Quote:
Originally Posted by gianluca
Oh and Niku, those examples you give – Gregorian Chant and Indian classical music (but note that I am mainly talking about Western classical music) – are not good examples to refute my assumption that classical music is richer, more complex and more refined than pop music. First, Gregorian chant has a melodic richness and melodic sophistication not to be found in most western pop music –just study any of the more florid gregorian melodies and you’ll probably agree that these melodies can be considered the most perfect, most convincing one-line compositions ever conceived. Indian classical music also has a rhythmic, melodic and formal richness and refinement that makes all rap music seem like a joke
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Thank you for this response, because now I see that my text could be interpreted like that. I was certainly not drawing a parallel between those types of music and pop music, but rather illustrating that the complexity in different kinds of music lies in very different aspects. Most kinds of music are extremely simple in some aspects and very complex in others. One of my teachers once told me about an exchange they had with Indian music students. He listened to Indian music which sometimes uses many timbre changes within one istrument as musical ideas (while continously playing 1 tone), which at first he found quite boring to listen to. The Indian musicians found a Beethoven symphony extremely boring, but this is because they have almost no harmonic feeling and were actually listening to the rythm in the timpani... which offcourse is not THAT interesting.
Saying that one genre of music is per definition more complex than another is by my opinion short-sighted. I mean, it also depends on your personality and your hearing what you like. I am extremely sensitive to harmony and that is why I like Romantic and later classical music very much. But if you're more sensitive to text and rythm, then pop music could be more your thing.