Putting things into different genres is a common practice in contemporary life, particularly in the music industry. I took a course about reinventing classical music this semester, and there was a notion I found especially intriguing and profound that is fluid genres.
As a recorder player, I enjoy playing music across centuries, from Medieval all the way up to contemporary music. I am particularly into the world of so-called early music, which is music from the 15th century or before, sometimes including music from the Baroque period (1600–1750). But musical terminologies like those mentioned above are utterly vague to non-music players. There is no way that people can accurately know the style of such music and how they sound like.
Everything is relative.
Renaissance music, which is categorised as early music, comes relatively earlier and is older than Baroque music, but at the same time, it comes later than Medieval music. Early music? There is always earlier music. Contemporary music? Are they still contemporary music decades or even centuries later? Therefore, it is plain to see that musical genres, particularly those created chronologically, are, to a certain extent, meaningless.
Admittedly, I cannot altogether deny all of their values. Grouping pieces of music that are in a similar style together indeed makes exploration of music simpler for people. But people have to recognise that there are flaws in such a system. No genre is one-hundred-per-cent fit to include hundreds or even thousands of pieces of music. Every piece of music is unique and has its characteristics and style. Thus, categorising music by grouping music from a close time is not the ideal way for music lovers to explore more music that they like. Genres are fluid and have to be fluid. Some are insisting that having a fixed frame is acceptable but it is never the optimal remedy to currently existing issues. People might lose the opportunity of encountering new music that they like.
A friend of mine loves so-called pop music and contemporary music because of their rich, complex rhythms and metres. I once introduced him to try to listen to some intriguing Renaissance music. What he replied to me was no way. “How can old music like those be interesting?” I was desperately gutted, but within seconds, I defend Renaissance music by directly showing him the videos of famous recorder ensembles, Sour Cream and The Royal Wind Music. The trio, Sour Cream, specialises in playing Renaissance music that has complicated metres and rhythms, e.g. Nathaniel Giles’ Salvator Mundi (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3DpCkUicRc).
My friend’s reaction was fun because he shook his head in disbelief! I was then full of satisfaction as he fell in love with the music instantly. But after the whole thing, I could not help start to think of why such things happen all the time. Such stereotypes are all due to the misunderstanding of musical genres. The concept of fluid genres is so critical so as to remove stereotypes. I do hope more people can understand that so that they can enjoy and explore more music, hopefully creating a better world for both music lovers and performers.
