Greg Sandow on the future of classical music

From Gilbert Seldes, The Seven Lively Arts (1924): We have all had those days of halcyon perfection, when the precise degree of warmth was a miracle, when the aroma of a wine seemed to have the whole fragrance of the earth, when one could do anything or nothing and be equally content. In the presence of great works of art we experience something similar. We are suspended between the sense of release from life, the desire to die before the image of the supremely beautiful, and a new-found capacity for living. Our daily existence gives us no … [Read more...]

My last item, about classical music on TV, has prompted some disagreement, which I'll soon reflect here. Meanwhile there's an alarming piece in The Independent about a dip in British classical CD sales. It wasn't just that fewer people bought classical CDs -- classical sales fell dramatically as a percentage of all CDs sold, from 10% in 1990 to 5% now. I'd love to know if the decline was steady, or just spiked recently, which might (thin ray of hope) mean only that the current crop of classical releases isn't very gripping. I'd also like … [Read more...]

I want to thank my blog-brother Terry Teachout for finding something I squirreled away in my "Resources" section on the right, and recommending it so fervently. It's an Opera News piece about why PBS won't broadcast opera. But I don't read the piece quite the way he does. What registers for him is PBS rejecting art, refusing to show challenging operas because they won't attract a massive audience. For me what might be going on is different. I wonder if the problem isn't that PBS demands a massive audience (though perhaps it might), but that … [Read more...]

Slowly I'm adding to the fine print on the right. In the "Resources" section -- where I mean to build a list of references for anyone who cares about the state of classical music -- I've added a heading called "Useful Articles." It'll cite newspaper and magazine pieces, and starts with two entries, both of which can help explain unfortunate things we might not like, but need to understand. Soon I'll have a section on CDs I've been playing, currently a bewildering list, ranging from the new Annie Lennox album to a few dozen classical … [Read more...]

Just to show that pop singers have no monopoly on classy photos (see below), here's Anne Sofie von Otter, looking smart, glamorous, and interesting. How could you look at her, and not want to hear her sing? More here. … [Read more...]

 This is Renée Fleming, as she appears in a Rolex watch ad, and on the cover of an upcoming CD. I think she looks awful. Ghastly makeup, overdone eyes…what was she thinking of? Let me quickly say that I don't mind classical stars doing endorsements. It's very likely good for classical music, since it brings these artists into the world most Americans live in. And if classical stars are tempted by the money, well, who can blame them? They're only human, and it might well be galling, seeing teen athletes getting all the cash, when you, the … [Read more...]

I might criticize the classical music world, but not everything is gloomy. All of us can help to make things better, even in small ways -- and here are three examples of people who did that. The American Composers Orchestra: We've talked here about the passive audience, but the ACO has a page on its website where the audience talks back. "Truly Dreadful," said one back-talker, about a controversial piece (Swirl, by Todd Levin, which combines classical music and techno; I myself like it): "An exercise in the composer's imagined … [Read more...]

Andrew Taylor, my blog neighbor, now gets to inhabit both my blog and his own with this comment he e-mailed about my audience piece: While I'm sure you're being pilloried for suggesting orchestras consider their audience (at least quietly pilloried), I'd even nudge the argument one step further than your article suggests. I'm a big fan of John Dewey's view of art from way back in 1932, that art doesn't exist until it is received and processed. It's a noise or an artifact in an empty room. Here's how Dewey puts it: "For to perceive, a … [Read more...]

From Bernard Chasan, a physicist at Boston University (many thanks to him for e-mailing this, and allowing me to quote it): A friend, hearing me deplore the dearth of good classical radio stations and the increasing age of the audience, asked: why is classical music so important? My answer: there is nothing else in my experience which so allows the expression of the deepest emotions within a framework of almost mathematical logic. The combination is a very powerful one. This was my answer ten years ago -- a bit formal and abstract, but … [Read more...]

I've posted something new on my website -- a piece about the orchestra audience that I wrote a year ago for Symphony magazine (published by the American Symphony Orchestra League). I said that orchestras (and just about all classical music groups of any kind) treat the audience as something passive. It's supposed to buy tickets, maybe donate some money, maybe volunteer to help out here and there, and otherwise receive great music in passive, reverent silence. (Followed, of course, by thankful applause.) This, I think, is bad for business, … [Read more...]

Last week I was in a meeting about a project I'm working on, involving ways to get new people to classical concerts. A lot of good people are directly or indirectly involved in this, along with a lot of performing groups. And one thing that struck me was that we didn't have any data. None of us knew what draws people to classical concerts, or what kind of concert newcomers might like. Two vague theories floated around -- that newcomers ought to start with easy music, or, on the other hand, that they'd be attracted to something a little … [Read more...]

I've been getting e-mail by the ton, it seems -- and from people passionately concerned with the issues I've discussed here. I want to put my own ideas aside for a bit, and let my correspondents speak. I expect to do this regularly, and I must say that my notion of this blog is changing. It's much more an exchange of ideas than I ever dared to hope. (And don't miss the answers Tobi Tobias got, when she asked why dancers like to dance.) From Robert Wilder Blue, vivid thoughts about musicians talking to the audience: I attend the San … [Read more...]

Marla Schwaller Carew wrote a deeply felt message from Detroit, about how hard it seems to be to get younger people -- like herself -- to go to classical events: I recently attended two excellent concerts as part of the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival (the Emerson String Quartet played the opening concert in a lovely, smallish hall, where I was able to sit 15 rows from the stage and hear and see like I could never at larger Michigan venues. The second night featured two of the Emersons with other excellent musicians at a very choice, … [Read more...]

Robert Berger, from Levittown, New York, has written many spirited e-mails to me, starting long before this blog. The latest fills out my earlier comment on orchestral horn sections, with all kinds of "he was there" color and detail I don't remotely have. Here's what he told me (posted with his permission, and with many thanks): As a horn player (no longer active because of a physical disability), I read your comments on the use of assistant principal horns in orchestras with interest. The use of an extra horn players is a necessity for … [Read more...]

Before I get too negative, I might take a moment to say why I think classical music should survive. Besides the mere fact that I like it, I mean. That may convince me, but there's no reason it ought to convince anybody else. So I can think of two reasons: 1. It's the musical heritage of the west. If we still read Proust and Shakespeare, if we still look at art by Klee and Renoir, why shouldn't we listen to music by Mozart, Stravinsky, and Josquin des Pres? 2. Organized, long spans of music are an important form of art. We read … [Read more...]