Classical Music: Transformative, Not Tranquilizing

I agree with Katherine, I have many motivations for listening to classical music. In the lonely hours of the night, my home town station KDFC was great mental stimulus for studying for finals and midterms. Acting as background music, I do believe classical music helped me earn better grades in college. When I want to engage with the music I tune into special live concert programing for the SF Symphony. Unfortunately, not all cities are blessed with such options, and what's even worse, many classical stations share half their air time with news talk radio. Thank goodness for web streaming, but the selling of WCRB and others is somewhat concerning for classical fans nation wide.

Henry, first of all thank you for writing about this.

Second, it's worse than radio stations. I personally know at least one public school music teacher who only listens to the "pretty stuff" and makes references such as, "That pretty song by Stravinsky" (referring to the Princess' Round Dance) or "A song by Mozart" (Eine Kleine Nachtmusik). And her job is to teach "music appreciation" to students! Is it any wonder our kids today are growing up ignorant, yet unaware of just how undereducated they are?

I think classical radio bears most of the blame for this phenomenon. It's hard for me to relate to or understand because I find classical music utterly unsuited for background music. I seldom listen to it in the car or or radio and I rarely find myself drawn to the compositions that might be considered "soothing."

However, a friend of mine who managed a classical radio station put it this way: "I'm not in the classical music business, I'm in the radio business." Unfortunately, commercial radio is about listenership and must be sold to advertisers on the basis that people will keep their radios tuned to the station, whether at work or at home, all day long. That won't happen if the station plays "Rite of Spring." The radio business is what it is, and I don't see that changing any time soon.

However, I think in the long run this devolvement of classical radio may help those of us who are in the live classical music business. How? Because we can draw such a clear contrast between the radio experience of classical music and the live concert experience. What we have to offer at the concert hall is far richer and more varied than can be experienced in any medium, be it radio, TV, DVD or CD. Yes, it can be soothing, and certainly it's ok to let a Debussy tone poem wash over you. But it can also be more like exercising your ears, brain and heart. People pay to go and exercise their bodies, or pay extra to eat good, nutritious food. We can get them to do the same with music -- if we talk about it and market it correctly.

I understand the comment of Andy's friend from the radio station, but don't find myself reacting with much sympathy for his plight. WFMT in Chicago has managed to retain its integrity and an extraordinary artistic level, and be profitable at the same time, through a combination of advertising and contributions.
-Henry

We certainly do have a disconnect between what potential audiences think classical music is like and the reality. I read some surveys by the Houston Symphony marketing department, and in answer to the question about perception of classical music, the words "relaxing" and "mellow" came up over and over again. It does not help either when educational concerts give the message that classical music is nice, but if you want real excitement, here is the John Williams or Pirates of the Caribbean music for the grand finale. What about the last movement of Tschaikovsky 4? It is time for us to stop apologizing for what we do when we do outreach.

And do we have to keep using the word challenging all the time? Interesting and fascinating is more like it.

I sometimes sit down and just listen to classical music, but sometimes I like to have it playing in the background. When I am driving, I like rock music when I am feeling the need for a wake-up call or I am facing a long stretch of open road, or when I am feeling the need to release some energy by singing loudly (and off key) rather than ramming into the vehicles in my way. When I want to encourage the precision and clarity needed for a challenging drive, I listen to classical music. And yet, I so sometimes "use" a classical music radio station to help me fall asleep. What I think I am getting at is that classical music is a label like "rock" or "alternative" that encompasses a large variety of music. Selling it as relaxing is selling it short.

Ditto, excellent post. Articulating what many quietly lament every day. It is unfortunate for this to be so rampant across the U.S. However, the issue is not uniquely American, and like most things, has gone global. As someone now working in the music industry outside the U.S., I can say the same saccharine-coated relax/soothe/mollify-the-masses spin has seeped into classical radio in certain parts of Europe as well.

Amen.

Henry, I agree with you - mostly. I think classical music can be both entertaining and challenging. It's the challenging part that is constantly being debased and left out of the listening equation.

Excellent post.

I find nothing wrong with background music (or the modern term ambient music or the older term "furniture music"). Music can serve this atmospheric function nobly. To the extent that the post denigrates the notion of a background music being of value, I cannot agree.

Yet often pieces written to be anything but background music get recorded performances and radio airplay as if they are merely window dressing to an experience. This pre-packaging of a Brahms symphony or a Mozart string quartet as inoffensive music to assist a morning drive or to accompany a commercial for wine and cheese does the classical music listener a disservice.

The result is a series of false dichotomies--
"lovely" tonal music vs. "difficult" atonal work; "ancient" early music vs. "traditional" baroque and classical music; and a presumption that "older is better" among composers.

The result is a calcification-not at all the "death" of classical music, but its entombment in amber. I prefer to see the insect fly than be encased in golden fluid.