Yet another article on how to save Classical Music or at least in this case live concerts. On the list: Slow down Bach, clap between movements and after solos, the score is only a suggestion so improvise….I think more cowbell would be as good as a suggestion!…
The article by David Bratman appeared on April 21 in the San Francisco Classical Voice ad is entitled Recordings to Save Classical Music, Cheers to That. Here’s a quote:
While musicians have no control over the large-scale economic and cultural causes of decline, they do have the ability to affect some things, such as etiquette, programming, and performing habits in concerts.
(Anatole) Leikin has a few suggestions to make classical concerts less stultifying and boring — for so he finds them to be — and all his ideas involve returning to customs of the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Why not allow, even encourage, applause between movements of large works, and even during the music after a virtuoso turn? A concert is a communal experience between performers and audience, and suppressing applause deprives the musicians of vital and encouraging feedback. The idea that it would break their concentration or the precious mood of the work, Leikin says, is pretentious nonsense.
This view is pretentious nonsense, ok everyone let’s announce that you can clap anytime you want and watch your audiences multiply…seriously? That’s what is keeping people away…please!!!! There’s nothing wrong with doing it, I have experienced it many times, but it doesn’t effect audience size. There is an intimidation factor that keeps people away that is much deeper than simply knowing when to applaud. Oh and by the way you think this sets us apart, perhaps they’ve never experienced Jazz! Becoming like another musical art form is not setting yourself apart. The problem is multifaceted and the way to combat it is more about integrating an organization into the community so that people want to support it, more than what we do at concert time.
Then this:
His second suggestion is to change programming styles. Two continuous hours of one type of music is more than the ear should take. Why not return concerts to the variety-show format of the 19th century that offered something for everybody? In those days, various types of compositions were mixed together in programs, and a song with piano accompaniment could come between two movements of a symphony.
Right, do the 2nd movement of Beethoven 7 and bring on Lady Gaga, that will bring them in! Seriously though, there is already much variety in programming, look at David Robinson and JoAnn Falletta’s programming very imaginative and contrasting. What we don’t do well is in asking them what they actually want to hear. In Springfield doing this helped double our audience….wait pandering, is that what I hear I’m doing….you better believe it! Yet we have still done world premieres and new music but it has been very strategic and thematic so that there was point in doing it. We simply cannot keep dictating what we want to play and ignore the response if it’s negative.
And then:
Whether because of the limitations of musical notation, or from unspoken expectations of what performers will do, composers leave many of their expectations unwritten.
Um yes so we then interpret! The problem with these so called answers are that they do not address the fundamental problems of connecting which is about interaction, and accessibility. Personal connections, community service and easier less intimidating access are the big issues to resolve, along with relevance which is the biggest problem of all. We are so easily prone to fall all over ourselves to try and set ourselves apart, and become special, that we forget that we have to become relevant first so we gain support and then and only then can we become special. The music itself is one part of the experience of live performance which starts when someone gets in their car to come to to a concert. The concert is usually at the mid point of the evening
Bottom line, it seems that many people believe that success comes by allowing people to BE themselves (audience and performer) in the music when in actuality it’s about creating the environment for them to SEE themselves in the music. Then we will start to become relevant.
Great post! I agree that we need to make Classical Music a larger part of the community in order to survive.
I do find the “two continuous hours of one type of music is more than the ear should take” is a little one sided. Many people go to concerts where they hear similar types of music continually for at least 2 hours, but they seem to make Classical Music an exception.
I think that asking the audience what they want to hear an programming accordingly is great! I also think that it is important to program things that people aren’t as familiar with in order to expand what everyone is exposed to. Everyone is so quick to write off everything that they don’t like or aren’t familiar with that I think it is important for the symphony to become a place where the audience can objectively discover new pieces in an engaging and fun environment (in total agreement with the end of your post!)