Fellow blogger Greg Sandow has emerged from his reading and research on classical music confident enough to make the following prediction:
…the era of classical music is going to end. Not this year, not next year, maybe not in 10 years…. But sometime reasonably soon, the era of classical music will be over.
What does it mean to ”be over”? Greg says this:
To be as precise as I can, I might say that the apparatus of classical music, as we know it now, will very likely fade away. We won’t see many concerts (or at least not nearly as many as we see now) featuring only music from the past. We won’t explain classical music primarily in historical or structural terms. We won’t tell classical musicians that their main job is to serve the great composers. We might not ask our audience to sit in silence, clapping only when it’s told to.
And while it may seem a wrenching prediction, Sandow suggests that a new ecology might well emerge in its place that’s more personal, more connected, and more sustainable for the coming century. Loss is an essential part of renewal. And he suggests this particular art system is ripe for something new.
Jen Ciulla says
Interesting… I can’t wait to read more… especially as we struggle with deciding if we need to put together a “Dead Head” subscription series for our subscribers who are struggling with new commissions on practically every concert. And as I struggle with finding the time to delve more intellectually into such discussions.
Jeff Alexander, President and General Manager, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra says
I have been hearing about the imminent death of classical music for the past thirty years. It is still quite alive, with more concerts being performed than ever before. Yes, classical music organizations struggle from time to time, as do businesses in every other not-for-profit AND for profit sector.
Live performances of classical music bring something to the human spirit that can not be replicated. There will always be an important place for them in civilized society.
Considering the enormous growth in competition for classical music organizations since 1980, with the invetion of the compact disc, home video, cable television and the internet, I think authors, critics and now bloggers should be applauding our industry and every musician and manager working in it for the excellent work they continue to do on behalf of the art form and the hundreds of thousands of adults and children whose lives are touched and deeply enriched annually by our concerts and educational programs, instead of constantly predicting our demise.
Joan says
In general, I really think that in North America the human social ability to know and share the world through feeling, is the thing which is diminishing, not classical music, which arises as a tool to resond to that, from the need to share what we have felt and what we all feel together. Shared social knowledge (the old biblical use of the verb “to know”) about our world has grown less and less as we move more and more into technological innovation and sped up lives. Speaking as a violinist, I know too I am exhausted by the sounds of our classical repertoire belted out a million times a month from every possible inescapable media. Classical music over-kill might lead to a time of silence, but the works themselves, structures which describe our responses to the world, like great architecture, can’t just go away forever. Maybe we’ll go back to them after we learn how to live with quiet and our nature again. If we don’t all get swept away by tides and great winds first.
Brooke Jackson says
It seems to be that the way we receive classical music may be evolving. The New York Times recently did an article, The High C and the Low Rumble about “Booing” at the opera. The author draws a comparison between opera and a sporting event, and the maestro is quoted saying, “The opera house is not a circus.”
These types of trends may suggest that music and concert patrons just want to be more involved in the art and music. Just like the groundlings of Shakespeare’s day, people seem to get into the show a bit more when they feel they are involved, and have some say about the show. This could translate into many new ideas for the classical music scene.
Maybe just before the show, the viola players will compete and audiences will vote for who plays that night? Or possibly a “choose your own adventure” series (such as: Tonight–does Beethoven choose to be influenced more by Mozart or Hayden)?
M.E.Nordstrom says
I entered the URL of my former employer who keeps my bio archived among “other writers”.
Currently a group of concerned classical music lovers in New England are cultivating the idea
of a clone of North Carolina’s Classical Voice that was mentored by San Francisco Classical Voice. Now Classical Voice of North Carolina is
mentoring us.
Will prospective Board member patrons who would like to propel this entity into being please contact me at musiccritic@earthlink.net?
This kind of online music journal continues to support audience building for classical music events,and classical music career development is assisted by the recent reviews. http://www.cvNewEng.org needs your help “yesterday”.