Article: Defending classical music against its devotees

[Nunc Dimittis]

A recent article from The New Republic.  I don't think this has been posted yet.

Defending classical music against its devotees

[gmstudio]

Good grief.  Is there an abstract or summary somewhere?   

[Don]

Good grief.  Is there an abstract or summary somewhere?   

Yes, that article simply has too many words. I can't be expected to keep up with such a large heaping of verbal debris.

[DavidW]

Don might have been sarcastic... but I do have a problem with any article that seems to forget that the body was supposed to be sandwiched between an introduction and a conclusion.  It's about being polite enough to the reader to give them enough for them to decide if it actually is worth their time reading.

Nunc Dimittis did not provide motivation to read the article, and the article doesn't sell itself in an introduction either so I simply will not read it.

[Gurn Blanston]

I made it halfway through, hoping he would have the fur to rebut some crap. But no... by then I was tired...  0:)

[bhodges]

Marc Geelhoed put up some excellent comments on his blog, here.  Long (but not as long as the Taruskin article) and worth reading.  Here's one of my favorite parts:

I keep wishing that we could just drop The Death of Classical Music, a hyperbolic idea which appears to be deathless itself. We've now moved on to the third iteration of this argument, the criticism of those who wish to save it. Can't we just play the music, let the marketers attract them any way they can, let the critics write about their enthusiasms, and move on? The defense of classical music will persuade no one, because you can't argue in favor of art. People either respond to it, or they don't, they don't accept rational arguments for why they ought to like something. (Believe me, I know this from experience.)

--Bruce

[Mark]

I keep wishing that we could just drop The Death of Classical Music, a hyperbolic idea which appears to be deathless itself. We've now moved on to the third iteration of this argument, the criticism of those who wish to save it. Can't we just play the music, let the marketers attract them any way they can, let the critics write about their enthusiasms, and move on? The defense of classical music will persuade no one, because you can't argue in favor of art. People either respond to it, or they don't, they don't accept rational arguments for why they ought to like something. (Believe me, I know this from experience.)

This paragraph deserves an ovation.

I'm sick to death (that over-used word again ) of hearing how classical music is dying. Codswallop, say I! I've been listening and buying for 16 years, and all I see is classical music enjoying a healthy, socially proportionate share of the recorded music market. True, there are a great many works that I personally think ought to get programmed for live performance, but as with recordings, if no one's gonna pay the price, no one's gonna put 'em on the bill. That's pure economics, not an indicator that classical music is about to croak.

[BachQ]

This paragraph deserves an ovation.

I'm sick to death (that over-used word again ) of hearing how classical music is dying. Codswallop, say I! I've been listening and buying for 16 years, and all I see is classical music enjoying a healthy, socially proportionate share of the recorded music market. True, there are a great many works that I personally think ought to get programmed for live performance, but as with recordings, if no one's gonna pay the price, no one's gonna put 'em on the bill. That's pure economics, not an indicator that classical music is about to croak.

Excellent.  More Beethoven.  Less Martinu.

[some guy]

I have a question, always the same one in this circumstance: what do we mean by "classical music"?

"Classical music" is not a particularly useful term, not for contexts that call for specific, particular, identifiable things. It  refers, be fair, to many musics, from Gregorian chant to the Gendreaus' Grand Surface Noise Operas. And I doubt that any of the "classical music is dead or at least dying" folks have even heard of Crawling With Tarts.

So I say we start by pledging never to use the term "classical music" except when we're referring to some broad philosophical, artistic vagueness that will cover Corelli and Cage equally. I just don't think we can have a useful discussion using such a broad and multiferous term. "Is nineteenth century orchestral music dying?" is also something large, but small enough to talk about. "Is twentieth and twenty-first century electroacoustic music giving way to live electronics?" is similarly manageable.

But "Is classical music dying?" is not even really answerable--not without asking, and getting answers to, some other questions that usually don't even get asked.

[Mark]

I have a question, always the same one in this circumstance: what do we mean by "classical music"?

"Classical music" is not a particularly useful term, not for contexts that call for specific, particular, identifiable things. It  refers, be fair, to many musics, from Gregorian chant to the Gendreaus' Grand Surface Noise Operas. And I doubt that any of the "classical music is dead or at least dying" folks have even heard of Crawling With Tarts.

So I say we start by pledging never to use the term "classical music" except when we're referring to some broad philosophical, artistic vagueness that will cover Corelli and Cage equally. I just don't think we can have a useful discussion using such a broad and multiferous term. "Is nineteenth century orchestral music dying?" is also something large, but small enough to talk about. "Is twentieth and twenty-first century electroacoustic music giving way to live electronics?" is similarly manageable.

But "Is classical music dying?" is not even really answerable--not without asking, and getting answers to, some other questions that usually don't even get asked.

You might be right ... but the media (even the 'serious' media) prefers big generalisations. Makes things nice and tidy. So, classical music is everything from Hildegard von Bingen to Hindemith and beyond. Just like pop music is everything from Elvis to ... whoever's currently en vogue with the youngsters these days.

[Dancing Divertimentian]

Excellent.  More Beethoven.  Less Martinu.