Author: David Peacham
Date: 2006-06-20 13:23
"People want to hear what they know."
But is it true? Think of modern pop culture (excuse oxymoron). Kids don't want to listen to last year's hit. They want today's hit. Maybe they want to hear it a dozen times nonstop, but still they want to hear what is new. Not the old stuff.
I think the same was true in Beethoven's day too. Most of us have heard every Beethoven symphony over and over again, and know them almost by heart. But that would not have been true in his day. People went to concerts to hear this year's work, not last year's.
I think the thing that puts many people off classical music (in the broad sense) is this reverence for the old. Unfortunately, so many of today's serious composers are unwilling (or unable) to write music that any sane person at all would want to listen to.
There's a good deal of discussion on this Board about the relative merits of different recordings of standard works. I've contributed to it myself. But this attitude is maybe part of the problem. Mozart didn't write his clarinet concerto so people could listen to twenty versions and analyse the differences. He wrote it to be played, enjoyed ...... and the world moves on.
I'm not advocating scrapping the classics, of course. But I don't think the classical music business does itself too many favours by emphasising the "great composers" so much as it does. It's a good way of attracting repeat business from a conservative listening public, but that listening public is relatively small. Growing the size of the listening public requires a different approach. We have tried "We know Beethoven, we like Beethoven, it's top-notch stuff, everyone has heard of him, play his music and they will come." It doesn't work.
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If there are so many people on this board unwilling or unable to have a civil and balanced discussion about important issues, then I shan't bother to post here any more.
To the great relief of many of you, no doubt.
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The Clarinet BBoard
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