Why Classical Music Matters
A short introduction
Too often relegated to the background of a movie, classical music is a powerful genre of expression with millennia of theory, discipline, and creation behind it.
To understand it, you first need to understand its history. So let’s travel back to the very roots of Western civilization to relive the story of classical music — and understand why it matters…
Reminder: You can also get extra Saturday content from us every week! Deep-dives, interviews and our best writing.
This Saturday, we break down 5 mind-blowing pieces of classical music for those who know little about the genre but want to start — join the premium list to read it…
Pythagoras: Ancient Discoveries
The story of Western music starts in a cave in Greece, in the hands of a mathematician bent on using numbers to unlock the mysteries of the universe.
Although humans have been making music since prehistoric times (the earliest known instrument is a flute that dates back to 43,000 BC), Pythagoras’ musical discoveries ushered in a new era of musical theory.
Pythagoras proved that musical tonality is based on mathematical relationships. As his fellow Greek thinkers discovered the mathematical order embedded in nature and architecture, Pythagoras realized that music is also based on order — an order that, once understood, could be used to create ever-greater and more astounding works.
Chant: Music of the Ages
After Pythagoras, the next major force that shaped classical music as we know it was religious chant.
Early Christians inherited the centuries-old practice of chanting scripture from Judaism. Favored especially by monks, Western chant was soon systematized under Pope St. Gregory the Great, giving it the title of Gregorian Chant.
To teach chant tones to novices, monks wrote their music down in what was the precursor to today’s musical notation. The Middle Ages saw chants (and their accompanying notation) grow increasingly refined, mirroring the ambitious development of cathedral architecture. This music, though complex and intricate, remained always in the realm of religious expression.
It wasn’t until the Renaissance that music moved into the realm of secular art. With the birth of opera — the ultimate aesthetic musical experience — in Florence in 1598, a new way of experiencing music took hold of Europe. The secularization of music allowed talented new composers to add their creativity to music’s history, producing the genre we now know as classical music.
Beethoven: Greatest of the Greats
Like Pythagoras, the father of Western music theory, Beethoven’s greatness lies in his ability to join the subjective side of life — emotions, surprises, vulnerabilities, and chaos — to the objective rigor of mathematical beauty.
Beethoven’s music is a breathtaking charge through the full range of human emotion in its most extreme intensity. Nonetheless, it stays true to the rigor of mathematical order.
Beethoven bridged the gap between the classical and romantic eras of Western music, embodying the best of both worlds. He combined both structure and creativity, tradition and innovation to create music unlike any other — it’s not for nothing that he is still so beloved and listened to nearly 200 years after his death.
Chaos, Order, and Beauty
The modern music industry would have us believe that the timeless power of music is only meant to stir us up emotionally, leaving us stuck in the confusion of our individual experiences.
But classical music’s unfolding tells a different story. From Pythagoras’ mathematical discoveries to Beethoven’s impassioned symphonies, great music has never been about mere self-expression. Instead, it’s the process of discovering how our subjective experience of life meets the ordered rationality of the world around us — and how the harmony between these two creates something unforgettable.
The ultimate power of classical music is that it reminds us we are never alone and anchorless on the sea of life’s chaos. In fact, it is in that very chaos that the great composers discovered a saving order — and an eternal beauty.
Reminder: You can get extra Saturday content from us every week. Deep-dives, interviews and our best writing.
This Saturday, we break down 5 mind-blowing pieces of classical music for those who know little about the genre but want to start — join the premium list to read it…
Art of the Week
In Vermeer’s day, Dutch painters were moving away from epic religious themes to portray the “little dramas” of everyday life. For this painting, Vermeer leans into the subject of courtship, one of the common motifs of his day.
But while romance is the theme of the scene, there’s no mistaking the thoroughly unromantic tension in the air. Here Vermeer plays on established convention — while most painters depicted their lovers absorbed in one another, Vermeer’s titular girl looks away from her partner, glancing self-consciously at the viewer instead.
This tension is further underscored by the title of the painting — is this a welcome interruption? Or does the girl resent the arrival of this romance, wishing instead to return to the romance of the music before her?
These subtle questions are the stuff of Vermeer’s genius, and are what make his art so intriguing.
We are privileged to be able to access the music of the past and present. But the decline in public awareness and enjoyment of it has tragically declined to the point where the word "music" is in the mass media a referral to pop music and jazz, not the classics. Once upon a time everyone had a piano and most children learned to play it and it pushed the classics into a respected public arena.
In the 1940s there was a film about and featuring the leading musicians of the day playin the classics. That day is gone. It is a cultural tragedy.
Great article. I enjoyed reading your take on the importance of classical music a lot.