 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Ryan25
Date: 2006-03-29 22:13
Hi Everyone,
I saw this article today on http://www.sfcv.org/
I thought it was quite interesting and wanted to share it with you.
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Author: EEBaum
Date: 2006-03-29 23:11
Hear hear! Great article.
I'd suggest that very few people in the classical world actually want answers to the questions he poses though. Classical-types want to keep doing what they've been doing, and they want audiences to magically come in droves out of a time machine from 1875.
They'll try the typical "crowd pleaser" concerts, playing the favorites everyone knows to boost attendance. When attendance drops off the next week at Haydn's 482nd Violin Concerto, the plan is abandoned. Had the concerts been of a new, fantastic type of music, you might have quite a few returning customers hoping for something fantastic the next week. But the crowd pleaser concerts only attract people who have a soft spot for Scheherazade, Fantastique, or Rhapsody in Blue.
As long as classical music continues to tout itself as "beautiful," classical music stations call themselves "Southern California's home for arts and culture," and rich-types go to concerts to be seen and "get some culture," it will remain pretty unattractive to "younger people."
How many "younger people" do you see going to reunion concerts of rock bands from the 50s and 60s? Perhaps a few nostalgic types, and people who are really into it as a niche genre. And most classical music is a LOT older than that.
If I were to put together a 40s swing band, I would do so EXPECTING my audience to be older, and wouldn't cry foul that the younger types aren't coming in droves to hear us. Blaming everyone but yourself for lack of people who want to listen to you is a phenomenon unique to the classical world.
Frankly, given what it is, I think the classical world should be happy to have as big a following as it does, and the support of academic and philanthropic institutions everywhere.
-Alex
www.mostlydifferent.com
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