Who’s better? Who’s best? Mozart or Madonna? Dvořák or Dizzee Rascal? Beethoven or the Beatles? Prague is home not only to a world-renowned club scene but equally to a fine tradition of classical music, with many more orchestras than its size might suggest. It would appear that both forms of music exist happily side-by-side. Underneath the surface, though, there are clear divides, with the clubbers likely to dub the classicists posh, elitist and old, while many classical aficionados have never heard of dub. If one believes no form of music can be better than any other, then maybe this divide doesn’t matter. Each to his own. But can we truly understand music unless we try to make judgements of quality?

Aesthetic theories have always tended to promote a certain ranking of the arts. For existentialists theatre was the best; for Aristotle the tragic; for Plato music (good music at least) could bring a soul into harmony from discord. It can be argued that if we are to understand what is special about any particular art form, we have to be open to the possibility that one form might be better than another. So might classical music be better than modern music? Or is it the other way round? What would be involved in making such a claim? The superficial health of classical music in cities like Vienna, Berlin and Prague tells us little about whether or not it is a thriving tradition. After all, many of those listening to performances are the elderly or tourists brought in by young musicians dressed as period Mozarts. Do we even really understand what counts as ‘classical’ today? It can be hard to draw a line between Bach, Schoenberg and John Cage. Is postwar classical music the same thing as before? Is it still in the same tradition?

What about contemporary claims that one does not need to read music to be a musician? That it might be just as easy, just as hard, to be a rock star as a concert pianist? Do both require as much work, training and discipline? Does it matter? Is pop just play while classical demands commitment?  What would pop, rock and rap be without the vocals? Is pop ephemeral, the classical, well, classic? Does the relatively longer tradition of classical music represent just a quantitative or a qualitative difference? Might it be the case that modern music simply hasn’t been around long enough to build up the same tradition, the same critical appreciation, around it? But that it will over time? Does classical music retain any claim to be simply the best?