Chicagoans take a lot of crap for their (our, mine) inferiority complex, and feeling the need to trumpet our accomplishments and greatness to the world, which so often doesn’t seem to notice. But that sense of inferiority is absolutely bludgeoned by the crowd that insists that classical music is dying. Or that orchestral music is dying, or that kids don’t like opera, or the audience is dying, or my current favorite indictment, that it doesn’t connect to the larger culture. (See this rap sheet for a list of spurious, arguable points.)
As it happens, I spent some time talking with a young classical musician this week, talented as all get out, who doesn’t listen to classical music. Hip-hop is on the radio in the morning, and listening to classical music takes place when a new piece needs to be learned. We agreed that it’s unique to classical music that most musicians just don’t listen to a lot of it, unlike jazz musicians, most of whom could write their own jazz histories, or hip-hop artists with closets and hard drives full of mixtapes. “Face it, classical music just isn’t relevant.” Point taken.
But here’s the thing. When people want the Big Feeling after a national tragedy, or in a time of celebration, it’s classical music that people turn to, and there are examples of classical music turning up in popular culture that show there is some relevance there. But that relevance isn’t being picked up on by the experts (us), probably because a lot of us are buried in this music, have our own thoughts about it, and don’t have our antennae tuned in to a lot of other stuff. Which is just as it should be.
That’s right. It shouldn’t be any other way. People who care deeply about any form of entertainment are going to take it way more seriously than they take others. Someone who’s playing the music three or more hours a day is invested in it, and it shouldn’t seem strange that they aren’t thinking about it for the rest of the day. They’re going to do other things to blow off steam, and look for other experiences. I listen to infinitely more indie rock than I did when I was a classical critic, largely because I can and I don’t need to know every last classical ensemble in Chicago. I can check out Little Joy and not miss a string quartet somewhere. For many people who aren’t thinking about classical music for their livelihoods, they’ll come to classical music in order to find something different, and to blow off steam.
This is because classical music gives you different reactions than hip-hop, rock, punk, whatever. Classical musicians and presenters don’t need to obsess about ways to be more like the larger culture. That’s what the larger culture is for. (This notion of a monolithic larger culture is also going the way of the dodo, but that’s another topic.) Classical music stands for many things, and those traits and qualities have been built up over centuries. They ought to be celebrated and embraced, not turned away from.
And yet, turning away from them is seen by some as just the ticket. Not enough visual stimulation in the concert hall? Projections. Formal dress not doing it for you? Casual wear. Aging audience? Kill ‘em. (jk)
Aside: The notion of old audience being problematic is the one that really kills me. It’s propagated largely by the Baby Boomers, and some days I wish we could keep the Boomers’ parents and do away with the Boomers. Once upon a time, in the 1940s or so, there was such a thing as grown-up entertainment, and youth entertainment, but then the Boomers came along and decided that they were going to stay young forever, even after buying homes in the suburbs and buying a Hummer, still fight the power, and then cry foul when it didn’t work out and expect the government to bail them out, like Mom and Dad. Maybe if y’all had been a little more mature and not still trying to convince us that the Rolling Stones and Neil Young are still cool, you would’ve kept your eyes on the till a little better.
On the contrary. Classical music has this insane history behind it, running from churches in the 11th century to clubs in the 21st, and that’s what we need to be capitalizing on. The rest of it is just window dressing. The music is there, and people will tap into the excitement and fervor of it when it’s presented honestly, not fed to them like their vegetables. We’re putting on Mahler’s Second Symphony this week. It’s a popular piece, and audiences have been flipping out since Thursday over Bernard Haitink’s conducting of it. It’s not because he’s whipping them into a frenzy; it’s because people can’t help but hear the seriousness of purpose there. Not all music requires that, of course, and a lot of music would be ruined by it. But when it’s what’s called for, that should be the calling card, and not some shambolic notion of connecting to the larger culture.
By Tuesday night, there will have been roughly 8,000 people who will have heard these concerts. You can tell me classical music isn’t relevant, and that people don’t connect with it, but I can also tell you that you’re willfully blind.