Classical music

Cerneu

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Aug 19, 2019
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Am I the only one who finds it anachronistic for a bronze age culture to use terms like "classical music"? Wasn't that term invented in modern times to differentiate modern music from older styles? Is this scene implying rock & roll music exists elsewhere in the world?
 

WolframL

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Feb 12, 2020
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'Classical' can be a relative term as well as referring to a particular period in the development of western music which was heavily influenced by the movement known as Neoclassicism. Senja's probably playing either old Belharan music or a modern attempt to emulate aspects associated with it; don't overthink it.
 
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Cerneu

Well-Known Member
Aug 19, 2019
55
101
'Classical' can be a relative term as well as referring to a particular period in the development of western music which was heavily influenced by the movement known as Neoclassicism. Senja's probably playing either old Belharan music or a modern attempt to emulate aspects associated with it; don't overthink it.
I think it would have been much more immersive if the text had said that she's playing Belharan music (if that is indeed the music she's playing).

"Classica" simply gives me the wrong idea. It implies there exists "modern music" along with "modern instruments". But a violin is already heads above other bronze age instruments. In fact, the violin is a distant descendant of the Byzantine lyra.
 
Oh it most undoubtedly was written with the idea that they're playing something along the lines of our own world's classical music. There's, well, a whole lot of things that make zero sense referred to as they are without the context and origins from our own history behind them. Some much more glaring than this, you've got a couple mentions of 'gunboat diplomacy' floating around for instance, in a world that lacks firearms.

Most people will honestly not even question this instance, and Wolf proposed an acceptable hand wave here with it just being old empire music, so as much as the worldbuilding critiqueslave in me wants to grumble a bit, I'd say it's not that big of an issue.
 

Cerneu

Well-Known Member
Aug 19, 2019
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101
Most people will honestly not even question this instance, and Wolf proposed an acceptable hand wave here with it just being old empire music, so as much as the worldbuilding critiqueslave in me wants to grumble a bit, I'd say it's not that big of an issue.
It indeed isn't really such a big deal, nevertheless I think it would felt less lazy had Belharan music been namedropped instead of a non-descriptive and anachronistic "classical music".