# Proper collective noun for "classical" music?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proper-collective-noun-for-classical-music/131405
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [October 8, 2002, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proper-collective-noun-for-classical-music/131405 "2002-10-08T18:24:22Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2002, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proper-collective-noun-for-classical-music/131405/1 "2002-10-08T18:24:22Z")
This is one of those things that bugs me. Is there a proper collective to use when we’re talking about “classical” music. I’m not a music major or anything, but I know that Classical (or Neoclassical, which I suppose could be the really correct term) is nothing like the Baroque, or the Romantic, or atonal Glass pieces, or the soundtrack to Star Wars, etc. Instrumental seems unwieldy, but it’s the best I’ve been able to come up with.
Any ideas?
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### Author:  [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2002, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proper-collective-noun-for-classical-music/131405/2 "2002-10-08T18:39:11Z")
I call it “art music,” which means that no one understands what I’m talking about until I say “You know, CLASSICAL.”
I swiped it from “art song,” the usual term for something like Schubert’s _lieder_, which is used to differentiate it from a popular or folk song.
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### Author:  [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2002, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proper-collective-noun-for-classical-music/131405/3 "2002-10-08T18:58:25Z")
Instrumental would be too all-emcompassing. _Green Onions_ by Booker T. and the M.G.s is an instrumental.
I’ve heard the term “orchestral” used, but that is a narrow term, too. It would not cover such things as chamber music and piano concerti. Still, it does cover a great deal.
FWIW, most people understand that most people don’t use the term “classical music” to refer _just_ to what is properly referred to as classical music.