Something good about classical music

Here’s something that seemed obvious, once it occurred to

me. But I’d never thought of it before: classical music might be better for the environment than pop, because it (probably) has a lower carbon footprint. Or, more

simply, it seems to use less electricity.

This came to me when I was reading British press comment

last month on the Live Earth event, comprising concerts in many countries,

which were designed to draw attention to global warming. The British press (or

at least the Guardian and the

style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>Independent, the two papers I read over

there) pointed out the implicit irony, which of course is that pop and rock

performances are amplified, and thus use electricity in mammoth amounts, which

means they themselves contribute (maybe in no small way) to the problem Live

Earth was supposed to do something about.

Compare classical music. It’s largely unamplified. So an

orchestra concert uses less electricity than an arena rock show; a chamber

concert uses less than a band playing in a club; and a violinist, practicing

all day, uses less electricity than someone playing the electric guitar.

But I did qualify this in my first paragraph (“probably,” “seems

to”). Why? Because there are still some calculations to be

done. I can’t do them myself, but I have some idea what they are. Take,

for instance, the contrast between an orchestra concert and an arena rock show.

I’m sure an orchestra concert uses less electricity. But there are many more

orchestra concerts, plus large opera performances, in New York each year than arena

rock shows (and on top of that, the classical halls are often used during the

day for rehearsals). So maybe the carbon footprint starts to even out. I’m sure

that’s true in any city with an orchestra that plays year-round (or close to

that).

And how about travel? Classical

singers, instrumental soloists, and conductors travel constantly. (So do many

classical music artist managers, and administrators.) Jet flights have a huge

carbon footprint. Pop stars don’t travel nearly as much. They go on major

tours, but only (as a rule) for a small part of each year. Many of them, maybe

most, don’t even tour every year.

So the bottom line might be hard to calculate. But here’s

one way that pop music is ahead of classical music on this issue — pop music,

at least, is aware of it, and a few bands buy carbon offsets whenever they

tour. I’ve asked the American Symphony Orchestra League whether any large

American orchestra has ever done that, or thought of doing it, and I’ll be

curious to know what the answer is.