Antecedent
No prior reading is required. However, this article is intended for readers interested with classical music.
Emergence
I have been listening to classical music intermittently for around a whole year. While listening to these pieces, I realized that I was trying to figure out my own standards for judging which pieces are better than others. After some reverse engineering of my own taste, I have managed to establish a written form of my personal criteria.
Stabilization
Before reading my criteria, keep in mind that I have primarily listened to piano compositions, such as solo pieces and piano concertos. Also, I do not have any formal background in music theory or other detailed musical fields. Therefore, these criteria are based on a narrow and limited dataset. I am always open to revising my rules as I study and listen more.
Here are the written rules. Although aesthetics must leave space for a portion of vagueness, I have tried my best to make them as objective as possible.
- Inevitability
- Catharsis or Sentimentality
- Complexity
The list has a hierarchy: for example, satisfying the third standard is meaningless if the piece poorly fails to satisfy the second or the first ones. However, for a little weakness in a high-priority standard, it can be compensated by the satisfaction of the lower-priority ones. Now, let me clarify each one of them.
First, inevitability simply means how 'natural' a piece feels as you listen to it. If there is a piece you have listened to only a few times in its entirety and have managed to remember the melodies and structure, it probably has high inevitability. This doesn't mean the piece is trivial; if it were, it would fail the third standard (Complexity). One example of a piece that has high inevitability is the Goldberg Variations by Johann Sebastian Bach.
Next, catharsis or sentimentality has a special structure. It is enough to satisfy only one of them, but it must satisfy that one greatly. Catharsis is when the piece contains a certain part that excites you. A good proxy for this can be the climactic Cadenza in many piano concertos, like that of the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1. Sentimentality is about how the overall mood of the music stimulates your emotion and successfully delivers the composer's intention. Think about Clair de Lune by Claude Debussy.
The lowest-priority standard is complexity. Even if the melody is fascinating, the piece should not simply repeat it again and again too much time. That makes it very boring to listen to. I prefer pieces that have transitions between segments and construct their own story. Listen to the Ballade No. 4 in F minor, Op. 52 by Frédéric Chopin.
Convergence
Those are my conclusions on how I judge whether pieces are good or bad. These criteria will gain more exceptions and details as I listen and study more. I will later post some articles about specific pieces and my appreciation of them based on these criteria.
Descendant
No more related particles, yet.
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