How did classical music survive until today?

Question

How was it recorded and how do people know what to play when they make recordings?

I meant on a physical basis

Answer 1

Most of classical music that we know, record and admire today come from the efforts of those who persevere to preserve the music from the first day they were published. You can say that libraries, public and personal, played a huge part in keeping the music scores safe and sound.

Other than that, the publishing houses played an integral part in the survival of these classical music. These publishing houses hold copyright over the music for a few years until the music fell out of popularity. Mendelssohn was said to have found part of Bach's lost music while buying some meat at a butcher, and that sparked the revival movement of Bach music.

Another thing is the existence of autograph copies. Most music can be authenticated from these copies, but some can only be taken on face value, i.e. the musical style, notation, even preliminary sketches. However the best authentication comes from autographed music scores. This ensures that the particular piece really was composed by that person. So, those are the ways these music scores were recorded in paper throughout history.

Before records came along, piano rolls were also popular as a form of musical records. (By the way, recorded music do not come into existence until Thomas Edison perfected the phonogram.)

As for how the pieces are played, well, it comes down to good music education. You have to be able to 'read' the music in order to know how it sounds. The music scores are packed with the composers' directions - where to stress, where to play it softly our loudly, or where to pull out all the stops. That is how people know what to play when they make recordings.

Answer 2

The way I see it, classical, popular, and folk music serve three different purposes and are at three different levels of simplicity.

Classical music is the most complex.
So classical music can survive the most repetitions.
Therefore, classical music is the longest lasting.

Popular music is less complex.
Popular music is simple enough to appeal to the listener the first time, complex enough to enough a short life span, but not complex enough for immortality.

Folk music is the simplest.
Folk music has to be simple enough to be transmitted without the aid of musical notation.

Answer 3

People know what to perform because they feel it. You can't tell someone what to do, they have to know it themselves. For example, when a violinist plans a recital, their present technique and dexterity determines what they are capable of doing,and even their teacher can't tell them how hard they must practice to get it right. They have to know it themselves.
As far as the survival of the genre, it happens because to this present day, people still recognize the beauty of the emotion that generated it in it's conception. The average on-the-street illiterate does not see it, but that is not what generated it to begin with. And that is not what keeps it alive. Someone who needs to deafen himself by listening to mindless rap crap does not comprehend the I-have-to-strain to hear it depth of mind needed to enjoy To God Alone the Glory Bach concepts.

Answer 4

Because it was written down using musical notation. We even have many of the original manuscripts relating to the compositions of Bach , Beethoven and Mozart.

Here is an image of Bach's Chaconne for violin.

http://www.jsbach.net/images/chaconne.html

Answer 5

classical music survives because it is good - good sounding and good to listen too

Answer 6

good music is timeless