Classical Music (Pro) vs. [Insert Genre of Music Here]

I feel compelled to first address the generalizations that were made by my opponent in regards to classical music being written without a story line and/or unrelated to anything, being just "one composition by one composer," and, above all, "meaningless." I mean no disrespect in saying this, but these three things above all other claims in the argument are simply wrong. The fact that some people associate film music with certain memories of events that the music is related to has less to do with it being put to stories/meanings more often and more to do with a greater familiarity to film music, and not much else. I do not claim that film music does not invoke emotion and memories, considering it does so very well. But there are operas that have hugely moral-based stories that have music that, like film music, are written with the story in mind and the actions going on in mind. For example, in the opera Don Giovanni (SPOILER ALERT (but to a story that's, like, half a century old and has about five different endings)), there's a haunted statue that is commanding Don Giovanni to repent. The music accompanying him is extremely foreboding and increases in intensity with every command of "Repente!" When Don Giovanni has run out of time, he is sent to hell, an action that is brought with fast-paced and even more intense music. Again, association with the music to events has less to do with the quality of the music itself and more to do with personal experience. A person could just as easily hear the Imperial March and not be able to link it to Star Wars as one could hear Ride of the Valkyries and not be able to associate it with The Valkyrie. I did in fact show a piece that told a story, contrary to my opponent's statement, which was the solo from the Magic Flute. I couldn't find a good one that didn't include dialog beforehand that had an English translation (my apologies), but essentially the Queen of the Night is enraged at the one whom her daughter, Pamina, loves, and gives Pamina a dagger to kill her love, Sarastro, and threatens to disown her if she doesn't. There are many pieces of music in classical music and every genre that are not associated with a storyline, but very few of them are truly "meaningless." Even excluding the numerous pieces that musically represent or are musically inspired by people, things, poems, ideas and emotions, there are many that have obvious political and/or social messages without being put to a story. A good example is Ralph Vaughan William's Dona Nobis Pacem, which uses the works of the American poet Walt Whitman. Vaughan Williams and Whitman are a match made in heaven. The music perfectly accents the words, and the message is obvious: "War is a terrible thing and we desperately need peace, and hopefully someday peace shall be granted." Another good example, which goes against the claim that classical music "does not carry a person's legacy" (it does without this example as it carries on the legacy of the composer, but I know this wasn't the point of the statement), and this is Aaron Copland's Lincoln Portrait. About eight minutes into the piece, they read quotes of Lincoln and describe the scene where the words were said; it's impossible not to be inspired. The music is perfect for the president too: first powerful, then tender, then playful, and then somehow a combination of each, an emotional complexity that mirrors the complex man that was our 16th president. It carries on his legacy excellently. Classical music can tell us important things without storylines, even without lyrics, even sometimes without most or any context as to why or for what the music was written. Movies have music that helps them get the message across and remember it, but it has more to do with the context of the movie and less so with the music. My opponent believes that film music is superior to classical music because, in his eyes, it has transcended it. I understand this point of view, and it was a good example to use the music for Pacific Rim in particular. That being said, I disagree. In the case of Batman, even though my opponent said that having classical music with it would feel "very off," I honestly didn't see a huge step from 20th-21st Century classical music. As someone who has been with classical music all of his life, if someone told me it was a new contemporary classical piece (which my opponent used to describe movie music, but is an actual term for a period of classical music which we are currently in), I wouldn't be very surprised. Even the more electronically enhanced parts could be linked to modernism in classical, which used (and uses) electric guitar and introduced experimentation with electronic music. Day One Dark, by extension, is essentially musique concrete - which started in classical music and includes the Beatles Revolution 9 - mixed with some older classical elements. The only one that I couldn't be convinced is classical if someone lied and I had never heard them before would be the Pacific rim music...but again, we've been using electric guitars in classical music for awhile now, even if it's not extremely widespread. Leonard Bernstein's Mass uses two electric guitars, two electric basses and even two synthesizers and is still considered classical. It's less to do with the fact that the two genres are similar, then, and more to do with the fact that classical music has been doing what no genre has done before for a very long time, where film music is, at best, a good fusion genre that makes little of what hasn't already been done. It's so similar that Hans Zimmer, who writes very little outside of the film score, has won three Classical BRIT Awards, is played on classical radio stations, and is often categorized as a contemporary classical composer, by these radio stations or otherwise. It's worth listening to "Alternative Energy" by Mason Bates, if you can find it (I couldn't find a full one yet, sorry), as film music has little difference from it in style or purpose (you can read about it here, which even gives a sort of story that is told within the music:http://www.sfgate.com...) To quote:"Music is evolving. Classical music will forever stay classical." I've already addressed the issue of music changing over time. Classical music is still being written and is still changing (see the definition in argument one if you thought I meant the period of Western art music), and has been evolving for over 1500 years. 1500 years of influence, change, and variety. People are still writing, reforming, arranging and rearranging classical music. No one ever said music wasn't evolving, and classical music is certainly evolving. It has been all 1500+ years of its existence. As a closing statement, I would like to point out that my opponent said that film music is "slowly but surely becoming superior to classical music," which, even if not on purpose, implies that classical music is, at least currently, superior.