KillingClassicalMusic

In an earlier post, I discussed the fact that relating to classical music is a significant undertaking for most audience members.  That is a problem when it comes to growing audiences, so we need to discuss potential solutions to the problem.

Of course there are a number of solutions to this problem.  One of the most obvious solutions for trained musicians to suggest is education.  We dream: “If we can only get the audience to understand sonata form, they’ll see how fascinating it is to hear the way the composer works creatively within the form’s constraints.”  It’s true; there is a way to enjoy music that is more purely cerebral.  But at the end of the day, this is a non-solution because the audience would already need to be engaged enough to commit the time and energy to learning music in such an academic fashion.  We really do need to be talking about engaging the audience on a more emotional level.

As I see it, this emotional level is the solution to its own problem.  More specifically, the solution to overcoming the amount of effort necessary to relate to classical music is found in this simple fact:

Excitement and enthusiasm are contagious.

Classical musicians should know this as well as anyone.  If you are one, you must only think back to a time when you played or sang under a particularly inspiring conductor.  I’m willing to bet he or she was particularly engaged with and excited about the piece you were playing, and it rubbed off on you.  I’m also willing to bet that the piece you were playing then is one of your favorite pieces today.

For people to get excited about classical music, they must see other people excited about classical music.  This is how the Food Network has so dramatically increased enthusiasm for the culinary arts in the United States.  And it’s why there are cheerleaders at sporting events.  Conductors, composers, performers, donors, even experienced audience members, need to do a better job of communicating their enthusiasm for the music they perform, write, and support.

I have a friend who can tell you the exact point at which he became determined to be a masterworks conductor.  It all started with a piece of music.  Just imagine how rapt his audiences for that piece today would be if they knew the music they were about to hear transformed this man whose artistic abilities they admire into who he is on the podium.  That is the sort of enthusiasm and excitement for music we need to share with untrained audiences.

This enthusiasm need not necessarily be ours personally.  Excitement can be contagious also by effectively communicating the enthusiasm of a third party.  An obvious example is the composer.  Share his or her circumstances at the time the piece was composed.  Enthusiasm also need not necessarily be happy and/or positive.  Did the piece spring out of political unrest, a love triangle, or some other stressful circumstance?  Another example is the enthusiasm of a work’s original hearers.  Was the work meaningful for them in some special way?  Were they driven by the work to some great (or terrible) feet?

What I am talking about here is humanizing the music; it’s about turning specifically arranged frequencies into art that speaks to people in a language they can understand.  In the metaphor of a foreign language, sharing this enthusiasm is the way we translate the words, tenses, cases and syntax of music into the language of human experience to which we can all relate.

Not only does sharing enthusiasm for music help in the translation process, but it also helps address the problem of music’s fleeting nature.  As I said earlier, it can be very difficult for any person to fully grasp a piece of music in one hearing.  This is no doubt true, and it further underscores to fact that classical music requires patience.  But, by sharing our enthusiasm for a piece of music, we are able to give a new audience context for the work as a whole.  As a result, the enthusiasm they are exposed to can be satisfied in one hearing.  By humanizing the music ahead of time, we allow new audiences to grasp an entire work – on some level at least – in a single hearing.

If classical music requires an extra level of effort to grasp due to its abstract and fleeting nature, it is the job of classical musicians to help audiences connect with the music.  If we do not help them, they will simply and naturally take the path of least resistance, finding their artistic and musical fulfillment in something else.

In a subsequent post I want to share some ideas for how enthusiasm and excitement can be shared with audiences.  In the meantime, your thoughts and comments are most welcome.  If you have ideas or experiences with sharing your enthusiasm for classical music, or if you’ve been the recipient of such enthusiasm, please share that as well.  Or, if you have other ideas about how classical music can be “translated,” it would be great to read those ideas too.  If some good stuff comes up, I will be happy to include it the forthcoming ideas post and give you credit.

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