The Well-Tempered Ear

Is “indie classical” music as valid or as good as regular old classical music?

By Jacob Stockinger

Recently NPR aired an interesting year-end story, done by classical producer and blogger Tom Huizenga (below), about so-called “indie classical” music.

Here’s a link:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecadence/2010/12/31/132415391/the-year-in-music-indie-classical-blossoms-on-small-labels

I wasn’t the only one who heard it. One reader of this blog wrote in to comment:

“Today (12-31-2010) on “Morning Edition,” NPR aired a story on “indie classical” music. This was my first exposure to the term and the concept. I see from the related NPR blog that there is controversy about whether or not this music is of a caliber to be considered “classical.” As would be appropriate to your blog, please give us some insight into this “genre” in general, or into its prevalence in Madison. Thanks!”

And here is my answer:

“You ask a very good question, and one that is very controversial and divisive at this time.
I also heard the NPR story and expect to link to it this week and to treat the question in a regular posting. In the past I have also dealt with the same issue at various times and expect to do so again, especially with the growing popularity and critical acceptance of indie classical fusion groups like Missy Mazzoli’s all-female quintet (below and bottom).

“My own point of view is that the term “classical” is just a convenient label to categorize and classify music, much like pop, country, rock, R and B, world music, ethnic music or whatever.
The idea of a hybrid category, whether you call it crossover or Indie classical, is in large part an attempt to widen the audience for classical and make it seem more populist and less esoteric or elitist.

“But I think the music speaks just fine for itself. It serves a different purpose, is deeper and rewards you time after time.

“What we really need is not new labels, but more music education of children and young people, and more exposure to classical music for adults. And that isn’t easy to achieve in tight economic times.
I think more highly of the idea of taking classical music to untraditional venues including coffee houses and bars, and getting rid of the dress codes and expensive tickets.

“The Metropolitan Opera’s live high-def broadcasts into movie theaters have been phenomenally successful, and the LA Philharmonic started the same thing this month. That strikes me as a better path to success for so-called classical music rather than trying to redefine it.

“But in the end, any discussion or new approach is likely to help. What do you think of the issue and my reply?
I look forward to reading your thoughts.”

Now I want to add some thoughts I have had since I first answered in the limited space I had for a response in the comment section of this blog.

I think back to  infamous but history-changing melding concert by Bob Dylan (below top) who went electric at the Newport Folk Festival and invented  folk rock. I also think of “fusion jazz” of Miles Davis (below bottom).

And these days I think of Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble (below), although there are many other such “classical” hybrids including banjo player Bela Fleck.

Periodically, these visions of crossovers or blends or fusions or hybrids appear, especially whenever enough observers decide that the future of a particular genre – it’s classical music, these days – looks bleak.

I know a professional musician and teacher who, like Peter Schickele (aka PDQ Bach) likes to quote the maxim of Duke Ellington (below): “If it sounds good, it IS good.” And there is a lot of good music that isn’t classical just as there is a lot of bad music that is classical.

So let your ears decide. If it works for you and brings you beauty, then so be it.

But also don’t rush to judgment on issues that are really superficial. And what we call beauty is superficial compared to the beauty itself.

Taxonomy and categorization are one of the gifts of human intelligence that helps up to put order in the world and make sense of what otherwise might appear to be chaos.

I get a bit impatient when one category of music grows too envious of another’s attributes or success. So what if pop or rock music sells many times more albums than classical? I am not a record label executive. Why should that make me like Bach or Schubert any less than the success of detective novels and thrillers would dissuade me from reading Shakespeare or Proust (below, who was, by the way, a perceptive and devoted fan on classical music in his mammoth novel “In Search of Time Lost”)?

What do you think about crossovers and fusions and blends and the future of classical music?

The Ear wants to hear.