the.com/classical
Music so good it survived plague, war, and being trapped inside every elevator on earth.
means Relating to a recognized tradition of established excellence — most often the formal art-music of European tradition, or the cultures of ancient Greece and Rome.
from From the Latin 'classicus,' which originally meant 'belonging to the highest class' of Roman citizens — the top tax bracket, essentially. A grammarian named Aulus Gellius borrowed the word as a metaphor for first-rate writers: a 'classicus' author was one fit for the upper class, not the common rabble. From 'best citizen' to 'best writer' to 'best of anything,' the word kept its snobbish gleam all the way into the concert hall.
- Mozart's start
- Composed his first piece at age five
- Tempo trick
- Stores play it to scare loiterers away
- Long haul
- Wagner's Ring cycle runs about fifteen hours
- Beethoven's defiance
- Wrote his greatest symphony while completely deaf
- Word origin
- Once meant top-tier Roman taxpayers, not music
bach — johann sebastian bach, german composer (1685-1750) who wrote the well-tempered clavier
mozart — wolfgang amadeus mozart, austrian composer (1756-1791) with 600+ works across all genres
beethoven — ludwig van beethoven, german composer (1770-1827) who bridged classical and romantic periods
haydn — franz joseph haydn, austrian composer (1732-1809) who pioneered the symphony form