Other Classical Cultures
The word classical can also be used to refer to other cultures, by analogy with classical antiquity and classical music. Examples of this usage include:
- Classical language, a dead or archaic language comparable to classical Latin. This normally means it has a literature that is considered classical, it is associated with a golden age, it was spoken by high-status people or it is considered to be ordered. Examples illustrating this are given below:
- Classical Arabic is the Arabic language in which the Qur'an is written
- Classical Nahuatl is the language spoken by Aztec nobles in the Valley of Mexico at the time of the 16th-century Spanish conquest
- Classical French is the French language as systematised in the 17th and 18th centuries
- Four Great Classical Novels, considered to be the greatest and most influential in Chinese fiction
- The list of classical music styles gives many styles of music considered classical.
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Famous quotes containing the words classical and/or cultures:
“Compare the history of the novel to that of rock ‘n’ roll. Both started out a minority taste, became a mass taste, and then splintered into several subgenres. Both have been the typical cultural expressions of classes and epochs. Both started out aggressively fighting for their share of attention, novels attacking the drama, the tract, and the poem, rock attacking jazz and pop and rolling over classical music.”
—W. T. Lhamon, U.S. educator, critic. “Material Differences,” Deliberate Speed: The Origins of a Cultural Style in the American 1950s, Smithsonian (1990)
“Both cultures encourage innovation and experimentation, but are likely to reject the innovator if his innovation is not accepted by audiences. High culture experiments that are rejected by audiences in the creator’s lifetime may, however, become classics in another era, whereas popular culture experiments are forgotten if not immediately successful. Even so, in both cultures innovation is rare, although in high culture it is celebrated and in popular culture it is taken for granted.”
—Herbert J. Gans (b. 1927)