Comments on: SCHUBERT!!! WE SHOULD BE PLAYING SCHUBERT!!!

By: max raimi

max raimi — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 01:23:41 +0000

Hey, Bill–long time no see. I can verify that this did indeed happen–I was backstage at the time. Nobody in the unnamed orchestra would have the slightest doubt that this happened. I have to disagree with you, though, up to a point. Certainly, our tradition has no monopoly on works of genius, and without question our condescension towards our audience is suicidal.
But…I also have an abiding faith in the masterpieces those dead Europeans left us. You write: “For two minutes I stood there and tried desperately to think of anything, any little thing, that I could have said about Franz Schubert and his glorious music that any of these kids would have given a flying damn about.” Well, as it happens, I play concerts in the public schools in the very city in which the “Schubert” incident you describe transpired, for kids nobody could remotely consider privileged. One of the pieces we always play is an excerpt from Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden” string quartet. I tell how in the song, the Maiden is seduced by Death, sleeps in his arms at the end. The kids eat it up, especially because we do our damnedest to give a great performance of that extraordinary music. We also play Ravel, Bartok, Mozart, lots of Beethoven–and an arrangement of “Meet the Flintstones”, another tune that one of my colleagues lifted off an old “Simpsons” episode, and, depending on the school, Mexican folk songs or “Lift Every Voice and Sing”. But the old fashioned stuff is the main attraction. And the reason I have devoted my life to this archaic old music is because I believe with all my heart that if we let people into our world and give it the performance it deserves, this immortal music can speak to anyone.
Peace, Bill—-
Max

By: John

John — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:51:40 +0000

In his autobiography, Frank Zappa tells of his debate with a collaborator conductor…do we leave out names here?…(first name rhymes with Bent). Frank’s point was that ALL music should be entertaining, whereas the conductor felt that symphony orchestras must play “Serious music”. But Frank pointed out that even what YOU think of as serious needs to be entertaining, because after all,

…..”what’s the opposite of entertaining music…PUNITIVE MUSIC?”

By: aloysiusmiller

aloysiusmiller — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 19:35:33 +0000

People forget that Schubert was quite unknown in his lifetime. There was a reason for that. His music is juvenile, gimmicky, meretricious etc. He was truly flatulent. His flatulence led to Bruckner which led to Mahler which led to Shostakovich…a very gaseous pedigree.

The beginning of wisdom is to recognize Schubert’s limitations. There is something about Schubert that drives off the good and replaces it with bad.

By: Jill Dawe

Jill Dawe — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 14:15:39 +0000

William Eddins– you rock! This issue of classical music and its elitism is something I’ve been thinking about for YEARS! I think there is an inherent elitism in the history of the music (created and funded by white, European, upper class well-educated society) that we don’t necessarily address, think about or claim. This elitism is tricky to talk about because this connection to high society lives on in much of the way we still present the music– i.e. the dress, the funders, the dinner parties and events, and as you mention the attitude that this music is lofty and somehow \better\.

Of course, that’s not to say that classical music doesn’t speak across cultures or socio-economic class, or that it is not relevant today. I think it is! In fact I don’t think I’ve met a child who liked classical music any less than any other kind of music (i.e. see music education message from another writer).

There are so many ways to listen to music. Couldn’t we change our 19th century performance format and dress code, and etiquette to fit the context of today? And if we want to find new listeners and that means dropping the elitist overtones shouldn’t we drop the elitist 19th-century conventions that signal back to the 19th century???? And could we do that without losing the established audiences and funders and supporters who like it just the way it is?

An let’s be totally RADICAL: in addition to more casual attitudes from the performers, conductors, presenters… could we also look at the format of the concerts? Why do we have to listen in a segregated way? Why are classical concerts for classical audiences and popular music concerts for the others? You yourself mention that you listen to lots of stuff, as do I, as do most people I know. Leonard Bernstein was a fabulous example of how to present music from lots of styles respectfully and creatively…. There are ways to present music around a concept, idea or exploration of a theme that would make a multiple style concert coherent (like a performance version of the music theory class you wrote about. Let’s break the mould….. Let’s have classical geeks and nerds be wild and crazy and out of the box!!! Oh yeah and maybe less defensive too. Did I mention YOU ROCK?

Just some thoughts……………….

By: Concert Snapshots: Dr. Piano Man’s Circus | by Bill Eddins | Sticks and Drones

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 12:39:31 +0000

[...] in Edmonton conducting a special with the ESO. Every orchestra does this to make money although the Convincesualists would have you believe that we could play Mahler 24/7/365 and be awash in geld. Good luck with [...]

By: Kristen

Kristen — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 21:05:57 +0000

Bill—-you have got it totally going on!! If we aren’t able to reach out to the youth of today and capture their attention, classical music audiences will go the way of the dinosaurs!! I don’t care what side of the tracks the kids are from, Schubert is just not sexy for most high school kids. What excites them and pulls them in might be the Beatles or Metallica or Trans-Siberian Orchestra which then allows us to open their ears and minds to all sorts of other musical possibilities. I am a full-time symphony musician who does a lot of teaching/conducting. My students were totally geeked up when I had the opportunity to play with TSO. (Who knew somebody as old as their orchestra teacher could still rock??) Then they wanted to know more about what the Symphony was playing and what I thought was cool—hmmm, very interesting!!! I really think that people, and kids in particular, need to see classical musicians as “real” people, not as some type of deity in a world that they’ll never understand. There is something out there for everyone–and who knows, it might just be Schubert!!

Meliora!!