Josh93248

What needs to be done to resurrect Classical and improve it?

My suggestions:

1. A culture AGAINST absolute historical authenticity must develop, one that does not destroy historically informed and score-strict musical practice but rather provides an alternative and challenges the norm. My theory is that a broader licence of creativity will attract more performers and listeners.

2. Less experimentation and more shameless populism. We have a weird dichotomy between the fascism of performance practice and the wild unfettered crap that is modern composition. Originality and novelty should not be the be all and end all of composition, some bloody accessibility is called for I think.

3. Classical needs to bring its expertise more to different genres of music and learn from them in return. I have a dream of a world where There are Grunge preludes Bashed out on the Piano, Metal Arias Sung in grand Dark operas, Pop singers can actually sing in tune because they have been classically trained, Violins play blues Concertos with orchestras and more...

4. Elitism must be destroyed.

So, what are your thoughts?

Frownland

Classical music is still going strong but we can always use more composers.

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Mondo Bungle

Do you have a formula for what words you capitalize?

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Josh93248

I would argue that the financial position of many classical institutions and recording labels and the sustainability of their business models call into question whether classical music is "going strong". But the thing that's always bugged me is the fact that the music could have so much more impact if the culture and approach surrounding it was different, so many people could benefit from it if they weren't put off by the snobbery and the close-mindedness.

As for my capitalisations, I have a habit of randomly adding them in here or there, I think it's my subconscious trying to add emphasis but I know it's kind of dumb.

DriveYourCarDownToTheSea

Personally I don't think the decline in the popularity of classical music has anything to do with the record labels or any perceived snobbery of the genre (at least not anymore). It's just that the Vast Consuming Masses prefer the simplicity and directness of popular music, and with modern electronic instrumentation it's a lot easier for Any Joe to form his own band (compared to, say, the 40's when most "bands" were comprised of a small orchestra, which is harder to assemble). Heck, even jazz isn't as popular as it used to be.

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DriveYourCarDownToTheSea

One other thought ...

I think, at least to some extent, some of the more experimental and avante-garde forms of popular music have assumed the role that (at least jazz and) some classical music used to occupy. That is, complex stuff whose appeal is a bit more cerebral than, say, Taylor Swift.

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tbassplaya

Classical music has many issues right now as does every music genre, but classical musics is causing its death in some ways.
Some ways to fix it are:
1) Include improvisation again, music starts with improvisation not theory that comes afterwards. Its so inspiring to see someone play music with an added aspect of improvisation because you see the composing live.
2) Give more chamber concerts. Every one has either heard all the "popular" symphonies or knows nothing about them and is overwhelmed by the vast quantity of it. Chamber music is still an area in classical music that has a huge repertoire and in many cases it is "more exciting" repertoire. It also is a more intimate concert with less musicians.
3) We also need to fix the way music is taught. Its taught that this is the only way to learn music but we are only learning music from a Western-European mindset which is a very smart mindset with many complex ideas but it is also limited to vertical variation as in harmonic progressions. If we learned about modality which is the main system that drives every music culture you can learn so much more. Tonality is a derivative of modality.

Those are some of my suggestions.

PedroJoséBernardezSarria

Based on what you've said, I wonder what you (and other posters here)'d think of my compositions....

Nucleotide

Number 2 is a big one. I often sit on concerts and see that people are really waiting for a time-honored classics or composers that took their listeners pleasure seriously and created harmonical melodies.
And most of modern experimental stuff is just tolerated, never really enjoyed.

Spectralmusic

I'm an avid fan of modern and contemporary classical, there have been more than three dozen genius's that have graced the planet in the past 130 years. Living composers really need everyone's support, it's getting more and more difficult.

I HATE elitism, and see each genre as platonically equal. Where at this (so called) "post" modern part in history where we have more access to music than ever before, to claim "the classics" (as in classical and romantic era's) are the limit of musical expression makes me laugh so much. To add to that, we have so much to draw from too, we're in a new phase of music history (I believe) that is starting to slowly take shape.

Fusing genres is not a brand new idea in itself, everyone from Mahler to Ives, to Gershwin, to Schnittke to Zappa to Zorn have done it to some extent. We need to keep forcing it...blah blah


Elitists (I've come across too many in my experience) are just bloody idiots, they can't acknowledge their opinions.