Classical Music Is Not for Relaxing

Finals week is next week, so this week has been mostly review week.  In my history class to-day, my professor told us to work on our study guides, and he turned on some classical music station on Pandora.  Near the end of class, he asked if it helped.  I didn't hear if anyone answered, although I guess somebody must have said something because then my professor said that that's why classical music is good to study to - you don't know any of the songs and you can't sing along.  Of the pieces that were played, the only one I was even sort of familiar with was the fourth movement of Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 5 (I had to listen to the whole symphony afterwards to find what specific movement it was, which was only the second time I've heard the whole symphony).

I don't think he's wrong about people's not being familiar with classical music, but I sort of want him to be.  Not because I want to see his being wrong but because people should be familiar with classical music.  Because it's great.

Recently, I've started to get sort of annoyed with this premise - that classical music is good only for studying or relaxing.  I think it's a stupid view.  People didn't write this music just so that you would have something to listen to in the background while you're studying for your finals.  Relaxation probably wasn't the highest priority they had either.

This may be where my rôle as a writer/composer supersedes my rôle as a listener, but I think that if you look to classical music only for relaxation, you're missing out on a huge part of it.

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