Musical Canons

This chapter analyzes the process by which separate musical canons emerged during the nineteenth century, dividing musical culture along lines still in existence today. Musical life expanded in both economic and aesthetic terms, creating a set of separate worlds governed by contrasting taste and cultural authority: orchestral and chamber music; operas in contrasting genres; and popular songs sung in public and private contexts. These cultural worlds developed separate canons and canonic repertories which interacted through competing ideologies. The opera world, which emerged as the main economic base of musical life, ended up focused on a repertory of old works in diverse genres. The classical music world took higher ground intellectually, with concerts by orchestras, string quartets, and vocal or instrumental. Popular music concerts related closely with the opera world, but developed their own events in the English music halls, French café-concerts, and German Variety shows.