Classical or not: what's in a name?
Composer Claude Bolling: classical or jazz? Peaceful piano music: classical or not? And is there a working definition of what, exactly, is “crossover classical?” Ask a room full of professional musicians and I guarantee there would be no consensus among them.
Take, for instance, the difference between classical or jazz music. Most of us think we know this when we hear it, but if we examine things more deeply, the line between the two becomes squishy. In a recent conversation, when a non-musician asked a jazz saxophonist and me what the difference was, the sax player replied,
“Classical musicians play what’s on the page; jazz players make it up.”
That’s as good a definition as “jazz swings,” given to me by another musician several years ago. Both may offer the uninitiated a sense of the difference between styles, but neither is completely correct. After all, organists and harpsichordists never stopped improvising, and not all jazz swings. Pianists as recently as 75 years ago felt free to improvise on classical scores in a way that raises the hackles of classical music purists today. Jazz, which started out as straight improvisation, now canonizes written transcriptions of the greats. New piano music confuses this even further. Improvisation appears in many “classical” scores and some require a solid sense of swing. Add in genres such as “crossover classical” and “peaceful piano” (which frequently contains written scores and improvisation) and things become even murkier.
The blurring of lines never fails to cause territorial disputes. In both the classical and jazz worlds, for instance, the Puritans of each musical style pontificate on who or who isn’t a “real” classical or jazz pianist. Frequently, those artists who are happy to muddle about in the territory between genres are shot at by both camps. These arguments do little good and a whole lot of harm. Those of us who have secure membership in one camp or another can feel self-righteous about passing an invisible set of standards, created and arbitrated by who-knows-who, and many of us take great delight on guarding the edges of our territory, convinced that once our style of music is diluted by the impure notes of another style, our distinctiveness as a genre will cease to exist. While the who’s in and who’s out debate may entertain musicians, however, it does a disservice to listeners and piano students of all ages.
If I play Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms, does that make me a classical pianist? Or, as a classical pianist friend once stated about an Instagram pianist he despises, are classical pianists required to play the masterworks to a certain agreed-upon standard in order to earn the vaulted title of being a “Classical Pianist”? If I jam on a few jazz standards with friends, am I a jazz pianist? Or, as a jazz piano friend once stated years ago, am I just a classical player improvising on a jazz tune? What makes a jazz player? Being able to play like Bill Evans or Oscar Peterson? What makes a classical pianist? Being able to play Chopin at a professional level?
Most music lovers don’t care.They listen to be moved, to be enchanted, to fall in love, to celebrate, to dance, and to weep. They listen to find a language for what they experience at a level where words fail. They don’t care about genres and labels. They want to listen to good music, not the other kind.
Streaming services and music distributors will parse musical styles in whatever way they can to entice customers. I, for one, would love to see most of these labels disappear. Cutting edge musicians are already heading this direction and I applaud them for their fearless approach to old masterpieces. In doing so, they’re inviting classical fans to hear the music through the lens of the present day. And those jazz pianists who are so successfully improvising on classical pieces? They’re introducing jazz fans to music they may not have approached any other way.
There will always be a place for “pure” classical and “pure” jazz, but perhaps we can drop the snobbery of worrying about who’s in and who’s out and focus instead of the quality of the music? After all, with classical music comprising .09% of the streaming market and jazz taking 1.1%, perhaps it’s less important to worry about territory and to focus more on making great music, regardless of the label we attach to it.