The Classical Music Industry

10 Is Classical Music a Living or Heritage Art Form?

Susanna Eastburn

‘Why do we call this music classical, as if it’s dead?’¹ This question, asked during a panel discussion at Classical:NEXT in 2014, has stayed with me. When I think about classical music, I often reflect on the derivation of the word ‘classical’: from the Latin classis, a rank or division of Roman people—in fact, not too distant from the modern use of ‘class’ to denote societal strata. Around the time of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, ‘classical’ also took on the meaning of “timeless”, with a particular relationship to what was perceived as the pinnacle of European culture, the Greco-Roman era. Associated with the word today, therefore, are connotations of clear hierarchies, ...