“Classical” The meaning of this word pertaining to music obviously is defined as a musical form.  So what is this meaning?  Ask any average guy and he would probably say “like what Mozart and Beethoven composed.”  Hey, he would be absolutely correct.   I mean, there was an age long ago termed the “classical period.”  This period was defined not only within music, but paintings, architecture, poetry, etc.

So if you ask the average “Joe” what contemporary classical is, he might scratch his head, confused.   I mean, most likely.  And that’s the problem.  Is rock a period?  Is jazz a period (I know about the age, but we’re talking music)?  The term “classical” is a definite problem.  It links the past to the present under false pretenses.  Imagine Philip Glass or Steve Reich being asked “what genre of music to you compose for?”  They answer “impressionism.”  That is if we swap out the word classical in favor of the word impressionism, both a period so would it matter?

Does the use of the word classical as a blanket definition of all eras of this form in turn form a bias within academia and elitists?  Meaning, to pick classical as the word might say to some that the era of classical itself is the most relevant to every genre.  Here in Seattle our main “classical” station rarely strays, or some might say deviates, from the baroque, classical and romantic eras.  I would bet that to be the case for every metropolitan city around the world.

Do you want a solution?  Take out “classical” as the definition of all periods in aforementioned music and replace with “amaranth.”  An unfading flower.

I compose amaranth music.  I compose amaranth music in a contemporary style.