#alkan

Alkan: Etude Op.39‑7 in E‑flat minor

Piano: Masaya Kamei

Recital: Supported by MUFG Wealth Management

Date: Sep 9, 2025

How important do you think it is to categorise historical eras or artistic movements like the Romantic era? Do you think these kinds of categorisations are arbitrary or do you think they have some use?

Good evening my dear pupil.

I suppose all categorisations - or the vast majority of them - are next to totally arbitrary, but this does not entail that they share no use. To name a specific kind of art basing oneself solely on the time period it was produced in, such as Medieval art, can narrow one's view of the period itself, but it is in some cases a necessary evil, as it would be far too extenuating to always refer singular artists or composers... Such as I usually do.

The only generalisation I tend to believe in (and understand) is regarding the spirit of the Nations and its people. Art movements which define themselves with a manifesto are not generalised by the name they choose but they become defined by supposed name.

Nevertheless vast categories can be useful to study the evolution of the arts and such things. This is material for historians, musicologists and the such.