5 minutes to make a newcomer fall in love with classical music

[Karl Henning]

Did you miss the Berlioz selection? and the Stravinsky? the Strauss? the Janacek? the 2x Ravel? the Couperin? the Gibbons? the Wagner? All "hummable and appealing to the heart." The one choice you complain about, and damn the entire article for, is actually an attractive piece of music (and that's coming from someone, me, who generally dislikes minimalism). Muhly has convinced me to give Reich a closer listen.

My 5 minute choice would be the piece that led me into classical music: Wagner, The Ride of the Valkyries.

Sarge

Ho jo to ho, Sarge!

[Mirror Image]

Did you miss the Berlioz selection? and the Stravinsky? the Strauss? the Janacek? the 2x Ravel? the Couperin? the Gibbons? the Wagner? All "hummable and appealing to the heart." The one choice you complain about, and damn the entire article for, is actually an attractive piece of music (and that's coming from someone, me, who generally dislikes minimalism). Muhly has convinced me to give Reich a closer listen.

My 5 minute choice would be the piece that led me into classical music: Wagner, The Ride of the Valkyries.

Sarge

The Reich piece was very beautiful indeed. It can be found on this excellent recording:

[asin]B000AOVL4K[/asin]

[Mirror Image]

My own pick would be Oiseaux tristes from Ravel's Miroirs. One of the most haunting pieces of music I know.

[Elgarian Redux]

I'm sure I didn't know that you were unsure!

I'm sure I was unsure, but I didn't know how sure you were. Or whether you knew.

[Florestan]

The one choice you complain about, and damn the entire article for

I actually forgot Yuval Sharon's claim that 4'33" can make a newcomer (newcomer, for God's sake, not a veteran GMGer) fall in love with classical music. Come on, this is nonsense on stilts.

They were not asked to name the one piece that gives them deep personal satisfaction --- which is how they actually answered --- but the one they would play (notice, they would play) to a newcomer to make them fall in love with classical music. To suppose, or imply, that whatever piece they, as seasoned musicians or musicologists, love is bound to make people with no knowledge of classical music love them too is to miss the point. Badly.

The honorable exception is Julia Bullock, whose answer is a recollection of her own first classical music experience and who hits the nail:

I didn't know what she was singing about; I didn't know what harmonies were being played; I didn't know the composer, or the poet, or the content, but I knew that it was affecting my body and mind in ways that I had yet to experience. [...] I didn't understand what I was listening to, and I didn't need to, but it made me want to listen on, and on and on and on.

That's the kind of experience that can indeed make a newcomer fall in love. It might or might not be had by listening to the suggested choices, but that nobody nominated Bach, Mozart, Schubert or Tchaikovsky puzzles me greatly.

[Sergeant Rock]

I actually forgot Yuval Sharon's claim that 4'33" can make a newcomer (newcomer, for God's sake, not a veteran GMGer) fall in love with classical music. Come on, this is nonsense on stilts

Oh I agree. That was an absolutely asinine response to the question posed.

Sarge

[Karl Henning]

I actually forgot Yuval Sharon's claim that 4'33" can make a newcomer (newcomer, for God's sake, not a veteran GMGer) fall in love with classical music. Come on, this is nonsense on stilts.

Rickety stilts, at that.

[TheGSMoeller]

Listen to 5 minutes of any of Nickelback's songs, that should get you running to classical music.

[Sergeant Rock]

Listen to 5 minutes of any of Nickelback's songs, that should get you running to classical music.

Sarge

[Pat B]

Did you miss the Berlioz selection? and the Stravinsky? the Strauss? the Janacek? the 2x Ravel? the Couperin? the Gibbons? the Wagner? All "hummable and appealing to the heart."

And the Beethoven!

Oh I agree. That was an absolutely asinine response to the question posed.

...and then the explanation that demanded it "must be experienced live in concert." What newcomer is going to do this? I'll grant that it would be a boring read if every answer was the 1st movement of Beethoven's 5th, but Sharon's answer is just incredibly pretentious.

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

The idea strikes me as absurd. Even 5 minutes to make a newcomer curious about classical music would be a challenge.

Probably the best advice is to drag them to the concert hall so they can hear the intensity of it, compared with hearing in tinkling away on a little speaker in an elevator. What is played is probably less important, as long as there is no harpsichord involved.

[Karl Henning]

What is played is probably less important, as long as there is no harpsichord involved.

Oh, I'm feelin' the love . . .

http://www.youtube.com/v/Kobv4P_m_Do

[steve ridgway]

4'33" made me realise when dining alone in a restaurant that the sounds made by a food chiller cabinet were far more worthy of attention than the pop music being played in the background, but the idea that because of this I should start listening to classical music never entered my head . The rest of this list would only have reinforced what I as a non-fan already believed classical music to sound like - the one exception being Unsuk Chin's 'Su' which has that sense of mystery and atmosphere I'm looking for and would actually have made me think there could be something exciting hidden in the genre I'd never suspected was there. What might be more helpful is a list for people that don't like the classical music they've been exposed to on the TV and radio.

[some guy]

The idea strikes me as absurd. Even 5 minutes to make a newcomer curious about classical music would be a challenge.

There it is.

And for once it didn't have to be me saying it.

Bravo, Ghost. And thanks.

[Florestan]

The idea strikes me as absurd. Even 5 minutes to make a newcomer curious about classical music would be a challenge.

That was my initial reaction too, but on second thoughts it might not be as absurd as it appears to be at first sight. It's actually a thought-provoking question and it touches upon other issues such as the nature of classical music, its purpose and its relationship with other genres of music.

It is actually entirely possible to program a "classical music" concert featuring only five-minute (or only slightly longer) stand-alone pieces which will still be varied and interesting: take any number of Lieder / art songs, intersperse them with solo piano pieces, throw in for good measure some violin/cello/flute/whatever  & piano works and after intermission have an orchestra play Liadov's Baba Yaga, Chabrier's Espana, Glinka's Jota aragonesa and Milhaud's Le boeuf sur le toit. Such a concert would actually give the lie to the notion --- unfortunately widespread among fans of other genres --- that classical music is turgid and dreary. More on this below.

But besides that, we must consider that many, if not most, of the potential newcomers to classical music come from the fandom of other musical genres, mostly song-based. They are often derided as having a very short attention span --- hence the 5 minutes limitation --- but I'm not sure this is true or fair. After all, the average length of a "pop" album (I use "pop" as a very large umbrella term) is not much shorter than the average length of  a "classical" album --- it's the structure that is different, but only with respect with symphonic or chamber music; I don't see any structural difference between a sequence of more or less related "pop" songs and a Lieder cycle or a Lieder recital. Therefore I think that Lieder / art songs would actually make a good introduction for such newcomers because they offer them something they can relate to: a sequence of instrumentally accompanied short "songs" which make for a more or less coherent whole. I admit, though, that the language barrier is a huge problem since most Lieder are either in Italian, German or French --- but Julia Bullock's experience shows that a cathartic experience can be had even if one doesn't understand a iota of what is sung. I'm not saying it would work with all, or even most, "pop" fans but I think that it could have more chances of converting some of them than symphonies or string quartets.

Back to "turgid and dreary", there is another thing to consider: "pop" fans experience music as mostly entertainment and fun, individual or collective (the latter in the form of "pop" concerts, where it's not only the music but also the socializing it occasions that matters); they are less concerned, if at all, with the meaning of art and life or with philosophizing about them. Suggesting them "classical" music which deals precisely with these issues is probably the surest way to make them turn their back to it for good. Concentrating on "classical" music which is fun and entertaining is imho a better strategy. Again, it might not work for all, or even most, of them, but it could work for some people nevertheless.

And even if they ended up listening to nothing but "songs" (ie, Lieder) and / or instrumental/orchestral miniatures or longer but lighter works (there's plenty of them in every era, and actually some of the best music ever penned falls within these categories) their musical horizon would have still expanded considerably and their appreciation of "classical" music would have still increased a lot.

So, bottom line: I believe a more relaxed approach might perhaps be better than the maximalist one: "Loewe or Liadov" is preferably, methinks, to "Bruckner or nothing".

My two cents, anyway. YMMV.

[PerfectWagnerite]

I wouldn't have picked any of those, but then choosing one that would engage everyone equally is impossible. I think age is an important consideration too though. There's a reason so many of us liked Tom and Jerry, Woody Woodpecker or Bugs Bunny (to name a few), and I always liked the episodes where they had classical music (often Liszt or Rossini).

How about this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKZgi06fVsk

or this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpAjbaNBPqA

[some guy]

"Bruckner or nothing".

I have only been present once at a grown person's first classical music concert.

My girlfriend's best friend came with us to a concert of Bruckner's eighth symphony.

She was very pleased with it. Enjoyed herself, so she said, thoroughly.

[Florestan]

I have only been present once at a grown person's first classical music concert.

My girlfriend's best friend came with us to a concert of Bruckner's eighth symphony.

She was very pleased with it. Enjoyed herself, so she said, thoroughly.

Yes, I can imagine. Experiencing Bruckner live (or Mahler) is very different from listening to a recording --- a much more intense, interesting and rewarding experience, even for a newcomer.

[amw]

Probably the best advice is to drag them to the concert hall so they can hear the intensity of it, compared with hearing in tinkling away on a little speaker in an elevator. What is played is probably less important, as long as there is no harpsichord involved.

Honestly, a non-classical listener would have a hard time at a concert hall because the sound would be coming from quite far away (instead of from amps all around them, or headphones/earbuds so the sound is actually inside their head) and could not be adjusted in any way. You'd have better luck convincing them with a track they could put on their spotify playlists.

I'm not sure what I would recommend, but when my parents have drafted me to play piano to entertain guests/provide background music, Mendelssohn Songs Without Words & Grieg Lyric Pieces have always gotten good reactions from committed non-classical listeners, and most of them are under 3 minutes.

[Florestan]

Honestly, a non-classical listener would have a hard time at a concert hall because the sound would be coming from quite far away (instead of from amps all around them, or headphones/earbuds so the sound is actually inside their head) and could not be adjusted in any way.

I'm not that sure. In a hall with very good to excellenrt acoustics an orchestral blast is felt inside one's head, too.

I'm not sure what I would recommend, but when my parents have drafted me to play piano to entertain guests/provide background music, Mendelssohn Songs Without Words & Grieg Lyric Pieces have always gotten good reactions from committed non-classical listeners, and most of them are under 3 minutes.

Aligns perfectly with my own views on the matter.