Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, Brahms, Chopin, etc. When one says "classical music composers", these are the names that immediately come to mind. Check out this list: The 20 Best Classical Composers Of All Time. Don't they have something in common? Yes! They're all European.
Most people (and that means people from West to East) know the classical music composers. They can even pick their favorite classical composition. Moonlight Sonata, Für Elise, etc.
Are their any time-honored non-European classical composers?
To answer this question, do you have to redefine or expand what kind of music goes under the umbrella for “classical music” (based on a European definition for classical music) and then think of some composers who are not European who created music pieces that would be considered classical?
In various online communities there are some discussion threads on this topic.
There is a discussion thread on Quora where commenters supplied names of people from Australia, America, Canada, Mexico, Japan, etc.
Check out this response below generated by ChatGPT:
There are many non-European classical music composers that are worth checking out. Some examples include:
Béla Bartók from Hungary
Samuel Barber from the United States
Heitor Villa-Lobos from Brazil
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky from Russia
Ravi Shankar from India
A. R. Rahman from India
Osvaldo Golijov from Argentina
Tan Dun from China
Bright Sheng from China
Kaija Saariaho from Finland
In another discussion forum, one of the commenters said there’s “no such thing as non-European classical music”.
In addition to the discussion forums, numerous articles explore the topic.
There is an article that discusses black composers (i.e. African-Americans) who deserve to be acknowledged for their skill as musicians and musical composers but they were not. 10 black composers who changed the course of classical music history -Classic FM
There is an article (dated 2017) that talks about a generation of young composers who seek to totally redefine “classical music”. 10 Young Composers Who Are Redefining Classical Music. They use the term "indie-classical" and "contemporary classical music". One composer received a Grammy Award nomination for “Best Classical Compendium in 2014.
Finally, I found two more articles that were contrast and compare:
Another article compared 15 classical music traditions and talked about “non-Western classical music”, pointing to classical music traditions of Southeast Asia, North India, Iran, and other non-Western parts of the world. Depending on what part of the world, these musical traditions determine the type of music that is around the world worthy of the title “classical music”:
It gets very complicated. The bottom line (or at least the conclusion I drew) is one culture does not get to decide for the other culture what's "classical".
So the answer to the question "Are their any time-honored non-European classical composers?" is ... ________.
It appears the Westerners developed its own concept of "classical music", and it became widely accepted. Then non-Western culture developed "its own concept of ‘classical’ and many employ criteria similar to the European ones, though usually with the additional function of symbolizing national culture…"
According to what you accept as classical music, the answer is NO, if you stick with the European definition and YES, if you go beyond the European definition by redefining and expanding the type of music included under this umbrella.
Isn't the research for this topic absolutely fascinating?
Why MY interest in this subject?
Music is present in every culture anywhere on planet earth. It is this commonality that usually contributes to opening a door to developing an understanding and an acceptance of other people. OK … I’ll stretch it … it could even help with peacemaking or peacekeeping endeavors. If you want to establish a dialogue with people you don’t know … music is a really good ice-breaker or conversation starter.
Don’t you think so?
Why classical music? I think classical music is sort of universal as opposed to the other music genres. I said … I THINK.
What do you think?
Thanks for reading.
