The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music notes: How can classical music be more relevant to contemporary culture? | May 2, 2010
By Jacob Stockinger
I guess great beauty just isn’t enough to be relevant these days.
So for the past couple of decades, everyone — and especially record company executives and arts presenters — have been asking: How can classical music be more relevant to the culture of today?
What they often really mean is: How can we fill empty seats and draw bigger audiences and make more money?
And frankly, I like classical music as a welcome refuge or sanctuary from so much of today’s culture, which strikes me as pretty crass and commercial. It’s the same reason I prefer documentaries to Hollywood action movies.
Still, there are indeed legitimate questions about the marginalizing of classical music.
Is the solution to program more staples form the canon? Or more adventurous works from contemporary composers?
Anyway, I came across this story , which I found interesting and hope you do too.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/ct-live-0429-classical-20100429,0,7736647.story
At least in Madison classical music seems plenty relevant, judging from the number of gorups and concerts that take place in a given season or year — and how well attended they have been overall, even during a severe economic downturn.
What do you think?
How can classical music be more relevant to today’s culture?
And to today’s young people?
Do we need more staples and canonical works, say Beethoven’s symphonies and concertos?
Or should we emphasize more modern and contemporary works by, say, Philip Glass and John Adams?
More crossover concerts by, say, banjo player Bela Fleck, bassist Edgar Meyer or violinist Mark O’Connor?
More education in the schools and by performing arts groups?
What’s the solution to get more people to attend classical music events and to develop a lifelong love of classical music?
The Ear wants to hear.
14 Comments »
Personally, I think the crossover idea is the solution. Meyer, Fleck, and O’Connor are great examples and can bring folks from the BlueGrass and Jazz worlds into the classical world. Classical music does have a bad rap as being an elitist enterprise.
What about having Friday night concerts where everyone, including the players dresses up in jeans. Include some intriguing lighting… encourage the players to be a little more demonstrative with their instruments, and encourage some talking from the stage to interact with the audience, from the conductors, players and even living composers.
Comment by Ralph Kendrick — January 18, 2011 @ 9:59 am
Hi Ralph,
Thank you for reading and replying.
You make good points about good ideas.
Let’s see what other listeners and maybe even some performers have to say.
Best,
Jake
Comment by welltemperedear — January 18, 2011 @ 10:17 am
This is an extremely interesting, thoughtful, and worthy debate regarding classical music and today’s youth. All commentaries are lucid, practical, and encouraging despite the dismay that Hannah, I, and many others have by seeing young students dump on serious music in favor of hip-hop garbage. One person mentioned the promotion and further use of individuals who have a “different” take on the classics and they mentioned Bela Fleck.
This guy is an absolutely amazing musician. I’d never heard of him until living in Southern California and a potential purchaser of furniture at my house mentioned Fleck. Apparently, he’d recently appeared in San Diego and the possible customer suggested a Fleck CD which I subsequently bought. Aside from his attention getting “Bartok” given name, he has to be the greatest–perhaps the ONLY–musician doing serious repertoire on a banjo. He appeared in Madison this past year. Working nights, I was unable to attend his concert, but once you hear this fellow apply his banjo to Beethoven’s “Moonlight” Sonata, you’ll never feel the same about country hill-billys strumming & picking again.
It reminds me a great deal of a dear friend, former Dean of Northwestern University’s Music School, Bernie Dobroski. After initially flunking my doctoral orals, when I passed Bernie treated me to dinner at Chicago’s Playboy Club. I’d never been to a Playboy Club before or since and can’t recall the menu, but the bunnies were sure attention getters. After lunch Bernie, invited me to his apartment to hear him play accordion.
My attitude toward the “squeeze-box” had pretty much been limited to an amusing acceptance of tunes like “Lady of Spain,” so I was a tad less than enthusiastic, but to be civil, I agreed to Bernie’s invitation. You can imagine my amazement when he whipped out his instrument and started playing Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. I was totally floored.
As most of you know, most great college music school dean’s are professional keyboard or violin artists. Bernie’s major instruments are tuba and accordion which is a fair indication of his sense of humor but the guy is one of THE most intelligent persons I’ve ever known and he knows the serious literature like nobody else. Initially, Dean of the U of OR Music School, he was one of some 60 applicants when Northwestern U’s Music School deanship opened up and very successfully ran NU’s school for some 20 years.
So, like Hannah and some others, I’m not terribly encouraged by the high school kids I encounter as a substitute teacher, but I suppose if we keep plugging serious music, at least some of them will . . . eventually get it.
Comment by Larry Retzack — October 16, 2010 @ 10:07 am
I’ve been following the dialogue back and forth, and have a somewhat different perspective.
First, thanks for providing the Chicago Tribune article, which I thought was dead-on, both in the analysis of the decline, and the prescription for the future. I was not surprised to hear that the significant decline began in the late 1960s — that was the era when ALL Western values were rejected by a significant segment of the Baby Boomers, and Classical Music was right up there with things to be vilified (along with Jazz, I might add!).
In music, though, there was actually an enormous surge of new means of expression in the late 60s — percussion and guitar-based, predominantly, and aided immeasurably by the utter revolution in electronic possibilities — that continues to the present day. Also, much of the “poetry” of that era was communicated in conjunction with the emergence of the new “popular” musical expression of the late ’60s — and that also continues until now.
The article implies (and I agree) that roughly two generations were simply lost to Classical Music — I would say because of the distinct prejudice spawned against it in the late ’60s. But, as he indicates, there is now a new generation of younger musicians who are now capable of being empathetic to the best efforts of BOTH “Classical” and “Popular,” and actually apply neither demonization nor condescension to either category.
Briefly put, I don’t expect Classical Music to grow — but I don’t expect it to die, either — like I did 40 years ago.
Comment by Tim Adrianson — May 9, 2010 @ 7:06 am
Hi Ron,
It’s true there are organizations and programs for young people and classical music. But it is also true that classical music is drowned by pop music; and that you don’t see a lot of young people in regular audiences; and that music education in public schools is being cut back.
I think the real issue that has been being argued or discussed back and forth has to do with early exposure from families (such as you had) and the systematic curtailment of the attention span on young people.
Journalism is really tangential except to the degree that they too, and the media, have cut back on coverage of classical music in favor of music that gets better ratings.
But that is another discussion for another day.
Jake
Comment by welltemperedear — May 9, 2010 @ 9:16 pm
Hi Tim,
Thanks for reading and writing.
You make some interesting and thought-provoking points.
I too tend to think that the situation is neither as hopeful as some would wish nor as dire as many project.
Some things one just grows into because they appeal to different values at different stages of life. I have a nephew who was into rock of all kinds and other popular music, then blues, and is now avidly exploring classical music and finding it deeper and more rewarding that he ever thought possible.
So yes, there is hope. But we still need outreach and education programs, and we need to expose young people to classical music in the schools.
Thanks for your kind words and your thoughtful analysis.
Jake
Comment by welltemperedear — May 9, 2010 @ 9:23 pm
Hannah, you are absolutely right. Faith is a great thing, especially when coupled with action.
I also think, there is a time for everything. Depending on my mood, sometimes, I want to hear some jazz, soemtimes some good old 80′s song, or maybe Dvorak, Tchaikovsky, and some times nothing but Stravinsky or Sibelius can fill my brain. It’s a good thing to have variety.
The problem is that this new generation have limited choice.. for any mood, they are limited to one or 2 generes of music. Thats why I think rebranding of classical music is essential. Already there is music for healing, music for meditation, and music for concetration, and music for babies mental development, and in all these classical music excels.
BTW, thank you for your comments on my music. If you like I can send you a Tunepack so you can download a few compositions. I can post it here, but perhaps it is better if you can send me your e-mail address, or tweet me on http://twitter.com/jeanpaulzoghbi
best wishes
Jean Paul
Comment by Music for the Imagination — May 7, 2010 @ 1:42 am
I totally agree with Hannah, and I’m quite impressed by her insight. At least this gave me hope that, there exsits someone of her age, that still uses his brain and make an effort to cultivate its capabilities. (Thank you, Hannah).
For me, the brain is just like a muscle (though much more sophisticated); the more you nurture it, the more it grows. Someone famous once said we only use 10% of our total brain capacity, but the more we enage it with thoughtfull imaginative exercises the greater the potential. Life will be lived more fully with a highly sophisticated mature brain. The whole world would look positively different.
The problem with this generation, as Hanna pointed out, is that they are generally too lazy to be involved in anything that requires any mental effort. But like any muscle, the brain, if you dont use it, you loose it.
One of the things I find to be very mentally satisfying is classical music, (real music, not repetitive noise). From a very young age, I give credit for having quite a good imagination (I’m told) to my early exposure to classical music. Nowadays, I am trying to repay the gratitude back, by composing orchestral music that specifically paints an image or mood and serves to enhance the imagination.
Perhaps this is one way to make younger people attend classical events more. The music has to be re-branded. We all watch a movie to be entertained (movies are branded for entertainment); we socialize to kill the time (and have fun with friends — friends are branded time-killers); we read a book to educate ourselves (books are branded educational); young people listen to hip-hop or heavy metal either because they think it makes them look/feel cool, or they just go along with the flow out of peer pressure.
If classical music can be branded as a tool to enhance the imagination, then perhaps more people whould be willing to give it a try. And once they do, they will most likely fall in love with it.
I’m not sure if all this makes sense, but that’s what I am actualy trying to do with my music.
Comment by Jean Paul Z. — May 3, 2010 @ 5:57 am
Firstly, thank you Jean Paul! It makes me happy to know that there are people who still have some faith in my generation, (I certainly have very little).
Secondly, I absolutely agree with you! One must excersise his brain otherwise it is of absolutely no use. People hardly ever do this any more, from the crazy ‘cool’ music one listens to, (because Lord knows classical is boring stuff old people listen to), right to the books people read, (Twilight…enoughs said). These bits of media require very little thought or imagination.
Best wishes with your compositions, I expect to hear them on the radio some day. =] I agree though, with this as well: classical music is not boring, and it’s been labled as boring and ‘uncool’, when it is anything but. I’m a huge advocate for music history, and this sort of ties into all of it. People think that classical composers are all these snooty, dusty German guys when in fact, they were often times passionate, tragic artists with great senses of humour who lived short, fast lives, (and belonged to many nationalities).
We just need to reform classical music. And it can be done, but those of us who are passionate about it must continue to be passionate. There is no shame in crying at Mahler or Mendelssohn opus 81! The world must fall in love again, and even if it’s only some of us, because not everyone likes it and that’s fine, but it’s the prospect of it being extinct due to lack of respect…
So let’s be the rebels who use more than ten per-cent of our brains! And along the way we can attempt inspiration in others.
Comment by Hannah J. — May 5, 2010 @ 5:34 pm
And by some day, I mean soon. By the way, very nice website.
By the way, Tito, I agree with you.
The sad thing about our generation is, we need faith in ourselves and the faith of others…even though maybe we seem as though we won’t reciprocate, (and some of us won’t…). But music education and arts education is a dwindling resource, which saddens me greatly. But you’re right, faith is what we need, and some day it will pay off. =]
Comment by Hannah J. — May 5, 2010 @ 5:37 pm
I believe all we need is have faith and work hard on the education of this generation. If we let them know in various ways that classical music is awesome and it can be enjoyed, and if we understand it better, they probably will be in to it a little more.
The problem is that we don’t have enough music culture in this country. If our systems were like those in Europe the story would be different, but in our case we just have to work harder!
http://classicalmusicseries.blogspot.com/
Comment by tito — May 3, 2010 @ 3:32 am
Hello again! I’m back, haha.
At any rate, this is a subject I feel very, very strongly about.
I am a member of this lazy generation, (I’m seventeen), and every single time I step foot into my high school, I am horrified. People of my relative generation are so incredibly, unimaginably lazy it makes my, quite literally, sad.
Like Jean Paul said, people, especially of the younger generations, have everything quick and easy- fast food, text messaging, cars, Google, which are all nice in moderation, but do nothing but enable laziness. And as teachers are seeing, this inability to do anything difficult is leading to the generally higher level of, dare I say, absolute stupidity. I see it daily.
I hate to be a pessimist, but honestly. I took a modern world history class last year, and 95% of the class couldn’t tell France from Spain. France and Spain! It’s not like ‘locate Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia’, (which, though more difficult, one should probably know).
So, where is the point in this rant? Again, like what Jean Paul said, newer geneneration have this seeming inability to process information if it takes thought. Music is simple, vulgar and loud with no real effort in it, even the way people dress is lazy, (except for make up– plenty of girls take the time to do their hair and pancake make up in the morning and then wear pajama pants, and it seems as though walking in heels is a lost art). Frankly, unless it requires zero thought, people want nothing do do with it.
I recall one time when I was in class some senior boy was speaking rudely about classical music. I, of course, stepped in and said something and he just looked at me and said, ‘Oh you probably listen to Bach and Beethoven and all of them, don’t you?’ I said yes, of course. He then began talking about how it was all nothing and irrelevant. I am completely unable to convey in words how shocked I was!
Just like history, people tend to stray away from what is abstract. They can’t comprehend things like complex classical music where, as Jean Paul said, each time you listen to it, you discover something new.
I am a docent at a museum and I was speaking with the director some time ago about this subject, and we came to the conclusion that to get people interested again in the past and in education and music, we must figure out how to make it interesting to them, in otherwords, we have to link it to the present. That’s the challenge I face when I give tours that involve children. They have TI-89 calculators and iPods and microwaves.
I show them typewriters, a phonograph, and pot-bellied stoves and it’s just beyond them. In order to bring classical music back into the limelight, we must be able to relate it to life now. It’s a difficult task to achieve, but it can be done.
In St. Louis, the Symphony has ‘young people’s concerts’, where all of the stands have colored paper taped to them denoting which section they belong to. Like, the strings are all green, the woodwinds are all yellow, the keyed instruments are blue, etc. Then, Ward Stare, (or at least, he is the usual conductor of these concerts), conducts and points out what to listen to, and makes the information interesting and digestible for children.
Another thing is music education, (or lack thereof), in schools. Arts are always the first thing to be cut; always. I strongly believe that if we show more appriciation for the arts by supporting them more in school, and outside of school for that matter, kids of younger generations, who will eventually be the older generations, could and will show more love for the arts.
It really is just a vicious cycle of laziness and apathy, but it starts with us, the younger generation. We need to break it! And I think we can. Maybe. Or maybe society’s just going downhill fast…which it probably is, but maybe it’ll be like Bach– nearly forgotten until “an actor and Jew’s son,” per se, revive it for the world, except it won’t be the greatest Christian music, but in fact, all music.
Either way, music is not lost, because there will always be some people with appreciation. We just have to crawl out of the woodwork.
Comment by Hannah J. — May 2, 2010 @ 5:16 pm
I think this new generation is becoming lazy, in the sense they orefer to get everything fast without any much effort –from fast food, to quick entertainment, the same applies to music.
Commercial music, hip-hop for instance, is based on very repetitive rythyms and melodic strucutres that are easy to remember and give instantenous gratification to the unrefined ear. The downside is this type of music is short-lived and you get easily bored with it after a few times listening.
On the other hand, classical music or jazz that is more sophisticated, requires more effort from the listener to digest, but the reward is a long-lasting. For instance, no matter how much I listen to Sibelius or Dvorak, I always discover something new in their music.
To get more people to attend classical music events, and love classical music, people should be made aware of the benefits and rewards to make it worth the effort.
Comment by Jean Paul Zoghbi — May 2, 2010 @ 11:33 am
Hi Jean Paul,
Thanks for reading the blog, thinking about the topic and them writing a comment.
I couldn’t agree with you more. The best things in life worth knowing — love, all kinds of art, literature, philosophy — take time and focus, effort and patience.
Which is why I think it is important for young people to have models in their parents (who expose them to music and other art) and in their schools (which should NOT be cutting back on arts education). They should also get more of it in the media (PBS does a good job, but the others are lacking).
I also enjoy pop culture and pop music. But I know that the rewards I get from TV pale next to great films; and the rewards I get from, say, the Rolling Stones pale next to what I get, again and again, from Bach, Schubert and Chopin.
But I’d like to hear from young people (as well as from parents and teachers). What would get you to listen classical music and attend classical music concerts?
Thanks again.
All the best,
The Ear
Comment by welltemperedear — May 2, 2010 @ 12:05 pm