Thread by @Silpayamanant

Classical Music ≠ Notated Music or Composed Music

This follows up on the "Classical Music ≠ Concert Music" thread since we now have mature concert music traditions globally that use notation regularly in their Indigenous or hybridized composition traditions.

What counts as notation is also highly variable and different notations have different universal AND a context-dependent aspects per Bhagwati's <Notational Perspective>.

Not to mention that Ekphonetic notations are probably the most common forms of music notations and can be found worldwide in all the major world religions.

That some music ecosystems work better with cipher notations is also a consideration.

Notation is a necessity when you have large groups of instruments playing the same parts and nearly all of these global orch. traditions use it to train players to play in unison with each other, much like Ephonetic notations for large groups of singers.

Having a healthy understanding of global composition traditions and history would probably eliminate any equivocation of notated/composed music with classical music. Or maybe not.

Not to mention, going back to the tendency to refer to classical music as European music, how that makes it easy to exclude oral classical music traditions, many of which exist outside of Europe.

Also, classical music ecosystems in colonized countries, especially where Indigenous peoples and slaves were forced to play it, was almost invariably oral traditions.

The Classical Music ≠ Concert Music thread.

Really, having a healthy knowledge of global music traditions would probably go a long way towards alleviating bad takes on music in general.

Case in point. Centuries of oral traditions in classical music globally can't combat the equivocation of classical music with notated music if those histories are intentionally excluded.

And it's kind of mind-boggling to think that for centuries, all around the world classical music was taught by ear, by force, to slaves and Indigenous peoples.

Back to the OT topic, we also should account for non-notated traditions or forms in more recent strands of classical music, especially those which invest a lot in improvisation. Soundpainting and Soundpainting ensembles come to mind here.
silpayamanant.wordpress.com/new-music-ense…

Tangentially related.

Might be helpful to see the long history and variety of music notations globally.

My Bibliography of Slave Orchestras, Choirs, Bands, and Ensembles in the Journal of Music History Pedagogy (JMHP) Special Issue: Global Music History Course Design: A Pedagogical Toolbox with Syllabi.