Greg Sandow on the future of classical music

Sometime in the past year I heard an indifferent performance of a familiar symphony, by a major orchestra. Doesn't matter where or when, doesn't matter who the conductor was. There was no nuance, no joy or excitement, no real connection between one moment and the next, though maybe there was at least a certain amount of vigor and efficiency. I asked a musician in the orchestra what he thought of the conductor. He said, "Look, there are some pieces we just shouldn't play unless the conductor can really make something of them." This piece was one … [Read more...]

Another new episode of my improvised, in-progress book -- on the future of classical music -- is online. In the last few episodes, I've been discussing classical music's past, both what it was in the 18th century (when it wasn't classical music yet, and therefore didn't have any aura of sanctity), and how it started in the 19th century to turn into what it is now. The present episode is the second in a series that looks at the effects of modernism. In my last episode, I showed how vital new music could be -- how closely connected to the … [Read more...]

So there's a new movie, Copying Beethoven, about the premiere of the Ninth Symphony. And in the New York Times review (by ManohlaDargis) comes the following: Onscreen is the Kecskemet Symphony Orchestra of Hungary, but what we hear is a 1996 Decca recording of Bernard Haitink conducting the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam. Purists may object to this strategy, but Ms. Holland's filmmaking in this scene is so sensitive that only quibblers will notice if the bowing doesn't match the sound. Well, this non-purist has another objection, … [Read more...]

In my  "How not to think" post, I threw some words around a little carelessly. At one point, batting some ideas around, I said "nobody asks about this." This was a grandly rhetorical use of "nobody," meaning, in an exasperated tone, "hardly anyone." Surely it was unfair to fellow-bloggers like Drew McManus and Andrew Taylor, who do ask the kind of questions I like to see asked. Sometimes I just get carried away. … [Read more...]

It sounded like a terrific idea, when the Met announced that it would promote its new Barber of Seville production last night (November 8) on Letterman. Since I've been a big fan of their new promotions, I made sure I watched the show. But the opera didn't come off very well, and the Met may have made a mistake. The first problem, which of course wasn't the Met's fault, was that the show last night was especially goofy. Letterman's first guest was Dustin Hoffman, who seemed to be playing the "I'm such a big star that it doesn't matter what I … [Read more...]

Here's the start of a breathless piece in the Wall Street Journal, linked from ArtsJournal today: HERE'S A TEST for symphony orchestra lovers. True or false: 1) To woo younger audiences, which are bored by Beethoven, Bach and Brahms, orchestras must play more contemporary works, even at the risk of alienating their aging core audience. 2) By offering free concerts, orchestras will expose more people to classical music and generate new ticket-buyers. 3) Orchestras can create new audiences by designing and offering educational programs for … [Read more...]

In today's New York Times, in the business section, is a brief little story I can't find online. It talks about a paper in the Journal of Marketing, which reports the results of two studies. In each study, people were given the same food to eat -- in one study a cracker, in the other some mango lassi (an Indian yogurt drink) -- and then were divided into two groups. The people in one group were told the food was healthy; the people in the other group were told the food was unhealthy. Then they were asked to rate the food's flavor. You … [Read more...]

I'm always delighted by the variety of people who subscribe to my online book on the future of classical music. (The next episode comes out on Wednesday. Recently I've gotten, just for instance, the marketing directors of two important orchestras, one in the US and one in the UK, a music student exploring new ways to describe classical music in Banff, in Canada, and someone in charge of program notes with an Australian orchestra. Plus a professor of piano and piano pedagogy at a small Bible college, not to mention an assortment of musicians and … [Read more...]

Not long ago I looked up the biographies of all kinds of people who worked with Motown in the '60s -- stars (Diana Ross, Mary Wells, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye), members of vocal groups (the Temptations, the Four Tops, the Marvelettes), songwriters (Lamont Dozier, Brian and Eddie Holland), and sidemen (James Jamerson). I wanted to know where all these people lived when Motown found them, and thought that I could guess the answer. And my hunch was right. Almost everybody lived in Detroit, where Motown was located. Most were … [Read more...]

Brian Wise, the producer of the Soundcheck show on WNYC in New York, brought up a worthwhile point in a comment to my music education rant. He notes that classical music -- or maybe more specifically classical concert etiquette -- requires people to sit in one place when they listen, while at a Grateful Dead concert, even if the jams were as long as a Haydn symphony, people could get up and walk around. That's true. But when I read it, a little light bulb went off in my mind. That classical audience -- are they really paying attention? I don't … [Read more...]

Or, rather, the myth that people have to be educated to like classical music. This is a common, and deeply held belief. I ran into it a couple of times during the visit my wife and I made to Bowling Green State University. We took part in panel discussions on the future of classical music, and sometimes people said -- speaking with pure, and deeply felt sincerity -- that people wouldn't start liking classical music until they learned about it, maybe even learned to play a classical instrument. I sympathize with the people who believe this. … [Read more...]

Last weekend (that's October 27th and 28th), the Lousiana Philharmonic did a notable weekend of new music. I was part of it, as one of the judges of a composers' competition. But lying behind everything they did -- and making it even more important -- is (of course) the situation in New Orleans, which is really sobering to see. More on that later, though it might be the most important part of this post. But the orchestra! They called their weekend "Festival of Living Composers," which (speaking affectionately, as a friend) I might say is just … [Read more...]

There's a new episode -- the 13th - of my in-progress book on the future of classical music online. Or my in-progress improvised draft of a book. But whatever I call it, the response has been wonderfully warm, quite enthusiastic, really, from all kinds of people who e-mail me. Or who talk to me out in the physical world. I'll refrain from quoting any of the reactions, so this blog won't read like a movie ad, but I'm warmly grateful. (And now I'm going to be precise, and say that this is the 13th episode of the second version of the book, since … [Read more...]

I've saved this for a separate post. Bowling Green programmed two pieces, both by chance world premieres. One was a fiendish little sonatina for clarinet and piano, just four and a half minutes long, and bristling with difficulty. The first two movements have the clarinet and piano playing separate pieces at the same time, with independent forms, independent phrase shapes, and bar lines and constantly changing time signatures that rarely intersect. The challenge is to forget your normal ensemble instincts, and keep the two parts independent. … [Read more...]