The more fundamental question is however what the point is of making such
partitions.  Supposing a contemporary composer were to write a dodecaphonic
fugue for band instruments as with a typical popular music band.  Would
this make the piece a popular composition? I think not.  The violin at an
early stage had a bad reputation as being an instruments for rogues and
rakes, and similarly with band instruments it how they are played that
determines whether the music is that of a more popular style or not.  What
instruments are being used cannot be used as a formula for determining the
artistic worth of music.

Even more fundamentally I think that in reality no such uniform homogeneous
entity such as "Classical Music" exists.  It is another facile utilitarian
pigeon hole which serves to direct people to the right section of the music
store where we find Bingen (Hildegard von), and Boulez filed together
because they happen to both have names starting with 'B'.  A better term
would be Art Music were the main dividing line is drawn however arbitrarily
between music which in German is called "Hoermusik" (listening music) where
the main event is the music itself as opposed to either "Begleitmusik"
(accompanying or background music) or "Tanzmusik" (dance music) where the
music is of secondary importance to some other main event.

Certainly by this definition some Medieval popular music which is often
revived by early music groups will fail to fall into the category of Art
Music, as will most of the waltz music composed for the masses in the late
19th century.  So be it.  The same thing goes for operetta and probably the
majority of the music composed for Broadway.  But if someone were to argue
that some of the music from Miles Davis' electrical jazz-rock fusion period
should count as Art Music I am not so sure I would too strongly object on
the other hand.  I must mention that Stockhausen has arranged at least one
of his compositions for an electric rock band type of instrumentation.

Lastly I need to mention the fact the there is a huge body of world
music in which there is no strong accompanying rhythmic beat.  Does this
immediately make this music "Classical Music" I wonder? I don't think it
necessarily does.

In conclusion I will argue that it is only the profundity and depth of the
musical argument not the sonority or instrumentation that separates Art
Music from popular forms.

Satoshi Akima
Sydney, Australia
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