I’m not educated in classical music, though I like it, but it’s my understanding that really excellent classical music isn’t really being composed anymore, as in, there haven’t been anymore Mozarts or Beethovens, not to discount composers from the 20th C? Could this be another aspect of the dumbing-down of the culture and suppression of individuality that was present in past centuries? I mean, men like Beethoven and Mozart didn’t sit in large classes learning “music” as people do today. They learned individually, and discovered their gifts individually. I’m not expressing this well, I hope you know what I’m trying to describe.
I would love to find a book or at least a long essay on this topic, even if it only touches music tangentially. The demise of genius, death of true heroism, that kind of thing. It seems to be as dead as nobility/aristocracy. Any suggestions would be gratefully appreciated.
There is one word that describes this: **Homeschool**
They were ***homeschooled**.
There is one word that describes this: **Homeschool**
They were ***homeschooled**.
There's a "one hundred year rule" that governs music, just like art and literature. For at least 100 years, sometimes more, you are too immersed in the contemporary culture to get a good handle on what is going to last. Bach was basically a local musician and as a composer not really appreciated until he was "rediscovered" in the early 19th century. Bononcini was considered by many to be greater than his contemporary Handel, but nobody's heard of him today.
Of course, there are standouts that everybody knows are great at the time. Mozart. Josquin. Dufay. Palestrina. Byrd. But we won't know who our 'major' composers are until some time has passed.
Also, you are looking over hundreds and hundreds of years and picking out the greats. From that point of view, everybody from around 1900 forward is "contemporary" with us. So you have Fauré, Duruflé, Elgar, Howells, Britten, and so forth.
The other major difference between then and now is the organized music schools that grabbed the kids early - particularly in England, France and Germany. The Eastern bloc continued to do that, and just about anybody who went through music school in, say, Bulgaria or Czechoslovakia, will be an excellent musician.
And of course, the way that Mozart was brought up would probably be considered child abuse these days.