:47, 8 April 2009 (EDT)
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Reply to [[User:TerryH|TerryH]]:
Thanks for the thoughtful reply, and for taking my comments in the vein in which they were intended. You bring up interesting points about the "low-brow" always being present. What makes it all difficult to draw together is that what we now call "classics" were by no means high-brow affairs when they were current; I suppose the same way that early performances of Shakespeare had plenty of low-brow elements. It seems that to keep the popular/classical duality intact throughout music history, one would have to speak purely about the social functions and how they evolved, rather than attempting to trace a musical progression. In other words, the sea chantys likely influenced composers just as much as classical music influenced popular music, so drawing a straight line between the two traditions seems fraught with peril.
It seems interesting that popular music as we know it today appeared a relatively short while after the sacred vs. secular distinction had lost its meaning. Although there were concert requiems by Romantic composers (Brahms and Verdi spring to mind), I would hesitate to call them "sacred" in the same line as liturgical music had been. I have read Germanic authors (I think it was Dahlhaus or Adorno) who write that the musical canon in a sense replaced sacred music's previous function, with the musicians as the priests and the composer as gods. The Musikverein concert hall here in Vienna (built in the 1860's, I believe) definitely supports that, with its golden nymphs lining the walls in the same ceremonious pose. Given the state of Germanic philosophy at that time, this would seem reasonable.
You're right about Bach, signing each volume of the Well-Tempered Clavier with "Soli Deo Gloria." (By the way, if you have time you can take a look at a page [[User:AlanE|AlanE]] and I just collaborated on about the [[St. Matthew Passion]].) When I talked about home and pedagogical use, I was actually referring not just to the Inventions and Sinfonias, but also both books of the WTC, the French and English Suites, and the Partitas. He specified a general teaching order for the aforementioned works -- I find that a through study of the Inventions still works wonders with my young students! Bach also published in four volumes under the modest title "Klavierübung" (Keyboard Practice) the Partitas, the Italian Concerto and French Overture, the other Suites, and then the Goldberg Variations, each with title pages that proclaimed their suitability for teachers or amateurs/dilletantes who wish to hone their musical skills. For Bach, the two uses seemed to go hand-in-hand.
At any rate, I'll consolidate my sources before making any significant changes to the page. In the case of the revolution, this will be a trick, as what I've learned was mostly from a symposium I attended last fall, but I suppose I can quote the lectures if the articles haven't been published yet. Unfortunately for the majority of the readers here, the sources I know are all in German, since the 1848-1849 revolutions are primarily a central-European interest.
Thanks again for your thoughts, and I'll let you know when there's something new on the page. All the best! [[User:JDWpianist|JDWpianist]] 15:48, 8 April 2009 (EDT)