What is Post-Classical music?

rsl12 · 2026-04-25T16:45:09+00:00

I'm starting a new thread for this. ShiroKuro Do you want suggestions for post-classical added to the suggestion form, or do you want some online discussion...

WieWaldi

rsl12 Yes - I asked AI and they did a differentation between both term. In this case, post classical seems to be the best one.

TC3

I think the website linked in the first post has as good a definition of any. As long as we stipulate what we mean by it for the purposes of the suggestion box, I don't think it's a debate we have to settle for the ages. 🙂

MarieJ

TC3, rsl12 I agree, the website linked in the first post discusses the diffiulties and comes up with post-classical music as the best working definition for the genre. So I think 'post-classical' fits well enough here. (We could narrow it down to 'post-classical piano' - but on this site 'piano' is a given.) 😊

ShiroKuro

rogerch I care more about the music than the label

This is of course the answer!!

Although we do need something to label the PIYW genre 😅

Anyway it seems like the consensus is leaning toward post-classical, which I think is the best choice, so that’s nice 😁

rsl12

If consensus has been reached (that the old decision was happily the best decision) then I'll take this opportunity to request suggestions for post-classical pieces in the suggestion box (and, for that matter, classical pieces, since we will be voting on that even sooner!). Thanks for all your feedback!

ShiroKuro

FYI for anyone planning to add suggestions: I filled out the form for Einaudi pieces Nuvole Bianche and I Giorni, and Ffrench piece Bluebird.

I can come back and a few other pieces later… probably by a few more composers.

Btw @rsl12 I forgot to add that Nuvole Bianche means white clouds.

ShiroKuro

Coming back to this thread… the other day,I was looking at the website of a new-to-me pianist/composer, and I noticed that he called himself “post minimalist.”

I have to confess, that label just seemed silly to me.

If you’re curious, here’s the piece. I thought it was quite nice, and very much fits with Alexis Ffrench and other contemporary pianists.

Blazer d’Estate, by Andrea Vanzo:

What do you all think, would you call that minimalist? Or post minimalist? Maybe I need to rethink my own definition, or understanding, of minimalism…

Anyway, I’m good with calling Mr. Vanzo post classical. 😃

And I still like this label (post classical) because I feel like it is more inclusive of the wide set of contempary piano compositions….

So @rsl12 do you still need more suggestions for the the post classical PIYW?

rsl12

ShiroKuro So @rsl12 do you still need more suggestions for the the post classical PIYW?

Well...every single post-classical suggestion in the suggestion box is from you! You don't need to add any more, and if no one else does, there's still a good variety for the vote. Thank you for asking!

ShiroKuro What do you all think, would you call that minimalist?

It doesn't sound minimalist at all! If post-minimalist means "more than minimal" then maybe the definition makes some sense.

All these composers need to come together and create a good name for themselves. Or I guess record companies do this kind of thing all the time. How can they all not have come to a consensus already?

KevinM

That 3/4 beat of the left hand is reminiscent of Ffrench’s simplest pieces. Bluebird, Moments and Wishing.

Love the animation. I have been thinking about what I could do to provide some visual that is not my hands playing the piano. I like what was done here.

ShiroKuro

KevinM That 3/4 beat of the left hand is reminiscent of Ffrench’s simplest pieces. Bluebird, Moments and Wishing.

Yes I thought so too. He has a few other waltzes with the same LH and unfortunately it gets old fast.

As for the visualizer, and getting old! I was thinking the same, my videos for the last year maybe are always the same, slightly off kilter overhead angle. 😅

ShiroKuro

rsl12 every single post-classical suggestion in the suggestion box is from you!

Oopsies! 😅 I won't add any more then! Maybe @KevinM has some suggestions?

rsl12 It doesn't sound minimalist at all!

Ok good then it wasn't just my imagination!

All these composers need to come together and create a good name for themselves.

Ye they do!

Although I've been using the term "post classical" a lot lately, and it seems to "land" - you know what I mean. For example, there's a cellist (classically trained) I'm planning to play with during the summer, and we were talking about what to play, and I used the term "post classical" and that genre label seemed to work well.

KevinM

I've now added a few pieces though all from stuff I've learnt previously. I am mostly not on the lookout for post classical music, I think I am more classical and romantic era leaning. But if I hear post classical music from a movie or series that I like the sound of or something ShiroKuro has played then I do like to give it a go if I can.

ShiroKuro

KevinM romantic

I often think a lot of post classical is perhaps most closely aligned with romantic or impressionist music.

This is probably why I prefer the label “pat classical” to calling it minimalist, which I think of as a very different genre.

Sophia

I think sometimes it has been referred to as elevator music? Because it's music meant to make you feel good, everyone seems to like it and it prevents the ones riding the elevator to hear each other breathe. Not to mention the calming effect it has when it gets a little too crowded 😆

ShiroKuro

Sophia I usually think of elevator music as either a particular type of soft rock/popular music, or else multi-instrument instrumental music that sounds vaguely processed and synthesized. Whatever that means! 😁

That reminds me of another label, that I rarely hear any more, which is easy listening. Which I associate with 1970s smooth rock.

I cannot for the life of me think of any examples, but I bet if one was playing right now, I could sing all the lyrics! 😁

WieWaldi

Sophia I think sometimes it has been referred to as elevator music?

Elevator music? No. If I think about elevator music, it is The Girl from Ipanema, which is a Bossa Nova.

Sophia

Haha perhaps you are right. I believe the term "new age" was already mentioned, which is what I associate the type of music with as well.

Perhaps only somewhat related, but isn't that the sort of music that Dan Gibson used for his Solitudes series? In the early days of CDs, I remember that every record shop had one of those columns with very pretty CD covers, and you could push a button to listen to a sample. We have quite a number of them because my husband is very very fond of that type of music. I think one is called Pianoscapes. Now I will suggest we listen to that during tonight's dinner 🤣

ShiroKuro

Sophia Dan Gibson

Oh my gosh! I didn’t recognize the name, so I googled.

And yes, I would call that “new age.” If anything is new age, that is. If has the synths and the nature sounds, all of it.

Contemporary solo piano music these days is usually piano only, so that’s one big difference. And that is why I prefer the term post classical for this, the kind of music I play. 😅

WieWaldi

Coming back to the main topic, what is post classical music?
Actually, I don't like terms like "post", "new", "neo", "modern". They all are referring to something else, together with indicating something is the latest. Especially this "it is the latest" indication makes little sense for describing a music genre. Time will go on and new music styles will evolve. Just imagine in the year 2121 people will say: "one hundred years back there was the era of new age composers". In 100 years "new age" isn't new anymore.
Same happened at the end of last millennium with Microsoft and Windows NT (=New Technology). For today standards, Windows NT is an old hat. Luckily nobody talks about WinNT anymore, and the abbreviation hides its meaning. But with a music genre it is different. It won't be forgotten, just because other genres evolved. And it doesn't hide its meaning behind an abbreviation.

If you ask me, I'd prefer a term like "contemporary" over something like "new age" or "post classical" any day.

Sophia

Ok a little more seriously now 😄

WieWaldi If you ask me, I'd prefer a term like "contemporary" over something like "new age" or "post classical" any day

Actually I think post classical would be better according to your own explanation. Because classical music is very clear what era and genre we are talking about, except for some fringe semantics.

So post classical would be the era that comes afterwards, and this will be as true 100 years from now as it is today.

Whereas contemporary means something different then than it does now.

ShiroKuro

WieWaldi what is post classical music?

I like the term post classical because the music being described uses basically the same piano technique as classical playing, but is stylistically different. I also think of it as more "post classical-genre" rather than "post classical-era."

I used to say "contemporary solo piano" a lot, but people never really seemed to know what I meant. Since this topic has come up here, I've seen using "post classical" more and people seem to kind of intuitively get what it means.

So to me, that's a sign that this label "lands."

WieWaldi

Sophia Maybe you are right, and I had a big mistake in my logic. But to my defense:
How should I know what I think before I read what I have written?

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