[lbo-talk] The Death of Classical Music (da capo, con brio)

joanna 123hop at comcast.net
Tue Apr 3 11:05:48 PDT 2007


Doug Henwood wrote:


>
>More than partly. By the mid-1960s, recording technology had gotten
>very good, and things from the 1950s weren't so bad either. So we've
>got 40 or 50 years of very high quality performances of what is a
>large but nonetheless limited canon. Do we really need contemporary
>re-interpretations of the minor works of Telemann?
>
Well, the short answer is yes. Every generation interprets classical music differently, hears different things in it, rediscovers it in a different way. There is Glenn Gould playing Bach and there is Dinu Lipatti playing Bach. I can't imagine a greater difference in interpretation, and this difference allows you to experience all the facets and possibilities of Bach's music. Why not?


>The bigger problem might be that younger people are not taking up
>classical music, and even boomers rarely listen to it except as
>upscale mood music. That's sad, but aside from blasting out some old-
>fartism, I don't know what to say about that.
>
That is the bigger problem but it has simple enough explanations...

-- the complete lack of support for the arts in the public schools. A steady downward slide since the late sixties. People say they know what they like; but it's truer to say that they like what they know. No exposure; no experience playing.....= no liking.

-- the extent to which parents financing musical training do so within a highly competetive rather than social music-making context, thus taking a lot of fun out of the experience.

-- the polarization between fun music and serious music, further distraught by the relentless logic of the ideas of modernism -- which also makes having fun highly suspect. There are some really enjoyable and interesting modern classical artists....Lou Harrisson, Arvo Pratt, but I'm getting to learn about them more by going to the ballet than through the symphony hall.

-- the lack of live music. As wonderful as recordings are, there's nothing like hearing the stuff live and well played ( no sticks up anyone's butt). That too is an ecstatic experience, but if you don't live in a big city or university town, you're not going to have that experience.

If the billions of dollars that rich people invest in "art" at Christies were invested in art education, you would see a return of "classical" art and as much invention and creation as one hundred years ago. I promise.

Joanna



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