I am grateful to the Cornell University Music Department for their help with my research. And I would also like to thank Professor Neal Zaslaw (music) for all the help and advice he has given to me as this paper was being written. All
views presented in this paper are my own and do not represent the official stance of Neal Zaslaw or the Cornell University Department of Music.
Abstract:
This is a paper about classical music and the American consumer culture. Specifically, its focus is on European Art Music, and its presence in American society in the beginning of the 21st century. I begin by defining both classical and European Art Music. I then give some of the history behind European Art Music in America, as the art form migrated to this continent not more than sixty years ago. I then set out to investigate the problems that have affected the art form in America. To accomplish this, I outline some of the trends present in American classical music, most of which happen to be negative. Finally, I turn to speculative design, as a way to emancipate European Art Music from its distinctly American problems. I conclude with some of the goals I hope to achieve with my suite of technologies. I am interested in speculative design in the area of classical music because the art form is in serious trouble in America. So much trouble, in fact, that in my lifetime, if no action is taken, European Art Music in the U.S. may cease to exist. There are a complex web of trends supporting the demise of this music—but all of them trace directly back to the American consumer culture. There are no easy solutions to a problem which is fundamentally rooted to the way we in this country live our lives. Of course, one may argue that if we could only change the consumer culture, all the problems in the music would be solved. It isn’t that easy—and for the sake of this paper, I will assume that the way we live isn’t going to change dramatically in the next few decades. Thus, to give new life [and meaning] to classical music, it must be integrated with the consumer culture. No longer should technology and European Art Music be antithetical to each other. Instead, I believe that technology offers amazing potential for lifting classical music out of the grave and into the spotlight, as it has been in Europe since the 18th century. The consumer culture and classical music can coexist with each other in our post-modern society. All people need are open ears, and more importantly, open minds. Classical music intrigues me because it is a cultural phenomenon of which most are aware, but almost all fail to acknowledge. The music is so pervasive and prevalent in our society, yet the actual classical culture is on the fringe. So many take this music for granted or fail to appreciate it for what it’s worth. But the classical canon is, among other things, one of the greatest achievements of humankind. If people would only appreciate this music, their lives would be greatly enriched and enhanced. With the training in classical music that I have, it disturbs me to see this art form sailing down the drain. Our society needs this music more than anything else because it is one of the highest forms of art and because it gives balance and meaning to the daily routine. My speculative design ideas are all my solution to classical music’s current problems, which include, but are not limited to: the increasing popularity of popular music, declining CD sales, poor attendance at concerts, low enrollment in music courses and conservatories…the list could go on for half a page. Classical music needs change—and it also needs to change with society. The entire industry is stodgy, conservative, and backwards. If it hopes to survive in the years ahead, it must embrace modern technology. This is the only way that classical music will be guaranteed a future audience.
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Acknowledgements:
There is one person I must recognize, without whom this paper would not have been possible. I am forever grateful to Neal Zaslaw, the Herbert and Rosaline Gussman Professor of Music at Cornell. The courses I have taken under him (Music 108: Mozart to Minimalism and Music 276: the Orchestra and its Music) have changed my perspective on life. Professor Zaslaw has inspired me to go and learn more about music, to enhance my knowledge so I can understand this complex social phenomenon better. He has constantly challenged me to reconsider my preconceptions, and in doing so, has opened my eyes to a world I never knew existed. The love of music he has instilled in me is what led to the choice of Classical Music as my area for speculative design. He is a superb professor and a wonderful human being. An erudite purist, yet a realist and pragmatist, he manages to embody everything the cultured human should. In the music world, he has done it all: play professionally, teach, write, and speak. To say he is accomplished would be to scratch the surface. Professor Zaslaw, thank you for being the defining influence in my life for the past year. Your words of wisdom have motivated me to investigate the future of the art form which I too have grown to love. In it’s problems, I see the problems of our society, as the state of music is the state of the arts. The trends may all be pointing in the wrong direction, but hopefully, with my [speculative] designs, we may see this music resume the place in our civilization for which it is destined. Contents 0 Introduction: Overview of the Paper 4 1 A Brief History of Classical Music 5 2 The Origins of European Art Music 7 3 European Art Music in the United States 9 4 The Post-Modern Movement 11 5 The “Death” of Classical Music? 17 6 The Demise of Classical Music 19 7 The Current State of American Classical Music 25 8 The American Orchestra 31 9 Trends Supporting Classical Music’s Demise 33
I. The Automatic Lifestyle : : : : : : : : : : : 34 II. Post-Modernism : : : : : : 35 III. American Consumerism : : : : : : : : : : : 39 IV. Demographics : : : : : : 43 V. Elitism : : : : : : 44 VI. Corporatization : : : : : : 46 VII. The “86 Phenomenon” : : : : : : 48
10 The Case for Speculative Design in Classical Music 50 11 Presentation of Speculative Design Ideas 55
I. Music Appreciation : : : : : : : : : : : 55 II. Performance and Performance Practice : : : : : : : : : : : 61 III. Entertainment : : : : : : : : : : : 67 IV. Interactivity : : : : : : : : : : : 71 V. Aesthetics : : : : : : : : : : : 76
12 Project Goals 80 13 Implementation Issues 82 14 Why We Need Classical Music 84 15 Conclusion: Looking Towards the Future 85 Endnotes 89 Bibliography 90 Image Sources 91
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The Journey not the Arrival Matters -Leonard Woolf
Introduction:
Classical music is in trouble—serious trouble. For those who are not close to the
industry, this may come as a huge surprise. But to those who have been exposed, the perils
facing this art are indeed quite scary. Before delving into the issues, a couple definitions are in
order. First, when I say classical music, I am referring to European Art Music, which is the
musical tradition which emerged in Western Europe in the 18th century and emigrated to the
United States during the Second World War. Second, the crisis facing this music is only true for
America. The European classical music scene has its own varieties of problems, which, due to
the nature of their culture, are substantially different from those facing this country, on the other
side of the pond. Thus, my analysis is framed around the current status of the European classical
tradition in the United States. With that said, I can elaborate some more on some of the problems
facing the music. The main problem, to put it flat out, is the American consumer culture, which
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has gradually turned people away from classical music to more popular forms of music. This has
been able to occur because our culture has stopped supporting this music. And this is quite ironic
given the tremendous presence the classical tradition has had on our society and way of life.
Other problems include corporatization, gentrification, post-modern aesthetics, and elitism. In a
society consumed by greed and excess, however, we need this music now, more than ever. But
complex problems have even more complex solutions. One cannot hope to simply assimilate
classical music into the consumer culture, because it would be lost in that environment. Thus,
classical music needs something so that it can “fit in” to our society. That something is modern,
state-of-the-art technology. In the past, classical purists have questioned whether technology and
[art] music should be married to each other. With classical music in its current state, I argue that
there is absolutely no other choice at this point. Further, integrating classical music and
technology is the only way by which it can be made to coexist with our consumer culture. What
follows is a speculative design project meant to save classical music from extinction, through the
creation of innovative technologies that will give a breath of fresh air to a dying art form.
Chapter 1: A Brief History of Classical Music
Music in the Western Culture is the result of various influences, including the formalization of improvised traditions; the growth of notation; the development of tuning systems; the treatment of text; innovative approaches to form; the role of patronage; the absorption of various cultures into the style; the growth of technology; investigations of
performance practice; and various other factors. -Musicologist James Zychowicz
It is difficult to assign an exact date to the birth of European Art Music. Some argue that
it was born with Gregorian chant in the early Renaissance, while others claim it was not born
until the early orchestra came on the scene, during the early 18th century. I tend to be in the
middle in my opinion; the music definitely was developing during the Renaissance, but it did not
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come of age until the opera music of the German Georg Muffat, French Jean-Baptiste Lully, and
Italian Arcangelo Corelli. The Baroque period that followed was classical music’s adolescent
years—young, precocious, and wild, many new compositional techniques would be developed
and deployed. Then, during the Classical period, we get what many so commonly refer to as
“classical music.” The period unofficially began in 1750 (the year of J.S. Bach’s death), even
though composers such as Johan Stamitz were writing “classical” music years before. Fueling
composers to adapt the classical style would be the development of the sonata form, a technique
for organizing musical ideas. The most famous composers of this period, from Haydn to
Mendelssohn to Brahms, were absolute masters of this form, which allowed them to compose
music which possessed both unity and variety. From the classical, European Art Music would
evolve into the Romantic, a period of intense expression and emotion in music. It is during this
period that we observed the rise of program music, a distinct break with the abstract [or absolute]
music that preceded it. For the first time, music that was “about things” would be composed, in
the form of overtures, tone poems, and operas (this period was their coming of age). Romantic
greats included Franz Liszt, Gustav Mahler, and Richard Wagner. Romanticism stuck around
until the outbreak of World War I, at which point musical modernism was born. Modernism gave
us incredibly dissonant and atonal music, with pervasive chromaticism and an inaudible beat.
The great modernists included Shoenberg (the founder of the movement), Stravinsky (the greatest
composer of the 20th century), and Bela Bartók. This brings us to the present period, known to
many as post-modern. Here, the emphasis has been on eclectic composition using established
techniques. Prominent composers include John Adams, Henryk Gorecki, and Steve Reich.
Where European Art Music is headed absolutely no one knows. In fact, Leonard Bernstein wrote
a 450-page book about the subject in the 1970’s [The Unanswered Question], and came up with
more questions than answers. The music world still cannot decide what type of music will come
next, in part because there is still a fierce debate between the modernists and post-modernists
regarding whose music has more merit.
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Thus, the music of the future is up in the air. Luckily, as far as my analysis is concerned,
this uncertainty is not of concern. This is because, I have focused on only those composers who
have been accepted into the classical canon, a list of the preeminent composers in the European
Art Music tradition. This canon is unofficial, yet any musicologist can tell you if a composer is in
it. Baroque composers Bach and Handel were the first to be canonized. In the classical period,
there is Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Schumann, and Berlioz. In
the romantic period, Wagner, Liszt, Smetana, Debussy, Dvorak, and Tchaikovsky. In the modern
period, Stravinsky, Bartók, and Shostakovich (who has been particularly controversial). No
composer is in the canon from the post-modern period, because it would be too recent. There has
traditionally been at least a 50-year lag between a composer’s death and their addition to the
canon. The last major composer to be included was Austrian Gustav Mahler, during the early
1990’s. A composer in the canon has his (there are no females in the canon) works studied and
performed extensively. All composers in the canon are thus an elite subset of the composers who
make up European Art Music. They are “the best of the best,” as musicologists often refer to
them. Their music has given classical music the face that it has, as they get the most attention
and notoriety in music classes as well as performance time in concerts. Of all the compositions
that these brilliant musicians wrote, however, only a select few have made it into the canon.
These works, from Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in C minor to Debussy’s Prelude to the
Afternoon of a Faun, are among the most celebrated ever written.
Chapter 2: The Origins of European Art Music
European society, during the 18th and 19th centuries, provided excellent fodder for the
development of European Art Music. The revolutions inspired composers such as Beethoven to
write his heroic works, while colonization inspired composers such as Ravel to write works
centered on other countries [and cultures] (referred to as orientalism or exoticism). But once
World War I came, everything was undone. Millions were killed, and European society was left
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in a state of total disarray. Economic crisis plagued the continent in the 20 year-period leading up
to World War II. No one thought a war could be any deadlier than the “Great War” two decades
earlier, but WWII was, the most deadly conflagration in world history. European Art Music was
thrown into disarray by the wars, as composers had no idea how to respond to the violence and
destruction. Should they go back to composing beautiful romantic music, painting over the fact
that their world and way of life had been utterly destroyed? Or should they compose harsh,
chromatic, and dissonant music that is eternally at war with itself? The composers, and hence
European Art Music, took the second option, confronting the wars in vivid fashion. When these
composers emigrated to the United States, they took the war with them through their music.
Americans, who had not seen the wars firsthand, had no desire to listen to this “new” music.
When it came to classical music, they preferred the American traditionalists, who included
Edward MacDowell, Charles Ives, and the early Copland. They did not want the disturbing
music of Messiaen, Stockhausen, and Boulez, which was dark, dreary, and despondent. Herein
one can observe the beginning of the end for European Art Music in America. And it didn’t take
Americans long to decide they didn’t like it and reject it, either.
However, most members of the classical community or those who appreciated classical
music gave European Art Music a chance. And more importantly, the government gave it a
chance, loading up on the funding for arts councils, funds, universities, and schools. It would not
be until the early 1980’s that classical music in America began to rapidly decline. It was during
this decade that the audience picked up after the emigration began leave, in search of more
accessible and less pretentious music. Then in the 1990’s, the negative trends would magnify
themselves, leading to a steady decline up until the present period. Right now, European Art
Music in America is on life support, the little life that it still has coming from prestigious music
schools such as Julliard in New York and orchestras such as the Chicago and Philadelphia
Philharmonic. If swift and decisive action is not taken, the music may fall off our cultural
landscape sometime in the next two decades. And think what a tragedy that will be. The works
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in the canon of the great masters, from Beethoven to Bartók and Mendelssohn to Messiaen, will
be forgotten forever. They will no longer improve the quality of our life with their grace,
sensitivity, and emotion. They will no longer give order and meaning to a world overrun with
confusion and disorder. They will no longer help us to understand the unknown, or help to show
us just how beautiful life can be. We need European Art Music, the canon of the masters, as an
integral part of our culture and society. It is something that we simply cannot live without.
Chapter 3: European Art Music in the United States European Art Music officially settled in America during the Second World War.
Composers such as Igor Stravinsky came to escape Communism under Stalin, while others such
as Bruno Walter, George Szell, Arnold Shoenberg, Bela Bartók, Kurt Weill, Nadia Boulanger,
and Paul Hindemeth fled Hitler or the World War. This continuous migration traces its roots to
the First World War, during which Gustav Mahler of Austria and Ferruccio Busoni of Italy
emigrated to America, the former fleeing religious persecution, and the later fleeing political
persecution. By the end of World War II, the entire European artistic, scientific, and musical
scenes had all moved to the United States (this was Hitler’s legacy). Most important, as far as
this paper is concerned, is the music scene. Since its beginnings in Gregorian chant, European
Art Music had called Europe its home. But it was abruptly transplanted to the United States
because of the war, at which point it had the difficult task of acclimating itself to unfamiliar
territory. Many thought such “serious” art music in America would be like a fish out of water,
but the music had no problem at all fitting in. In fact, during the next three decades, European
Art Music would take America by storm, invading our society and colonizing our culture.
The European émigrés disseminated to universities and conservatories around the
country, where they spread the tradition of “serious” [art] music to their students. Hindemeth was
at Yale, Stravinsky gave master classes in Los Angeles, Shoenberg was at the University of
Southern California, Weill was at Juilliard in New York, and Boulanger was at Harvard. Thus,
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America was shown the European traditions which had developed during the previous three
centuries “across the pond.” The European [by birth] composers also introduced America to
musical modernism—the credo of which was “art for art’s sake.” In no time did composers who
were American by birth, such as Aaron Copland and William Schuman embrace this new
aesthetic. Copland wrote an atonal piece for Jackie Kennedy’s Birthday Celebration at the New
York Philharmonic [the searing Vitebsk Trio], while Schuman wrote one for an anniversary
concert of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra [the diaphanous In Sweet Music]. It was in America,
in fact, that the modernist aesthetic would fully come of age. Despite the quest to emancipate
dissonance undertaken by the modernist composers, they still embraced the traditional canon of
European Art Music. As Shoenberg once said, “In order to break the rules one must know them
first.” Thus, these composers did not teach their students how to write atonal, polytonal, serial, or
aleatory music as they did. Rather, they taught them counterpoint from the great Baroque
composer Palestrina, harmonic theory from Bach and Handel, and structural theory from Haydn,
Mozart, and Beethoven. There was a total embrace of the music of the western canon and the
classical masters who wrote it.
Thus, European Art Music bloomed in America, infiltrating the cultural landscape and
the national psyche. An early instance of this comes from V-day in 1945. A musicologist
working for the army recommended that Beethoven’s 5th symphony be played for the troops on
the way to battle at Normandy. Why? Because the symphony’s motto [fate] theme, da-da-da-
dum, translated to V (for victory) in Morse code [three shorts and a long]. And this would only
be the beginning. Classical music would show up in movies [Fantasia, Elvira Madigan, and A
Clockwork Orange, among many others], on television [the Lone Ranger], and on the radio. For
Americans, this music became ubiquitous. Nonetheless, they admired it and loved it. This
period, between 1950 and 1980, is the Golden Age of European Art music in America.
Attendance at orchestra concerts and operas skyrocketed, as did the sale of classical LP’s. Music
conservatories were filled to the brim, and more American children were taking to an instrument
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at an early age. The experiment with European modernism in the U.S. was a full-scale success1.
Where composers such as Copland and Schuman left off, conductor/composer Leonard Bernstein
and composer Elliot Carter took over. In his music, Bernstein, fused together the styles of
Stravinsky and Copland, his mentor, showing that modernism and American classical music
could stand next to each other. With his Young People's Concerts, he helped to popularize
classical music by bringing it to thousands of youths all around the country. Carter, a committed
modernist, and a very good composer, is still writing music to this very day [he just finished his
first opera, at the age of 90]. His music fuses together the styles of Shoenberg, Bartók, and
Messiaen, with lurid and intense orchestral textures.
American audiences welcomed all of this music with open arms. They wanted
intellectual and artistic stimulation. They wanted to be challenged, to enjoy “art for art’s sake.”
And plus, there was something for everyone. There was the American classical aesthetic, as
developed by MacDowell, Copland, and Bernstein. And then there was the European modernism
that Shoenberg had first developed. Plus, there was everything in the classical canon that had
been shipped over from Europe. There was, hence, a great proliferation and abundance of
European Art Music in the U.S. Classical music looked like it had everything going in its way. It
[barley] escaped being slaughtered in the war, but made its way out of the charnel house of
Europe to enjoy a Renaissance in America. This would be until the postmodern movement came
along, signifying the beginning of the end for European Art Music in the United States.
Chapter 4: The Post-Modern Movement
The origins of postmodernism (in music, that is) are about as complex as they are well
understood. As I see it, the movement was a product of the American consumer culture that was
1 Joseph Horowitz, a writer and the Executive Director of the progressive Brooklyn Philharmonic, believes this Golden Age was also possible because at the time, classical music was integral to general intellectual discourse of the contemporary movement [modernism]. As post-modernism entered stage right, this integration of music and society began to break down.
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slowly engulfing America during classical music’s Golden Age. By the late 1970’s/early1980’s,
the consumer culture gets to be pervasive and all pervading, the same time during which the
postmodern movement emerged. This is why I see the two being intricately connected to each
other. Post-modernism (or po-mo, as those who are “hip” refer to it), traces its roots to the
minimalist movement that began in New York City in the late 1960’s/early 1970’s. Minimalism
was a radical departure from the modernism that preceded it. In fact, one could argue that the
composers who first inaugurated the style, who included LeMont Young, Terry Riley, and Steve
Reich (a Cornell alum), wiped the slate clean, and started building classical music from the
ground up. Thus, minimalism is terribly regressive and unbelievably elementary. Stylistically, it
is based on the modular repetition of “cells” of music (nothing like the cells that Beethoven used
to write his most famous symphonies, however) that repeat over and over and over and over
and…well you get the point. But the minimalists thought that the listener wouldn’t. So they
repeated themselves ad nauseam. Some minimalists claim that their aesthetic is based on the
baroque principle of ostinato (one thing in the music changes while everything else remains the
same), while others claim that it is based on the Renaissance principle of hocket (a contrapuntal
technique of manipulating silence).
Minimalist music would be incredibly monotonous, and hardly could be compared, in
terms of its artistic and emotional depth, to the modernist music that preceded it. Thus,
minimalism was a total abandonment of modernism—which meant that it was an abandonment of
the canon of European Art Music in general. This should come as no surprise. All the composers
who founded the movement were Americans, and many hadn’t even studied music in college
(Reich was a philosophy major at Cornell). Because they had no connection to the canonic
tradition, they had no problem discarding it. Minimalism was the first sign that something was
wrong with European Art Music in America. But minimalism would not be a long-lasting
movement with much staying power. Instead, it would give way to Post-Modernism, which is the
movement we’re currently in (and desperately need to get out of).
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The term post-modern is a very awkward one, because one can never be quite sure what
it implies. To call something “modern” is to say that it is the most recent thing there is. Thus,
modern music, literally, would be the music of the current period. Post-modernism, on the other
hand, is music that comes after the current period. This would imply that it is music of some time
beyond the present. It is indeed a paradox to claim that music can be beyond that which is the
most recent. And no, the term is not meant as a throwback to Wagner’s “music of the future,” as
Post-modernists reject everything except that which they’ve created2. Most recently, this has
come to include science and literature, and religion appears as if it may be next on the cutting
block3. But when the artistic movement was first founded, it was European Art Music that was
first on the agenda. Thus, post-modernism was a new breed of musical elitism [and censorship],
greater than anything Western Civilization had ever seen before.
Unlike the transition between the classical and romantic periods, which was a natural
evolution (for example, the late works of Beethoven and Berlioz have some romantic leanings,
hearkening the arrival of the incipient movement), the transition between modernism and post-
modernism was a revolution in every sense of the word. Post-modernists rejected everything
modernism had come to represent. Out would be Webern’s Klangfarbenmelodie [tone-color
melody] and Shoenberg’s Sprechstimme, along with the notion of “Art for Art’s Sake.” Gone
2 Post-modernists also happen do be extremely reactionary, the antithesis of the modernists, many of whom were quite radical. They believe in no truth, rules, or absolutes, meaning that they basically improvise things as they go along, taking a new stance on each issue that comes up. The musical equivalent of this is aleatory composition (music that is based in improvisation, meaning that it sounds different every time it is performed), which is part of the minimalist movement. The first aleatory [and minimalist] piece ever composed since the Baroque era (where the chordal accompaniment on the continuo was always improvised and the solo instrument was frequently ornamented) was In C, written by Terry Riley in 1964. Aleatoric composition would come to be absorbed into the Post-Modern aesthetic by composers such as Witold Lutoslawski [serial aleatory]. Indeterminacy is also at the heart of the post-modern movement. As the narrator of Salman Rushdie’s novel Shame suggests, "I myself manage to hold large numbers of wholly irreconcilable views simultaneously, without the least difficulty. I do not think others are less versatile" (227). This indeterminacy would be reflected in the music of composers such as John Cage; in his most famous piece, 4’33’’ for piano, he instructs the performer to do nothing for the duration. Hence, the music of the post-modernists would come to incorporate the prevailing social and political beliefs at the time. 3 See Grenz, Stanley. 1996. A Primer on Postmodernism. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. Of particular significance is his discussion of the challenges he believes the postmodernist worldview presents to the church (and religion in general).
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would be the canon of European Art Music, along with a reverence for the composers who wrote
it. Also inherent in this school of thought is a rejection of the notion of ‘genius.’ So, Mozart
became just another Austrian artist who scribbled notes on a page. Wagner was some German
composer with a disposition towards megalomania. Stravinsky was an embittered man whose
importance was entirely manufactured by the modernists. Along with this, an increased emphasis
would be placed on the performer, rather than the composer. Composers would no longer receive
any of the credit for their work—it would be those who performed it that would. All this was
rash; it was presumptuous. And it was not what European Art Music in America needed in order
to ensure its long-term survivability.
But I will argue that this was all inspired by the American consumer culture. It was the
monotony of post-WWII life in America that inspired minimalism, with its incessant reiteration
of the same four-note theme. Minimalist music also had a brisk and driving tempo, which drives
the interminable piece towards an end that never seems to arrive. This is meant to represent the
increasing speed of life in American society, where everything appears to be happening faster and
faster. Post-modernism, at its most basic level is a reflection of our shallowness and vacuousness
as a society. This music is very eclectic (some have called it totalist), as jazz, Broadway, or
eastern influences are often used as inspiration for compositions. The post-modern composer
strives to put as much into these compositions as possible, so that the sound scape that is created
overloads [I would say it also overwhelms] the listener. This is a reflection of the excess and
consumption present in our consumer culture. Jean-Francois Lyotard, the author of The
Postmodern Condition, sees it much the same way:
Eclecticism is the degree zero of contemporary general culture: one listens to reggae,
watches a Western, eats McDonald’s food for lunch and local cuisine for dinner, wears Paris perfume in Tokyo and "retro clothes" in Hong Kong; knowledge is a matter for T.V. games. It is easy to find a public for eclectic works. By becoming kitsch, art panders to the confusion which reigns in the "taste" of the patrons. Artists, gallery owners, critics and public wallow together in the "anything goes", (sic) and the epoch is one of slackening4.
4 Lyotard quoted in Waugh, p. 27.
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A sub-movement within post-modernism is the microtonal movement, which breaks the
scale into smaller intervals [groups of notes] and builds a composition off of them. This type of
music reflects the binary nature of information in our modern society, where everything comes in
a dizzying array of ones and zeros.
Musicologists should have known that something was wrong with European Art Music in
America when minimalism came onto the scene. Here was a newly forming movement that did
not embrace, transcend, synthesize, or adapt anything that had come before it—rather it flat out
rejected it and set out to redefine “classical music.” Then, when full-blown post-modernism
came on the scene, the crisis had reached epic proportions. Post-modernism, while vehemently
rejecting modernism, embraced minimalism with open arms (many post-modern compositions, in
fact rely heavily on minimalist techniques, such as John Adams’ Lollapalooza for Orchestra and
the Chairman Dances). European Art Music came to be discredited, denounced, and disparaged.
The effect of this rhetoric would be a crisis of confidence in the American music community in
regards to the merits of the classical aesthetic. A few estranged modernists, in denial about the
end of their beloved movement, would set out to restore people’s faith in European Art Music.
First would be Pierre Boulez, a French composer [of serial music] and conductor trained in Paris
by Olivier Messiaen. He too, emigrated to the United States after the war, settling in New York,
and becoming the musical director of the New York Philharmonic. Next would be Karlheinz
Stockhausen, a German émigré, and composer of electronic and post-serialist music. Last would
be an American, Philadelphia’s own Milton Babbitt, a composer and theorist who worked with
12-note serialism. In his article, “Who Cares if you Listen,” we see an earnest plea by an artist
trying to reestablish the credability of the centuries-old tradition that had been rejected just a few
years earlier. Together, these three artists make up modernism’s second (and undoubtedly last)
generation—they are European Art Music’s strongest proponents. And unfortunately, they’re all
over eighty years of age.
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Post-modernism is slowly eating away at European Art Music. This may not be the
direct intention of many of the composers who have adopted this style, but it is an unfortunate
consequence of the music that they write. And one really cannot blame the composers, because
they are merely prisoners of the times during which they live. They have to adopt and
incorporate the dominant style into their music, or else they’ll be ostracized from the “serious”
music community [much like Rachmaninoff was when he tried to write Romantic music in the
Modernist era]. It is thus the zeitgeist, more than anything else, that controls the music that we
get. The spirit of revolution inspired Beethoven to write his 9th symphony, whereas the spirit of
nationalism inspired Shostakovich to write his 5th Symphony. But even though we cannot place
complete blame on the composer for the music he writes (as least as far as the style goes), this
still does not make post-modernism right.
Everything in post-modernism is about rejection (some go so far as to call it denial):
Rejection of the past. Rejection of alternatives to the status quo [modernism]. Rejection of
criticism. In other words, the movement’s complete focus is on the present. After all, the past
never happened and the future doesn’t exist, so that leaves the present as the only thing that
matters. In other words, post-modernism is music of a single moment in time, that fails to
acknowledge its place in history. Again, this is the American consumer culture rearing its ugly
head. It is music’s reflection of the myopic nature of our society, where the emphasis is on
hedonism and instant gratification. This is the music telling us that we are a culture of self-
absorbed blowhards, who believe that our place in history is much more important than it really
is. It is also telling us that we are shallow people who trounce on anything other than that which
we believe to be appropriate or “the norm.” In other words, post-modernism is very narrow-
minded and elitist, the last thing in the world classical music needs.
I have gone to such lengths investigating what I shall refer to as “the post-modern
problem” because I think it illustrates an important point that will be useful in analyzing the
decline of European Art Music in America. This is that music (and here I mean any type of
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music) is of value to us not only because it can motivate, move, or inspire, but because it is a
cultural mirror. This means that it can give us a pretty good picture of the artistic health of a
country’s culture. A couple examples will reinforce this claim: At the outbreak of WWII the
music of Shoenberg [one excellent example is the melancholic Verklärte Nacht] reflects not only
his personal disillusionment, but also the Nazi decadence that existed all around him. Further
back, the music of Mahler before his emigration to America, [an example being his dark song
cycle Kindertotenlieder], shows the political intolerance and religious persecution that he faced in
his native Bohemia. Thus, music is a wonderful cultural barometer—a good way to gauge not
only the state of the arts, but also the state of the society that produced it.
In recent years, there has been an enormous surge in the popularity of ‘pop’ music and a
concomitant decline in that of European Art Music. This suggests that the trends causing Art
Music’s decline are buried deep within our culture. It’s not just the “post-modern problem” that’s
destroying the music. Rather, it goes much deeper than that. Basically, the trends associated with
the death of European Art Music in the United States are buried deeply within the American
consumer culture5. And to uncover them, one must look deep within American society during the
post-modern era. Only when one looks beneath the surface will the causes and true extent of the
crisis facing classical music become clear. But before we get to the causes, I would like to
present some evidence that reveals just how bad the situation has become.
5 The American consumer culture and Postmodernism are so closely tied to each other that in many cases, they cannot be separated. In his book Postmodernism or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, Frederic Jameson, an American Marxist social theorist and professor at Duke University argues that all of the characteristics of contemporary art, architecture and cultural forms (this includes music) reflect the structure of our consumer culture. He argues that postmodernism, like the consumer culture, always deals with surface, not substance. There is also never a center, as everything tends to be decentralized in postmodernism. According to Jameson, postmodern culture is an "infernal machine" that chews up everything it encounters, spits it out, and chews it up again. More moderate culture critics tend to see postmodernism as an exercise in nihilism, the inevitable consequence of moral and cultural relativism that results in the propagation of untrue fictions.
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Chapter 5: The “Death” of Classical Music? There are some strict purists out there who claim that European Art Music died with the
death of Giacomo Puccini, the great Italian opera composer [La Bohème, Tosca, Madama
Butterfly, and Turandot] in 1924. They say that since that time, no “serious” Art Music has been
written. Many have tried, including Stravinsky, Britten, Barber, and Berg—but all have failed.
People who make use of this argument are those who reject modernist music entirely. For them,
European Art Music encompasses only the Barouqe, Classical, and Romantic periods. Once late
romanticism (and its sub-movements expressionism and impressionism) were though, the canon
was closed and art music was finished. This stance, however, is seriously flawed. Viewed as a
product of its times [two World Wars, preceeded by years of bloody revolution], modernism is
just as legitimate as the styles that preceeded it. Stravinsky’s opera The Rake’s Progress is as
emotional and affecting as Brahms’ Haydn Variations. Debussy’s Prelude de l’apres-midi d’un
faun [Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun] or Berg’s Lyric Suite is as transcendent as a Beethoven
string quartet. Serious Art Music has been composed for years after the death of Puccini. In fact,
mystical minimalist Henryk Górecki’s Symphony No. 3 [Sorrows], written in 1976, is one of the
most dramatic works ever penned.
Others claim that European Art Music [in America] died with the death of Leonard
Bernstein on October 14, 1990. He was the Renaissance man, embracing all types of music—
whether they be atonal, bi/tri-tonal serial, and serial aleatory. He spread music to adults and
children alike, taking over where Copland left off in the quest to show people classical music’s
richness, depth, and resonance. When he died, there was no one to take over in his pursuit to
keep the appreciation of art music strong in the United States. This claim too makes me a little
skeptical. One can make a resonably convincing argument that the death of this cultural icon, of
enormous importance, represented a large loss to the artistic landscape of America. This may
have hastened the demise of classical music, for the simple reason that there was no one who
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came in and took over where Bernstein left off. When Bernstein died, the era of the super-
conductor in America came to a close6. This era began with Mahler back in 1909, and was one of
the reasons European Art Music in America became so enormously popular in the post-war years.
With no more big names to go see conduct a concert, or big names to make new recordings, was
it any surprise that Bernstein’s death caused a lull in the industry? But the death of one man, no
matter how instrumental one understood him to be in the history of European Art Music in
America, would not be enough to destroy the art form entirely. Thus, there are other causes to be
sifted out that are responsible for classical music’s decline.
Chapter 6: The Demise of Classical Music
European Art Music in America is not dead, but in certainly is in a state of perpetual and
rapid decline. What follows is a detailed account of the demise of the art, starting in the early
1990’s with the first public pronouncements that something was indeed wrong, and ending in the
present, with some of the predictions that have been made regarding the art’s future. What we
find is that up until 1980, most people were silent about downturn in the classical music industry,
even though signs may have been present for as many as ten years. Once the ice was broken, and
the news was released for public consumption, writings of the uncertainty surrounding classical
music’s future spread like wildfire. Many critics would have different perspectives or see
different problems causing this trouble in the music world, but all acknowledged that the situation
was of enormous severity. In the late 1990’s, the first pronouncements were issued that classical
music might actually die some time in the near future. Soon enough, death knells would be
sounded for the classical record, the string quartet, the piano recital, the modern orchestra, and the
Great Conductor. This provoked a rash of controversy in the music world, which they have been
working hard to fight up until the present-day. There is the usual gang of nay-sayers who claim
6 The era would come to a close globally in 1997 with the death of the Hungarian Georg Solti, whose recording of the complete Ring cycle in 1966 is among the most impressive achievements in classical music. In 1967, he pioneered the use of stereo recording techniques with the record company Decca.
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that the crisis has been fabricated by critics who are disillusioned with the post-modern
movement. Yet in recent years, wherever one looks, the cards are always stacked against
classical music. The critics have no agenda. Rather, they’re just reacting to the problems they
have observed in the music industry. What they have found is sobering stuff, including the
realization that American classical music has nearly played itself out.
In recent years, the death of European Art Music in America [or at the very least its
terminal illness] has been the claim of America’s foremost music critics. They believe that the
lively Golden Age, when classical music was still a popular art form, has passed away.
Orchestras and chamber ensembles, audiences, schools, publishers, and record companies have
since been slowly withering away in favor of the more lively, popular arts of the present period.
The story begins with a September 1991 article in the politically conservative New Criterion.
Written by the late musicologist and critic Samuel Lipman, it served as a wake-up call to the
classical community that something was indeed wrong with their treasured art form:
The classical music that we have celebrated has been for us the culmination of our
civilization. Unrenewed, properly honored only in private, forced to justify itself to every demagogic politician, editorial-page writer, corporate mogul, and foundation executive, classical music now stands, for the first time in the modern world, on the periphery of culture…classical music today is in deep trouble. It is not clear whether we can do more than beat witness7.
This extremely prescient quote approaches the problem with classical music from a different
angle than I have been doing. Instead, of looking at it in terms of post-modern
deconstructionism, Lipman approaches the issue from a political perspective (no surprise,
considering that Criterion is a political forum). To him, politicians, critics, corporations, and
foundations have taken classical music prisoner. Lipman is onto something—the trend he is
describing here, back in 1991, is the Corporatization of classical music.
Norman Lebrecht, a British journalist, added onto Lipman’s thesis in his book Who
Killed Classical Music?: Maestros, Managers, and Corporate Politics. His lurid account of the
7 The New Criterion, September 1991.
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classical music business speaks of the “corporate murder of classical music,” in which profit-
hungry corporations colonized the art form, sucked the life out of it, and left it for dead. As
music critics and journalists, Lipman and Lebrecht are very different people. At the time he
wrote the article, Lipman was an 80-year old conservative, cantankerous about the Golden Years
that had passed. Lebrecht, was a young tabloid journalist [with leftist leanings] who was looking
for something to “shock” the arts world into confronting the reality they were now facing. But
despite their differences, both men agreed that the decline of classical music had reached crisis
proportions. Lebrecht writes:
Ticket sales have tumbled, record sales have shriveled, major players have lost their
independence, state and business funds have dried up and artists who might formerly have looked forward to an independent solo career have gone begging for wage packets in the ranks of orchestras, themselves threatened with extinction…the future of musical performance hangs in the balance at the close of the twentieth century8.
In his book, Lebrecht is primarily concerned with the future of classical music performance. This
is extremely important, because most composers’ intention in writing music is to have it
performed live, rather than to have people listen to it on compact disks. In fact, for the first three
centuries of classical music’s history, there was no such thing as “recorded music,” implying that
everything that was written was intended for live performance. In the 20th century, even with the
advent of recorded music (made possible through of the invention of the vacuum tube and later
the transistor), there were very few composers who only wanted their music put on electronic
media. In fact, there was a famous group of Soviet conductors who refused to have their music
recorded. Lebrecht feels as if the performance of classical music fades, recording will not be far
behind. After all, the majority of classical musicians (with the exception of superstars like
Pavoratti, Cecelia Bartoli, and Daniel Barenboim) make most of their money from live
performance, not from recording. Thus, the status of performance will play an integral part in
determining the future of the music industry.
8 Lebrecht, pp. 5 and 12.
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Lebrecht also touches on one other important point in this quote, which is that
government funding for classical music has been cut. This has been particularly true in the
United States, where arts budgets have been repeatedly slashed, especially in recent years. This
includes money for music education on the primary and secondary level, in addition to money for
arts foundations such as the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for
the Humanities. With a paucity of government funding, it’s no surprise that classical music has
had such a difficult time supporting itself. Hardest hit have been symphony orchestras, which
depend on the government to subsidize much of their operating expenses. This is not good news
either, as classical music is a performed, not recorded art. In fact, it’s most effective when heard
live (no matter how good the surround-sound stereo or speakers may be). And if orchestras
should become extinct, the recording industry (that depends on the orchestras to make recordings)
will not be far behind.
It’s not just journalists, however, who have issued stern warnings regarding the future of
European Art Music. William Bolcomb, a Pulitzer Prize-winning composer wrote a monumental
article in the 1990 edition of Musical America entitled “Trouble in the Music World,” in which he
argued:
We are, it seems, currently witnessing a crumbling of the façade of the serious music scene in the United States. Concert sales are generally down…The serious music publishing industry is almost defunct…sales of records and tapes are suffering…[and] it is nearly impossible to make a living as a serious composer9.
When Bolcomb wrote this, he was speaking for many contemporary composers, who by that time
had already been feeling the effects of the wane in art music’s popularity. A year after it was
published, music critic and composer John Warthen Struble went even further, declaring: “[w]e
may acknowledge that the symphony, opera, ballet, and chamber music have ceased to speak to
9 Musical America, 1990. Ironically, Musical America would go out of business less than two years after Bolcomb wrote his article, after 112 years of continuous publication.
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our culture in any vital way10.” This quote suggests a direct cause for the events described by
Bolcomb in his quote. Essentially, we are told that classical music, in post-modern America, is
no longer relevant to our lives. This is what has caused European Art Music (what Bolcomb
refers to as “the serious music scene” to decline. The examples he gives (ticket, sheet music, and
record sales) are merely manifestations of people’s abandonment of the music, in search of
something more accessible to them. With tumbling sales of everything classical, is it any surprise
that composers are having a difficult time finding commissions? What is particularly noteworthy
here is that Bolcomb wrote his article a full year before Lipman wrote his. His assessment of the
situation is quite good; but he does not single out any trends for the problems he observes. This is
why Lipman’s article was so important, as he was the first to actually suggest a trend underlying
the issues that had been plaguing the art for years.
There are many who believe that the symphony orchestra defines classical music. This
should come as no surprise, as a majority of the repertoire of the European Art Music canon is
written for orchestra. Many music critics have given special attention to the current state of the
ensemble, which traces its roots to the string bands of Luca Marenzio and Cristofano Malvezzi in
early 18th century Italy. In the orchestra’s problems, they see the end of classical music. Robert
Schwarz, a writer for The New York Times, did a wonderful job of summarizing the problems of
the orchestra in a 1993 article entitled “The Crises of Tomorrow are Here Today:”
There is much unease today among those who head America’s orchestras. Statistics
show that audiences are aging, and the collapse of arts education in the public schools makes it difficult to find new listeners among a younger, more ethnically diverse urban population. The repertory has grown stuffy and predictable, and daring ventures tend to alienate old, reliable subscribers. Finances are shaky in all the arts, but orchestras…are particularly vulnerable11.
Schwarz believes the future of the orchestra to be up in the air. Partly responsible has been the
cutting of music education from the primary and secondary school curriculums (he terms it “the
collapse of arts education in the public schools”). His conclusions are all very important because
10 Musical America, 1990 11 The New York Times, October 31, 1993.
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the development of the orchestra has been intertwined with the development of European Art
Music both in Europe and then in the United States. If our orchestras disappear, it will not be
long before the other classical traditions [opera, dance, maybe even the Broadway musical] do as
well.
Music critic Joseph Horowitz confirms this conclusion, suggesting that the troubles of the
orchestra elucidated by Schwarz represent the demise of the orchestral age:
[After World War I], America’s orchestras turned hostile to American music, to
contemporary art, to creativity itself…The glamour of…the “Platinum Orchestra age” was guaranteed not to last. The celebrity conductors died off. The canonized repertoire grew old and overly familiar…By the 1980’s the complacency of the classical music establishment was stultifying—except to the administrators and music businessmen who preserved the status quo12.
This very significant quote, which comes from Horowitz’s 1995 book The Post-Classical
Predicament, takes us full circle. In saying that America’s orchestras “turned hostile to American
music, to contemporary art, to creativity itself,” Horowitz is describing the Post-Modern rejection
of European Art Music. According to him, this coincided with the death of the “Platinum
Orchestra age,” which was driven by the super-conductor. The abrupt end of this age with the
death of Bernstein in 1991 was a blow to the American orchestra from which they have never
been able to recover13. With the 'Great Conductor' a thing of the past, there was no one to keep
the canon en vogue, causing it to fall out of public favor14. Then, in the 1980’s corporatization
consumed the classical music industry, as American businesses stormed in and bought up
everything that was for sale. Corporate sponsorships of orchestras reached an all time high, as
did corporate investment in the recording industry. Throughout this time, record companies were
bought out by bigger record companies, which were then bought out by multi-national
conglomerates. As Horowitz suggests, this did serve to keep the status quo in place for a few
years—but it didn’t tackle the problems by the roots. During these years of colonization, the 12 Horowitz, pp. 198-199. 13 This is the same conclusion Norman Lebrecht comes to in another one of his books, The Maestro Myth13, published in 2001. 14 Lebrecht also relates this to the stagnation in the classical recording industry, writing “All the best music has been recorded many times over by maestros more accomplished than any alive.”
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corporate chokehold on classical music was strengthened. At the same time, however, the art’s
popularity was still waning. As industry revenues fell, and corporate profits tumbled, classical
music was forsaken by business. Nevertheless, some companies who have had sponsorships for
decades (such as Texaco’s sponsorship of live Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts on Saturday
afternoons, which began back on December 7, 1940) chose to keep them in place. But in the past
year, the weak economy has cut into corporate giving, worsening the plight of many American
symphony orchestras. It has gotten so bad that Texaco is currently considering plan to reduce or
even terminate their sponsorship. If this were to happen, a 60-year old tradition would be
destroyed. But, as will soon be apparent, this is part of a much larger picture that paints European
Art Music fading from our cultural horizon.
Chapter 7: The Current State of American Classical Music
Has the death knell tolled for classical music? The short answer to the question is yes. The era of "serious" European music is over. That's right. Fini! Zu Ende! Fin! This
opinion is supported by facts. -Musicologist and tenor John Sayers
We pick up the story in the present-day, during which classical music in the United States
is barely hanging on for survival. Some of the most recent indicators of just how bad the
situation has become were published in the April 16th [2002] issue of Business Week. In the
suggest that classical music will not be able to survive in the New Millennium15. According to
Peterson, wherever one looks, there are signs of decline. Several big-city symphonies are in
serious pecuniary trouble, including those in St. Louis, San Jose, Los Angeles, south Florida, and
Philadelphia16. The San Jose Symphony Orchestra recently suspended operation while it
15 Business Week, April 16, 2002, p. 15. 16 In recent years, as major recording labels have reduced or eliminated their classical operations, many of these big-city orchestras have lost their contracts, causing them additional financial hardship.
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struggled to raise cash, citing a deficit of $2.5 million on a budget of $7.8 million17. In fact, in
recent years, most every orchestra has had fundraising difficulties or trouble selling
subscriptions18. It is only the Gibraltars in the industry, such as New York, Chicago, and San
Francisco who have been able to escape this trend19. Further, as classical audiences have
dwindled, budgets have ballooned exponentially.
A survey conducted by musicologist Kyle Gann
found that between 1971 and 1992, American
orchestra expenditures rose eightfold. And from
1989 to 1994, artists’ fees rose 30 to 50 percent20.
With the enormous costs associated with the
performance of classical music, is it any wonder
orchestras have been in tough times?
The Plight of the Classical Recording: A Case Study
This year, the Grammy award for “Best Classical Recording” (a misnomer—it should be “Best Art Music Recording”) went to the London Symphony Orchestra for their superior playing oHector Berlioz’s epic opera Les TroyensThis was one of the most critically acclaimed CD’s in recent mem
f .
ory, with phenomenal performances and recording quality, alike. The win provided the album with some free publicity and vaulted its sales, such that it became the best selling opera recording in the past decade. How many copies were sold worldwide? 10,000. Compare this to the sales of Mariah Carey’s latest disaster [album], “Glitter,” a critical flop. It won no Grammies and brought afair amount of ignominy to her. It sales were deemed to be “weak” and “pitifulby the industry. How many copies of this CD were sold worldwide? 2,000,000. Such sales would be the envy of the classical recording industrybut in the world of pop music,insubstantial.
”
, they are
Local public radio stations, such as
WNYC-FM (one of only two classical stations left
in New York City, the other being WQXR-FM),
are pairing back classical programming to run
more talk and news. This has forced National
Public Radio, which controls the programming on
over 140 stations around the U.S., to reorganize its
17 Orchestras in Sacramento and San Diego, which are both sizeable city markets, have also gone bankrupt. Los Angeles and St. Louis are confronting six-and seven-figure deficits. Furthermore, strikes have cut short seasons for orchestras in Philadelphia, Atlanta, and Shreveport. All of these strikes have resulted in tremendous inequalities in the profession: a base salary of $84,000 in Philadelphia, $18,000 in Tucson. 18 It is not just orchestras that have faced trouble meeting their budgets. In the 90’s, chamber music has run into tough times, resulting in a reduction in the number of concerts given. Piano recitals have also been afflicted by low attendance, leading music directors to program fewer of them. 19 Even Chicago has had financial trouble in the past year, facing stiff layoffs, the cancellation of its long-running national radio broadcasts [resulting in a massive loss of revenue], and its first deficit in nearly a decade. To make matters worse, music director Daniel Barenboim’s contract with recording company Teldec was abruptly cancelled, causing him to demand a salary increase to make up for the lost revenue. He ended up getting paid $670,546 in compensation, plus another $120,800 in benefits and allowances. 20 These statistics are expressed in real terms, meaning that they have been adjusted for inflation.
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cultural division to focus more on what Andrew Clements refers to as “carefully packaged, easy
listening fare.” In recent months, many of these stations have been switched to talk radio
formats. One must now look high and low to find a station that devotes itself entirely to “serious”
art music21. Just a couple decades ago, one might have found up to seven classical stations in a
single city. Now, they are lucky if they find one, even in big cities such as Detroit and
Philadelphia. The situation has been even worse for privately owned classical radio stations,
which are being bought out by big radio companies and converted to rock formats. In 2001,
Bonneville International in Salt Lake City paid 165 million dollars for Chicago’s WNIG-FM,
which was valued at $8,000 when it was founded it 1955. The station was then converted to a
classic rock format. Last January, Cox Communications bought Miami’s top-rated classical
station, WTMI-FM, and subsequently switched it to a techno-dance format22. And last month,
Washington, D.C. station WETA-FM was bought out, its classical programming immediately
eroded in favor of more news/talk. This trend is nothing more than corporatization rearing its
ugly head, suggestive of yet another facet of classical music has fallen victim to the profit motive.
As Martin Goldsmith, program director of classical music at XM Satellite Radio, a Washington,
D.C.-based firm concludes, “More and more stations are owned by fewer and fewer companies.
There are desires among commercial broadcasters to make as much money as they possibly
can23.”
Meanwhile, big music companies such as EMI and Sony are cutting back their classical
music divisions, while large retailers such as Tower Records, Virgin, and Barnes and Noble are
reducing the bin space devoted to the genre. Virgin in particular has recently reduced classical
21 A survey taken in 2001 found that the number of classical music radio stations has shrunk to 30-some commercial outlets and a little more than 100 public channels, with new casualties being added monthly. 22 Cox did not switch the programming format because the station was performing poorly. WTMI was the sixth-highest rated sation in the Mimi market [out of 40] and made a nice profit of $6 million for the fiscal year 2002. The reason it was switched was because it was believed that even more listeners, and hence higher profits would be possible with the new format. 23 Christian Science Monitor, March 15, 2002, Available http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0315/p19s01-almp.html.
inventory in all of their stores by one half to make room for popular movie DVD’s. This as
classical music CD sales have tumbled from 7% in 1987 to 3.7% in 1991, and down even further
to 2.7% in 2000—and these statistics include popular compilations such as “Classical Thunder,”
“Classical Music for People Who Hate Classical Music,” “Mozart For Baby,” and “Bride’s Guide
to Classical Wedding Music24.” Another sobering statistic comes from a recent article in the
Portland Mercury. Julianne Shepherd writes that: “The Sony Playstation sold 70 million units
worldwide in 1999, compared to the roughly 14 million classical CD’s sold during the same year.
And that’s just the Playstation—there are myriad other home systems, not to mention games25.”
This means that classical music is receiving less attention and has less of a presence in our culture
with each passing year. Norman Lebrecht adds, “What the big labels cannot grasp is that their
day is done.” Justin Davidson offers an insightful summation:
There’s no doubt that the business of selling concert music on recording…is a ghost of
what it once was. I don’t dispute the trends Lebrecht and others have documented exhaustively: falling sales and withering release schedules, contracts scrapped, executives fired, famous conductors finding there’s no room on the shelf for their legacies26.
The classical recording industry is indeed in big trouble. The business side of classical music has
changed significant over the last twenty years. As radio stations have cut back on classical
programming, record companies have reduced bin space devoted to the genre. Meanwhile, the
record companies are also cutting down on production by reducing the number of projects they
undertake, citing high production costs. Philips has recently dropped its contract with conductors
André Previn and early music specialist Frans Bruggen. Dutch conductor Bernard Haitink had
been with the company for 40 years before being let go without being allowed to finish his nearly
24 The statistics now include crossover recordings, such as those by Andrea Bocelli and Charlotte Church. Ten years ago, these artists would not have been placed into the “classical” category. Norman Lebrecht has written extensively on the “death of the classical recording.” In his “Requim for the classical record,” he suggested that in recent years major labels shunned new recording projects, budgets at recording studios have been cut, and Tower Classical has all but abandoned their classical division (due to heavy loses). See Lebrecht, Norman. Requim for the Classical Record. La Scena Musicale, July 4, 2001, p. 31. The statistics regarding classical CD sales come from the Recording Industry of America. 25 Portland Mercury, March 7, 2001, p. 37. 26 Andante, April 29, 2002, Available http://www.andante.com/magazine/article.cfm?id=16272.
completed cycle of the Mahler Symphonies. Deutsche Grammophon, which was bought out by a
French water and sewer company five years ago (I hope there’s no metaphor there), recently tore
up John Eliot Gardiner’s contract as he was in the middle of recording a complete [59-CD] set of
Bach’s cantatas27. EMI Classical has stopped recording new albums in the United States entirely.
This decision has prompted many of the other major classical record companies to cancel
contracts with all but the most bankable and attractive of celebrity performers. In a world where
profits are the bottom line, classical music is failing the record companies, as most recordings
will not pay for themselves anymore. Some sell as few as several hundred copies, even if they
are kept in print for several years. There is an enormous crisis in the recording industry, and as a
result, the future of the classical CD is very much uncertain.
In the public sector, the Government keeps cutting back arts and music education
funding, because they too have observed a decline in the audience for classical music28. What
they fail to realize, however, is that the decline is in part due to their cutbacks, which have
perpetuated a vicious cycle. As Chicago Tribune arts critic Howard Reich adds, “Though
generations of symphony subscribers once were introduced to the basics of classical music in the
public schools, cutbacks in music education during the past three decades have rendered Bach,
Beethoven, and Brahms irrelevant to most kids’ lives29.” In fact, it has gotten so bad that for the
fiscal year 2002, the National Endowment for the Arts grant for the entire United States (all 50 of
27 In Gramophone, the magazine published by the company, they justify the cutbacks in CD production by saying that orchestras have become “marginalized and irrelevant.” 28 There are many reports that substantiate this, but one of the most influential has been one written by the National Endowment for the Arts in 1996. See Peterson, Richard A., Darren E. Sherkat, Judith Huggins Balfe, and Rolf Meyersohn. 1996. “Age and Arts Participation, with a Focus on the Baby Boom Cohort.” NEA Research Division Report #34. Santa Ana, CA: Steven Locks Press. One of the major conclusions drawn in is that “as Americans age, Bach Beethoven, and Brahms will be displaced by Berry, the Beatles, and ‘the Boss.’” Depressing indeed. 29 Chicago Tribune, February 4, 2002, p. 46. The cuts in music education programs have been the worst at the early grades, but have seeped up through junior high, and in many cases, through high school. They have resulted in the loss of three generations of students who do not and cannot appreciate classical music, because they never got it in the classroom. These are generations one can never recover; they are gone forever, and will be listening to other [more popular] forms of music for the rest of their lives. With this in mind, the fall in classical music’s popularity comes as no surprise.
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them) is half that of a single city in Europe, namely Geneva, Switzerland30. The NEA is in many
ways the life-blood of American classical music, whose money has kept the art form alive during
the early years of the Post-Modern era. If one wants to pin the blame for these cutbacks on one
person, I’ll give you his name: Newt Gingrich. In 1994, he and his conservative allies in the
House of Representatives cut the NEA’s budget by 40 percent and pledged to strip it of any
federal funding by 1998 (which he almost succeeded in doing). Calling it an “elitist
bureaucracy,” Gingrich surely did not examine all the wonderful things the association does in
order to keep classical music alive. They support music education in public schools, the
operation of symphony orchestras, and many other music-related programs. So he went ahead
and 86’d it, as the American people either cheered or covered their eyes. This cutting of NEA
funding is the primary reason why orchestras are in such trouble, music programs in public
schools are threadbare [at best], and sales of classical recordings have dropped precipitously.
Further, because of the cuts, music organizations are having trouble raising funds. Currently,
government grants to the arts are almost non-existent and private sector grants are spread thin, so
that many organizations receive only a small percentage of their share. This has been bad news
for the industry, made even worse by the rising production costs. As a result of this systematic
abandonment of the Arts in America, most American lives are now musically impoverished. And
it is absolutely pathetic. But it is a very good indicator as to why classical music in America is in
such serious trouble31. Thus, I think it is quite clear that classical music is in a major crisis.
30 Sheldon Morgenstern, a musician, conductor, and director [of the Eastern Music Festival] is highly critical not just of the National Endowment for the Arts for cutting back arts funding, but also of the American Symphony Orchestra League, orchestra boards, politicians at all levels of government, arts councils, agents, and school boards. He sees all these factors as coming together to eradicate music education in nearly all American public schools. 31 In recent years, Europe has not witnessed the same precipitous decline in classical music that America has (the major decline there was during and after WWII, as the music literally picked up and left). To anyone looking for an explanation, I would say to look no farther than this statistic. European Art Music in Europe is in a much healthier state than it is in the United States. I would say that this is partly due to their cultural values, which always have emphasized an arts-oriented education with heavy training in the humanities. But it is also due to the strong government support of the arts, which has remained constant since the beginning of the Post-Modern movement (the early 1980’s). This is what has kept the canon
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From the Village Voice to the New York Times, from audiophile to music industry magazines, we
have been warned for years of disappearing [and aged] audiences, rising deficits, plummeting
record sales, and substandard music education. As Zarin Mehta, executive director of the New
York Philharmonic, an orchestra which has been immune to many of the problems its peers have
faced sums up, “Some people think it’s still business as usual, but life in classical music isn’t
what it used to be.32”
Now that I have firmly established that European Art Music in America is in decline and
elaborated on the perils facing the art form at the present time, we can turn to the trends
responsible for these events. The plight of classical music is quite unfortunate, considering the
central nature of this music to our culture and artistic heritage. The orchestra’s current struggle
comes amidst a swamp of troubles affecting American cultural life as a whole. In other words,
the problems of classical music indeed trace directly back to the American consumer culture, the
driving force of the post-modern movement. At the time when the Walkman is celebrating its
twenty-fifth anniversary, the entire recording industry is in a recession33. Even worse, the
symphony orchestra is in a depression. Some attribute this to corporatization, as businesses have
heavily cut back on contributions to orchestras in recent years, as costs have skyrocketed34. I
however, believe that the problem is a loss of the orchestra’s relevance in post-modern America.
alive, popular, and vibrant there. Further, corporations have not bought up classical music in Europe, meaning that profit is not the guiding-principle in the industry. 32 Chicago Tribune, February 4, 2002, p. 46. 33 Not even the Philadelphia orchestra, the first to make a classical recording [in 1917], has a standing contract. 34 Orchestras have become so expensive primarily because of union activity. The heaviest cost burden on an orchestra is the standing roster of highly trained musicians. Most of these musicians are unionized, and in the 90’s, they began to demand higher wages, as the price level of the economy went up (due to the stock market boom). Many orchestras could not pay their musicians these higher wages, and were forced to shut down [San Jose, Sacramento, San Diego]. Others agreed to the wage increases, which they offset with increases in subscription prices and the prices of corporate sponsorships. This alienated many corporations, who picked up their philanthropy funding and went elsewhere with it.
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Chapter 8: The American Orchestra
An in-depth examination of the orchestra will further elucidate some of the cultural
forces that are supporting the death of American classical music. Orchestras have traditionally
appealed to only a minority of Americans, partly because they have been married to social elites
since the time of Haydn. This marriage has been driven by expense, as an orchestra has always
been expensive to produce and manage [in recent years, it has become even more expensive].
One famous example has been the Boston Symphony Orchestra, which was owned for much of
the 20th century by Henry Higginson, a wealthy and autocratic socialite. As music critic Lionel
Basney writes, “[The orchestra was] Mr. Higginson’s yacht, his racing-stable, his library, and his
art-gallery.” Higginson would use the orchestra as his ideological weapon, to suppress
democracy and progressivism in Boston. This is exactly why so many people in America view
the orchestra as an upper-class phenomenon. And throughout the course of the 20th century,
orchestras would be owned and operated by social elites for social elites, with Henry Higginson
serving as the spiritual mentor. This prompted the American Symphony Orchestra League to
conclude in a 1992 report, The Financial Condition of American Orchestras, that, “[there
exists] the image of the orchestra as an exclusive, arrogant, and possibly racist institution that
resists sharing the secrets and norms of participation…” As an icon of “high” culture, the
orchestra has traditionally faltered or prospered along with the rest of the arts in America. Until
WWII, orchestras could depend on their clienteles to supply all of their needed funding. But over
the next fifty years, it would be corporations that would inherit the financial burden of supporting
the performing arts. Thus, the corporation would become connected to social elites.
Also in the 1990’s, many began to abandon the orchestra, having no interest in buying a
product whose cultural significance, relevance, and necessity are less and less obvious. As
Basney writes, “[A] performance of Brahms is an event and an experience—a demanding,
perhaps difficult participation in a deeply traditional craft, whose place in the consumer culture is
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unclear.” And as the American Symphony Orchestra bluntly stated in another report,
Americanizing the American Orchestra, written in 1993, "In the face of shifting
community needs and cultural agendas, orchestras are finding that their current missions
and programs lack meaning for many people." This brings us to the question of marketing
and how classical music has been marketed in the past. I would argue that what we’ve observed
is the commodification of classical music, in which a price tag is put on everything [and nothing
is free anymore]. As the business manager of the San Franciso Symphony points out: “It’s all a
matter of marketing—of finding the right demographic niche, of finding the product the people
want, of tailoring the product to suite them.” The symphony began to be marketed in the sixties,
as orchestras searched for ways to reach a larger audience. This marketing, however, had the
adverse effect of turning people away from the orchestra, the enterprise it was designed to
support. Concertgoers were blinded by commodification, such that they lost their ability to see
the cultural significance of the European art music tradition. Soon, they became skeptical,
positing that maybe the boosters on the orchestras’ marketing teams were trying to sell them
something they really did not need. So they abandoned the orchestra; many of them left classical
music altogether, turning to more accessible music such as pop.
Now that the facts surrounding the demise of European Art Music in America have been
presented, we can look at the trends and issues that are behind them. Each of the trends is of
enormous importance and is worth examination on an individual basis. And almost all of them
both support and are supported by each other.
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I. The Automatic Lifestyle
The first trend that accounts for the current dilemmas facing European Art Music in post-
modern America is “the automatic lifestyle.” We live in society where everything happens so
quickly that many people simply do not have time in their lives for classical music anymore.
Howard Reich suggests, “The increasing pace of life in the U.S. has left even classical music fans
less inclined to devote as much time and money to attending symphonic concerts as their
counterparts of an earlier generation35.” Many just do not have the time in their busy schedules to
devote a night to the local Philharmonic, while others are simply not interested. Some feel the
orchestra is an anachronism, out of place in our modern society where everything is electrified
and state-of-the-art. Some are intimidated by orchestras, under the impression that they are elitist
and exclusionary. Some do not have the money to attend concerts, which have steadily risen in
price as orchestras have had increased funding difficulties. And others just don’t care for
classical music in general.
We live in an age where everything has been reduced to bite-sized chunks (à la
McDonalds chicken nuggets) and lowered to a common denominator. This isn’t the aesthetic of
classical music, which is another reason it has had such difficulty fitting into our culture. This
reductionism has created a new breed of Americans who are reluctant to think on their own.
Rather, they want to be told what to feel and when to feel it. Classical music is the antithesis of
this; it empowers and requires individuals to think on their own and derive their own meanings
from the music. But Americans don’t want to think more than they have to, and they certainly
don’t want to feel real emotion. For many, classical music is just too complex. Listening to it or
hearing it performed live would create an information overload that they would not be able to
handle. Composer Christos Hatzis provides a most insightful summation:
35 Chicago Tribune, February 4, 2002, p. 46.
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We want the music we listen to to [sic] relieve stress, not add to it by further exposure to information. Capitalism may be the only extant socioeconomic system today, but we don't need Wagner to remind us of it36.
II. Post-modernism Next, there is the post-modern problem of which I have already touched upon. We now
live in a post-modern age, the movement solidifying its place in art and culture during a
revolution that began in the late 1960’s in New York City with minimalism. This minimalist
aesthetic (superficial, decentralized, fragmented, and impersonal) represented a sharp break from
the modernism that preceded it. Whereas musical modernism was a product of the First World
War, the Great War that nearly destroyed the modern orchestra and classical music as we now
know it, minimalism has been the product of the consumer culture. This is the culture of excess,
hedonism, and of course, unending and superfluous consumption. The rise of the multi-national
corporation in America after the Second World War further solidified postmodernism as the
dominant cultural form. Spanish philosopher Frederico de Onis issued one of the best definitions
of the movement in 1930 (the year many feel it was born) when he described it “as a conservative
reaction to modernism.” As Ronald Regan ascended to power, and the conservative realignment
swept across America, the post-modernist movement came into full bloom. Minimalist music
was soon absorbed by it and re-released as mystical, post, or totalist minimalist music. At the
current time, post-modernism is more popular than ever, because of its embrace of eclecticism,
pluralism, and diversity. Unfortunately, the ideology behind this movement is one that is
destroying European Art Music.
One of the primary problems is that post-modernists have thrown out the entire notion of
“genius.” Composers in the canon of western music are nothing special, only people who were
good at putting notes down on a page and toying with people’s emotions. Thus, it is only their
own music that they see as having brilliance to it. Everything that has come before minimalism is
36 Harmony, October 1998, pp. 80-90.
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nothing but elitist dribble. Post-modernists also fail to acknowledge their debt to the classical
masters who preceded them, even though their tonal, harmonic, rhythmic, and contrapuntal
techniques are all
highly derivative.
In reality, the
post-modernists
are in denial,
under the
impression they
created a
revolutionary
aesthetic that is in
fact based on
methods that have
been used in
European Art
Music for
centuries. But the
post-modernist
condition is one
that downplays
any past
composer of
musical greatness. Because of this, the composer has become nearly anonymous. Composers’
names no longer grace the Times, New Yorker, or any other culture journals and news.
Performers, on the other hand, are the ones getting all the glory (the Three Tenors, Andrea
-36-
Bocelli, Charlotte, Church, etc.), getting paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for performances
that are often mediocre or sub-standard. This is but one of the unfortunate consequences of the
post-modern
culture. Sarah
Vowell, a music
critic for
Salon.com,
suggests that this
shift from
composer to
performer has
been the product
of “a century
about—at its
best—a creeping
democratization,
mass culture, the
thrills of
electricity and the
glamour of
stardom. She
asks rhetorically,
“Why would a
The Modernist Mystique
The post-modernists have continually condemned the modernists for composing music that is what they call “complex, inaccessible, and elitist.” Nonetheless, modernism did notcoalesce out of thin air. Unlike post-modernism, which has rejected and abandoned European art music, modernism embraced it. The composers who founded the movement,the most important being Shoenberg and his two students Berg and Webern adored the classical tradition. They were raised on a steady diet of Beethoven, Brahms, and Berlioz. But World War I completely shattered their lives. The Great War caused more carnage than Europe had ever seen. A culture that had thrived and prospered for centuries was ruined. After witnessing [first hand] such violence and destruction, the modernists could not go back composing music that was “pretty” and/or “beautiful.” Rather, they had to seek out another path—one that embraced the spirit of the times. The modernists would have loved to write gallant symphonies in the classical style, but they believed it just wouldn’t be appropriate—given what they had seen and what had happened to them in the course of their lives (2). Thus, we really should not blame modernists for the dissonance and atonal nature of their music—as they were only reacting to events out of their control. The fact however, that modernism borrows so much from the art music that preceded it suggests that it was a musical evolution, rather than revolution [as post-modernism was]. Thus, modernism was where music was heading, the world wars only serving to hasten its onset. If one has studied music history, it becomes apparent that modernist music is a far cry from all the things the post-modernists have claimed it is. The early modernists (particularly Berg and Webern) composed in a highly expressionistic style, which emphasized transparency and lucidity. This is music that one “can almost see through.” It’s not a cacophony of sound, buttressed by repetitive rhythms, as post-modern music tends to be. Many cannot access it because they did not live during the time when the music was composed. If one is familiar with the zeitgeist of early 20th century Europe, modernism is tremendously accessible. The expressionism in the modernist movement would give way to serialism, which began in Europe, but soon shifted to America. This music is complex and those who wrote it (Boulez and Babbitt) were elitists, but they had good reason to be. The Serial aesthetic is tremendously difficult to appreciate and understand. It seems highly chaotic, even though it is some of the most orderly music ever written, the principles of composition all supported by mathematics (3). In Amerserialism was used as a defense for European art music against the consumer culture. Kyle Gann writes, “[serialism’s] explicit desire on the part of Boulez, Babbitt, and others [was] to create a music that could not be co-opted by consumer merchandising.” Hence, the American modernists may have been intellectual elitists, but they had good reason to be, as they were merely trying to prevent their music from going the way all the others had. The problem was that they went a little overboard, taking the principles of indeterminacy, stochastic composition, and set theory to ridiculous extremes. This made the music unmemorable, incomprehensible, and unlovable. To the post-modernists, this meant that the music was “elitist,” since it was only intelligible to a small segment of the music world. Still and all, this style was highly idiosyncratic and it fit into the confines o
ica,
f European Art Music. This makes serialism worthy of acclaim, as it is one type of music that has been immune to commercialization and cultural commingling. If only all the rest could be the same way.
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hierarchical, precious, European musical tradition thrive in the face of anyone-can-do-it, sex-
symbol-charged, hit-parade rock 'n' roll?37”
Post-modernism also embraces eclecticism and diversity in music. This is not necessarily
a bad thing, but for classical music it is, as it corrupts the integrity of the aesthetic. Jean-Francois
Lyotard has written of the movement’s “dangerous eclecticism,” inspired by “its consumer-like
pluralistic values, a form of kitsch.” What eclecticism means is that in a post-modern
composition, there are strong influences from world music. For example, the prepared piano in
John Cage’s Bacchanale is intended to sound like a Javanese Gamelan ensemble. The orchestra
in John Adam’s Lolapolloza for Orchestra is supposed to sound like a New Orleans Jazz Band.
Steve Reich’s Drumming is modeled after African tribal rhythms, and the composition some hail
as his masterpiece, Music for 18 Musicians, is suggestive of a world-music fusion group.
European influences are nowhere to be found. This allure of this sound has driven scores
listeners of classical music to abandon the canon in favor of these new, avant-garde works. The
problem is that once many go “po-mo,” they never go back to European [or even American] Art
Music. Thus, the post-modern movement has destroyed many people’s appreciation for the
classical aesthetic. Many of these people can no longer enjoy the arts at all.
The reason people many are turned off to the fine arts is that post-modernism blinds our
ability to see truth and beauty, and eliminates our ability to distinguish fact from fiction. In other
words, post-modernism is a movement of many fictions (lies) floating around in a society so
immersed in “stuff” [we are consumers, after all] that one loses sight of artistic ideals. Some
cultural theorists have called this the “Aestheticization of America,” a process that emphasizes
blind acceptance of post-modern propagated “truths” over pragmatic discourse. This means that
people are increasingly being told what is good art, and which art is not worthy of merit. Arthur
Pontynen, a professor of Art History at the University of Wisconsin refers to this thought-control
37 Salon.com, June 1997, Available http://www.salon.com/june97/entertainment/classical970627.html.
as “the cultural catastrophe of Postmodernism” and “a trap.” He believes that it is blinding to
such a degree that it eliminates our ability to see the artistic degradation of society:
Postmodernism is so rampant a cultural contagion that it destroys not only our cultural
health but our ability even to perceive our decline. The Postmodern habit of thinking is so familiar as to be invisible, and in its invisibility it attains the status of being normal. The dilemma is that the Postmodernist habit of thinking trivializes the reasoning process by confusing thinking with feelings or power. By arguing that all statements are political and therefore equally meaningful (and meaningless), Postmodernism undermines our ability to draw distinctions and, of particular note here, to make value judgments. Thus it blinds us to our own decline, and the nation becomes increasingly deaf to concepts such as beauty and justice38.
In many ways, post-modernism is one of the most severe threats to not just music, but to all the
Arts in America. Not only is it highly corrosive, but it also denatures the culture of which it is a
part, so that corrosion is not readily apparent. Many have been taken hostage by the movement—
these are the people who think that there really isn’t a crisis in classical music. Luckily, there are
enough modernists out there who can be realistic about the issue, and present the facts concerning
it without this reactionary bias.
III. American Consumerism
Post-modernism is tightly intertwined with the American consumer culture. Essentially,
if one has embraced American consumerism (as almost all Americans have), post-modernist
music is only a short step away. Nevertheless, there is something about American consumerism
that has turned people away from classical music. In this culture, European Art Music has no
relevance to us. It’s the product of radically different times on another continent entirely. Thus,
over the years, the cultural significance and necessity of this music has become less and less
obvious. These days, it almost seems out of place amidst all of our modern technologies. Our
consumer culture is one that is geared towards “instant gratification.” It is true that people don’t
want to think, but even further, that they don’t want to wait. Classical music certainly does not
38 American Outlook, November-December 2000, Available http://www.americanoutlook.org/articles_nov-dec_00/pontynen.htm.
play into this particularly well. Mahler’s 3rd Symphony is loud, uncomfortable, and almost two
hours long. And by the end, it feels as if you’ve been to hell and back. A typical Wagner opera
is at least four hours in length,
and may make a person an
emotional wreck by the end.
And almost any piece from
the modern era (Berg,
Webern, Messiaen, or
Shostakovich) will make one
feel disillusioned and
distraught at one point. Thus,
classical music may take
hours to gratify you, or not
even gratify you at all. This is
why its relevance has
continually come under
scrutiny during the post-
modern era.
For many American
consumers, the last thing they want in their life is a piece of European Art Music. Instead, being
the vacuous materialists that they are, they would prefer theme parks, video games, a new car, or
a big-screen television. As a society, we are so into our “stuff” that we cannot see the intrinsic
value in the music. We expect to be entertained constantly, and for many, watching an orchestra
play is not deemed “entertaining.” We expect to have everything mapped out for us: what it is,
when to do it, and how it should be done. Classical music gives a person a tremendous amount of
freedom and autonomy, to choose whatever course of action he or she prefers. Some people who
“…but where are the Mozarts of today?” - Anonymous
People continually ask, “Where are the Mozarts of today? [Why don’t they exist?]” I believe that the social conditions of our post-modern society preclude another Mozart, or Mozart-like phenomenon from occurring. We have abandoned our European roots, and instead adopted a culture of consumption which only requires us to buy, not to think. This consumer culture, which has dramatically increased the pace of life, is accompanied by too many distractions. These distractions have resulted inmusic being pushed to the periphery, rather than to the center, as it used to be in the “old country.” Our music education systems in the present-day are also radically different from those of Europe. Specifically, they are not as intensive or rigorous, meaning that we do not prepare our musicians and composers as well as those who were trained in Europe. The conservatory system in the United States is practically dead, the only ones left being in Europe (such as the Paris Conservatory, the first ever established in 1790). Thus, our culture is one that is not conducive to the forward development of European Art Music. Frankly, there are fewcomposers left who actually touch the classical aesthetic anymore,persuaded by post-modernists to experiment with more “accessible” musical forms [such as world music]. We will never have another Beethoven, or Rachmaninoff. I am even unsure whether we will have anmore great conductors, as that profession too is consumed by greed. As for the great virtuoso instrumentalists, they may be around for a few myears. However, I predict that almost all of them will come from Europe, where the music education system is far superior to that in the U.S. (ipart because of tradition, but also because the governments have not cut arts funding). What this implies is that the canon of European Art Music will soon be closed. This is simply because the number of composembracing the classical aesthetic and writing “serious” music diminishes every year. And thanks to our “automatic lifestyle,” and the accompanying popular culture, even composers working today can never hope to write “great music” [music of any historical significance].
Mozart,y
ore
n
ers
-40-
have been immersed in the American consumer culture from a very young age cannot deal with
all of this independence; in fact, for many, it is a scary proposition. Thus, for many, this music is
a scary proposition, as it forces them to examine their lives and choose their own destinies.
We also live in an era of unparalleled information and technology overload39. The
consumer culture uses these tools to keep us perpetually occupied. As a result, we never have
any time to relax any more. Time spent running around as a pawn of this system could be better
spent connecting with our past. At its simplest level, the problem is that we have too many
choices in the present time. As University of Wisconsin musicologist William Rhodes writes:
We live in a culture saturated with a seemingly inexhaustible supply of latent information
made readily available to us at the touch of a button, the turn of a dial, or even the prompt of a voice. The potential rate of consumption in virtue of this technology is dizzying, and the number of choices presented to us as a result of this increased ability of information verges on a uniquely Postmodern form of cultural decadence. The ubiquity of this information and the seemingly endless variations through which this material is conveyed is unprecedented in its efficiency and staggering in its proportions40. This “Postmodern form of cultural decadence” has made us [morally and ethically]
disoriented, causing us to abandon traditions which we formerly held close to us. We have so
much more to think [and worry about] in the present day, that many do not even realize that these
things were ever missing. Some love to live in such a society, where total information overload
rules. But for others, the unfortunate consequence of our consumer culture has been social
estrangement and alienation. All the disparate events constantly occurring around us, most of
which is entirely out of our control, has caused us to loose our cultural direction. Our artistic
compass has been disoriented by the glut of ones and zeros zipping around and the endless
varieties of technology that they have inspired. We have so much “stuff” going on around us that
we must devote massive amounts of time assembling it together. But the consumer culture has
been subverting our normal thought processes, such that we can only think in a linear fashion.
39 Composer Christos Hatzis draws an interesting analogy, comparing information overload to the environmental contamination caused by the industrial revolution. This would suggest that the environment of the Information Age [and also the post-modern movement] is cyberspace. 40 Wisconsin Alliance for Composers Newsletter, 1996-1997.
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This inhibits our ability to understand all that it going on around us. Christos Hatzis gives a
unique perspective to the way we have coped with all the information:
To defend ourselves against [the] barrage of information, we have developed a complex set of filters, which enables us to block unwanted information and let in only what we want to hear and see. To varying degrees, most postmodern urban dwellers are capable of deconstructing incoming information. This, however, happens at a psychological and, eventually, social cost. In such a state of siege, our antennas cannot stay tuned to the faint whispers of our souls, wherein lie the seeds of a new and fundamental rethinking of ourselves, or to the subtle signals emanating from others which might become catalysts to this rethinking process. While advertisers and marketing experts develop ever more potent arrows, and we respond with heavier information shields, what is lost is the discovery which comes with traveling light. We are increasingly weighted down by information and feel oppressed by it41.
Thus, while the technology of the consumer culture certainly has solved many of our problems, it
has created a host of others. Most important, as far as this paper is concerned, is the undermining
of our ability to appreciate the fine arts, a form where ideas often progress in a non-linear fashion.
Technology and information overload thus pose a significant problem to modern classical music,
in that they damage our ability to understand them. The “noise” of popular culture has pushed
classical music aside, viewed as a relic from another age long gone. As a result, we are a nation
of “arts illiterates,” in danger of permanently loosing our cultural soul.
Our consumer culture also emphasizes constant [external] stimulation. This also ties in to
the concept of the “automatic lifestyle,” in which technology is primarily the source of that
stimulation. Adults now spend hours every day watching TV or surfing the Internet. Children
spend hours playing video [and computer] games. All of this has had the effect of reducing
people’s attention spans, such that they no longer have the ability to focus on classical music for
long enough so that it can have an effect on them. Composer John Corigliano gives a good
assessment of the situation, “With so much else to grab listeners’ attentions in the 500-channel
digital universe, classical music [is] easily overlooked42.”
41 Harmony, October 1998, pp. 80-90. 42 VH1 News Stories, November 1, 2000, Available http://www.vh1.com/news/stories/1224164.jhtml.
Now, we come to issues surrounding the changing demographics in the United States,
which has greatly reduced the audience for classical music. When European Art Music was
forced to move the United States in the 1940’s, it did not come alone. Rather, it was escorted by
hundreds of thousands of immigrants, from eastern and western Europe. These people had been
immersed in the classical aesthetic for their entire lives, and hence, once in America, they
continued to embrace it. This is what many believe to be responsible for the enormous surge in
the popularity of European Art Music in the U.S. after the Second World War. And it is another
explanation for the Golden Age of classical music that occurred between the 1950’s and 1970’s.
During this time, the American symphony orchestra was also at its heyday, strongly supported by
the immigrants. But since this period, the demographic makeup of the United States has changed
significantly. Starting in the 1950’s, the steady stream of European immigrants was replaced by
émigrés from such places as Indonesia, Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East. This population
shift has inspired a whole scale change in America’s cultural perspectives, with the music,
traditions, and values of European art music gradually losing its hold on American life. These
immigrants have brought their native music into the United States, which was incorporated into
what we now know as “World Music.” This music exists as its own movement, one which has
gained increasing popularity in recent years. The post-modernists have also incorporated much of
it into their music (remember, they embrace diversity and pluralism). By doing this, they have
stolen away much of the potential audience for traditional classical music.
In the 1990’s America has really opened its ears to sounds originating well outside
Europe. As Marty Graff, an expert in recent classical music comments, “We’re not a nation fixed
on Europe anymore. We’re world citizens, and the advent of international travel has enormously
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broadened our horizons as Americans who listen to music43.” Therefore, changing demographics
have caused changing musical tastes. Meanwhile, post-modernists are barraging listeners with
world-music infused compositions that cause many a purist to abandon European Art Music.
V. Elitism
Then, there is the problem of elitism in European Art Music. Ever since Lully
established the first standing orchestra [the 24 strings of the King] in the middle of the 17th
century, classical music has been associated with social and political elites. Almost everything
written during the baroque era was “court” music, a tradition that would continue up until Joseph
Haydn, whose Patron was the Esterhazy family of Austria [he wrote the Farewell Symphony,
Opus 45 for the Prince]. The patronage system would die in the beginning of the 19th century
(Beethoven is one of the first composers without a patron). During the remainder of this century,
classical music would be transferred from the nobility to the middle and lower classes. The opera
house that Wagner built at Beyreuth had no luxury boxes, as he wanted to open up his music to
all people. The first symphony orchestras in Europe were also founded at this time (Vienna
Philharmonic in 1827, New York Philharmonic in 1842), opening up classical music to people
who weren’t members of the upper class. At this time, ticket prices were low and concerts were
frequent, exposing much of society to the music. The 19th century was Europe’s Golden Age, as
the popularity of classical music exploded. Once European Art Music moved to America, it was
kept open to all people throughout the Golden Years. In the early 1970’s, however, it was
immediately recaptured by the upper class. The orchestra and opera thus became to be viewed as
elitist institutions by those in the lower classes. What had once been open to everybody was now
closed off to so many who yearned for it. This phenomenon is best referred to as the
gentrification of European Art music in America, as the upper class ripped the art form away
43 Chicago Tribune, February 4, 2002, p. 46.
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from the bourgeoisie. This has alienated many potential concertgoers and listeners to classical
music. The result was the dramatic fall in the sales of classical recordings and concert
tickets/subscriptions.
Many of those who are not alienated by the elitism of classical music are intimidated by
many of its rituals. Take the concert hall as an example. Too often uncomfortable, intimidating,
and incommodious, they are the last places one would like to spend two [or more] hours listening
to a program of European Art Music. Further, many of these halls have horrendous acoustics,
detracting enormously from the quality of the music, no matter how well it is played. Most
recently, the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles (the venue where this year’s Oscars were held) has
come under scrutiny by the classical press for having terrible resonance. It was deemed to be so
bad that the interior was partially reconstructed and “retuned” last month. For every Verizon Hall
(the new home of the Philadelphia Philharmonic, praised for its phenomenal acoustics), there are
ten Kodak theaters44. This has led some to claim that the classical “concert hall is in crisis,”
under the impression that if changes to design are not made, live performance may become a
thing of the past. Steven Johnson, a music critic for The Guardian, provides a commentary:
There's something intrinsically intimidating about concert halls. Not only are they a trial
to get to, setting foot inside the building can be like going to church - not surprising since many of the great 19th and early 20th century halls were conceived as temples to the religion of art. They have their rituals - unwritten codes of acceptable and unpardonable behaviour - apparently devised specially to identify and embarrass the outsider. Like Victorian churches and chapels, they often seem to have been designed to maximise discomfort: you are not here for sinful enjoyment, but to be improved. It isn't only true of the older concert halls…45
Classical music intimidates many would-be listeners with its social conventions and
establishments. The people who consume this music must be catered to, so that they feel
accepted into the community. They cannot be barraged with bizarre rituals that seem 44 There is a perfect example of this right here on the Cornell campus. Bailey Hall, where the Cornell Symphony Orchestra gives their concerts has deplorable acoustics. Besides having a strong echo, the thick walls absorb much of the sound, muffling the brilliance of the orchestra. On days when the air is on the humid side, the sound quality is comparable to that on a typical classical recording from the 1930’s (before the transistor was invented). Too often, concert halls are the last places concerts should be given. 45 The Guardian, January 19, 2001, Available http://www.guardian.co.uk/friday_review/story/0,3605,423963,00.html.
inconvenience more than anything else (the reason they’re in place is to preserve the classical
tradition). An art cannot be called an art without people to appreciate it. And thanks to
anachronisms like the concert hall, there are fewer and fewer people who can genuinely say that
they appreciate the live performance of European Art Music.
VI. Corporatization
Another important trend that has plagued European Art Music as it struggles to remain
alive in post-modern times is corporatization. By this, I mean the colonization of the music
industry by big business, whose sole objective is to make money. As Justin Davidson remarks, “I
believe that the ills of the industry are largely a consequence of the uneasy marriage between two
economic models: the non-profit world of performance and the bottom-line doctrines of large
corporations46.” These corporations care nothing for the quality or state of the art they are
supposedly supporting; rather, they’re either in it for good PR or to make a buck [or two]. There
is also a lot of apathy in the industry surrounding the music these companies are supposedly
“producing,” especially after profits have dried up in recent years. Composer John Corigliano
adds, “"The people in the industry don't know anything about classical and don't want to know47.”
Norman Lebrecht proposes a similar thesis in Who Killed Classical Music. He claims that the
entire American music industry is consumed by greed and run by bureaucrats who equate music
to money. In the early 90’s, the corporate stranglehold on classical music was at an all-time high.
But that was before all the problems began to emerge and really have an effect on the state of the
arts. In recent years, corporations have been leaving the industry, after having sucked it dry for
46 Andante, April 29, 2002, Available http://www.andante.com/magazine/article.cfm?id=16272. 47 VH1 News Stories, November 1, 2000, Available http://www.vh1.com/news/stories/1224164.jhtml. Corigliano recounts a story about a record company executive (who also happened to be a former wine salesman) from BMG who was trying to set up a meeting with a top-selling classical composer. The composer was Puccini, who had died more than seventy-eight years earlier. Many execs have no idea what classical music is. And because of this, have no appreciation for it and don’t care if it succeeds or not. Further, because the aesthetic is foreign to them, they often have no idea how to properly market it. Poor marketing is yet another reason a wedge has been driven between classical music and a new generation of listeners.
the past twenty years. Their exorbitant prices for recordings have driven listeners away, to other
types of music that are less expensive. Many of them, in fact have turned to world music,
because of the recent
proliferation of cheap
recordings that exist. Have
no fear, however, as the
corporatization of the world
music industry has already
started.
Corporations are
one of the main reasons that
classical music is in its
current state of total
disrepair. They have
abused and mutilated the art
with their insatiable greed, putting a price on almost everything imaginable. Because of them,
hardly anything is free anymore. And things that used to be reasonably priced [sheet music,
CD’s, season subscriptions to orchestras] are now unaffordable to the majority of Americans.
Musicologist Kyle Gann presents another dimension to the issue:
Corporations Taking Advantage: An Early Example
One of the first examples of the corporatization of European Art Music in America occurred almost a century before the end of World War II. This might sound odd, given that the emigration of the music did not take place until the 20th century, but this story involves a European celebrity making a concert tour to the U.S. In 1855, P.T. Barnum offered Franz Liszt [the virtuoso pianist of the 19th century and the spiritual inventor of program music] a half-million dollars to come to America and travel with his circus. Liszt was disgusted by the idea, as he did not want himself or his music to be associated with “farm animals.” He also didn’t like the idea of being owned by Barnum, shipped around the country, and showed off to people [commodification]. So what did Barnum do instead? He contracted a Swedish soprano, Jenny Lind, who he inserted in his “Freak Show” exhibit amongst midgets, bearded ladies, and Siamese twins. Because there was now a “star” in the exhibit, he felt that his customers should pay much more to see the show (1). Prices for tickets were raised to levels that would not be equaled for another hundred years. And people [Barnum’s proverbial “suckers”] were willing to pay them to see who they perceived to be a great opera star when the Circus would come to their hometown. Barnum would make a fortune, setting off this vicious cycle of corporations fleecing their customers that has immersed American classical music over the course of the 20th century.
“Classical music” turns out to be kind of a fake, industry-created category anyway. Mozart didn’t think he was making classical music, he was trying to entertain and make money. And having created "classical music" as a high-falutin', Bach-to-Mahler entity in the lay public's mind, the industry's Dr. Frankensteins may have the right to destroy their own creation. The Judsons and McCormacks couldn't have made millions off of an art form that was still growing and taking risks, and so the still-living part of classical music had to extract itself (or else be thrown out of) the marketing machine that was selling off the dead masterpieces48.
Corporations have driven scores of listeners away from this music, and left many orchestras in
total financial ruin. It has been one of the biggest tragedies ever in the industry—a partnership
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48 Village Voice, January 21, 1997, p. 2.
that they originally thought would be mutually beneficial. They should have realized that
European Art Music in America must be kept non-profit in order to ensure its survival. As soon
as a profit margin enters the picture, the emphasis shifts from the art to the economics. But in the
1980’s, when the economy turned sour and orchestras were having financial troubles, they had no
other place to turn for help but to corporate America. Unfortunate but true, the corporatization of
the classical music industry would have happened sooner or later. I don’t believe there is any
sector of the American economy that is immune from it. The corporate totalitarianism of
America is devastating to all of the arts. And thanks to the greed of our businesses, the entire
support structure for the performance of the European art music is eroding.
VII. The “86 Phenomenon”
The last trend I will mention is what I call the “86 phenomenon.” It has to do with the
repeated slashing of arts budgets by the Federal Government, leaving classical music struggling
to find donors or new sources of revenue to make up the difference. The largest source of
funding to the arts in America is the National Endowment for the Arts. Created by Congress and
established in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government, it has awarded more
than 111,000 grants to arts organizations and artists in all 50 states. The NEA has strongly
supported European Art Music in America, cognizant of its importance in keeping our culture
vibrant and healthy. Thanks to their funding, the music has reached nearly every corner of
America. But in the 1990’s, the NEA came under attack by the Republicans in the House of
Representatives. Led by the conservative Newt Gingrich, he believed that classical music had
lost its relevance, given that we were now in “Post-modern times.” After repeatedly telling the
NEA to “drop dead” in his speeches, he cut funding by 39% in 199549. He then vowed to abolish
49 There was a tremendous public outcry in response to these cuts. "[Newt] Gingrich is the Second Coming of Attila the Hun," wrote artist Sol LeWitt in The Village Voice. Painter Chuck Close asked the rhetorical question, "Are we destined to become a nation of boobs, rubes, and philistines?" "We must not let this new crop of petty-minded, misguided destroyers of culture dismantle [the NEA], one of the few things that is still good and beautiful in this country," read an editorial in The Buffalo News.
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the agency, which luckily he was not able to do due to the Democrats regaining the House. But
by that time the damage had already been done. Public schools were forced to cut back their
already miniscule music education programs. Hardest hit would be the early grades, the point
during a child’s development when they are the most open to new music. Many orchestras were
forced to shut down, some permanently. Music conservatories and music classes at universities
would see a dramatic decline in enrollment, dramatically increasing their marginal costs. By
cutting funding, the government has cut off the lifeblood of European Art Music in America. But
unfortunately, it’s not just the government reducing the number of grants and subsidies given out,
it’s also arts foundations, philanthropic organizations, and other charities. The entire industry has
faced a sharp reduction in external funds received, which, when combined with the concomitant
decline in corporate giving, has driven much of it to financial disaster.
So there they are, the trends that are dragging down classical music. Now that
they have been established, I will turn to Speculative Design as a way to work against
them. Classical music is an area for which such a project is ideal, due to its
backwardness and failure to innovate to keep up with the times. Technology can help
European Art Music reestablish a strong following in the 21st century. It is an electronic
medium to which almost all people can relate, as it has always played a fundamental role
in the American consumer culture.
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Chapter 10: The Case for Speculative Design in Classical Music
I mean, they're gonna have to change sooner or later. -Miles Davis in 1971
The current society in which we live is not one that can support the future development of
European Art Music. In this age of the individual, people do not want to come together to see
music played in a concert setting. Just two decades ago, people flocked to classical concerts,
because of the lack of recorded music that was available. Today, less people go to concerts and
more people get their music by recording. But a recording is just “a snapshot” of a piece of
music; seeing it live is the true nature of the classical experience [and aesthetic]. Yet even though
one can find a recording of nearly everything these days (there are currently 20 different versions
of Beethoven’s 5th symphony being printed), classical record sales have dropped. People are
abandoning this music in droves, the products of a [consumer] culture that emphasizes pretty,
easy listening fare over more “serious” forms of music which are seen as overly-intellectual,
elitist, and irrelevant. The death of the performance of classical music will only hasten the
demise of the art in general. And the assimilation of former classical fans will also bring us
closer to the end. As Andria Tay, a senior director of marketing for EMI classical observes,
“Fundamental cultural factors in America are making classical music less prevalent in our
lives…[There exists] a deeper absense of classical music and knowledge of it in our general
society.” Music-appreciation classes are virtually extinct. Classical recordings are being kept in
separate rooms in record stores. The number of classical releases is reduced every year. When is
this industry going to wake up and smell the coda [in the Sonata Form, the end of a piece;
literally means “tail” (in Italian)]? Classical music in America is dead, killed by the
deconstructionist post-modern culture which has come to affect every part of our life. And as the
European economy becomes increasingly globalized, which is sure to result from integration and
the adoption of the Euro as a common currency, the trends plaguing our art music are sure to
afflict theirs.
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Yet the classical industry in this country does not want to change, even though many
insiders have been calling for it and even though the crisis has reached epic proportions. Paul
Freeman, the music director of the Chicago Sinfonietta and the Czech National Symphony
Orchestra in Prague, declares “We’re fossils, and if we don’t change, we’ll remain fossils.” Don
Casey, dean of DePaul University’s School of Music elaborates, “We’re at a crisis point now, but
this field is so conservative that the musicians and music directors are among the last willing to
experiment with new ideas and approaches.” He goes on to say that “we must step away from
our [old] models.” Michael Billington suggests that the orchestra is “scared of innovation.” Arts
Columnist Douglas McLennan states, “We need some freshening.” And as Bernard Dobroski,
dean of Northwestern University’s School of Music encapsulates, “It’s a wake-up call. I think
that symphonies—just like music schools have to start thinking out of the box more.”
Ever since it became clear that the future of European Art Music in America was in
jeopardy, there have been a few proposals developed that outline various changes that might
resurrect the dying art form. Some musicologists suggested the reestablishment of the patronage
system in the United States, as a way to get composers writing music again50. Others recommend
spicing up concerts, by having performers dress differently or having the conductor talk to the
audience in between movements. Another suggestion is that orchestras install theatrical lights in
concert halls, to give a concert the feel of a Broadway show. A more radical proposal came from
critic John Tusa, which he outlined in his controversial book Art Matters51. Tusa recommends
close-ups of performers on huge TV screens and post-concert interviews with players broadcast
in the foyer as the audience leaves. This is all hogwash; I would give my support to none of these 50 Over the past decade there has been a total lull in the number of classical pieces being written. This is primarily because composers aren’t sure in what style they should write. Modernists and post-modernists have been engaged in a fierce battle as to which musical aesthetic has more artistic merit (You know which side I’m on). Until this battle concludes, and the hatchet is buried, we will have no truly innovative classical music. The more important question is Bernstein’s “Unanswered Question.” This regards the type of music we will see after Post-Modernism. 20th Century musicologists have been engaged in debate and none of them have any answers. Composers have been trying to come up with a new aesthetic, but post-modernism has consumed them, as they too are part of the consumer culture. What I fear is that classical music disappears before the next hegemonic movement has a chance to coalesce. 51 See Tusa, John. 2000. Art Matters. London: Methuen Publishing, Ltd.
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proposals. Patronage is too ancien régime, and as such would have no place to fit into our
society. Changing the nature of concert going is leaning in the right direction, but the changes
proposed would compromise some of the traditions of European Art Music—traditions that have
remained in place for the past three centuries52. Nonetheless, something must absolutely be done
very soon, or else even more bad things will happen to the music.
As I see it, the key to preserving European Art Music in America is finding ways by
which it can be integrated with modern technology. This will allow it to better fit into the
consumer culture, hence making it more “accessible” and “relevant” to the average American
consumer. Classical music is stuck in the past, and it does not want to move into the present.
Neal Zaslaw, an expert in Mozart and the music of the classical period, refers to the modern
orchestra as “a museum.” Roberto Sierra, professor of Composition at Cornell University calls it
“a Dinosaur.” Opera Critic John Slavin says that opera programming is deaf to “everything later
than Wagner.” New York Times Arts critic Paul Griffiths asserts, “Orchestral programming is
stuck in the past.” These proclamations are bad news for an art form searching for significance in
today’s post-modern world.
The speculative designs I have developed all rely extensively on technology. I have done
this because I believe that technology can be used to transport classical music from the past to the
present. Further, I believe that technology can also be used to escort this music into the future,
making sure that it will have a place in it. I intend to use technology as an intermediary between
the individual and the music, which will serve to facilitate his or her listening, performing, or
concert-going experience. Technology can and should be a part of classical music. It should not
52 Unlike “popular” forms of music, European Art Music is firmly grounded in centuries-old traditions, especially in the area of orchestral performance. At a concert, there must be no verbal communication between the musicians and the audience—all the talking must be done through the music. Concert-goers are supposed to watch the orchestra play their instruments or follow a score. The musicians are supposed to look professional, as they are members of a prestigious standing institution. Lastly, the conductor is supposed to have no contact with the audience during the performance. The only time he is permitted to acknowledge them is during his entrance and exit from the stage (before and after the performance). Breaking one of these traditions would only compromise and corrupt the integrity of art music.
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be treated as some foreign entity which exists in a separate sphere, but instead accepted and
synthesized into the art. Without it, classical music will continue to be a foreign concept to
Americans, most of whom are familiar with the technology but not with the music. Putting the
two together will dramatically increase the accessibility of the latter, facilitating its re-acceptance
into the American consumer culture. In the past, all those in the industry have been too narrow
minded in their approaches to remedy art music’s ills. And those that have proposed more radical
ideas (such as Tusa, who is an industry critic) corrupt the integrity of the music by ripping away
the traditions of the past. We need to think differently about the place classical music occupies
in our consumer culture. Once this is done, progress can be made in the alleviation of the
negative trends currently confronting the art.
______________________________________________________________ The speculative design proposals I have developed all look at classical music through the
eyes of technology. That is to say, I developed all of my design ideas with the consumer culture
and “automatic lifestyle” in the back of my head. The overarching theme was to find new ways
of enhancing people’s appreciation of the art. One way to do this is to make the music more
approachable. Another is to make it more “fun.” Another is to empower the performers of the
music so as to give them greater control over their music-making experiences. And the last is to
make it less elitist, so that all feel welcome partaking in it. Some of my designs target all four of
these goals, while others only one. All of them, however, share the same ultimate target of
restoring popularity to the art.
While [nearly] all of my speculative designs are heavily reliant on modern technology,
the goal is not to tamper with the aesthetics of the music itself. Further, I do not want to destroy
any of the traditions which have been a fundamental part of European Art Music since its
beginnings. Thus, those designs intended for the concert hall do not use amplification or
electrification to change the quality of the sound that is produced by the musicians. Those for
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performance and performance practice [rehearsing] do not make it any easier to physically play
an instrument. Those that are interactive are still not as good as the real thing—going to a
concert. Those dealing with aesthetics still require one to think about and internalize sound one
hears. And those for music appreciation only act as a learning aid, rather than “spoon-feeding”
information to a person. Nevertheless, all of my designs are tremendously empowering to the
individual (I have fully taken heed of Tony Dunne’s “User as Protagonist” thesis). They are
designed to result in increased control over the musical experience, so as to make the art more
interactive, user-dependent, and variable. Of course, underlying this is the goal of inspiring more
people to engage in classical music, so that the art form may experience a revival. Popularity is
something this music has been without since the onset of post-modern period, and it is something
it desperately needs in order to keep itself fresh and vibrant.
European Art Music is in dire need of a reformation—this is the only way that it can be
saved from extinction. By reformation, however, I do not refer to a change in the music itself.
The classical canon is timeless and beautiful, and every composer who is represented in it belongs
there. I am more concerned with musical experience—the way by which people see, hear,
understand, learn, and play music. In my paradigm, this experience will be facilitated by new and
innovative technologies. The impact should be quite dramatic, and in some cases, revolutionary,
but this is exactly what I desire. My speculative designs are technological revolution in music,
approaching the art form from a direction which no one has yet to take. That’s right—not one
person has investigated speculative design in classical music. This is astonishing to me, because
new technologies have the potential to combat many of the negative trends afflicting the industry.
Nevertheless, the fact that no one has done this before made it that much more difficult for me to
do. At times, coming up with ideas seemed like an uphill battle, but I managed to develop a suite
of 28 speculative music-related technologies. My personal experience with music greatly
influenced the direction I took and the type of designs I created. In other words, when doing my
initial brainstorming, I thought about what I [and people like myself] would like to have to make
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the performance of music better. I then turned to “the consumers” and thought about their likes
and dislikes and what I could give them so as to enhance their appreciation of the art. I also
thought about music professionals—the professors, conductors, performers, and composers who
live the art every day, and what I could give them so as to make it easier for them to do their jobs.
Chapter 11: Presentation of Speculative Design Ideas For organizational purposes, I have grouped my speculative design ideas into five
categories: Music Appreciation, Performance and Performance Practice, Entertainment,
Interactivity, and Aesthetics. All of the ideas have some text explaining them and are
accompanied by a visual representation of what the design might look like. While some of these
ideas are not possible given the current state of technology, many of them are. The only problem
is that a substantial amount of money for research and development would be required to get the
idea off the ground. So, these designs are not just dreams I have for classical music. Rather, they
are technologies that I can actually envisage becoming a part of the art. Even further, however,
they are all technologies I believe people will want to have, once they are introduced to them.
Here are my speculative design ideas, starting with the area of Music Appreciation:
I. Music Appreciation:
In the area of music appreciation, I am primarily concerned with the attitudes people take
towards classical music. Included in this is the place these people assign to music in their
everyday lives. An integral part of enhancing people’s appreciation of classical music is
improving their understanding of it. Thus, all of these technologies attempt to make music “come
alive,” so that it seems as exciting today as it did when it was first written. Also falling under this
category is people’s understanding of the music to which they’re listening. Does it make sense?
Do people understand the form underlying the music? Do they understand how the composer is
using (or abusing) the orchestra? My designs all strive to make music comprehensible to the
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layperson. They do this by going behind the music and pulling out the essential facts one must
know in order to be able to understand and interact with it. This should make it much easier for
listeners to appreciate classical music, as it is now being customized and tailored to their needs.
All of my music appreciation designs in this area are intended for listeners, rather than
performers; I treat performance in the next section.
Cadenza Chooser: In European Art music, a cadenza is a part of an instrumental concerto that is usually placed at the end of the first movement. The cadenza is a solo by the instrument featured in the concerto that can last anywhere from thirty seconds to five minutes. The cadenza offers the soloist a chance to flex his or her virtuosic muscle, as there is no orchestral accompaniment when it is played. Almost every instrumental concerto has at least one of these cadenzas written into it. For many famous concertos, there can be up to 20 cadenzas for the soloist to choose from. For example, Johannes Brahms’ Violin Concerto has cadenzas written by Joseph Joachim, the great 18th century virtuoso violinist for whom the piece was written, Niccolò Paganini, Issac Stern, and Jascha Heifetz, to name just a few. The “Cadenza Chooser” will allow the listener of a concerto to choose which of the cadenzas he or she would like to hear. The unit is similar to a CD player except that there is an additional control for the number of the cadenza. Music for the player will be on a compact disk which includes the original piece (minus the cadenza) plus recordings of all the other cadenzas. The user puts the disk in the player and punches in the number of the desired cadenza with a remote control. When the appropriate point in the piece arrives, the cadenza is played. Future versions of this player might incorporate another feature which allows the listener to input the artist he or she would like to hear play the cadenza. Thus, the disks with the music would then have to include multiple versions of each cadenza for each different artist. The user input for the choice of cadenzas can come from a keypad on the unit or from a remote control.
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Scores at the Symphony: “Scores” is designed for anyone who wants
to engage more with music when they attend an orchestral concert. The actual technology is an e-book handed to concertgoers as they enter a hall in place of a program (saving paper). The e-book has all the features of the program (notes, biographies, and advertisements) plus an interactive score. This score will automatically scroll with the music, eliminating the need for any sort of manual input. For the novice, a bar can be activated that specifies the exact point on the score where the orchestra is in the piece. This technology can either be handed out to patrons as an e-book or built into every seat in the concert hall, greatly reducing the possibility of damage or theft. “Scores” makes it easier to appreciate the music one is listening to, and hence should dramatically improve attendance at orchestra-related events.
The handheld variety of the “Scores” technology will be built into a flat-screen PC with an LCD display. An AI algorithm with a voice-recognition chip will match the music being played by the orchestra to the score, such that the scrolling of the latter is in sync with the former. The technology requires no input from the person using it, except to be turned on/off and for navigation of the concert program. A touch-sensitive screen will be used for navigation and a button on the side of the unit will control the power. Even though the score is self-scrolling, that scroll can be manually stopped and/or resumed so that one can look back or forward in the piece, for whatever reason (for the ones who want to know how much longer that Mahler symphony is going to last). Both the handheld and built-in varieties of the technology are completely wireless; the handheld, however, requires a long-life lithium battery.
Form over Function: “Form over Function” is for all those who just don’t understand how classical music works. At its most basic level, it is an add-on to the “Scores at the Symphony” technology that allows a concertgoer to interact with the forms underlying the music. The technology is a real-time analysis of musical forms as the orchestra plays its program. If the piece is in the Sonata Form, the development of the two main themes will be tracked as they enter the exposition, development, and recapitulation. If the piece has contrapuntal technique, the melodic structure will be elucidated. If it is a Fugue, Rondo, or Passacaglia, the motivic structure and intervallic
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contours will be displayed. For program music, the idée fixe can be illuminated and its progress can be tracked. If the piece is from the modernist period and relies on serial techniques, those too will be made clear (for example, each tone row will be shown). If bi/tri-tonal composition is used (à la Stravinsky), the distinctions between the keys used will be illuminated. Essentially, this technology allows orchestral music to make more sense for the listener. It can also be adapted for opera or converted for home use. In opera, the structure of the Verdian arias can be shown, or the development of Wagnerian leitmotifs clarified. For home use, the piece would have to be part of a larger unit which contains an informational database of music.
Pick your Performance: “Pick Your Performance” gives one total control of the home viewing of opera. It allows the viewer to choose who sings what part and who conducts the orchestra. Even further, one can choose the type of staging for the opera, whether it is traditional, modern, or post-modern. A Post-modern staging is generally deemed to be the most accessible, as it incorporates many of the elements of our consumer culture into it (after all, post-modernism is a by-product of that culture). Thus, with this technology, one can choose to see Wagner’s masterpiece Die Valkyrie [from the Ring Cycle] with Jessye Norman in the role of Siegline and Bryn Terfel in the role of Wotan, under a post-modernist interpretation (meaning the characters all wear Brooks-Brothers suits). Likewise, if one would like to see Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro with Placido Domingo in the role of Figaro and Kiri Te Kanawa in the role of Susanna, with Claudio Abbado conducting, that’s also possible. There are unlimited possibilities created with this technology which restores complete control to the viewer over the interpretation of the opera. Further, with the system, no two viewings of the same opera will be identical. This is because it is supported by AI technology that can integrate different recordings and videos (of different performances) together into one that is seamless. The technology can then borrow certain aspects from certain recordings/videos if the user desires. The end result is a lurid opera that should be nothing short of spectacular. Never has classical music given so much choice to the consumer as to the exact specifications of how opera should be performed. “Performance” offers the consumer the rare opportunity to be the [virtual] director of an opera.
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Symphonic Surround Sound: This technology is “the Real Thing:” genuine, 3-d surround sound in a traditional concert hall setting. It can be used for orchestral concerts, operas, and music dramas. The surround sound phenomenon is achieved by placing different groups of instruments at various places around a concert hall. These groups will be lead by a hologram of a conductor, who is actually backstage conducting in front of a group of monitors, each of which has one of the groups on it. Another variety of this technology has the conductor lead one of the actual instrumental groups and monitors of the others. In any case, this technology does not compromise the conductor’s complete control of his (or her) orchestra. The hologram will be life-like, and the monitors will be accurate representations of the different sections of the orchestra. To the musicians scattered around the hall, the hologram will make it appear as if the conductor is standing right in front of them. The concert hall will not have to be architecturally adapted for this technology to be effective (although, if it catches on, concert halls might begin to be built in a way that supports it). The way a traditional concert hall will be used is by placing the audience in the center. Orchestra sections can then be placed in the balcony—they can also be placed backstage, or in the lobby, depending on which is best for the surround-sound. Also influencing the placement of musicians will be the hall’s acoustics. For the listener, the effect of this technology should be absolutely spectacular. The music produced by an orchestra will be a rich soundscape that truly envelops the ears. Performances will also be made more exciting, as sounds will be coming from all directions, rather than simply in front.
Classical Music Alive:
This is a hypertext history book chronicling the developments in European Art Music from the proto-Renaissance up until the present. It primarily focuses on those composers in the canon, but also has information on other great musicians, singers, and conductors. Each chapter of the book is devoted to a different composer; it features a chronology of his life, an investigation of the times in which he lives (because I am a firm believer that art imitates life), and an analysis of his most famous works. Each of the famous works has an audio sample of the work in its entirety. The
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book looks much like a traditional e-book, except for the fact that it has built in surround sound speakers. There is also a headphone jack if one does not wish to listen to the music out loud. The book also has a heavy focus on the history of the orchestra, and for this reason those composers chosen for inclusion must primarily be writers of orchestral music. This book would make an excellent addition to any music appreciation course which is taught on any level. The text will be interesting and concise, and the quality of the music will be crystal clear. Aside from its educational purposes, anyone wishing to gain a greater knowledge of classical music will benefit from this book.
Newer Grove Dictionary of Music: The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians was founded by Sir George Grove, an English musicologist who lived in the 19th century. In recent years, musicologists have accused the dictionary of “growing too fat,” meaning that it has come to include too much extraneous information. In response to this, I have developed the “Newer Grove Dictionary of Music,” which is a completely transportable and autonomous hypertext version of the dictionary that only contains articles which relate to European Art Music. Articles in the dictionary can be updated instantly by satellite. Every term that is used has a musical sample provided (so that one can actually hear the difference between Andante and Adagio). A voice chip allows articles to be read and operatic samples to be sung by one’s favorite tenor or soprano. The dictionary is completely interactive and can be navigated by a touch pen similar to those found on most Palm Pilots. The dictionary would serve as a handy reference at any classical concert (the sound can be turned off for this case), or in any music education course. The dictionary is a condensed version of its original version, but the articles relating to art music have not been abridged or shortened. The musical samples can also be updated as new recordings of them are released.
All of these speculative designs guide people towards a greater appreciation of the
classical aesthetic. This is because I believe that music can be used to greatly enhance quality of
life. Along with this is the desire to bring music to the younger generations (this includes
college-age students), so as to guarantee a future audience for classical music. I also hope to
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make classical music [and the classical experience] more enjoyable for people, so that people
begin to assimilate it into their lifestyles. Another one of my desires is that of making music less
elitist, so that people will not feel uneasy or out of place in the company of it. Lastly, many of
these designs are geared towards improving the music education experience. Currently, the
teaching practices are old and dense, an immediate turn-off to people thinking of pursuing such
an education. I hope to breathe some new life into the discipline through technologies that are
exciting and fun for students to use. Classical music does not have to be an art that is abstract or
abstruse. Rather, it should be accessible to all people, no matter what their age, income,
education level, or level of musical proficiency. All people will benefit from having this
beautiful music in their lives. And hopefully, these technologies will all help to bring it to them
in a form they can easily digest.
II. Performance and Performance Practice:
Performance has been one of the cornerstones of European Art Music since its
beginnings. Performance practice, which deals with the aesthetic aspects of performance first
developed in the mid 18th century, as the Baroque period evolved into the Classical. The music of
the Classical era was based on two aphorisms: “no sweat on the brow” and “gallant.” Gallant
meant that the music itself symbolized heroism and bravery, as valor was one of the character
traits the composers who wrote the music saw themselves as possessing. The second aphorism,
“no sweat on the brow,” referred to the performance of the music. During the Baroque period,
music was terribly difficult to play—not just because period instruments were used (which often
had no valves), but also because fingerings were difficult and composers crammed as many notes
into each measure as they possibly could. Classical music was meant to be the antithesis of
this—easy on the performer, and easy on the audience. Ever since the classical period, however,
this belief has been forsaken, and music again became much more difficult to perform. The
technologies I have developed for Performance and Performance Practice all make the job of the
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musician easier. They do not simplify the task of playing his or her actual instrument (that would
go against the traditions of Art Music), but they do make practicing it less difficult. Further, the
technologies all make music more accessible, by breaking pieces down into their individual
components and showing performers how they are constructed. Musicians of all ages and
abilities should benefit from these speculative designs, which should make learning, rehearsing,
and playing classical music much more trouble-free.
Auto Part Doubler: One of the seminal events in the history of the orchestra was when composers began to write musical parts so that one would double the other. This “Part Doubling” does not mean that there would be twice as many instruments playing a single part. Rather, it refers to having different groups of instruments playing the same notes, to complement and reinforce each other. Jean-Baptiste Lully was the inaugurator of part doubling, which he first displayed in works such as the operetta [short, comical opera] Atys. Part doubling is symbolic of orchestral discipline, because it shows that the musicians are willing to cooperate with each other so that they can play the same thing together in unison. Before Lully’s time, musicians would often improvise and ornament their roles, and composers were afraid to ask them to play the same parts together. Lully, however, was very imperious, and he was determined to produce a more impressive orchestral effect by having his musicians play together. In fact, in a rehearsal, when one of them refused to double another’s part, Lully broke a violin across his back to teach him not to disobey his authority. Once doubling had been introduced to the orchestra, there was a steady growth in the size of the ensemble, as composers’ desired a much larger sound. Much of the classical canon has been written for this large, expanded orchestra. However, many small-town orchestras do not have the one-hundred-plus musicians necessary to perform these works. Thus, the symphonic works of everyone from Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, Mahler, Dvorak, Berlioz, Shostakovich, and Schubert are all off limits to them. The “Automatic Part Doubler” allows such large-scale orchestral works to be performed by a very small group of musicians. Through subtle manipulations of timbre and tonal hierarchies (up slightly or down slightly),
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the “Doubler” can make one violin sound like thirty, or one double bass sound like ten. The technology does require the production and amplification of new sound, but to stay true to classical aesthetics, the volume at which the “Doubler” emits it is the same volume at which the musician played it. Therefore, there is no real amplification that takes place. In the 1970’s, MIT developed a computer program that could effectively simulate and manipulate recorded music, such that a String Quartet could be made to sound like a symphony orchestra. The “Auto Part Doubler” is similar to this except for the fact that it is primarily intended for live music. Further, unlike the MIT program, which could only be run on a super-computer, the “Doubler” will be able to be run on a normal PC connected to a sound mixing board. Full-size orchestras may desire to use this technology to make their tuttis [when everyone in the orchestra plays at the same time] even louder, or to add more voices to a piece which requires a chorus (an example of which is Beethoven’s 9th [Choral] Symphony, Opus 125. The part doubling is effective for any instrument or voice—which means it has applications for small opera companies, as well, who want their vocal ensembles to appear larger. The technology regulating the doubling is completely automatic once it is set up. It gives a user the option of controlling which instrument is to be doubled, which instrument is to double it, and how many instruments of the latter should appear to be doubling the former. Perhaps the greatest application of this technology would be to a live performance of Mahler’s 8th symphony [Symphony of a Thousand]. This work was actually composed for a chorus of 1,000 singers. Few orchestras have access to this many singers. The “Doubler” would allow a chorus of 10 to perform it realistically. Another reason why this technology has so many applications is because in music, the more voices one has to a part, the less skill each one of them has to have. Thus, the “Doubler” can make a poor sounding orchestra appear to be wonderful, by suppressing mistakes and disguising imperfections with a full and heavy sound. This is a must have for any small orchestra or instrumental ensemble looking for a way to instantly sound better without more practice. And it is a must have for any orchestra of any size looking for an economical way to perform large-scale pieces that may include a role for a chorus. The technology is so good that the untrained ear will not be able to tell that sounds are electronically being doubled. The tonal overlays will be done to fool the ear into thinking each instrumental section is larger than it really is. The
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“Doubler” can also be used by orchestras making recordings; in this case, the doubled parts can be further refined (electronically) so that they sound completely natural.
Classical Karaoke: This is a technology for anyone rehearsing for a solo part in a concerto. It is similar to traditional [singing] Karaoke in that background accompaniment is provided. This version, however, is different in that a computer system (using AI) provides accompaniment that is responsive to the soloist’s playing. This will allow a pianist to rehearse for a piano concerto without having a symphony orchestra present to back him or her up. The background accompaniment that is generated by the computer sounds like the full orchestra; in fact, it is based on an actual recording of the piece. The system is very sensitive to the soloist, modifying the accompaniment to match his or her playing style (rubato, timbre, solority, legato, etc.). This system would be of benefit to any virtuoso pianist rehearsing for a big performance. But it can be used for any concerto, whether it is one written for flute, violin, cello, or recorder (yes, a couple have been written). And because the system is responsive to the playing style of the soloist, “Classical Karaoke” can be used by anyone, including the novice. Orchestras can have their soloists use this system to prepare for concerts, effectively saving them thousands of dollars in rehearsal costs. Likewise, an amateur pianist can use it to save thousands of dollars in recording costs.
Score Reader: “Score Reader” is for anyone learning a new piece of music that would like to know what the piece is really supposed to sound like. The technology is an optical device that scans a score and plays it back in real time, exactly as it was written. This means that the notes are played exactly as they are written on the page, with absolutely no external interpretation or bias imposed. The “Reader” can also be quite useful to those with bad eyesight or those just starting to read music. An amateur pianist can also use the “Reader” to get a gauge on how a piece should sound.
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Self-Tuning/Retuning Instruments:
One of the banes of a violinist’s existence is the constant tuning and retuning of the instrument that must be done. Similarly, one of the banes of a piano owner’s existence is having to pay someone to retune the instrument every month. This technology eliminates this by incorporating an automatic tuning mechanism into the instrument’s design, eliminating the need for any sort of tuning whatsoever. “Self-Tuning” instruments are built with mechanical devices which tune and retune themselves according to the user’s specifications. If the user is playing music from the Classical era onwards, the instrument will tune itself to the standard A (440 Hz). If Baroque music is being performed, the instrument will tune to the old A (430 Hz). If one desires a more brilliant and robust sound, the instrument can tune to the post-modern A (450 Hz). A computer regulates the tuning of the instruments—the user, however, does have control over the type of tuning that he or she desires. This technology will save musicians a lot of time and effort. And it will also save concertgoers much time (and impatience) as well. Before every concert, the orchestra must devote at least five minutes to tuning their instruments. This is done on stage in front of the audience, as people anxiously wait for the music to begin. With this system installed into all of the instruments, the musicians will be able to sit down and start playing right away. There will be no tuning necessary. A different variety of the technology will be made available for every member of the orchestra. This will make it easier for people to actually enjoy music, as time will not have to be wasted perpetually tuning or retuning instruments. And for those with true pitch, the technology will make every instrument in which it is installed sound in tune all the time.
Sheet Music Reader/Transposer: This technology is primarily for composers of music, although it will also be quite useful to any musician looking for a way to transpose (change to a different key) a piece. Similar in design to a fax machine, the system uses OCR algorithms (which rely on a neural network) to convert hand-written sheet music to print form. Once in print form, the system can then transpose the music to different keys or re-score it for different instruments. All composers looking for a way to convert a sketch to publisher-ready form will benefit from this technology.
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Sheet Music Translator: “Translator” is designed to remove the language barrier problem that currently plagues classical music. That problem is that classical scores are written in one of five languages: German, French, Italian, Russian, or English. Most people do not speak more than one language, and there are only a handful of people who speak all five of these languages. This technology allows music scores to be converted among all five of these languages (from any one to any other). The actual apparatus is similar to a small fax machine, and will be light enough to be easily transportable. Any composer who would like their music in another language can use “Translator” to convert it. Similarly, any performer looking to learn a piece of music scored in a foreign language can run it through the scanner and obtain a copy in his or her native language. This technology is also essential for anyone involved in musicology (the study of music), as it eliminates the need for music dictionaries. The “Translator” is particularly great for Stravinsky, Honegger, or any other 20th century composer, whose scores have instructions scribbled all over the page.
Scores for the 21st Century: This technology is geared towards those involved in the performance of music. “Scores” is a virtual score loaded into a flat screen PC. Because it is virtual, there is no paper involved. As one practices a piece of music, the system automatically scrolls the score (either horizontally or vertically), eliminating the need for page turning. This automatic scrolling, the centerpiece of the technology, is done with a music recognition chip, which keeps the scrolling in sync with what’s being played. “Scores” is a flexible and dynamic system, allowing either the entire score of a piece to be displayed, or individual parts (the user having control over the part). The unit is completely wireless and hands-free, meaning that once the playing begins, the musician never has to worry about page turning. A long-life Lithium battery provides power to the unit, while a remote server stores all of the scores. This technology is performance practice perfected, as it returns complete autonomy over the presentation of music to the musicians. “Scores” can also be used during live performances, as the system always keeps the scrolling synchronized with the music that’s being played. Breaks, long rests, or even frequent
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mistakes will not “fool” the CPU. For this reason, the technology has practical applications in every level of performance ensemble, from the amateur High School orchestra to the professional Big-City Philharmonic. All of the technologies in this category are geared towards the musician, whether he/she
is beginner, amateur, or professional. They all facilitate performance practice by making music
come alive, so that it can be learned with greater ease. The hope is that rehearsing with some of
these technologies will make music so easy to access, that performance practice will actually
become fun. The speculative designs I have envisioned accomplish this by simplifying the
complex, and by clarifying the uncertain. Another goal is to encourage musicians to be
innovative, creative, and spontaneous when they practice their instruments. This can only make
the quality of the final performance better, as greater artistic ability almost always translates into
better art. I also hope to motivate more people to learn a new instrument, by lessening the
intimidation that the modern symphony orchestra has on many people. If young children see that
music is easy and pleasurable, they might be more inclined to ask their parents for music lessons
at an early age. And maybe even older generations will be driven to learn an instrument for the
first time—as one is never too old for an age-old art such as classical music. With these
technologies, practice will no longer be viewed as a burden or a chore. For this reason,
performances should be better, for both the musician and the audience members.
III. Entertainment:
In the area of Entertainment, I am searching for ways to make classical music exciting for
people of all ages. This music has grown to be disconnected with the needs of its audience. It
has also lost its ability to attract a new [younger] audience. Thus, my technologies are all geared
towards making concert-going fun again. They all encourage people to get closer to the music,
and they achieve this by providing them with ways to understand it better. This increased
understanding is the key to generating a new audience for classical music, a musical aesthetic that
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many have abandoned for what they deem to be more accessible [read understandable] musical
forms, such as popular music. But if people could only follow the libretto in a Verdi opera, or
understand what the large chorus was singing in Beethoven’s 9th, they would be encouraged to
give the music a chance. Context always improves meaning, and my designs all impart this
context in an exciting way, using electronics and other hi-tech gadgets. If these technologies can
get people excited about classical music again, the industry should be able to attract a new market
of fans.
21st Century Opera Glasses: “Glasses” is for the technophile in all of us. In the past, Opera Glasses have not been too powerful and their focus has not been that great. These “21st Century” glasses will do away with that, allowing anyone to get closer [literally] to opera. They have built-in volume amplification (there is an ear-piece attachment for this feature), powerful magnification abilities (up to 500x), a night-vision filter, and automatic image brightening. The glasses also include automatic vision stabilization, so that in case the glasses are shaken, the image will remain stable (similar to the no-skip CD players). Further, focusing is all done automatically, so that the image one sees will always be crystal clear. And lastly, there is a night-light built in to the bottom of the glasses, so that one can always glance at the program. These glasses will make Opera a much more enjoyable experience, as they allow people to have a “front row” seat to the action, even if their seat is in the 2nd to last row in the 2nd to last balcony. The glasses will also permit people to see more of the idiosyncrasies of the performance. The hope is that this will bring more people into the Opera House and give them a newfound appreciation for an age-old art.
Tone Poem Theater:
The Hungarian composer Franz Liszt developed the concept of Program Music as a way to make music less abstract and more concrete (Liszt also started the modernist movement with his Bagatelle sans Tonalite). Program Music is music with an extra-musical connotation, meaning that is based on an event, work of art, person, or even idea. Program music would dominate European Art Music in the 19th century, branching out to different
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musical forms including the Concert Overture (Mendelssohn, The Hebrides: Fingal’s Cave), Program Symphony (Berlioz, Symphonie Fantastique), and Tone Poem (Strauss, Till Eulenspiegel Lustiche Streiche). In any performance of these pieces, a program would be given to the audience laying out the actions described by the piece. Thus, program music is music which seeks to be understood in terms of its program. This program can be as simple as a single word (Sibelius, Finlandia) or as complex as a Shakespeare play (Mendelssohn, A Midsummer Night’s Dream). Even with the program however, this music is not tremendously accessible to modern audiences. Quite frankly, some cannot see what’s going on in it, or rather what actions the music is supposed to represent. To make the music come alive [literally], I developed this technology, entitled “Tone Poem Theater.” Even though “Tone Poem” is in the name, the technology can be opened up to any variety of program music and to a piece of any length. In opera, it is always quite clear what the music is representing because it’s happening right there before the audience’s eyes. It is my goal to transfer this idea over to program music, by depicting the events going in the music on a large screen above the performers. Thus, the orchestra becomes the soundtrack for the “movie” playing above them, which is a visual representation of the program. Famous directors can be contracted to put together these representations. Many of them should jump on the opportunity to get involved in a format that’s never before been done. And since all program music is moderate in length, producing one of these visualizations will not be an impossible or unaffordable task. The only stipulation imposed on the directors is that their vision does not have audio accompanying it. The only sounds that should be made in a concert hall are those by the orchestra, and this technology is not going to be the end of that tradition.
If concert-halls would rather not have a giant screen hovering above the orchestra, they can install monitors in each individual seat. These monitors can be turned off if the purist should desire. They also allow the possibility of multiple “visions” being made available for each piece of program music. For example, there can be the Coppola, Spielberg, Cameron, or Ridley Scott visualization, each of which reflects the different artistic vision of the director. “Tone Poem Theater” will make program music come alive in new ways for the listener, dramatically changing the nature of the concert-going experience.
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Follow the Lieder: “Lieder” is a small, beeper-like device handed to all patrons as they enter an Opera or vocal concert. The device allows people to follow the opera’s libretto or the lyrics of the vocal work being performed. The technology is available in many languages; radio waves are used to receive signals from a central source. At the source, there is a proctor who decides when the titles should be changed. Another version of this technology could be built into the individual seats of the concert hall. This would help to guard against theft. Both varieties, however, can be turned off if the purist does not want to follow along with the libretto (if he or she understands the language in which the opera is being sung). Further, the language displayed on “Lieder” can easily be changed should a person want to alternate between their native language and the language in which the opera was written. Lastly, there is an aural version of the technology for the visually impaired that uses a computer-generated voice to speak the libretto or lyrics. The voice will sound as natural as technology permits. Hopefully, “Follow the Lieder” will make vocal music understandable and relevant to the concertgoer. No longer will language be a barrier to the understanding of vocal music.
All of these designs appeal to our perpetual need (thanks to the consumer culture) to be
entertained. They do this by thoroughly integrating technology into the concert hall, so as to
make concerts and operas a more user-friendly experience. The goal, of course, is to bring
classical music back to the people, which it has eluded since it was gentrified in the 1970’s. With
the performance of classical music viewed as entertainment, rather than a pure art, more people
will be inclined to participate in this music. This should hopefully have the effect of initiating a
classical music revival, as least as far as performed music is concerned. These technologies are
all geared towards getting people into the concert halls and opera houses because it is live
performance of music that has seen a precipitous drop-off in popularity over the last decade. The
hope, however, is that if people like what they hear, they will be inspired to go out and buy a
recording of it, generating increased revenue for the moribund recording industry.
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IV. Interactivity:
These designs speak for themselves—they allow users to play a larger part in the
listening of classical music. In the past, classical music has epitomized inflexibility and
constantly, partly because of the conservative nature of the people who run the industry. These
technologies all make the music variable and user-dependent. No longer will a recording sound
the same every time one listens to it. Instead, it will be based on the will and desire of the listener
[the proverbial “user”]. These technologies will also allow music to evolve with the times, as
different generations have different interpretations of what it should sound like. The theme here
is that there is no such thing as a “correct interpretation;” rather, an interpretation is whatever a
person believes it should be. Therefore, as people change and ideas evolve, so will interpretation
of the music. No longer will classical music be a static and unchanging phenomenon. Instead, it
will be whatever the people will want it to be. The elite should not hold classical music hostage,
nor should they keep it from those of lower socioeconomic stratum. The designs that follow
allow anybody, no matter what their class to be a part of the music. By being a part, I refer to the
production, viewing, and appreciation of the art.
Concert Pacer: How far is the 5-hour Wagner opera from being over? How many movements are left in a symphony? How many more variations of a theme and variations piece are to be played? The “Concert Pacer” is an interactive LCD console that keeps track of the exact point in a program where one happens to be. For opera, the device will indicate the act and scene within the act. It will also alert the person if an important event is approaching (death of a main character, declamatory arioso, etc.). For an orchestra concert, the point within each movement will be indicated. This technology returns complete control to the concertgoer,
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allowing him or her to micromanage the experience. No more irrationality of rationality. No more uncertainty surrounding how much time is left before the intermission, or how much time is left before a big coda begins. “Concert Pacer” is something every orchestra should look into obtaining for their audience. It will help to manage the public’s expectations, and will remove a lot of the uncertainty surrounding the program.
VR Music: “VR Music” is similar to a DVD with multiple perspectives. It is primarily intended for Opera, but can also be used for Orchestral concerts. The technology allows the viewing of musical performance from multiple perspectives. Possible views will include the score, libretto, orchestra, or the action on stage. The system is intended for home-use, and can be attached to any stereo. Included are a virtual reality helmet (the video is in 3-d) with built-in Dolby Digital Surround Sound speakers and a controller that allows the performance perspective to be changed. All the parts are completely autonomous, and do not occupy much space. This technology will make the viewing of musical performance seem highly realistic. The 3-d glasses allow one to zoom in on the action, and to freely move around the opera house or concert hall. One can thus view the performance from any one of hundreds of perspectives. Also, since the user is in complete control of the perspective, no two viewings of a performance should be exactly the same. The experience the technology simulates should be so real, in fact, that “VR Music” may be nearly as good as actually being at a live performance. Much of this will be because the experience is interactive and highly variable, entirely dependent on the will of the person at the controls. This should allow people to better appreciate the performed arts, especially those which incorporate classical music.
Learn Piano Fast: “Learn Piano Fast” is a system that uses Behaviorist techniques to help musicians learn a new piece of music. The system is a nighttime sleep accessory (2 small speakers, one placed in each ear) that subliminally teaches the music to the person. There is absolutely no effort or practicing necessary—everything is done unconsciously. This is ideal for a virtuoso pianist who has to learn a new piece in a hurry for an upcoming concert. Yet, the technology can be adapted for use by young
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children learning to play the piano for the first time. This would allow them to master the instrument in a number of months, without the hassle of piano lessons. Thus, “Learn Piano Fast” is appropriate for adults and children, or professionals and novices alike. The technology dramatically improves the learning curve, helping people to assimilate new musical ideas faster and with greater ease. Having music played softly while one is sleeping also promotes good dreaming and better memory. This means that even those who are not looking to learn piano or a new piece of piano music would benefit from this sleep device. The system can also be adapted for other instruments (I chose piano only because I am a pianist), or even for music directors and conductors. Such a version would include an entire orchestra performing the piece, whereas the piano variety (for those learning solo piano works or piano concertos) only includes the piano part. Tele-MIDI:
This is a technology for anyone interested in the composition of music. “Tele-MIDI” is a system for music transcription that is completely wireless. In other words, one plays on any instrument, and the notes are instantly transcribed onto a virtual score. There are no cables and no traditional MIDI interface necessary. Further, this technology can be installed onto any PC with a digital soundcard and a microphone, meaning that it is completely transportable. The technology will make it easier for anyone to write new music; all one must do is play what one has in mind, and it will be instantly transcribed by the system. The virtual score can then be orchestrated and ornamented to one’s desire. Parts can be substituted, doubled, or removed. And the entire score can be transposed and the tempo changed. Once changes have been made, the computer can play back the piece, at which point more changes can be made or a hard copy can be generated. The system is compatible with any instrument, from the Violin to the Mandolin. The system can also notate music (put dynamics and tempo indications in) and translate it into different languages.
You Too can Sing Opera: My mother, who is a semi-professional opera singer has always complained to me that it is different for singers to rehearse their roles because they don’t always have an orchestra to accompany
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them. This technology will fix this problem, by providing singers of opera, lieder, and other choral works with a way to rehearse without an orchestra. In the past, most singers would work with a piano accompanist; however, this is not nearly as good as having an orchestra to back you up, so as to simulate what the actual performance will be like. This technology is a computer system that provides orchestral accompaniment as one sings various arias and recitatives from famous operas. It follows the singer’s lead perfectly, slowing and accelerating the tempo and changing the volume dynamics of the orchestra where appropriate. This system is not only useful to the professional or semi-professional singer, but also to the opera enthusiast, who would like to “be part of the opera.” The system, which is similar in design to a CD player, is compatible with any CD. A special dubbing system removes the vocals, while an AI-based technology manipulates the music according to the singer’s dynamics. This means that one can sing an aria alongside Pavarotti or a recitative accompanied by the London Symphony Orchestra led by Georg Solti. Since the singer is in complete control of the accompaniment, the orchestra and other voices present follow his or her lead. Karaoke has never before embraced the classical tradition—but with the help of this technology, vocal music should become a much more participatory [and interactive] art form.
Mood Music: “Mood music” is a technology add-on for a CD player that changes the way music plays based on the feeling of the listener. The goal will be to improve the mental state of the listener, although the listener can modify this. Sensors attached to the listener’s finger and forehead measure heart rate and brain activity. The technology then integrates this data to determine the type of mood the person is in. If it’s a sad one, for example, a symphony will be played more brilliantly than ever. If it’s a happy one, and the listener wants to feel some sadness, the symphony will be played in a sardonic and dark manner. Thus, the listener is no prisoner of the technology in that they can use the music to change their mood to anything they desire. As a default, the unit will always seek to change a person’s mood to a better state. AI architecture will be responsible for making sure that the performance is reflective of the desired mood alteration. And because people’s moods are variable, every listening of a piece should be different, dependent upon that person’s current mood and the new mood they would like to inherit. This technology can be used with any CD
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player on the market and with any classical CD that is out there. It is very flexible, responsive, and easy to use. Everybody who wants to have more control over his or her feelings should want to have one.
You Be the Conductor: This technology allows one to “conduct” a symphony orchestra from the privacy of the home. It is completely interactive, meaning that the way the music sounds is completely dependent upon one’s conducting. Like “Mood Music,” “Conductor” is a technology that can be attached to any CD player. The actual conducting is done with a pair of gloves with sensors in them. The orchestra in any given recording is filtered through a computer that makes the performance entirely dependent upon the movement of one’s hands. The person doing the conducting has complete control over the orchestra in the recording—and this includes volume and tempo dynamics. The technology is highly realistic, and as one gets better using it (with more practice), it becomes possible to control the orchestra’s rubato, timbre, sonority, and legato as well. The gloves with the sensors send their information to the CPU connected to the CD player wirelessly. Possible additions to this technology will allow for substitution, reduction, or addition of instrumental parts. The output that one hears is completely genuine—meaning that it reflects none of the influence of the original conductor on the recording. All of the control comes from the user, meaning that no two “performances” will be alike. As a person uses the system more, they will become better at manipulating the orchestra. Further, the CPU will also begin to “learn” that user’s conducting style, allowing a brilliant interpretation of a piece to be crafted. With “Conductor,” people will be able to interact with their favorite classical recordings by actually conducting them. This technology is the epitome of interactive classical music—and its ease of use and flexibility actually makes it fun to use. It also allows a listener to become a conductor, so that they can manipulate the performance of the music as they see fit.
Interactivity is one thing that classical music needs now, more than ever. This is because
every other art form has moved towards it in one form or another—but, as with so many things,
classical music has remained in the past. These designs all fix the problem by making art music
much more flexible and responsive. Music should respond to the will, desire, and feelings of its
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listener. It should be able to change as times and prevailing feelings change. It should be able to
relate the times in which it is performed. Making music more interactive will do wonders in
increasing its accessibility to all people. And most importantly, all the designs in this area are
simple enough to use such that one needs no experience in classical music to take advantage of
their power. The future of classical music will come from these types of designs, which are all
aleatory in nature. In other words, the designs all embody technologies which make music the
creation of the user, such that its potential is only limited by the user’s imagination. The music
will still embody all the intentions of the composer who first wrote it, but it will come to embody
a second set of intentions—those of the user. Thus, the goal is to empower the user, so that he or
she has a direct connection to classical music.
V. Aesthetics:
My designs in the area of [Musical] Aesthetics all deal with the way we hear and
understand sound. Speaking of people’s perceptions of sound might sound silly, since a sound
should seemingly be the same to all ears. This, however, is not true, as sounds can be different
for different people. For example, those with perfect pitch are better at identifying sounds than
those without it. Many people associate sounds with a certain event, whether it is a traumatic
experience, a milestone, or some other occurrence that touched a person greatly. And some
people may also have an onomatopoetic association for certain sounds, possibly based on books
they’ve read. For these reasons, music “sounds” differently to each and every person, and
affects different people in different ways. The technologies I have developed regarding the
aesthetics of musical sound change sound to better meet a person’s needs and desires. They also
change sound so that it better matches people’s expectations—no longer will people be able to
say that a symphony “sounds bad” (because if they didn’t like the way it sounded, they could
easily have changed it). These designs also deal with the way music affects us—this includes our
feelings, emotions, and perspectives on life. The hope is that people will use sounds (and music)
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to improve their mental health, through the promotion of healthy dreaming and sleeping.
Aesthetics are at the center of the European art music tradition, as they govern all the principles
of composition. This is one of the reasons classical music is so different from other, more
popular forms, as the composers in the Eurocentric tradition were all preoccupied with how their
music would sound when it was performed.
Pick Your Style/Instrumentation: This is a technology that allows for instrument substitution/modification on any given classical recording. “Pick Your Style” can be run off of a PC, and it is a program that can be used by anyone with a working knowledge of computers. The program allows the styles of pieces to be changed, such that a piece performed on a CD in the Romantic style can be converted [and played back] in the Baroque style. The program takes care of all the instrument and tempo changes, and can change pieces between any style ranging from Gregorian chant to Post-modern. Further, the program allows for instrumentation to be changed to one’s desires. For example, a piano piece can be converted to one for orchestra, or a string quartet can be converted to one for a Gamelan ensemble. The possibilities are endless. The program also contains a feature with which the user can control the instrumentation changes that are made. Hence, one can choose to substitute a flute for the second violins, or a piano for the English horns. The user is in complete control of the music, and thus can convert his or her favorite classical CD into one which fully meets his or her expectations. Anyone desiring a new listening experience would benefit from this technology.
True Pitch:
Not every musician can be as lucky as Ludwig Von Beethoven was and have True Pitch (the ability to identify pitches by their names). This is why I have developed this technology, a device that coaxes the brain into having perfect pitch. The device is a small earpiece (hardly visible) that sends signals to the brain telling it what each pitch is. This will allow musicians to completely differentiate among any audible sound. “True Pitch” is a must have for A Capella, Opera, and
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even Popular music singers. It will dramatically improve one’s musicality and decrease the possibility of technical problems that detract from the sound of a performance. Essentially, any musician without perfect pitch would benefit from this device, which can be removed when one is not playing an instrument or singing. If the entire music community would make the technology an industry standard, the quality of musical performance across the entire classical spectrum would be dramatically improved.
Classical Night Light: Not just a Night Light but also a Sleep Device that helps one get a good night’s sleep. The technology uses specially chosen classical samples to slow brain function, so as to gradually induce slumber. While the person is sleeping, the Night Light plays a different type of music that will promote positive and healthy dreaming. There are settings on the device that allow the user to specify what type of dream is desired (action, adventure, romance, drama, etc.) The music played will then be geared towards this type of dream. For example, Gioacchino Rossini’s William Tell Overture might be used to induce an “action dream,” whereas Dvorak’s 9th symphony [From the New World] might be used for an “adventure dream.” Healthy dreaming has the added benefit of guaranteeing a person a good night’s sleep, such that when they awake, they will feel fully rejuvenated and refreshed. The quality of the sound produced by the “Classical Night Light” is very high, but if one desires, outside speakers can be attached.
One does not even have to possess an appreciation of the classical aesthetic in order to be affected by the device, because much of its work is done while the person is unconscious. Further, the device does not even have to be used while one is sleeping or trying to fall asleep. If one is having a dinner party and would like some romantic music in the background, the Night Light can provide it. If one would like some dramatic music, that can also be arranged. Thus, a seemingly insignificant device has many different possible uses (and one of them could even be labeled as a “misuse”). The “Classical Nigh Light” is not just terrific—it’s soporific!
All of the designs in this category are geared towards fundamentally changing the way
we hear sounds, so that music is more in line with our expectations. One of my goals in doing
this is to open people up to new sounds, so that they can appreciate new types of music (such as
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that of the Modern period). The other goal is to encourage more people to actually listen to
classical music. Most people from the younger generations treat this music as background, rather
than foreground music. This means that they have the Mozart CD going while they do their
calculus problem set. I have no problem with this, as this music does encourage better memory
and cognition (the so-called “Mozart Effect”)53. But I would hope that such students also spend
some time listening to the Mozart CD while doing nothing else. This is what is truly meant by
the concept of foreground music. The problem is that we live in an age where the emphasis is on
productivity—and to be as productive as possible, people feel as if they have to multitask. A
good example are students from a music appreciation course I am currently taking, who do their
listening assignments while doing their homework, in order to complete two tasks in the time it
takes to do one. These students, however, are not really listening to the music, as they were
instructed to do. They’re not thinking about it or absorbing it. They’re not even taking to time to
analyze it. And herein lies the problem with America’s youth today—they hear lots of music, but
they fail to actually listen to the bulk of it. Classical music can only be internalized when it is
treated as foreground music. In the background, it sounds pleasant and nice, but it really doesn’t
succeed on all its levels. In the foreground, however, one becomes engulfed in it, and it
consumes the entire being of the listener. My technologies can all be used to move us towards
this elusive ideal of treating music as an independent entity, rather than something that is always
heard in conjunction with another form of sensory stimulation.
As more people learn to “listen,” they should gain a greater appreciation for the classical
aesthetic. This, hopefully, will motivate people to attend more live performances, at which one
53 The Mozart effect is a temporary increase in intelligence [for up to an hour] that has been scientifically proven to affect a person after listening to the sonatas of W.A. Mozart. See “the Mozart Effect” at the Skeptic’s Dictionary, Available http://skepdic.com/mozart.html. This theory has come to be discredited in recent years, but there is still some evidence which suggests that the beautiful music of one of Europe's greatest composers can help people think better.
can do nothing but to listen (reading the program would be a possibility, but the lights are often
too dim for that). One of the reasons orchestras have seen such a decline in popularity in recent
years is because people have grown tired of listening. Once these people, however, are shown
that listening is a great way to get away from the burdens of life in our post-modern society, they
should remain loyal fans of the performance of classical music. People need to be reintroduced to
modernist principle of “art for art’s sake.” Music should not need anything accompanying it in
order to be successful. Music should be about deriving aesthetic enjoyment from sound, rather
than deriving enjoyment from visual stimulation in the presence of that sound. Music should be a
means to an end (becoming a more cultured person), as well the end to those means (music as
something greater than art itself).
Chapter 12: Project Goals With my designs, I hope to partially alleviate classical music’s search for relevance in our
post-modern world. This music has been searching for relevance ever since the beginnings of the
minimalist movement in the 60’s. And it has found no one who has wanted to help it improve its
status. The post-modernist composers abandoned European Art Music for world music, believing
that audiences wanted simpler forms that would be easier to comprehend. Meanwhile, the
classical industry was bought out by Corporate America, which has sucked much of the life out of
it. No one wants to help classical music—critics and musicologists alike have been content with
standing around, telling everybody that their beloved art is fading away, yet they don’t want to do
anything about it. It has been all talk and no action. A few scattered solutions have been
proposed, but they fundamentally break with the traditions in which European Art Music has
grounded itself for more than three centuries. I can say with reasonable certainty that
amplification is not the answer to the art’s woes. Nor is “selling out” to popular music, by having
composers write music with classical structure and pop-culture materials. To do this would be to
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play right into the hands of Post-modernism. Classical music must be careful not to kneel at the
altar of popular culture, which would represent its full assimilation into the American consumer
culture.
More people will see classical music as relevant to their lives if they have a direct
connection to it. I have chosen technology to be that connection, because I believe that it is
something with which almost everybody in post-modern American can identify. Technology is
very powerful, and it can enormously facilitate learning and discovery. Hopefully, it can reveal
to people the richness, depth, and resonance of European Art Music.
The overarching objective of my project is to reinsert classical music into the consumer
culture. It will not be easy, as currently people desire high tech, flashy, and short attention span
varieties music and entertainment. Will the technology be enough to move the masses into the
concert halls? More importantly, will the technology attract the younger generations, the new
audience that classical music so desperately needs? It is difficult to create speculative designs to
tackle the problems of classical music, because the cultural forces at work are so intricate and
complex.
Nevertheless, it is my hope that people will give classical music another chance, now that
technology has been inserted as the conduit for accessing it. With my designs, all people should
now have a much easier time relating to the music. They should not see it as distinctly
“European,” but rather, as a European art that’s been placed in an American context. With this
new context, classical music should seem a lot more relevant to people. To children especially, it
should now appear to be something they can interact with directly. And to adults, it should
appear as an art form which has been translated to their language, that of the consumer culture.
Those of older age should be able to use my technologies to understand more of the
idiosyncrasies of the music, thus increasing their appreciation as well.
In general, with the help of my designs, everybody should be able to find new charms in
classical music. The art will again be one that speaks directly to people’s needs and desires. No
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more esoteric program notes or abstruse musicological interpretations. Everything will be
revealed to people as part of a bigger picture—that of the tradition of Western music. It should
not be necessary for people to sacrifice large amounts of time or effort towards gaining a better
understanding of the music they hear. My technologies thus strive to once again make classical
music an art for all people.
Chapter 13: Implementation Issues
Music transcends all the other forms of art because it embodies a massive array of sounds
that are in a state of perpetual change. In the visual arts, a canvas is fixed and frozen in time
forever. But a musical composition comes alive every time an orchestra plays it. The sounds are
lifted out of the paper and spread in a lurid tableau that speaks to so many of our most basic
emotions. Music is thus remarkable in that it appears to be simple and straightforward on the
surface, yet it is complex beneath it. So complex, in fact, that one must study for many years in
order to gain the tools necessary to then start analyzing it. Many dedicate their entire lives in
hopes to making sense of one aspect of European Art Music. Some fail miserably, unable to
enhance what is already known or has already been established. A select few, however, do
succeed, and pull the history of music [musicology] forwards along with them. To the layperson,
classical music can be confusing, intimidating, and peripheral. This is where my speculative
designs enter the scene. They all contain technologies that can help people make sense of this
music, so that they will learn to love it. As more people begin to include this music in their lives,
society will become artistically healthier and our culture will begin to flourish once again. My
technologies are intended for anyone willing to lean—they are not tremendously difficult to use,
nor are they shallow enough so that they will be viewed as a passing fad. Instead, I see in them a
Technological Revolution in Classical Music, the likes of which have never before been seen. No
one has bothered to treat music in the context of modern technology—and this is one reason the
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art is stuck fifty years in the past. Further, no one has analyzed the trends plaguing the music in
terms of the American consumer culture, another reason why the state of the arts in the United
States continues to get worse, not better. For too long, the classical community has been content
leaving the status quo in place. But no change will be devastating to any art form—music being
no exception. The industry must realize that there are only a number of years left before art
music disappears from our cultural horizon entirely. And once it is gone, it will be nearly
impossible to recover. But there’s no sense in being defeatist about it. The popularity of classical
music can be jumpstarted if it is made compatible to the American consumer culture. This is not
“selling out” to that culture, as some purists might accuse it of being. My goal is not to imbue the
music with all the negative things the consumer culture has come to represent. Rather, I wish to
give people a new context for understanding and interacting with the music. And since most
everybody can relate to the consumer culture, it is the best way for reaching out to an estranged
audience.
I do not believe that people have grown too “shallow” for classical music, as some of the
pundits have speculated. Rather, I believe that people just have to realign their priorities, placing
hedonism and self-indulgence in the periphery and the arts (and humanities) in the center.
Society has not outgrown this music, nor have their attention spans grown so short that they
cannot appreciate it. If people would only dedicate a small amount of time to the appreciation of
European Art Music, they will grow to love it again. Old dogs can be taught new tricks; people
can learn to embrace what they once eschewed. All that they need is some motivation and
guidance. Hopefully, my suite of technologies will provide both of these, encouraging the
reintegration of classical music into the popular culture. For too long, people have written about
classical music’s downfall. For too long, it has been all words and no action. For too long, such
proclamations were denounced and discredited by industry executives and CEO’s, terrified that
their ventures might go sour. Now that the bubble has burst, the industry has no idea how they
should react. Many have accepted it as the end and have looked for ways to escape while they
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still can. Others have continued to keep on making and/or playing music, determined to do so
until there are no concert halls and/or recording studios left. I too have heard the death knell, but
I refuse to accept it. I am convinced there is a way to reorient our society towards something so
basic to our very existence and so essential to life in general. I believe technology to be the way
to do it; it is a gamble, but what in this world of perpetual change isn’t?
Chapter 14: Why We Need Classical Music
The goal of my project is to instill in people an appreciation of music for music’s sake, so
as to allow them to better appreciate the art. But, ever since post-modernism came on the scene,
serious art music has continually been disparaged and discredited. Yet, the canon of classical
music created by the so-called “Dead White Males” is one of the most beautiful things we [still]
have in our society. This music forms the core of the Western musical tradition. It is timeless,
and is a cornerstone of the fine arts. Further, it teaches about ourselves and about our past, while
concurrently inspiring our moral imagination. And most importantly, this music can help us see
old truths in new ways. Classical music is so much more complex than any other form of music
we have. It portrays the vicissitudes of life with brutal honesty, capturing all the emotions of the
human experience. It can also help us make sense of both the unknown and ourselves. Oh, and
do I also have to mention that the music is quite pleasant to listen to?
Thus, classical music is deep and affecting on the inside, yet mellifluous and enchanting
on the outside. It succeeds on so many levels, and does so much more than any other musical
form aspires to. Consider rock music, which has often tried to target emotions such as despair or
longing. Stacked next to classical, it cannot compare--its artistic inferiority immediately becomes
self-evident. Music critic Paul Festa elaborates:
…To compare even indirectly the music of today's rock stars with that of Schubert or
Richard Strauss or even Rossini is an irresponsible cruelty to the former. Prince's sexiest ballad goes limp next to Mendelssohn's most air-headed melody. AC-DC's most ear-splitting wail is
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drowned out by Carter's most casual motivic expression. Rock's gestures are so small, its musical (as opposed to material) ambition so mild, its harmonies and lyrics so banal, its rhythmic patterns so predictable54. Classical music is one of the triumphs of human creation. It has the unique power to
touch and affect us in a way that no other music can. We cannot let this music disappear from
our society. If it does, there would be implications on other aspects of our culture, such as the
performed arts. Classical music is central to them (dance, opera, musical theater), and if it is
silenced, it may be short time before they too start to fade away. Classical music needs to be a
part of our future. Hopefully, I have succeeded in creating a paradigm that can be used to lead it
there.
Conclusion: Looking Towards the Future
The man that hath no music in himself, Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils. The motions of his spirit are dull as night,
And his affections dark as Erebus. Let no such man be trusted.
-William Shakespeare Frederic Schiller, the German dramatist who wrote the poem off of which Beethoven
built the 4th [Ode to Joy] movement of his 9th Symphony wrote, “He who is still so lacking in
Humanity is not free to enjoy civil Liberty.” Nietzsche went even further, declaring “Without
music, life would be an error.” English author Joseph Conrad placed music on a pedestal in
54 Salon.com, June 1997, Available http://www.salon.com/june97/entertainment/classical970627.html.
labeling it the “Art of Arts.” Thus, there is something truly special about classical music, the type
of music to which all of these humanists are referring. This isn’t just blind speculation about the
benefits of the European Art Music aesthetic—it’s based on the European experience, in which
this music played a central role. But European Art Music is now an American phenomenon, and
its status in this country will be strongly influential in determining the future of the art around the
globe.
Americans, however, have failed to take heed of the advice of their European progenitors,
shifting their ears to more popular forms of music. Meanwhile, these people constantly complain
about the deteriorating quality of life. They feel alienated by the consumer culture, with its glut
of information and promotion of the Automatic lifestyle. Further, they feel oppressed by the
superficial materialism of the larger society of which they are a part. This has created the need
for a new sanctuary, where those who feel ostracized can reconnect with a simpler way of life.
Some have suggested that religion serve as this new sanctuary, providing worshipers with a
refuge from the anxieties of the “age of uncertainty” in which we now live. But post-modernism
has invaded the church, instilling in it the values of the consumer culture. For this reason,
religion is no longer a viable alternative, as it now promotes the mainstream lifestyle in line with
post-modern ideals.
Enter Walter Pater, a British essayist and critic, who believed music to be greater than
religion as the true source of human salvation. Pater, who lived in the 19th century, saw how the
industrial revolution had begun to corrupt the ideals of European Art Music. He noticed how
orchestras were gradually being increased in size and volume, as new and louder instruments
were being added to cater to ears that had been deafened by the powerful roar of industrial
machinery. In America, on the other hand, the intense period of commercialization between the
1950’s and 1980’s did not corrupt the classical aesthetic—rather, this was European Art Music’s
Golden Age. During this period, people used classical music as a refuge from commercialization
and the consumer culture. The symphony was their sanctuary, and it allowed them to forget
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about all their problems and escape to a simpler world. Music temporarily froze their concerns
about the Cold War, oil crisis, penetration of multi-national corporations, status of the
environment, and political wrongdoings of the President. During the Golden Age, the consumer
culture and classical music achieved a new harmony, whereby each complemented and fully
supported the other. This was a time when the two peacefully co-existed in the same society.
They were kept in separate spheres, and people were content using one as an escape from the
other.
Post-modernism has led people to abandon classical music for more eclectic and pluralist
musical forms. It has forced music and consumer culture together, such that they now exist in a
new sphere, that of the consumer culture. This has led people to expect (and demand) music that
embodies the same attributes as that larger culture: high-tech, “automatic,” and condensed. My
[speculative] designs use technology to feed music back to people in a format they can easily
digest. Hopefully, people will rediscover classical music and again throw their support behind it.
This might allow the music to regain its separate sphere, where people can use it as a shield
against post-modernism.
There is good reason to believe that such will occur if one couples the existing conditions
in our society with a new breed of classical music heavily reliant on modern technology.
Harmony, the Literary Forum of the Symphony Orchestra Institute, an organization that studies
industry trends concluded in a 1998 report:
If the need for sanctuary today is fast becoming universal, a critical mass of people
should acquire a taste for music which addresses this need at some point in the future. If and when this becomes the case, the question of whether or not governments should support the arts will become rhetorical55.
If classical music regains its strength, the arts in general will experience a Renaissance.
And as the quote suggests, the government will be the key player in supporting it. One of Pater’s
most famous aphorisms suggests, “All art constantly aspires towards the condition of music…
55 Harmony, October 1998, pp. 80-90.
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[It] offers the utmost melding of matter and form—of spirit and essence—thereby paralleling the
transcendental ideal of unveiling the spirit that imbues all things and the interconnectedness of the
cosmos56.” Music is the supreme art form. We thus have the cultural duty to support and cherish
it, so that it may come to inherit the place in our society that it rightfully deserves.
Without music, society would be artistically impoverished, as music is the centerpiece of
the arts (Conrad’s thesis). In The Republic, Plato goes so far to suggest that without music, a
state will cease to exist57. He proscribes that governments take control of the music, so as to
guarantee that it has a support structure that promotes its growth and development (I guess
Gingrich and his cronies didn’t read Plato). Music is something so basic, elementary, and
essential to civilization that many take it for granted. Beethoven, not to brag about the power of
his own music, labeled music in general “a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.”
Aldus Huxley wrote, “After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is
music.” And Thomas Carlyle is quoted as telling a close friend, “Music is well said to be the
speech of angels; in fact, nothing among the utterances allowed to man is felt to be so divine. It
brings us near to the Infinite.” With this in mind, we can revisit Pater’s claim of music being
greater than religion with a little less suspicion.
Times [and technology] may have changed, but classical music is just as relevant today
as the day it was written. Without religion, this music is our last defense against a society
consumed by post-modernism. It must be reinserted into our culture, so that it can
counterbalance against the consumer culture. We, as a society must learn not to reject that which
56 Pater, Walter. 1910. The Renaissance. London: Macmillan, p. 135. 57 Plato was one of the first to recognize the palliative power of music, which allows it to “soothe the Savage beast,” as William Congreve put it in the 17th Century. In The Republic, Plato tells a story of two soldiers walking through a war-torn village when they spot a helpless young girl lying on the ground. The soldiers are about to rape the girl, but a man standing nearby sees this and begins to play a melody on his lute (a plucked string instrument). The soldiers are mesmerized by the melody and their animal instincts are quelled. They leave the girl untouched and head for home. This belief that music could suppress people’s most basic emotions and sooth the soul was a cornerstone of many philosophical texts of ancient Greece and Rome.
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is unknown to us. We must not always take “the easy way out,” listening to pop music because it
is easy to glean its message. And we cannot simply throw away the past just because the present
looks more attractive. As Bernard Coutaz, a French composer who is fighting to keep classical
music alive suggests, “Just because Picasso came along one day, that’s no reason for taking done
all the paintings by Monet, Renoir, and so many others!” We, as a society, must strive to keep
this precious art part of our culture. It certainly will be an uphill battle. But I believe it is one we
must fight, for the sake of those composers, conductors, and musicians who devoted their lives to
producing music that will make ours better.
Endnotes (from the text boxes):
1) Many music critics at the time felt that Ms. Lind had some major problems with her presentation. One of her biggest disasters was in the title role of the opera Norma. She failed primarily because of her temperamental inability to realize the character fully. Lind also had her share of vocal issues, her voice tending to sound worn and fatigued, especially in the middle register. Barnum covered this up well, convincing audiences that she was the greatest soprano of her time. In fact, in his publicity, he referred to her as “The Sweedish Nightingale.” We can see the same type of phenomenon occurring in the present-day. Seizi Ozawa, conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra has been thoroughly criticized throughout his career for giving what critics have described as “passionless” and “flaccid” performances. But when promoters sell tickets and subscriptions, they hype his conducting as “a revelation” and “embodying the highest level of musicianship.” This just shows that corporations, even in an art form as pure and sacred as classical music, will lie to the consumer in order to make money. Nothing is safe from the greed of American consumerism.
2) There were exceptions, however. Richard Strauss never abandoned his highly Romantic,
Wageresque style during the First World War, refusing to subscribe to the new modernist aesthetic which had swept across Europe. Even during the Second World War he continued to write fairly tonal music with traditional harmonic structures. Throughout this period, he would never abandon the [Symphonic] Tone Poem, a variety of Program [as opposed to absolute] music he helped to popularize.
3) The math used would include Fibonacci sequences [Bartók, Music for Strings, Percussion, and
Celesta], Golden Section [Webern, Six Pieces for Orchestra, Opus 6], and Pascal’s triangle [Stravinsky, Symphony of Psalms]
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