Arguing about the relevance of classical music has been an essential topic of well intentioned conference panels for decades. Relevance is a highly overrated concept. What matters more is the ability of art to be a forum for ideas and human passion. People will remain intensely loyal to things that touch or move them passionately. The question is, why aren’t more people convinced of the power concert music has to touch, uplift, entertain, or to tenderly coax us to catharsis which is how it makes me feel?
Modern music has in some ways failed to develop a larger sense of necessity and loyalty in its audience. There's a great deal of desire to see the established stars but very little sense of duty to hear the new crop of performers. And even when the effort is made to premiere new music, so much of the public relations process that surrounds the work is an effort to reassure the audience that nothing dangerous is going to happen. For concert music to survive as an intellectually engaging and relevant art form, it needs to rethink its identity otherwise it may stagnate.
Conversations about the decline in the significance of art music usually follow the same path. There is outrage at the very notion that the question should have to be asked. There are new and fancy definitions of relevance that turn the whole problem on its head. But concert music never was central to American society, and it probably never will be. No politician will cite an example from opera in a speech to the nation. No late night comic will joke about the modern symphony in his monologue. No matter what happens to the audience, whether it shrinks, stabilizes or grows, concert music is marginal within American culture. Even a supposed boom in internet downloads or online sales, if it happens, is unlikely to change this cultural view that classical music is a peculiar entertainment that appears in the larger popular culture mostly as a subject for caricature. The only argument about its relevance is whether relevance matters. If the music matters to a few people, deeply and with transformative power, perhaps that’s relevance enough.
An interesting book called "Classical Music in America: A History of Its Rise and Fall" traces classical music in America from its peak just before World War I through its steady decline. According to this book, after World War I, conductors and performers ignored new music and concentrated on works from the European past. Arturo Toscanini is singled out because of his diva stature, who rarely conducted anything other than "canonized masterworks" of Beethoven, Brahms, etc.; the NBC Symphony was created as a vehicle for Toscanini and was powerfully managed to promote the familiar, conservative repertoire. Recycling the tried and true was a sure bet, and this safer marketing strategy plus the alienation of audiences in the 1960's by more experimental avante-garde composers when pop music seemed to connect more with the passions of the people produced our contemporary dilemma - most composers of classical music find American audiences have little interest in what they have to offer.
Also, note the decline in record sales of classical music has coincided with technological conveniences such as iTunes. ITunes works great for Brittney Spears or Josh Grobin, but how do you sell the last movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 without the first three? I feel it’s a crime to sell Mussorgsky’s "The Great Gate of Kiev" without the proceeding sections of "Pictures at an Exhibition" because the journey is just as important as the destination (in fact, the climax necessitates the preceding struggles). So in a way, some of the conveniences of quick download of single track music have resulted in poor sales of concert music sales through more traditional outlets such as CDs and record stores.
Most importantly, as a society, we need a readjustment away from immediate gratification and more towards a patient outlook. Do you realize the monumental Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, France, took 145 years to build? I grant building techniques back then weren’t as good as they are now, but what staggers my mind is this project lasted for generations. Imagine that, people were engaged on projects that they would never live to see the completion of. In our day and time, that project probably would have been cancelled after 5 years due to budget cuts or loss of public enthusiasm for the project. Science is similar in its long range thinking. I have a friend who is a Nasa scientist whose job is to understand the biology of plant life on other planets. She will never live to see the fruits of her work completed successfully but is building a frame work for the next generation of scientists to start from. In the arts, I believe we need to return to a similar mindset. We currently believe if this piece of music doesn’t connect with me in five minutes, I am going to change the radio or never listen to that composer’s music again or dismiss these performers as uninteresting and irrelevant. Somehow, we have to rethink this approach. Most of the greatest works gestated a long time and were not immediately recognized as great or important pieces of music. I think it is interesting to imagine Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 or 5 or Stravinksy's "Rite of Spring" in the context of how radical they were for the premiere audiences, but also how its undeterred influence started to take hold. Changes sometimes happen over long periods of time. The problems of classical music's relevance today took years to form and will take years to resolve.
Here are some ideas for solving this current quandary:
1. More funding for the arts in school (yes that means money). With better arts programs, have some of the kids compete in competitions with neighboring schools to help boost the sense of "needing" to practice.
2. Better marketing of classical music. For example, orchestral outreach programs – I went to a concert a few days ago of Halloween music (so of course scary orchestral music). The audience, orchestra, and conductor all dressed in costumes and it was a huge blast. At least 50% of the attendees said they were there for the first time. Not all concerts need be like this, but I believe there is an obligation to perform some outreach to attract new audiences. The conductor also addressed the audience informing them about the other, more cerebral concerts ahead.
3. More music festivals. In California, there is the Cabrillo Festival of Music that specializes in a week or two of modern music where the orchestra, notable composers, and performers all mingle with the audiences. The audience reception is terrific (sell outs across the board, very engaged audiences, etc). Would love to see more like this in other states. These aren’t the spooky solitary composer types, but the engaging, articulate types that evangelize their music well to an eager audience.
4. Less dogmatism. One way to help modern music remain relevant is to make it easier for those who are curious about it to give it an honest try. Many classical fans tend to have earned an elitist attitude but being more open minded to other forms of music and less punishing of those who don’t know as much as a music professional does would help shed this unhelpful though justified perception.
5. When orchestras commission new music, the composer should introduce the work to help give the unfamiliar audience some context to the music so they could realize it isn’t always scary to hear something new.
6. More risks on music programming – I realize Mozart will sell more tickets than Takemitsu, but it seems we can do a better job mixing the ratio of new to old.
7. Take a look at what works abroad and apply it here. I believe much of the problem of relevance is more acute in America than in Europe – what can we learn from their approach?
8. More community level orchestras. In England, community (non professional orchestras) play a big part in the contemporary music scene by commissioning new works, involving the community, etc. This is sort of a grass roots version of concert music and I believe a very important element in how widely concert music might be enjoyed. Professional orchestras are important, but it would be great to see more emphasis on community/amateur orchestras in this country were the performers are people who just enjoy playing together as friends.
9. People who love classical music should have more kids than those who don’t like it.