Classical vs. New Age

In browsing music selections by artists Brian Crain and Ludovico Einaudi, I have read many comments of praise, and many of low rating and high criticism. These low ratings and criticism are due solely to the fact that the music is classified in iTunes as “classical,” and yet it should really be “new age.”

I, even after having listened to Crain for months now, was still in the dark, so I decided to pop the question into Google: What is the difference between classical and new age? Some inquirers on Yahoo! answers tentatively concluded that they can both be “classical” due to the instrumentation that they include. Answerers retorted strongly, saying that the genre has nothing to do with instrumentation, but rather the style in which a piece is composed. One responder even had the audacity to say that classical (or, “formal” classical music) has more melodic meaning, while new age is repetitive, simple, and has little to no meaning.

This statement really irked me. I don’t want to dog on classical music the same way these people dog on new age. However, I find it easier to connect to new age music. I can hear it, and later go to a piano and, after some trial and error, play the tune. Classical music is nice; I don’t want to lie or downgrade it. But I find it more difficult to connect to its complicated structures. Sure, sometimes I recognize a bit of a tune here or there, but I can never connect it to a composer or piece until somebody directly hands it to me. When I see people play classical music, I get this annoyed feeling. To me, “formal” or “professional” classical music can be extremely pretentious. I wasn’t one of those people who was force-sat in front of piano at four years old and scheduled to take lessons. I am self-taught; that doesn’t mean I’m good, but I can play a piece if I decide I want to play it and work at it. I can “compose” piano tunes by tapping around at different keys. I’m no Beethoven or Bach or Chopin. I don’t want to follow “laws” of classical music structure. I don’t think beauty and feeling and emotion should be fit into a box, into a structure, into a set of rules. I listen to simplistic, piano tunes (that might include other instruments) and I find meaning and joy in that. It doesn’t take effort to listen to, because there’s no deciphering involved. It’s relaxing, because your brain finds the melody and latches onto it and lulls itself to peace in the tune. At first, I will admit, many songs sound alike; but, spend some time with them, and later, I’ll find myself humming a little lick and instantly being able to label it with a title. I don’t want to suggest that classical has no meaning because it’s “fit into a box,” but I feel that, without that structure, there’s more mobility and artists have more chances to be expressive, instead of feeling an emotion, but having to fit into a certain time-scheme. I’m not saying the classical artists so many of us have grown up with and come to love have no emotion or feeling. They just preferred that order. “New age” artists are breaking from form, and trying out new paths, and I devotedly follow them.