How do you define "classical" music?

[barnowl]

What I'm referring to is the music most of us love - Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart, Puccini, Verdi, Rachmaninoff, etc., etc., etc., etc. The whole range of "classical" music.

The reason I ask is, back in prehistory, I took a course in Fine arts and the professor, asked this very question. Someone would toss out a thought, and he'd refute it. Another would respond and a class member would blow that one up.

This went on for some time and I think the whole point  of the exercise was there is no definition, no term that covers the territory. Not classical, not serious, not longhair. Nuttin'. 

But maybe you've got a lengthy definition or a one-worder up your sleeve. Care to share it?

[zheer]

Music that has a lasting intrest because of excellence, attractive because of simplicity of form.

[barnowl]

Music that has a lasting intrest because of excellence, attractive because of simplicity of form.

I think Rags, Ballads, Tangos, and lots of other forms fit this definition rather well.

I even know some dirty songs that also apply.  (I learned 'em all from m1469.)  

[pies]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_music

[00range]

There was a thread a while ago in which someone threw out the term "Erudite". I thought it apt.

I'll see if I can find it...

Edit:

Here it is. (Big coincidence that "someone" turned out to be Bernhard.)

https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php/topic,2658.0.html

[Tash]

it's just a term people use so they know what you're talking about so you don't have to go on a lengthy speil to describe the particular type of music that is referred to as 'classical'. no terms have any bourdaries, everything overlaps.

[bartolomeo_]

It isn't that hard to define.  Broadly, classical music is:

* art, ecclesiastic, and concert music
* in the Western European tradition
* in the styles that were widespread between about 1550 and 1820 (the "common practice period") and extensions of these
* transmitted in a written fashion using musical notation

As such, it is distinct from folk music, does not include music of other cultures, does not include experimental forms such as atonal and microtonal music, and does not include forms such as jazz that are chiefly improvisational.

[barnowl]

Excellent explanations! Thank you all.

Now that I replay the memory tapes, I think the professor was asking for one-word defintions of classical music. That's why it was impossible to come up with an answer.

But as usual, I asked a question here, and again, got educated.

Thanks again!