Composer And Critic Greg Sandow Discusses The State Of Classical Music
Composer , critic and consultant Greg Sandow has an interesting discussion of the current state of classical music on his blog at artsjournal.com . He's writing a book on this subject , and parts of it have been appearing on his blog . Sandow is worried that classical music doesn't "connect " with most people today and that the audience is shrinking and aging , and he's hardly alone in this .
He compares classical music with popular culture and popular music , and wonders why more young people aren't flocking to our concert halls today , or people in general . He feels that this is because classical music has become too stodgy and hidebound , reliant on the same old works from the past . He compares this to " Top 40 radio stations ".
He feels that if classical music fails to change , and to become more like popular music and culture , it may be doomed . We are told that orchestras where the male players wear tuxedos look like a collection of "Butlers in a 1930s movie " . Really ? But do people go to New York Philharmonic concerts to see what the musicians are wearing ? No . They go to hear the music . Yes, some orchestras have been experimenting with less formal wear for the musicians , but this whole issue is basically a red herring .
Back in the heyday of such great Jazz musicians as Duke Ellington and Count Basie , they always dressed formally, and snazzily to boot , and no one complained about this . I don't recall Jazz ever being accused of being stuffy because of this, as has been so common with classical music .
Another problem Sandow cites , and a genuine one , is the reluctance of so many concertgoers to hear new works by today's composers , and the way these people seem to rely on their beloved established masterpieces like a child's security blanket . But there has always been resistance to new music ; many great composers , such as Beethoven , Wagner, Bruckner, Mahler, Richard Strauss , Stravinsky , Bartok and Prokofiev too name only a handful , were highly controversial when their music was new .
But it's wrong to judge classical music by the standards of popular music . It's a completely different animal . The whole experience of attending classical concerts is something utterly unlike going to see a Rock band perform or going to see Beyonce , Whitney Houston or Britney Spears . Of course , we have to be careful in calling classical music "superior " to this kind of music lest we lovers of classical music come across as snobs . De gustibus non est disputandum . But many classical fans get something out of the music they love that just isn't available with popular music . It can be a profoundly emotional and spiritual experience which popular music was never intended to be .
But what's wrong with that ? Let popular be popular and classical be classical .