Michael James Oberhauser
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Classical vs. Popular Music

12/10/2012

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So, this is an op-ed I wrote for a class. I normally don't prefer speaking this formally myself, but I feel strongly about the topic, so here goes:


Classical music is struggling. Orchestras and opera companies compete to sell tickets, and some have folded. Meanwhile, the least expensive tickets currently available to see a typical Madonna concert at Madison Square Garden cost $119. Such concerts routinely sell out.

At some point since its inception, classical music stopped being cool. Even the name sounds stuffy and old fashioned. The name classical, not to be confused with the Classical Era, implies tied to the past – not fresh and new. By contrast, pop music can be little beyond its name: Popular music.

Classical music was once popular music. Throughout history, new styles of music have come into favor: Jazz, rock, pop, rhythm and blues, and rap, to name a few. Unlike Pop Art in the world of visual arts, many such new styles of music remained beyond the sphere of classical music. Jazz was absorbed only to a small degree. Composers have experimented with jazz and have incorporated jazz chords to add color to their compositions, but Beethoven is rarely programmed with Miles Davis or pop music’s Britney Spears. By contrast, art museum visitors are free to view the Rembrandts and walk down the hall for the Warhols.

Potential ticket buyers are of three types: Conservative classical fans, experimental classical fans, and concert-goers who are not yet fans of classical music.

The conservative classical fans enjoy music primarily from the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic eras. Such concert-goers are more likely to buy tickets to classical concerts, but they are likely to avoid music lying beyond their comfort zone. Sadly, as this group ages, few will join. The tastes of experimental and conservative fans are similar, but the experimental fan’s interests also stretch forward into classical music written by living composers. Such listeners tire of hearing the same pieces programmed in concerts year after year. This group is comprised largely of academics and fans who have both time and patience to listen intently and to explore new music. Concert programmers can successfully please both the conservative and the experimental fans, but concert-goers who are not yet fans of classical music exceed their grasp.

Many pop-classical crossovers who create inferior music contribute to the third group’s distaste for classical music. Crossovers often are banal and inauthentic: They embrace neither pop music nor classical music in their effort to appeal to both.

Some musicians have had luck in both fields: The composer Nico Muhly was recently co-commissioned by the English National Opera and the Metropolitan Opera to compose a new opera, which premiered in London in 2011 and will premiere in New York in 2013. Muhly, who studied with John Corigliano and Christopher Rouse and has worked as a MIDI programmer and editor for Philip Glass, has also collaborated with pop artists Björk, Grizzly Bear, and Sufjan Stevens. Other classically trained musicians, including pianist Tori Amos, violinist Andrew Bird, and composer and violinist Owen Pallett, have left classical music altogether to forge careers solely in popular music.

Tori Amos’s 2011 album Night of Hunters, a series of popular music variations on classical pieces om such composers as Satie, Chopin, and Schubert, fared well on the Billboard charts. At its peak, it reached high positions on the Billboard Top 200, the Billboard Top Rock and Alternative lists, and even peaked at number 1 on the Billboard Top Classical Albums list. Perhaps some of her fans were encouraged to seek out these classical pieces.

Classical musicians provide new hope for bringing popular and classical fans closer together. A new breed of composers has emerged to help fill in the gap between classical and popular music. Judd Greenstein’s music is a mix between already accessible minimalist music and driving pop and rock rhythms. Many of his compositions feature both rock and traditional classical instrumentation with sophisticated harmonic and formal structures. The Ecstatic Music Festival, founded by Greenstein, headlines such indie-classical musicians as himself and indie-pop musicians as Owen Pallett. Here, they combine forces to create concerts of their own music and of collaborations.

Many classical musicians are worried about the future of classical music. It may change form, but the interest for classical music will survive and grow. If musicians from both classical and popular music can be more adventurous and continue to tear down the wall of pretension and disinterest between classical and popular music, both genres will emerge stronger. Perhaps then even orchestras and opera houses will be restored to their former glory.
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What is Art, part 2

12/8/2012

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I got some great responses to this post, so I thought I'd summarize the answers I got before posting my own:

1.) What do you want art to do?

Your answers: Fill my mind, challenge, change us and make us more aware of ourselves, one another, and the world.

My answer was nearly identical to Molly's answer of "I want art to invite me to think or to feel. " She used invite, when I just said make. Strong word choice.

2.) What do you think art is to the common American/Australian (or whomever else)?

Your Answers:
Misunderstood, under appreciated, as entertainment, weird, not important, ornamental, decorative.

I agree with all of you on all those points. My specific answer was that the common American sees art as entertainment or decoration, but often also art events are things you attend so you can be seen. How many people attend the Met's opening night gala every year who care absolutely nothing about opera? They just want to wear their glamorous borrowed clothing and jewelry and be photographed looking cultured and just as cool as all of the other glamorous people there.

3.) What do you want art to be for the common American/Australian (or whomever else)?

Your answers: Exciting, invigorating, fun, cool, magic, something that makes the common American more empathetic. Molly said "I want art to be for the common American what it is for me." Another friend said that he didn't care about what art was to the common American.

That's an interesting batch of answers. I'm particularly drawn to a few points there: Invigorating, magic, empathetic.

Molly's point is interesting - it would be great if everyone thought art was as wonderful as we artists do, but I think we need some sort of a gradient amount of interest. This is going to sound a little selfish, but we need some people who are a sort of culture or taste expert. If everyone was equally excited by art, that might make all of the time and effort put in by dedicated artists seem just as meaningful as the casual artist. Not that the casual artist doesn't produce meaningful work: It's a tricky subject. Many of my friends and I have one, two, or three degrees in our field, and we've spent countless hours of practice and study fine-tuning what we do. Do you get what I mean?

The friend who doesn't care about what art is to the common American: that's a dangerous viewpoint. I think the common American should be able to enjoy art. I understand not wanting to "dumb down" art for the masses, and I wouldn't expect everybody to want to do that. However, we as artists all have an audience. If we're Richard Wagner, it's going to be a giant group of devoted followers who will seek out our art. If we're John Williams, our audience won't be there for us, but will generally enjoy our work. Heck, if we're Johannes Brahms, our audience will mostly be just Clara Schumann and a few other close friends. That doesn't make one piece of art more worthwhile than another - all are needed.

My answer: People should have easier access to free, cheap, or affordable art that will make them think and feel. Everyone has different levels at which they want to be challenged. Not everyone will want to listen to Shostakovich in the afternoon. Sometimes even I don't, and Robyn is as much as I want to be challenged that day. Either way, I should have access to the oppportunities that I want. The internet is helping greatly with that, but nothing beats a live performance, especially when it comes to my next point: I want the common American to be able to experience art as a community-builder. There's such a great feeling when you leave a good concert or other performance and other people feel the way you do. I wanted to dance and make friends with everybody after seeing Tune-Yards or Yeasayer in concert. I wanted to have deep, philosophical conversation after seeing Mahler 2 in concert. I wanted to sit down with everybody and make sure everyone felt welcome in our audience community after seeing Peter Grimes. This goes back to thinking and feeling: it's great stuff. It's a powerful drug. I think, for the right person, it has the power to change opinions.

4.) Why are you an artist?

Your answers basically boiled down to "I wouldn't know what else to do" and "that's the best way for me to express myself." Molly had an interesting point with it's fun, I enjoy the social aspect, and I like the attention. I hadn't thought of those last three, and I think they're perfectly valid.

My answer: I want to know myself, connect with my community, make people feel, and make people think. Even if I only ever manage to entertain, I'm happy with that. There's value in entertainment. I would hope to be able to do more than that and really make people think and feel more complex things, but any way I can help bring people together would be a success in my book.

Thank you, everybody, for your input. I love talking about this stuff, and you've all helped to make this topic way more interesting!
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What is art?

12/6/2012

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This discussion came up in a class recently. The professor asked us four questions:

1.) What do you want art to do?
2.) What do you think art is to the common American?*
3.) What do you want art to be for the common American?*
4.) Why are you an artist?

I was going to post my answers to this, but I think I'll leave just the questions for a week or so. I'm interested to know what you think. Let me know!

*I hadn't predicted that this post would draw commenters from non-Americans. I welcome any thoughts, so please change the questions as needed!
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