If most music lovers were asked to identify the defining characteristics of their favorite genre'jazz, folk, rock, hip-hop'I would guess that they might simply say, 'Well, it sounds a certain way.' It's music, they might go on, that tends to have a particular rhythmic feel, or that usually features, say, the saxophone, or the electric guitar, or the sitar. Presented with exceptions to these patterns'what about a cappella jazz ensembles' what about 'unplugged' rock albums''most listeners would likely offer some variant of I know it when I hear it! But, counterintuitive though it might seem, I don't think sound is always a helpful way to understand genre. I'm a composer and conductor in the field that's broadly known as Western classical music, a term that's routinely applied to radically different idioms across more than 1,000 years of musical history. Within this huge array, you'll find the engulfing sonorities of William Byrd's choral music; the intimate revelations, too private...
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